Those of you who sat the CFA Level I exam in December will probably be wondering how you did. It’s been seven weeks now and although I’m sure you’ve enjoyed the time off from studying it’s time to find out how you did and consider your next steps.

From experience we know this can be an uncertain time. However, the wait is almost over as results will be released on Tuesday 26^th January.  On the day you will receive an email directly from CFA Institute (although they do not state a set time when emails will be sent). Opening the email can be a nervous experience. The first word of the email will give away whether you have passed or failed. It will either be congratulations or unfortunately.

Although you will not be told your overall mark you will receive a breakdown of how you did in each individual topic area. So you will be given a table with a list of all topics (Ethics, Quants …… Portfolio Management etc.). For each topic you will be told if you scored less than 50%, between 51% and 70% or above 71%. This is very useful information for your future study plans.

If you have passed well done! It’s a great feeling to know all the hard work and long hours you put in have paid off. Enjoy the moment. After you have celebrated its time to think about your next move. Level II is a real step up from Level I and very much builds on the key concepts learnt at Level I. So if you did pass but scored less than 70% on some key topics, especially FRA, it may be worth going back and reviewing some of the Level I material to firm up your knowledge. Apart from this the best advice for Level II is to start early as the exam is in only once a year in June and there is a lot to learn.

If you unfortunately did not pass this time don’t give up. There will be some valuable information contained in the email that you can use to your advantage. Firstly you will be given a number between 1 and 10. This is the decile you are in of all the candidates that did not pass. For example, if you are given a 10 you are in the top 10% of all candidates that did not pass (i.e You were very close to passing). Candidates that receive a score of 1 are in the bottom 10% of those that did not pass (i.e. Not very close to passing).  If you receive a score of 7 or higher then you have done well but just missed out. This means you have some great base knowledge you can build on for your next attempt. You’ve already done much of the hard work and by analyzing your score breakdown you can see the topics you really need to work on between now and June.

Finally remember this is a very tough exam and typically only around 40% of candidates actually pass.  So however you did please don’t give up and come and talk to us at Quartic about how we can help.

www.Quartic.co – [email protected]