Curriculum Overview: The CAIA Charter exam curriculum is revised regularly to incorporate relevant, practical industry developments, and the latest academic research. The curriculum consists of two exam levels, taken in succession. Level I is brand new for the September 2020 cycle. The exam reflects content from the 4th edition text only.
After having mentally written off my performance at the end of September, I had the great pleasure of rediscovering evenings and weekends. I’d thought that the CAIA Association would send results via email like the CFA institute does and so put Results Day to the back of my mind. However, nothing came through at the end of October and I gradually forgot about this as I started making the most of my evenings and weekends again.
Then one day at the beginning of November I received an email from the CAIA Association helpfully informing me that early registration for Level 2 was about to pass. “How odd”, I thought, “they seem to have missed out the Level 1 registration dates on this one”. Then I logged on to the CAIA website and had the pleasant surprise of finding out that I was part of the fortunate 75% (or thereabouts) of candidates who passed the CAIA Level 1 exam in September 2013.
Omnisphere cheap. My results, oddly enough, was positively skewed relative to the average candidate. I had one weak area (Structured Products), one ‘lower’ section (Private Equity), one comparable section (Intro to AI), three ‘higher’ sections (Hedge Funds, Ethics and Real Assets) and two outstanding sections (Commodities and Risk /Portfolio Management). I hadn’t revised Structured Products so this was expected and I didn’t make notes on the intricacies of fund details for PE so that was expected too. After the exam I thought I’d have a marginal pass at best but luck seemed to have been in my favour!
Sprinkler software free. Granted that the pass rate for Level 1 was (typically) high, it nevertheless gave me a morale boost after so epicly flunking Level 2 of the CFA. Since June, I’d managed to rack up a decent amount of time reading the revision material from Uppermark (2-3 hours per evening) and, more importantly, I’d gotten into the rhythm of dedicating two or more hours to studying after (or before) work.
- The CAIA textbook for level1 arrived today and at 800 odd pages, it’s not as daunting as the 6 books for CFA level 2 but still rather hefty. AIA Association (very much like the LOS’s for the CFA), make notes both on paper and on this blog, and work on some workbook questions (like the EOC questions for CFA) at the end (and maybe build in a little quiz using Uppermark’s question bank if.
- 100% Focused in the CAIA Exam. Uppermark publishes the first CAIA study guide for candidates. It remains the only review course provider that focus on CAIA qualification alone. Impressive Faculty Members and Thoughtful Service. Pady, together with two other faculty members (Natasha and Georgi) are all PhD in Finance.
Uppermark Caia Level 1 Free Download
Having celebrated my little achievement, I won’t kid myself into thinking that my preparation went smoothly or was even half as sufficient as it could have been. There were times when I was reading inefficiently because my mind was wandering, there were times when I didn’t get up early enough in the morning or skipped an evening study session, and there were times when I threw down the towel and almost gave up (including once just two days before the exam, which was only avoided by some friends’ urging that plenty could still be covered in two days — THANK YOU if you’re reading!).
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Caia Study
So now, looking forward, I plan to take the CAIA Level 2 exam in March and, in parallel, start preparing for the CFA Level 2 exam in June. It’s a bit crazy but others have done it. The materials are never difficult intellectually but it’s the scale of the task that dampens motivation.
Caia Curriculum
As with any other major undertaking, I must keep the ultimate goal in mind and the sheer joy in passing both exams next year will provide me with enough strength to march on.
Caia Level 2
Study plan to be posted in due course. Study guides and textbooks are already in the post. Exams are registered. Psyching myself up now for a gruelling seven-and-a-half months. It’s not gonna be easy but it’s gonna be worth it!