CFA Level III - Top 10% globally in 18 months - All good things come in III

Passing Level III in the top 10% globally and only 18 months after passing Level I is probably as good and as fast as it gets.

Here is a behind the scene of the above achievement. If you are considering preparing your CFA charter, come in and find it out!

Changing career from FMCG into Finance, I was keen to go for one of the toughest and most recognized exam in this new industry in which I was embarking and hone my technical skills to ensure a successful transition. In Finance, we are in the business of trust, which I feel comes from a) your technical expertise to deliver results and b) your ethics guiding you to have the best interest of the financial market, your clients and your employer at heart. This is precisely what the CFA Institute (CFAI) focuses on so the CFA charter was the logical choice for me. Following my passion paid off.

Talking about passion, I realized during my previous career that nothing could beat out passion. How can you compete against people passionate about their job if you are not and what sense does that make? Hence I decided to "stop faking it and change positions" to follow my passion for finance. Not only did I change positions but I changed careers. Was I scared? of course...Was I excited, you bet! And guess what, it paid off: I graduated as Valedictorian of the Class 2018 MSc in Finance, just became a top performer at the CFA exams in the top 10% globally......and I landed a position in a Single Family Office within weeks post graduation. Not bad for a middle aged career switcher! "Impossible is nothing". Follow your passion! ... not because it will be easy but because it will be worth it...

Many do not dare taking the grueling CFA exams and out of those who do, around 90% fail.

June 2019 exam pass rate: https://www.cfainstitute.org/en/programs/cfa/exam/results-info

• Level I: 41%
• Level II: 44%
• Level III: 56%

By the time we get to Level III, we have lost more than 80% of the candidates and only just over half will make it. So delighted that I aced it in the top 10%.

To me the CFA charter tells just as much about your financial and ethical expertise as it does about your discipline and passion. There are just so many distractions, unexpected events and conflicting priorities in life over a 2 to 4 year horizon, that you have got to be totally clear about your goals and have the support of your family and team at work...and you have got to like finance...a lot!

My advice is if you are going to take the CFA charter, go all out or don't even entertain the idea of passing it. With a 90% failure rate, you know it is not gonna be a walk in the park since candidates do not put that amount of energy, time and money for the fun of it...they too are determined to pass...

In short the odds are not in your favor.

So if you want to be a CFA athlete, you have got to train like one. I feel the 300+ hours from the CFA Institute can be misleading and successful people I met ended up spending much more time preparing. There is so much content to cover. Also the preparation has become much more professional these days with many good prep providers. I have not come across candidates (not saying there aren't any though) who would prepare with just the CFA materials.

I probably spent close to 1500 hours studying the CFA curriculum (close to 10,000 pages) and the prep provider materials. Do you need to study that much? most definitely not. Can you pass with fewer hours? most probably yes but I guess it depends if you just want to pass or to really understand the content. 1500 hours over the CFA prep is a good start, but only a start. As it takes around 10000 hours to become an expert at anything, there is still a long and exciting way ahead. This is also what the CFAI and prep providers preaches...your CFA charter is just the beginning of a lifelong journey of learning and growing your skills.

Study plan:

I used Mark Meldrum (MM) preparation and I cannot recommend it enough. I prepared with Kaplan Schweser at Level I, Wiley at Level II and Mark Meldrum at Level III. All 3 are solid prep providers but Mark Meldrum prep is off the charts. Highly recommended especially with the Level III morning exam grading sessions.

• September 2018: Started a new job at a Single Family Office!
• From September 2018 till December 2018 averaging 2 hours study time during the week and getting ready for the baby over the weekend. Focussed on MM videos and the CFA books to go deeper and trained with all CFAI blue box and end of chapter (EOC) questions and MM EOC questions.
• January 2019: Baby Valentin was born!
• From January to March 2019, I averaged 3 hours daily during the week. 2 hours from 7am to 9am before work and then 1 hour during the lunch break at my desk. Focussed on MM videos and the CFA books to go deeper and trained with all blue box and end of chapter questions and MM EOC questions.
• From April 2019 to May 2019, I started my review: on average 1 reading (out of 37) every 2 days consisting of a) MM videos at 1,5 speed (had to slow down on Fixed Income though... hahaha), b) my personal notes (100+ pages that I wrote by hand and proved super useful to learn and review. It is an additional workload but it was a relief to have them at review time) c) all CFA End of Chapter questions and Blue Box examples (most of them are beautifully crafted and instrumental to really get the concepts and put them in practice) d) 414 questions from the CFAI Q-banks
• From June 1 to 14 2019, I took 2 weeks "off" for my final preparation: 1 CFAI mock exam, 4 MM mock exams, 1 CFA Boston Society mock exam (you can order it from the CFAI and either sit the exam in real life conditions or get the exam sent per post). 2 live 1 on 1 morning exam grading sessions with MM graders Matthew Kaszel, CFA and Bill Campbell III, CFA (aka S2000magician on Analyst Forum for those who are familiar with the site, what a privilege to have a 1 on 1 session with him. I have always been a fan of his straight to point answers on the site!) Reviewing the mocks is just as important as doing them. Make sure to time yourself. Time management is critical especially for morning sessions.
• June 15 2019 in Geneva: D-day, feeling ready and serene for the exam at the checkin :) Excited during lunchtime after nailing the morning session and feeling bullish for the afternoon session. Left the exam location in the evening feeling I aced it :) so the wait for the results did not spoil my summertime, and rightly so...

Thanks to Francesco Sama and the team for their understanding and support during this flat out period in which I started a new job, prepared for Level III and last but not least became a dad. Looking forward to leveraging my newly acquired expertise in Finance and Ethics to further grow the SFO.

Big thanks to Ina and Valentin for their relentless support. The little one did learn a thing or 2 about behavioral finance with daddy while studying but I am sure that he will soon enjoy playing with toy cars a lot more than with the CFA books!

If you are based in / around Monaco and consider taking the CFA exams, please feel free to reach out for a coffee.

We currently do not have any local CFA society in Monaco, let's dream big...who knows what the future holds!

Disclosure: I have no financial or personal interests in any of the mentioned prep providers...the above only reflects my humble and most likely biased views and opinions :)