Skip to main content

CFA Pass Rate

It is interesting to note that CFA pass rate has considerably declined over the years.

It amounted to as much as 94% at the time of inception in 1963, and as little as 42% for the June exam of 2007. Of course, the total number of exam-takers has grown around 250 times, so these pass rates are not completely comparable, but the shift is considerable enough to show a clear trend.

Is it the exam becoming more difficult, or the exam-takers are getting dumber?

Let's just hope that I am one of the few lucky among the 42% when I receive my exam results in about two months...


Original data is available at CFA Institute official site at the following URL:
http://www.cfainstitute.org/cfaprog/pdf/candidate_results.pdf
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Knarkh, I ran into your blog and am enjoying it. Hope it grows. I am from Boston and plan to take the CFA level 1 in December 08. Have a grad degree but have been recommended the CFA. Also enjoyed your post on metals. Hope to communicate further and will keep up with your blogs. NP
May 22, 2008 at 11:16 AM
Knarkh said…
I'm glad you liked it.

As a matter of fact, I am taking CFA Level 1 in three weeks (I failed last December), and this time I am very keen to make it right.

Are you in the financial industry?
May 22, 2008 at 2:09 PM
Anonymous said…
Hey Knarkh, I saw that Level 1 pass rates were down to 35% for the June exam. That's rough... Hope you were in the lucky third this time!
August 19, 2008 at 12:27 AM
Anonymous said…
Hey Knarkh, I saw that Level 1 pass rates were down to 35% for the June exam. That's rough... Hope you were in the lucky third this time!
August 19, 2008 at 12:27 AM
Anonymous said…
The results are out now. did you pass this time?

NP
August 20, 2008 at 6:26 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Investment Banking Series: Equity Story

Investment Banking Series Post 6 Equity Story 1. What is it anyway? Equity Story is, in its essence, the reasoning why the particular stock should be bought by investors. It emphasizes the strong side of the company and places the stock in either the value or the growth category. In a nutshell, the value stock is expected to have little price appreciation, but pay out relatively high dividend, whereas the growth stock is expected to have a high appreciation potential, but not necessarily pay much dividend. How a stock is classified depends on several factors, such as where in the industry life cycle it is, what the macro conditions are, what industry it belongs to, or sometimes even if it has a hot buzzword in its description. For instance, a power generation company would usually be classified as a value stock: there is very little growth potential, but the cash flows are steady and not as much correlated with the economic conditions. An Internet portal or a biotech company ar...
3 comments
Read more

Investment Banking Series: Pitch Books

Investment Banking Series Post 3 Pitch Books 1. What is it anyway? A pitch book is the paramount of days and nights of a banker's hard work. It is a marketing tool that tries to set apart basically very similar banks and to support the claim that THIS bank, and NO ANY OTHER should be selected to arrange the deal. They say pitch books used to be actual books, but in the present world they are Power Point presentations printed out and bound in a plastic cover. The main purpose of the pitch book is to deliver two messages to the prospective client: (1) "we understand your business very well", and (2) "when it comes to arranging your deal, we are the best fit". Both claims are usually weak at best, but they are made elaborately and extensively, and the resulting multi page document often looks impressive. 2. Typical structure A pitch book will have varying structure depending on what product is being proposed, but there is a lot of similarities. Below is o...
1 comment
Read more