CFA Exam Pass Rate Crashes To A Record Low Of Just 25%

In what should come as a surprise to nobody watching the current state of financial markets, the CFA pass rate for its Level 1 exam has tanked to an all-time low of 25%.

If it isn’t clear from meme-stock mania or the Shiller PE approaching 39x that fundamentals don’t matter anymore, perhaps the Chartered Financial Analyst Level I exam pass rate can make it clear.

The atrocious 25% pass rate is down from 44% for those who took the exam in February. The 10 year average pass rate is 42%, according to Bloomberg. About 26,000 candidates took the exam. 

The CFA Institute was quick to dispel the notion that the May test was any more or less difficult than past tests. CFA Institute spokesman Matthew Hickerson said: “The degree of difficulty of the May Level I exam was consistent with previous Level I exam administrations, and this is the case whether we look back to paper-based testing or computer-based testing, which we introduced in February this year.”

“While some impacted candidates were able to pass, we believe the stop-start nature of the deferred candidates’ studies is reflected in the overall passing rate,” the Institute commented, noting that Covid had thrown a wrench in the gears of “the normal timeline of test taking and preparation”.

The average candidate studies for about 300 hours per CFA level. 

But maybe they need more help than that. Hey – we know a couple of Chinese tutoring services that recently just became non-profits…