Previous post got deleted by mods for god knows what reason - just wanted to say all the best to all L3 takers for August - let’s meet in short time

I did the CFA years ago while working full-time, and looking back, my biggest regret isn’t even the exam fee. It’s the opportunity cost.

Think about what hundreds of hours of CFA preparation actually look like: you work all day, come home exhausted, and then spend evenings and weekends studying alone. You’re absorbing an enormous breadth of material, much of which you may never use in your particular job—and if you don’t use it, a lot of it will eventually be forgotten.

Compare those same hundreds of hours with what else you could be doing: developing a specialized skill, gaining practical experience, building something, meeting people in your industry, or pursuing education where you’re also getting collaboration, mentorship and a network.

I did a master’s in Entrepreneurship & Innovation later, and the difference was enormous. The value wasn’t only what I learned. It was the people, discussions, exposure to new ideas and experiences. With CFA, I mostly remember being alone after work trying to absorb huge amounts of information for an exam.

I also had an awful experience on exam day. CFA staff incorrectly interpreted “expedida” (“issued”) on my valid Colombian ID as an expiration date. They made me leave the exam site, take taxis to retrieve my passport, and come back stressed to sit the exam. CFA Institute has refused to refund the exam fee and recently told me there is no further review or escalation available.

I’m not saying the CFA has no value. If the charter is genuinely important for the specific career you want, the investment may make sense.

But I wish someone had asked me this before I started:

Is the CFA the best possible use of hundreds of hours of your life—not just the best credential you can add to your résumé?

Fifteen years later, my answer for myself is no.

I'm always curious what people do. I remember for L2, I was logging into and out of the portal every 5 seconds for 4 hours before release time. Not sure, this time I might just wait for the email. To keep it interesting, I'll turn off notifications before bedtime and just refresh like a maniac haha

All of this to re-register for L3 tomorrow, right? Haha

I have finished the entire syllabus and revision is going on. But these LES vignettes are too huge and sometimes I feel like wasting time on some topics and questions. Thinking to do 1 open book mock for seeing how vignettes will be like in actual exam. Guess this will help in better strategy in last month and maybe some psychological gain. Thoughts?

Hey, I saw from a post on here recently that the exam center in the UK has been very noisy due to construction, wanted to check if anyone had used the center since and how noisy it was?

Scored 46% on Kaplan CFA Level II Mock after full prep. Am I cooked?

I just took a Kaplan CFA Level II mock after completing my preparation and scored 46%. My attempt is in about 30 days, and honestly, the mock felt brutal.

The case studies felt extremely lengthy, and a lot of the questions seemed unfamiliar. I could identify around 10–15 questions where I lost marks due to silly mistakes, but for many of the others, I genuinely had no idea how to approach them.

For those who have taken Kaplan mocks and the actual CFA Level II exam: Are Kaplan mocks generally harder than the actual CFA exam, especially in terms of vignette length and question difficulty?

You all know the posts I’m talking about, they appear every month or so.

“Will the CFA get me laid?”

“Will the CFA get me a girlfriend?”

“How to put CFA on my Tinder profile”

“How to talk about the CFA to my date”

I promise you when I say I have NEVER seen one single productive conversation come out of any of these posts. It’s always the same five jokes. And more often than not, the comment section or these posts turn very uncomfortable very quickly, either from other commenters or from OP themselves.

Enough is enough already. This is not the spirit nor purpose of this sub. It’s unprofessional and paints a horrible picture of the online community and the CFA designation.

I passed Level II this August after about 3 months of studying, and I’m currently working full-time. I’m torn between taking Level III in February or August 2027.
I’m planning to take a two-week vacation before December, but other than that, I can realistically dedicate around 4 hours on weekdays and 8 hours per day on weekends.
Reasons I’m leaning towards February:
Level II material is still relatively fresh in my mind.
I passed both Level I and Level II with only 2–3 months of preparation each.
I’m getting married next September, so August could get pretty hectic with wedding planning.
If I choose August, I’ll probably end up procrastinating and not starting until May anyway.
My main concern is whether Level III is significantly more challenging than Level II, especially with the constructed-response questions.
For those who’ve passed Level III, would you recommend going for February while everything is still fresh, or taking the extra time and sitting in August?
Would love to hear your thoughts!

For some reason I am unable to access the website, it was working fine till last night. I keep getting the word fence pop up, saying my IP has been blocked. So, I tried using my cellular, and even that got blocked in 10 mins. I have paid 500$ for this and used MM for the previous 2 levels as well, I do not understand what is happening. Can someone please assist?

Have been averaging about 85 percent in the les score for fsa, lot of questions feel repeated from the eoc questions of the chapters

It would really help if someone could comment about what a good LES score is and does it actually represent the exam level difficulty?

Is it worth it to purchase extra mocks on top of the standard two. I have gotten my scores up to low 80s on second attempts. I also have Kaplan mocks that I’ve gotten into the 70s on the ones I’ve done second attempts for.

However I am worried that some of this is from recalling the questions. And I’m not sure if I want to just focus on the kaplans as they seem quite a bit different.

Can someone please help me figure out how they got 1750 for consolidated equity? I get 1690 = (1430 -320 + 580) <-- I deducted 320 because 320 is already included in the equity-method balance sheet shown - look at BS item Investment in Boswell. so 320 comes from investment in Boswell (already at 50%) , the other 320 belongs to NCI which the solution is referring to. Let me know what I am doing wrong here.

What are everyone’s celebration plans if we pass the test? Personally, I am going to go buy myself a watch I’ve always wanted as a memento. I will subsequently be getting very drunk. Anyone else?

I wanted to ask those who have applied for the Access Scholarship more than once: does having received the scholarship for Level I and subsequently passing the exam improve your chances of receiving it again for Level II?

I understand that the scholarship is based on financial need and other eligibility criteria, but I’m curious whether being a previous recipient who successfully passed Level I is considered an advantage when applying again.

For context, I’m from Pakistan, and the scholarship made a huge difference in making the CFA Program more accessible for me. I would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has received the scholarship for multiple levels or has experience with the application process.

Also, if anyone has a sample application or template for the Level II Access Scholarship essay, I would be extremely grateful if you could share it. It would be a great help as I prepare my application.

If you were awarded the scholarship for Level I but didn’t receive it for Level II, I’d also love to hear about your experience.

Thank you!

For whom is currently doing or had done a Master Degree in Finance, how do you think about the master program compared to the CFA Level 3 (the overlaps of the content, the difficulty,…)

Comment where you studied the master degree

For context have my CFA L1 next month and in mocks getting good scores but its annoying that majority of the mistakes i make are in the last 30 questions. Is there way to focus better in the exam should i chug energy drink before exam or there is a better way.Never drank energy drinks in my life.
If you have some strategies to prevent the brain fog please help.
Also i complete sessions with more than an hour in time getting 70%+ in kaplan mocks

Hi everyone! Would anyone be willing to share an image or screenshot of the September update? I’m trying to see exactly what was included and how it looks, but I haven’t been able to find a clear image anywhere online. If you have the September version and could post a photo or screenshot, I’d really appreciate it. Even a quick picture would be very helpful.
Thanks so much in advance for taking the time to help me out!

I understand how B and A might be considered wrong but I struggle to understand how C is "fully correct". In this case (atleast to my own understanding), the rumour heard about the disease is non-material (?). As seen in the explanation, it is considered material. I don't understand how this is the case, since there is no way for the analyst to identify if it is material or not (or at least its not specified). I asked ChatGPT and it said that since it is inferred that the disease is in fact real, this now classifies it as material, however I disagree with that since from the analyst's point of view he would be unknowing to the real fact?

If someone could explain this to me that would be very much appreciated!

EDIT: I picked B as I thought it was non-material information and could be acted upon with additional diligence, although now I realise that B would be wrong as it would then be material information. More wondering how C is actually "correct" or is it just a situation of determine which options are more wrong?

I’m going for level 2 in exactly 1 month. I’ve already finished FSA, Economics, Equity and FI… Everything else is left. I’m able to study 3h on weekdays and full weekends (8h-9h per day), and I will be on “vacations” from October 30th till the exam, only for studying. Good luck to the rest of the candidates, and for the ones that may feel they are not prepared, I’m on the same boat.
Kinda tired of the people that say “I think I’m cooked” with three mocks and a full lap on the curriculum done since September. We are here to make it count boyyyssss.

23 days left

only 3 subjects done

should I defer to Feb'27 or just give this attempt?

is it realistic?

Assuming this is for the audience that didn’t purchase the premium pack that came with extra questions/mocks, do they mean re-doing them to reach the number 6, or substituting with prep providers? I have MM but feel like I have only a month left until the exam it’s best to stick with LES EOCQ and the 2 free ones. I’ve also heard MM question style is not indicative of the actual exam (which makes sense).

I am completing a few bits today of the PSM, do we receive an email from the institute that the PSM is completed? (L3 results are due tomo and I am panicking noww)

I started portfolio management and idk why I’m not able to understand anything there. It’s the most difficult sub for me so far and i am just stuck on a chapter for more than 5 days and i have lost the motivation to study it any further. God help me .

Is it me or is it really difficult the capm beta thing and all those graphs.

Help! Help ! Help !

Why aren’t we including the gain/loss on holding the stock as part of the profit of a collar? S0 is given in the vignette.

Derivatives - Options Strategies - #25 Essay