YH90, how do you know that they would not check your status with your current university? According to the program coordinator from my tuition provider, they would have checked it since they said it in their email. That being said, I may not know to how much extent is this true.


According to the CFA website,

After your application is received, if all entrance requirements are met and the application is approved, an official acceptance e-mail will be sent to you.

If an applicant/candidate does not properly complete the application within the designated time period or does not meet the entrance requirements, the application will be canceled and the applicant/candidate will receive a reimbursement of all current registration and exam enrollment fees.

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Added on October 13, 2011, 10:50 amhttp://www.cfainstitute.org/cfaprogram/process/enter/Pages/cfa_program_application_details.aspx (source)

This post has been edited by gooni3: Oct 13 2011, 10:50 AM

It is just like our self-assessment for tax declaration, CFA members/candidates are requested to sign Professional Conduct Statement and Candidate Responsibility Statement respectively. After the members/candidates sign those statements, it is up to the CFA Institute to take their own sweet time to audit the background and declaration disclosed by the members/candidates. The audit could be done in the discretion of the CFA Institute before or after the institute has accepted the application by the members/candidates.

So members/candidates can talk-cock and bull-shit about their experience and background, till someone expose them or the CFA Institute start to feel suspicious over the information provided by the members/candidates, the Institute will start to investigate, and in case they find out that the information provided by the members/candidates was not genuine, then the Institute will take disciplinary action against the members/candidates, normally come with a suspension or revoke of membership of the Institute.

Someone get through the inspection of the CFA Institute (as the Institute might not start to investigate yet) to register for Level II without proper profile or experience does not mean they are safe, they might be haunted with what they have done in the beginning, especially when they are at the peak of their career or famous to the public, as someone who know their background could be jealous and will expose them to the Institute.

So be aware when you are thinking to modify your academic and working background, it is taking you donkey year to get through the exam and then accumate relevant year of experience but it will wacked away your membership in a blink of eye just because of your small little lie.

Back to the case of fino_abama's friend who took ACCA and was able to registered for CFA Level II as well. IMHO, the CFA Institute equate ACCA qualification to a degree, so whoever completed ACCA program will be considered as a degree graduate and thus they are eligible to sit for CFA exam on all levels, irregard if they have OBU or not. However, ACCA part 2 is equivalent to final year degree and only eligible to sit for CFA Level I. If the candidate would like to proceed for CFA Level 2, he is required to prove he is a degree graduate or he completes ACCA program or he has 4-year professional experience. So I assumed fino_abama's friend had completed the ACCA program before registering for CFA Level 2.

This post has been edited by kinwing: Oct 13 2011, 12:06 PM

this is not a very good system isn't it?

what if the candidate did know know that his degree isn't recognized or stuffs like that?

the thing is, they should have a standard way of determining it.

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Added on October 13, 2011, 12:36 pmbtw, if we use this statement against them, they won't be able to do anything. Since they said a confirmation email will only be sent once the entrance requirement is met. We can file a complaint against them.

And it clearly stated that only those that took CFA level 1 during their final year need to show proof of obtaining their degree before proceeding to Level 2. So, people who actually apply after they get their degree does not need to proof anything. It's not like they will know anyway. Hence, the confusion

Correct me if I am wrong.

This post has been edited by gooni3: Oct 13 2011, 12:36 PM

Just give you an example that when a candidate applies to become CFA Chartered, he asks 2 sponsors who are his friends to bull shit that he has enough experience but actually he is not qualified yet. So he attains his CFA Chartered by lying. If later the CFA Institute find out he was not telling the real experience, the CFA Institute cannot take action against him because it had approved his application before? I thought we believe the wrong doer will pay one day, it's just matter of time.

"They should have a standard way of determining it" is not adopt by the CFA Institute. Even the minimum passing score ('MPS') are flexible to be determined case by case basis in the discretion of the CFA Institute. The CFA Institute mentioned that "The size of the group, its diversity, and its reliance on independent judgments contribute to the power of standard setting results.", so do you still believe that the passing score is 70% mark? The CFA Institute further mentioned "Neither the Minimum Passing Score nor individual candidate scores have ever been released", so it is not transparent how the MPS is set and it is up to CFA Institute to take the necessary decision..

This post has been edited by kinwing: Oct 13 2011, 02:42 PM

For exam candidates, they might not be that strict but for membership I believe a solid background check should be done. Its their reputation on the line here. Is your example a real life case or a made up one? The CFA charter might not be that as prestigious as it may be if that is the case.

Yes, CFA does not publish the candidates precise score and the MPS, but there are procedures to follow to determine these scores, so I won't be that worry about it.

This post has been edited by YH90: Oct 13 2011, 02:49 PM

It doesnt matter if it is real life or made up case, as it is possible due to human nature that lie is everywhere. When the CFA Institute mentioned "if all entrance requirements are met and the application is approved" does not mean it has no post vetting right on members/candidates' profile again, and the CFA Institute would have reserved the right to suspend or revoke membership of wrong doer without backfiring themselves.

"Neither the Minimum Passing Score nor individual candidate scores have ever been released" tell us the procedures is not transparent and I am not sure if the procedures have been followed or not, just like some CFA Chartered wannabe on telling their made-up experience and I have come through few of them. It is a self-declaration made by members/candidates by signing the Professional Conduct Statement and Candidate Responsibility Statement, and these give the CFA Institute the right to revoke and suspend membership even it approves the membership/candidacy previously. IMHO there is just no ground case to justify to "file a complaint against them".

This post has been edited by kinwing: Oct 13 2011, 04:36 PM

-delete-

This post has been edited by kinwing: Oct 13 2011, 04:36 PM

My friend finished ACCA years ago, not just. You guys should worry whether you can pass all three levels or not (except for kinwing who has completed all three).

I know those who have ACCA and OBU but can't even pass Level 1. :-)

My point is a candidate can BS all he/she wants, but if you are not good enough, you will never get through. Level 1 will FILTER you out if you are not up to par.

This post has been edited by fino_abama: Oct 13 2011, 05:31 PM

no kinwing, what i meant was they only post that for admission process not for membership process

if they have done it for membership process also then i would believe that they will probably will revoke their membership if they lie. Thing is, they didn't because they knew they need to do a thorough background check before they are awarded the charter.

Meaning that, due to what they say, they cannot take it back for admission process but for membership process they can because they did not mention anything about approving. Anyway, best is we find a level 2 candidate that hasn't pass his degree then we will know.

Btw, kinwing are u originally from finance background?
I'm from computer science degree, not sure if I'm able to make a switch after CFA level 1. I'm afraid that after level 3 i still cannot make a switch and needed to gain 4 years experience after that. That means a minimum of 7 years before the charter holder @.@

No, I am a BCA majoring in accounting and finance, but I had worked in IT line to do software engineering and implementation for 2.5 years. Not sure if you could switch to financial sector after level I but it is better for you to try find financing related jobs now instead waiting until you pass level III, you should try your best anyway.

so how when did u switch to finance? after level 1?

My 1st job was at an investment bank. 2nd job was IT engineering. Then only I move back to investment bank after completing level 3 .

y did u go to IT!! stay in IB mar.. i so wanna get into IB. unfortunately i don't know about the existence of IB until in my second year of uni.

IB boring, so went for IT lines few years and got chance to travel around the world due to project implementation, after that tire of travelling and also realised IT job required too much resourese to upgrade technical stuffs such as SAP which obsolete quite soon, so switching back IB loh .

Anyway, learnt from IT also help a bit in doing IB job for financial modelling and quantitative analysis, as I was trained up to be proficient in logical thinking and software application (such as visual for excel macro, table of content for word file, excel function such as 'If', 'Concatenate', 'Combin', etc.).

why is SAP obsolete soon,

im undergoing the training now 5 weeks 2 days, 8 hours a day >.>

so much to learn, and it's obsolete?!
and yea i got the skillsets u mentioned too.. programming need alot of logic..

I mean each time we spend thousand of dollars to learn SAP but its new version will come out not long after we master the previous version, so to keep ourselves from being outdated we need to spend another thousands to update again and this cycle keep on going.

Better start finding now (harder) or after level 1.

no knowledge and experience where to find >"<

Anyone wants some 2011 level 3 schweser 16week online class hardcopy notes, the cfai textbook and schweser 2011 practice exam vol 1 & 2, PM me. You can pick it up at damansara jaya. Find it more productive than burning it after use. Cheers.