The CFA Institute estimates that more than 300 hours are needed to properly prepare for each level of the CFA exam. Our advice is that, unless you are 100% sure that you have made a mistake, never change your answer. Managing the balance between work, social life and studies is often difficult. And, of course, the discipline needed to maintain studies is one of the main reasons why employers value the CFA letter so highly.
If you start your studies six months before the exam to get those 300 hours, you should study approximately 15 hours per week. The danger is that, as time goes on and the initial enthusiasm for studying begins to wane, the number of hours studied per week will begin to decrease. When you consider social life, family life and the pressures of a demanding job, it's easy to see why candidates struggle to maintain this commitment. Some students will run out of time and will not be able to complete the exam. This is usually due to a lack of an exam strategy or to panic during the exam and not applying your exam strategy.
If exam time was a problem for you, try dividing it into blocks of 10 questions and give yourself a 15-minute time limit for each section. If you have a high score (10) or a low ethical score, it's likely that this has caused you to fail the exam. After all the time spent learning about exams, after all the money spent on resources, it seems too simplistic to say that lack of time is what keeps candidates from passing, but it's true. Understanding the most common causes why the CFA exam fails will help you become aware of the difficulties you should avoid.
Here are the nine reasons why students fail the CFA exam and some tips for overcoming each of these problems and increasing your chances of success. The first sergeant had a saying about when someone doesn't pass or things don't work out, as if all the failures were reduced to a single motto, and this brings us to the second of the five reasons why candidates don't pass the CFA exams. Some candidates consider themselves to be quite ethical people and therefore think that the exam answers will be intuitive.
