、As mentioned before
Many students want to take these certificates to help their future careers. In fact, CPA and CFA, and even FRM and ACCA, these exams are not obviously helpful to your career: at most, they are the icing on the cake for you who are strong (salary increase, faster promotion, priority for various places), but they will not help you. You are weak and provide help in times of need.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t have these certificates, the door to all jobs is open for you. These exams are more of a stepping stone to employment. For example, if students majoring in science and engineering want to enter the financial industry, if they have a CFA exam certificate, it will be easier to get opportunities for written exams and interviews; but whether they can get the job opportunity in the end depends on It depends on your own abilities and suitability for the job. According to the experience of friends around me, recruiting companies pay more attention to your internship experience and educational background than a fluffy qualification certificate on your resume.
Of course, for college students with more free time, it is highly recommended to take one or two professional qualification exams according to their own career development plans. Preparing for these exams is also a way to systematically study and sort out professional knowledge. A good method, it is still very helpful to have a thorough understanding of professional knowledge.
The following will talk about the basic information and preparation methods for the CFA and CPA exams.
2. CFA exam
1. Basic situation
The time required to obtain the certificate: long
Examination difficulty: relatively high
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Examination cost: Very high. Assuming that all three levels are passed in one go, without attending any tutoring classes, it will cost at least $2440 (equivalent to more than RMB 15,000)
The value of the certificate: No signature rights, but It is very helpful to pass the resume screening in the financial industry (especially securities analysts)
Applicable group: mainly useful for portfolio managers of the buyer, but not very useful for analysts in the investment banking department
The CFA exam is the abbreviation of "Chartered Financial Analyst". It is a professional qualification in the securities investment and management industry and is sponsored by the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute.
For students who are interested in entering the securities investment industry, the CFA exam is a good choice. It can help you quickly establish a knowledge system of financial analysis during review, and many brokerage research departments or investment All funds state that CFA is preferred in their recruitment requirements. But to be honest, considering the high cost of the CFA exam, this certificate is definitely less helpful for job hunting than you think. After all, companies will never make offers just because you have a CFA Level 3 certificate. It’s more about looking at Previous internship experience, educational background, and performance in interviews.
2. Examination process
The CFA exam*** is divided into three levels, from Level 1 to Level 3. To finally obtain the CFA certificate, you need to pass the Level 3 exam, obtain four years of relevant work experience, and then be verified by the CFA Institute. But after that, you can add the title "CFA" after your name.
Except for Level 1, which is held once each year in June and early December, Level 2 and Level 3 are only held once in early June each year. So in terms of time, the exam can be completed in one and a half years at the fastest (i.e. December of the first year, June of the second year, June of the third year), and theoretically there is no limit on the slowest, because CFA Institute does not set exam scores. The validity period does not limit the number of times you can retake the exam.
3. About exam registration
For those who are still in school, you can take the Level 1 exam in June before your senior year. In this way, you can make full use of the less busy time in the last semester to fully review.
There are also those who are more impatient and take the Level 1 exam in June of their junior year or December of their senior year, and take the Level 2 exam in June of the following year. However, I would like to remind everyone that according to official regulations, CFA Institute does not allow undergraduate students to take Level 2. You will find that when registering for Level 2, you must first prove that you have graduated before you can continue to register. Although you can fill in that you have graduated, there is a certain risk. It will be more troublesome if you are investigated when applying for a certificate in the future. However, I have never encountered such a situation so far, so I don’t know if there will be any serious consequences.
If you are a graduate student, there are no restrictions and you can take the Level 2 exam with confidence. In short, Level 1 has two times a year to choose from, but Level 2 and Level 3 are once a year, so everyone needs to plan the time well. After all, the CFA exam still covers a lot of content and requires some time and effort.
4. Regarding exam fees
Compared with CPA, CFA is definitely a very expensive exam. However, you can save a lot of money if you sign up in time, because the earlier you sign up, the cheaper it is.
Basically, you can start registration one year before the official exam date. There are three deadlines for exam fee payment, such as the following two exams:
The difference between early registration and late registration can be as much as $600, so you need to plan the exam. as early as possible. It is worth noting that you need to pay an enrollment fee of $450 for your first registration, and you do not need to pay it again (whether you retake the exam or take the next level).
5. About the exam content
The scope of the CFA exam is very broad, because Financial Analyst is too general, and it will be involved in various businesses in the financial industry. Basically, from level one to level three, the content scope has not changed, but it has gradually deepened from level to level, and the proportion of different Topics has changed. Topics include:
Professional Ethics
Mathematical Methods
Economics
Financial Statement Analysis
Corporate Finance< /p>
Equity Investment
Fixed Income Securities
Financial Derivatives
Alternative Investment Products
Asset Management and Wealth Planning
As you can know from the above Topics, the exam covers almost every aspect of the financial field. But don’t worry too much, because after all, it is too broad and there will be no too technical problems, so it is not a big problem if you don’t have a background in mathematics, finance, or accounting.
Level 1 and Level 2 are all multiple-choice questions, and Level 3 has both multiple-choice and question-and-answer questions. Level 1 places the most emphasis on financial statement analysis, so students with an accounting background will have an advantage. Level 2 places emphasis on financial statement analysis and portfolio management, so it is necessary to strengthen the mastery of financial and investment knowledge. Level 3 has more essay questions, with some emphasis on Wealth Management.
6. About exam review
I remember that CFA’s official review recommendation is to prepare for at least 300 hours for each level of exam, but I feel that this is mainly for people who already have a certain foundation of financial knowledge. . For those who have never been exposed to the financial industry, you may need to spend more time to gain literacy skills. In order to avoid being too stressed during later review or forgetting too much during review too early, it is recommended to start reviewing about two months before the exam.
The electronic version of CFA’s official textbooks is bundled with you when registering, so you can download the electronic version of the textbooks after registering. However, because there are too many textbooks, some difficult knowledge points are rarely tested. Therefore, when reviewing, it is generally recommended to read the tutorial textbook Schweser Notes (available on Xubao) produced by Kaplan, the largest CFA training institution in the world. Although it is only It can cover about 90% of the knowledge points, but it is more than enough to pass the exam.
Since CFA involves so many topics, it is impossible to fully master every topic. Therefore, it is recommended that when reviewing, invest corresponding time according to the test score weight of each topic. For example, the following is the weighting table of the 2015 exam for your reference.
3. CPA Exam
1. Basic introduction
The time required to obtain the certificate: very long
Examination difficulty: It is relatively high and requires a lot of memory, but all the test content comes from textbooks and syllabuses
Exam cost: very~very~very~low~at the professional level, there are 6 subjects per class, 70 yuan per subject Around (fees vary from place to place), the comprehensive stage is 130 yuan (a bargain price compared with CFA)
The gold content of the certificate: very high, with the right to sign, and many financial-related jobs require CPA (many brokerage companies recruit When you are an intern, you are required to have a CPA first)
Applicable people: very wide, if you are working in finance or accounting, it is best to get this certificate
In all kinds of Among the certificate examinations, CPA can be said to have the lowest examination fee, but the most generous returns:
The CPA certificate can earn tens of thousands of dollars a year just by being affiliated;
Many domestic When investment banks and securities firms recruit people, those who have passed the CPA and SEC exams are given priority;
CPA is a necessary condition for major accounting firms to enter the managerial level.
It is said to be cheap and good, but CPA is not convinced. Although my exam fee is low, I have invested a lot of time╰(￣▽￣)╮ Therefore, friends who decide to get CPA must consider it. Know whether you have the perseverance to devote your spare time to CPA for at least three consecutive years. Don't be like many students who half-heartedly review, spend time, and read books. In the end, they just can't pass the exam￣へ￣#
2. Subject combination for CPA exam preparation
There are six courses in the CPA professional stage***, all of which are required to be passed within five years. According to the experience of experts who have taken the exam, it is best not to drag the battle too long and try to resolve it within two or three years, which is usually 3 years (two subjects per year) or 2 years (three subjects per year).
Coordination of two subjects each year:
There are many ways to combine them, it is just about which two subjects go with which two subjects to make it easier to review.
A recommended combination plan is as follows:
"Accounting + Financial Management" in the first year
"Audit + Strategy" in the second year
Third year "Tax Law + Economic Law"
Among them, accounting and financial management will involve some report items, which are related to a certain extent and are easier to review together. Both auditing and strategy involve internal process control and are highly related. Needless to say, both laws are legal, so it is easier to remember them together.
The combination of three subjects per year:
If you can pass the professional stage within two years, you will not forget too much in the third year of comprehensive study.
The matching method passed in two years:
The first year "Accounting + Financial Management + Strategy"
The second year "Audit + Tax Law + Economic Law"
Of course, those who are interested in passing the exam in two years can also choose the exam difficulty according to different subjects. Personally, from difficult to easy, it is as follows: Auditing>Accounting>Tax Law>Financial Management>Strategy >Economic Law. Among them, strategic difficulty has been on the rise in the past two years, while financial management has been on the decline.
3. CPA review skills
If you often read five or six hundred pages of CPA teaching materials, you will feel tired and uninterested. Forget, you are definitely not alone. For exams like CPA, which have a long combat cycle and are relatively difficult, a "three-stage" review method should be adopted as much as possible. The time allocation for each stage is approximately 7:2:1.
The first stage
It is to simply go through the textbooks and listen to the basic courseware of the online school. This stage does not seek to completely memorize, nor does it seek to understand all the knowledge points. The main thing is It is to become familiar with the test points and establish a complete knowledge framework. For example, if you listen to 3-4 classes every day at 1.5x speed, and draw the key points on the online school handouts while listening, you will be more efficient if you follow the teacher's thinking. When demarcating the handouts, you are actually picking out the key knowledge points to facilitate review in the second stage.
In addition, for the coaching materials that need to be used in the first stage, Dongao’s “Easy Pass 1” is more recommended. Generally, after each chapter, you should prepare the chapter's handouts, examples, and previous years' exam questions. This part of the content is very similar to the basic class handouts and is intended to enhance memory. I won’t do the review questions at the end of each chapter for now. There are many questions. The first stage focuses on speed, so leave it to the second stage.
The second stage
The main thing is to review the knowledge points in each chapter again. Usually, you go through the basic class lecture notes and do the "Easy Pass 1" chapter-end review questions. At this stage, you must dig deeply. It is recommended to take notes and sort out the important knowledge points of each chapter at this stage. If there are any knowledge points that you do not understand, you must thoroughly master them during this period. By the end of the second stage, "Easy Pass 1" should have been basically done once.
The third stage
is the stage of "practical + checking for omissions and filling in vacancies". What is needed is the "last six sets of questions" from the Eastern Olympics. The duration is about three weeks to one before the exam. Around three months, according to the exam time, there is a cycle of three days, one day to do the papers, and the other two days to review the key knowledge points. Also make sure to take the time to study the real computer-based exam questions from previous years and familiarize yourself with the ideas and techniques for answering the questions.