Once the initial discouragement has passed, you realize that you are not alone (almost 60% of candidates are in this situation) and that the majority of charterholders have failed at least one level.
It is now essential to analyze your results.
The CFA Institute provides you with 2 key elements:
Detailed results
Your results table (present in the email) tells you if you are below 50% correct answers, between 50% and 70% or above 70% for each topic.
Subjects above 70% are your strong subjects; you must maintain this through regular practice.
Scores below 50% should not be a surprise to you; you have probably neglected these parts and they need to be restarted from scratch.
The overall score
The overall score gives you an additional indication of your results.
A score very close to 70% means that you have narrowly failed and that targeted revisions and several mock exams should allow you to move on to Level II.
A score between 50% and 65% indicates that you have completed a significant amount of groundwork, but that there is still important revision to be done to pass the exam.
A score far from 70% indicates that you were many points short of passing your exam.
If you have spent a lot of time revising, you must therefore review the entire work strategy (candidates often make the mistake of spending too much time reading books and too little time practicing, for example).
If the time allotted to this first attempt was small, you now realize that you will need to dedicate the necessary time to succeed (304 hours according to a survey by the CFA Institute).
Re-register
Barely passing Level 1 could have penalized you for your Level 2; with the right strategy the next attempt will be the right one and the extra work put in will strengthen your skills and maximize your chances of success in Level II.
What strategy should be implemented?
As we mentioned earlier, a precise analysis of your results and your working methodology is essential.
Every situation is different and it can be easy to get lost in your revisions.
Our advice is to select the formula that best suits your schedule and will support your specific needs.
There are a huge number of tools at your disposal: CFA Institute books, end-of-chapter questions, mock exams, courses, review seminars, online courses, etc.
The Top Finance team is available to all CFA® candidates to advise them and help them implement an effective revision strategy.