Outperforming the world...once again
Every June, thousands of aspiring Chartered Financial Analysts (CFAs) pack classrooms and auditoriums all over the world to write the three levels of the CFA exams. Most fail.
Those candidates that successfully complete the exams and meet other professional requirements are awarded the "CFA charter" and become "CFA charterholders."
The CFA Institute, the global association of investment professionals that offers the CFA designation, has released the results of the latest 2016 CFA Level I exam and among the first-time test-takers were 35 students from JMSB’s MBA with Complete CFA® Integration program, offered by Concordia’s Goodman Institute of Investment Management. An incredible 80% of them passed.
The worldwide pass rate for the 100,000 candidates who wrote the exam for the first time was 43%. Goodman pass rates have doubled, or nearly doubled, the worldwide rate every year since the program's first cohort took the exam in 2003.
Ian Rakita, director of the Goodman Institute shares his thoughts on why the program’s students are so successful relative to their non-Concordia counterparts. “Our students are extremely well prepared and are rarely surprised by any question on the actual exam,” he says. “They see the entire curriculum in detail in the seven courses that they take. Then there is a four-day intensive review of the full curriculum in May just one month before the exam.”
“Finally,” he explains, “there is a mock exam conducted under CFA-simulated exam conditions followed by grading of the exams and a careful review of the results conducted by one of our newly-minted CFA charterholder alumni.”
“The mock exam forces you to thoroughly prepare in advance and helps you identify specific areas of weakness,” says Kayte Inkpen, a Goodman student who has successfully written the Level I and II exams. “Learning to control your anxiety on exam day is crucial and the mock exam’s realistic simulated environment really helped in this regard.”
The Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) designation is generally recognized as the highest level of competence in investment knowledge, professional ethics and corporate standards.
Learn more about the MBA with Complete CFA® Integration at an upcoming information session.
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