Record Number of Candidates Sit for CFA Exam This Weekend

(Bloomberg) -- A new crop of chartered financial analysts is in the making this weekend. A record number of more than 250,000 candidates was registered to take the exam.

The Level 1 test, the first of three needed to earn the designation, involves 240 questions over six hours on topics ranging from equity investments and market psychology to fixed income and derivatives. Last year, fewer than half of the candidates passed the first level, according to the Charlottesville, Virginia-based CFA Institute.

Pursuing the credential “is a very rigorous process, with less than one in five candidates successfully completing it to earn the charter,” Paul Smith, the institute’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.

In 2018, 156,752 candidates took the first-level test, a 19% annual increase driven by growth in the Asia Pacific region. More than 23,000 people sat for December’s exam in mainland China, nearly double the U.S. total.

Anyone can try their hand at a sample exam on the institute’s website.

For actual candidates, the fixed-income and derivatives questions are the most challenging, Business Insider quoted Alex King, a CFA director, as saying.

To contact the reporter on this story: Maria Jose Valero in New York at mvalero3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Matthew G. Miller at mmiller144@bloomberg.net, Tony Czuczka

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