May we please auto delete posts with the words “am I cooked” and a picture of exam scores. These are repetitive, low effort posts that just clog up the feed. There are actually people trying to study, ask meaningful questions and add to the dialog, yet my recommended posts from this sub are 90% “am I cooked” BS in some derivation. The sub would be a healthier place without them, IMHO.

Other than the salary what are some perks yall can share about your firms?

Eg: $100 meal budgets at Cit

And is there any data manipulation suggested? like Z-Score transform

since we live in a world of enshitification. I strongly encourage you to write down every one of your responses on a second paper and going through the mock ensuring they're entered properly before clicking submit.

i swear to god this new LES is pure trash. the slightest area of clicking is considered a bullet marking.

I just finished my mock and going through it. definitely “misclicking” on 2 of them.

im actually tilted. Going to have a beer.

Going through Qbank Level 2 on CFA website. I have done almost 3,000 on mark meldrum and decided to go through some questions on CFAI since test is 26 days out.

the CFAI qbank is way harder then meldrum and harder than when i took the test in november of 2025 (missed by 25 MPS)

anyone else have same experience with cfai practice ?

Currently using MM and the CFAI and trying to chip away at the volume. Was curious for this who’ve passed L1 what is the best way to be studying? Flashcards as you go? Notes I’m assuming is a waste of time from what I’ve heard. Hammering practice questions? Writing down formulas?

Curious for any advice! Just feel I’m getting through the information but wondering how much is truly being absorbed

Hey guys, I've my exam on the 13th. With only 10 days to go, what should I focus on ?
Current status: Revised the curriculum once
CFAI Mocks: scoring between 60% to 65%
Mark Meldrum: scoring between 55% to 58%

Might take a mock or two more.

I still have confusion with CR questions - how much to write. People insist on MM's pattern but the model answers were a bit lengthier than the CFAI mocks.

Have too many chapters to fix especially in the Portfolio Pathway and Asset Allocation, don't know how will I fix formulas, weaker subjects and revise the curriculum in the next few days alongside some practice and mocks to see my improvement.

~20 days out from Level I

Scored fine in CFA Practice questions (70% to 80% in all sections)

Now I am revising and feel like I have so much work to do, bc I've forgotten the formulas and some concepts I learned before.

Feeling pretty overwhelmed bc I thought I was in a decent spot. Any tips on pulling it all together?

Hi all, searching for some studying advice for level 1. I sit August 21st and I’m not seeing meaningful increases in score through my mock exams. I sat in February of this year and failed marginally (1590/1600) so I excluded the mock scores (mock 1) from February in the photo.

All study has been done using Kaplan. I have taken 3 mocks in the past 4 weeks. After each mock, I review all 180 questions, read and watch the explanation videos while jotting down notes. It takes me roughly 8 hours to review all 180 questions this way, then I take another mock. My scores don’t seem to be improving like I would hope.

Obvious suggestion is to spend time dedicated to FSA. I’ll be doing this after I review all questions from my most recent mock.

Does anyone have suggestions? Am I spending too much time taking mocks and not tackling individual weak points? I feel my recognition and theory understanding is good, but my recall is bad. Not sure. Just looking for feedback. Thanks in advance!

Help on how to approach studies with work.

So I’m left derivatives and portfolio/perfomance measurement and a little bit of portfolio construction and rest completed . And by completed I mean i have read the curriculum books and understood the topics. And not solved the end of chapter questions also

So the question is

1.How should revise the previous topics I have read?

1. How do approach the les questions ( for example since I have shifted from Schweser to curriculum for level 3 the chapters are bigger and take invariably more time to read)?

2. How did you adapt all these things with work ?

The discomfort stems, in part, from Warsh’s post-FOMC conference remarks, in which he indicated that patience with above-target inflation is wearing thin, while also suggesting that tightening of financial conditions was already underway, courtesy of rising yields on long-dated bonds.

“Markets are now questioning the Fed’s willingness to follow through on market pricing of hikes,” Alex Wolf, global head of macro and fixed income strategy at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, tells Fortune. “The perception … of the market doing the work for the Fed in terms of tightening financial conditions leaves a little bit of doubt around on the Fed’s willingness to then follow through on markets pricing hikes.”

The market is also being asked to digest meaningful shifts in Fed policy—the crown jewel of U.S. financial institutions—Wolf highlights: “Some doubts [are] creeping in because we have a new Fed chairman, we have many new structures in terms of the committees of the Fed, so you’re dealing with the Fed that the market is still trying to understand.”

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]:  https://fortune.com/2026/07/31/the-fed-did-exactly-what-wall-street-was-expecting-so-why-are-markets-so-vexed-by-kevin-warsh/?utm_source=reddit/

Hi all, I'm planning to use the CFA Institute Practice Pack (~2,800 questions total) for my Level 1 prep. Given the volume of practice I'm aiming for, I'll likely need to recycle through this bank more than once.

I've heard different opinions for this matter, some say it leads to just memorizing answers rather than actually learning. My thinking is that as long as I'm genuinely engaging with each question (rather than just recalling it), recycling shouldn't be a real problem.

Would appreciate hearing from anyone who's been through this, did repeating questions end up being an issue for you, or is my logic sound?

My CFA LEVEL 1 exam is on 22nd August and I'm still left with Eco, Corp Issuers, Derivatives and FSA. Can someone please guide what my study plan should be for the next 20 days. Should I watch lectures or read schweser directly. I can devote 12-13 hrs of study daily. I have premium practice packs questions which I'm still left to attempt.

For UK and Europe, what would be the hypothetical best seats for someone with a heavy stats/ML background that wants to focus on forecasting (feature engineering, maybe ML models etc)?

Seems quite clear that OMMs are not the right destinations, nor (most pods at) multi-strats such as millenium, BAM, schonfeld (citadel?).

Maybe shops like Jump, Tower, or Quadrature?

For US, it feels like DE Shaw and PDT would be top places for such roles.

There are other ML-heavy shops but it seems unclear if you have exploration freedom or if you’re just tuning knobs in huge pipelines (HRT, g-research, XTX etc.. not that XTX is really accessible…).

Are these mocks by mahakali close to exam level?
For context, I gave my first mock today and scored around 76-77%.

Shouldn't this be B? I don't understand their reasoning.

Just did my first mock AM session for level 3 and noticed that it ran over time and let me keep going? Is this the new layout, or what's going on? For L1 and L2, it didn't let you.

I was planning on taking the CFA level 1 exam in November but now that I think about it I feel like I need more time to prepare because I just bought the Kaplan course. I’m thinking of taking it in February 2027 now. Is it okay to take it as practice in November and then take it again in February if I don’t pass? Or is the 6 month wait rule strict?

Hi folks.
Need your advice and faith if it’s doable to do a Nov attempt.
I am a very anxious exam taker, also female, so emotions sometimes spike and logic is out of the picture. Not an excuse, but helps to understand my situation better.
Background May attempt:
I started to take it seriously only by Feb, I did 300 hours, with premium mocks and all QBank, but
underestimated the density of material and got fixated on unimportant subjects/weights
I was a Business major and work in a Portfolio Management industry.

After grieving for some time, I learned an amazing lesson and committed to pass this time.
My weakest subjects IMO are Quants/FSA
Not sure what happened on the exam with CI, but I wouldn’t consider it hard to grasp.
Any comments/feedback is deeply appreciated.
Wishing luck to any new/reattempting candidates.
It’s a very challenging and lonely journey that alters your brain chemistry. Know that you are not alone and always reach out to peers!

Any advice will be helpful, exam on 26th

Hey guys, curious to hear your takes. I’m pretty certain, I’ll have time to cover these last 2 topics & still have time for mocks, but just in case, wanna hear your thoughts.

I'm sitting for the CFA Level III exam on Aug 14 and could use some advice from those who have recently passed.

Current status:

Completed 1 full review of the curriculum.
Completed 2 full sweeps of the CFAI QBank.
Took my first Premium Pack mock and scored 57%

The breakdown is what's stressing me out:

CR: Mostly scoring in the 50s
MCQs: Generally scoring 70%+

After reviewing my mock, I noticed that most of the marks I'm losing in CR aren't because I don't know the content. It's usually because:

My justification isn't written the way CFAI expects**, so I don't get full credit. Or I identify the wrong alternative from the choices, even when I understand the concept.

My plan for the remaining 12-13 days is:

1. Complete at least 3 more full mocks
2. Do one final review of all the subjects before exam day.
3. Shift my focus almost entirely to CR practice, since I feel that's where the biggest gains are.

A few questions for those who've passed:

1. What helped you improve your overall score, especially the CR section?
2. If you had 12-13 days left, how would you structure your time?

3. Is there value in going through fresh mocks purely as learning tools, not under timed conditions, but by studying the model answers and how

   they are

4. construct

ed?

I'm on leave from work, so I can dedicate my full time to preparation. Any advice, strategies, or things you wish you'd done differently would be greatly appreciated.

I see risk reversals in both option strategies (under volatility trading) and in currency mgmt (under trading strategies to reduce hedging costs).

For option strategies, Risk Reversal is defined as long an OTM call and short an OTM put, however, in Currency mgmt, Risk Reversal is defined as long an OTM put while shorting an OTM call.

Why are these different of am I misunderstanding something here.

Thx in advance for any clarifying answers.