It was hard not to get disheartened. But in such times, I have found that a systematic approach always helps you keep aside any emotion and walk a steady pace. I chalked up a nice plan to restudy the material, deciding how many pages I must read to cover the syllabus and revise it properly. But the best laid plans often go astray. The first schedule was severely lapsed, but I kept on revising it, going up from having to read 15 pages per day to 60 pages a day. Even after completing the syllabus, I was not feeling any better prepared for the exam that I did in the last attempt. To add to my worries, I suffered severe back pain two weeks prior to the exam. I was in such pain that I couldn’t even stand without cramping up. The lack of confidence in my preparedness and this sudden onset of back pain episodes were teaming up to make me lose at yet another attempt at the exam.

I gave only one mock exam a day before the exam, and scored less than 50%. Instead of reviewing the weak areas once again, I compared my wrong answers with the actual answers, and it was a moment of revelation. The wrong answers were not because I didn’t know the concept, but I arrived at the answer hurriedly, like I did for Level 1. The question writers are a sharp bunch that cleverly wrote even possible wrong answers as one of the three choices. So, people like me hurrying to find an answer would sail smoothly towards the wrong answer in the choices.

Armed with the last moment realization, I attempted the exam mindfully, braving the throbbing back pain. When I stumbled out of the exam center in the evening with a sour back, I didn’t feel any more confident about it than I did in the previous attempt, except the tiptoeing around the curveballs. With bated breath, I waited for the results day, which wouldn’t come any sooner because of my restlessness.

It was around 6.30pm on the results day that I determined to myself that if I failed this time, this would be my last attempt. After all, I knew many bright people that had stuck at various levels of the exam, and still had flourished in their careers. At that moment of frustration and determination, I saw an email from the CFA titled ‘Your CFA Program Exam Result’. Astonished to see it an hour before it was due, I opened the email with shaky hands, and read the first word ‘congratulations’. I remember finding a place to sit first, before reading the rest of the email that confirmed my passing the exam.

It is amazing how quickly your views towards something can change because of an event. I went from doubting my prospects from ever clearing the Level 2 to dreaming that I would have the designation in front of my name, all within minutes of receiving the result.

Next: https://bhargavee.com/2022/11/02/level-3/