No. In order to enrol in Level II, you need to have succeeded in Level I. Likewise, you must pass Level II before enrolling in Level III.
No. In order to enrol in Level II, you need to have succeeded in Level I. Likewise, you must pass Level II before enrolling in Level III.
There is no time limit for the CFA exams. We would recommend studying Levels II and III soon after succeeding in the previous level, as much of the knowledge gained at each level is useful as you advance to the next level. However, once you have passed an exam, this will remain to your credit indefinitely.
To enrol in CFA Level I you need one of three requirements: (1) a bachelor’s degree (or equivalent), (2) be studying for a bachelor’s degree (your Level I exam must be no more than 23 months before your graduation month, which is just after the end of the first year of a three-year programme), or (3) have 4,000 hours of professional work experience, not necessarily finance-related, before you register for the exam. You will also need a passport and be prepared to take the exam in English. You will not be able to enrol if you live in certain regions under US sanctions.
In general, the CFA Program takes three to five years to complete. It is possible to succeed in all three levels within less than two years, though only a small minority of candidates will have the available study time in order to achieve this.
The CFA charter in many respects is broadly equivalent to an MBA. The comparison is complex though, as there are thousands of MBA courses around the world, of widely varying acclaim. One of the key benefits of the CFA Program is its uniformity and uniqueness: you can sit the exam in any of hundreds of cities, but the benefit of passing is the same, regardless of your exam centre.
You cannot skip topics. As the exam questions are taken from across the breadth of the curriculum, you will lose marks by missing out areas. The good news is that many questions will be simple enough to answer with a light understanding: please don’t sacrifice these easy marks! If you are in the final revision phase and struggling, then please speak to your tutor.
You cannot ignore the curriculum. Our workbooks, Summary Revision Notes and Q Sheet contain clear explanations and examples of all concepts likely to be in the exam. These are a complement to (not a substitute for) the CFA curriculum: via your Learning Ecosystem with CFA Institute you will have extensive technical content and question banks that you should use during your studying.
There is a lot that you need to learn for your CFA exams. In general, the more you understand, the less you need to learn. Quartic provides inspirational education that helps you to understand the concepts behind financial analysis. The Quartic Q Sheet is a summary of all key concepts and formulae, used by many candidates during their exam revision.
You won’t like this response. For most candidates, the social life needs to be heavily restricted for a number of months before your exam. If you can find sufficient time in the day for all your studying as well as your work commitments, social life, family, eating, and even sleeping, then you have better time management than most of us! The CFA Program is a serious commitment and it needs to take a high priority in your day. Your friends will still remember you when you come out from your exam.
At Quartic we speak to many of our candidates one-to-one regularly throughout their studying: without doubt, the candidates most likely to succeed are those that carve out a regular studying period every day, every week. These need to be quality hours, but whether they are early morning, late evening or during the day will depend on your other commitments.
The word on the street is around 300 hours per level. However, each candidate has a different background and skillset, not to mention strengths and weaknesses. While more experienced candidates may need rather fewer hours, those with less experience or less relevant backgrounds may wish to spend longer studying. Quartic can help provide advice relating to your own personal circumstances.
Yes you can. In fact many candidates begin their CFA journey either as an undergraduate student or while working in a different profession. Once you have started to study for the CFA Program you will gain both the knowledge of how the world of finance works, and the skills with which to succeed in moving into a suitable role in the industry.
There are lots of numerical questions, though most of these require analytical skills rather than calculations. We estimate that around one in six exam questions will need you to calculate an answer. Quartic’s calculator tutorial will help you to understand how to use your CFA calculator efficiently in those questions where it’s needed.
The CFA Program includes quite a bit of maths and accounting. The maths involves some algebraic notation and manipulation, but does not require any advanced concepts such as calculus. The accounting will become quite advanced by Level II CFA, but you will be taken carefully step by step through the basics. Quartic offers introductory courses on both financial maths and accounting, which means that you can confidently enrol without any accounting knowledge.
The CFA Program generally suits people early in their finance career, with many candidates starting while still a student. You can enrol and sit Level I while still studying for a bachelor’s degree (or equivalent): the exam must be no more than 23 months before your graduation month. For a three-year degree programme, this means you can sit Level I soon after the end of your first year. You can sit Level II a year later, no more than 11 months before graduating (i.e. just after your second year of three). For Level III you must either have graduated or accumulated 4,000 hours of professional work experience (not necessarily finance-related).
No. Your CFA exam registration must be paid directly to CFA Institute. The Quartic fees include Quartic products only.
1364 for L1 (2024)
59 hours (L1), 36.5 hours (L3)
Quartic is no longer registered with UKBA to provide visas for international students.
Quartic is a CFA Institute Prep Provider and is not permitted to publish pass rates. This said, we can assure you that the materials you receive from us will help you to succeed, not only in your exams, but throughout your career.
When you request a free trial, you will be sent an email with your access details. This will allow you to login to the Quartic Online portal and access part of the course for free. You get two weeks access.
Yes, we are very happy to arrange a discounted group booking – please get in touch. We can also discuss preferential corporate products and prices.
We provide our materials in e-book or printed format. The e-books are designed to allow freehand annotations to help you to make notes and copy examples in your own handwriting. We do not permit the downloading of videos or books.
You will receive an email with your access details. Please check your junk mail as the emails can sometimes filter into there.
No. Quartic will provide you with workbooks (and extensive online question banks) that accompany videos covering every topic and learning outcome in the curriculum, plus Summary Revision Notes and a Revision Q-bank. With your CFA Program registration you will have access to the Learning Ecosystem or LES: this includes the underlying curriculum, question bank and other studying tools from CFA Institute.
Quartic materials will be available until your exam date. We are happy to discuss extensions (depending on what package you have purchased), but please note that materials are different each calendar year: this means that an extension from, say, August to November is easier and cheaper to arrange than one from November to February.
You cancel your subscription by deleting your direct debit. You can also email [email protected] and request for a cancellation of your subscription.
Q Stream allows you to gain access to the full suite of Quartic products for your exam with a minimal commitment. The difference between Q Stream and our other packages is that you can cancel, and stop the monthly payments, whenever you wish. If you are studying on an intense timetable, or simply wish to try out the Quartic approach, then this solution is perfect for you.
With Q Stream you receive unlimited access, via the Quartic Online portal, to the full suite of products for your exam. The access is available for the length of your subscription, which can be for as little as one month.
Not quite. Although passing Level III is the toughest part of becoming a CFA charterholder, you also need to achieve investment-related work experience, to provide professional references and to join CFA Institute as a regular member. Once your application is approved, you will receive notification from CFA Institute that you are now a CFA charterholder (congratulations!) and may use the CFA designation after your name.
No, you must register for the CFA Program and enrol in the exam yourself. Although the payment options include invoice (which your employer may offer to pay), the registration process involves an element of personal data and a commitment to the Standards of Professional Conduct, neither of which can be delegated.
The CFA exam is in English only. This may seem unfair, given that a majority of candidates do not have English as a mother tongue. However, it avoids all sorts of problems and issues that could arise from translating an exam into another language.
No. Every question in the exam has equal weighting. However, Ethics is considered to be so important that if you are on the borderline between passing and failing, the examiners will consider your Ethics score: a particularly strong performance here may provide an extra bonus mark to push you over the minimum passing score. Of course the reverse is also possible, meaning that every candidate needs to study Ethics in depth.
No. If your overall score is above the “minimum passing score” then you will pass the exam. If you are on the borderline, a strong performance in Ethics may give you a one point advantage.
The pass mark is not published. For each exam the CFA Institute Board of Governors sets a “minimum passing score”: this means that a harder exam will have a lower pass mark. As a rule of thumb if you are averaging around 70% across most topics, you are likely to be successful overall.
No. You need to have at least six months between exam sittings. For example if you are unsuccessful in a February exam, you may resit in August or November of the same year, but not May.
There are many choices of CFA exam date, spread across exam windows in certain months of the year. The current choice of months is: Level I in February, May, August or November each year; Level II in May, August or November; Level III in February or August.
The CFA exam is mostly multiple choice format. At Level I every question is a standalone multiple-choice (“selected response”) question, with three options. There is no negative marking and each question has equal weighting. At Level II the questions are grouped into item set “vignettes”, with four questions based on the same case study. Level III combines item sets with “constructed response” questions that require the candidate to type into text boxes.
You must register for the CFA Program personally. Start at https://www.cfainstitute.org/en/programs/cfa and follow the instructions. Please note that you cannot delegate the registration process – this must be done by you personally.
No, you need to sit the exam in a Prometric centre. Home proctoring is currently not available.
You need to have at least six months between exam sittings. For example if you are unsuccessful in a February exam, you may resit in August or November of the same year, but not May.
Yes you can defer your exam. You will need to pay CFA Institute a second exam registration fee, which is lower if it is within the same calendar year.
The Quartic slides, videos and question banks cover every learning outcome statement (LOS) in the curriculum. Our authors are all CFA charterholders: we use our judgement and experience to determine the required depth for each concept, but it is our intention to provide sufficient explanation to be able to answer virtually every exam question. The underlying CFA curriculum is significantly longer (in print form, more than 4,000 pages at Level I!) and it is impractical for Quartic to achieve 100% coverage.
No. You need to have completed a PSM for that level – if you did this for the previous exam sitting, you will not need to do this again.
At Level I you may choose between “Financial Modeling” and “Python Programming Fundamentals”. At Level II the options are “Analyst Skills”, “Python Programming Fundamentals” and “Python, Data Science, and AI”.
Yes. The PSM must be completed before you received exam results. You may choose to do the PSM any time after registering for an exam, but as it is not part of your examinable curriculum you may choose to defer the entire PSM until after sitting your exam.
No. The PSM involves 10 to 15 hours of online exercises (including videos, quizzes and case studies) designed to build your practical skills. You need to complete the PSM, including the multiple-choice questions, but there is no minimal mark.
The PSM is designed to provide practical experience in areas such as financial modelling and Python programming. It is not part of the CFA curriculum and you will not be examined on it. However, a PSM must be completed for you to receive the results of your Level I or Level II CFA exam.
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