CFA AMA

>>1559856
I'll start. MSc Stats student with interest in finance:

1. How long did it take you to self study Level 1?
2. Did you already have a job when you did Level 1, and if not, would you say it improved your prospects?
3. How many fails, if any?
4. Would you say the essays for Level 3 are hard?
5. You need 4 years of experience, what is your current job?
6. What's your background and what made you decide to become a CFA instead of an Actuary?
7. Where did you pirate your learning resources?

This should keep you busy before the thread takes off.

>>1559856
Congrats. I'm a charterholder since 2012. L2 was probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.

>>1559891

1. I took L1 December 2014. I think I started studying in August, but probably didn't kick into serious mode until October.
2. Yes, I began working in August 2012 and believe it helped enormously. I was an econ major and without the work experience I would've been totally clueless on many topics.
3. No fails. L1 Dec 2014, L2 June 15, L3 June 16. I definitely thought I failed walking out of L2.
4. Yes, that was a big surprise. I didn't score well there at all, and was thinking being a native English speaker would help me a lot considering that half the people in my exam room had Chinese passports.
5. I work at a small RIA in the Midwest. Now that I have the charter I could easily segue into a job at a big asset management firm, but my job has a lot of intangibles that I'm not really willing to give up.
6. The two really have very little in common, so it depends what you want to do. My understanding is that most actuaries make a very good amount of money right away but cap out around 200k. The work also sounds fairly boring. CFA tends to have a higher possible cap but sounds incredibly stressful for actual equity analysts. I had a very minimal math background, so I never actually considered being an actuary. The quantitative section was very difficult for me since I only took intro. I would assume that would be a joke for you if you're getting a masters in stat.
7. I "didn't," but if I did I would just google torrents. Pretty easy to find stuff (possibly outdated). I mostly used the CFAI materials that are provided. Most people avoid those because they're too much of a bitch to read the 4-5k pages for each exam. The plus side is that you won't run into stuff that you've never seen before, because at the end of the day Schweser and all the other material providers are just guessing as to what CFAI will put on the exam.

>>1559896
Thanks man, it was a big relief although I feel a bit aimless now that I'm done. Looking to bust out the CFP in March, which is honestly more relevant to our business anyway.

What do you do? Is there anything I should be taking advantage of now that I have the charter?

>>1559917
Good stuff, thanks for the reply.

>>1559856
How much preparation did hve to you do for the practical kneepad exam?

>>1560060
The final test before issuing the charter is to bang a bunch of women on a hardwood floor to ensure that you can handle the money you're about to make. I can safely say that the kneepads saved me from serious scar tissue on my knees.