Ninja Study Plan: The Definitive Guide to Learning, Taking, and Passing the CFA® Examinations

Introduction

The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Program, and the preparation required to pass each of the three levels, is one of the most daunting tasks I’ve ever undertaken. If you’re reading this, it likely will be for you as well.

If you are considering taking it on, you are surely aware that the CFA Program consists of three examinations - Level I, Level II, and Level III exams are taken consecutively and with the exception of Level I, are only offered one day each year no matter where on the planet you choose to take it. You’re expected to study at least 250 hours for each of them and most say 300 hours is optimal. Even so, the pass rate is roughly 40% - for each level. Think about that in reverse: 59% of candidates fail. Think you can do this on your own?

Thousands of people take these exams every year. As I said, most of them will fail. It is my belief that these results are a mix of overconfidence and lax preparation. With the cost in time and capital being what it is, there is only one way you will complete this program – total dedication.

Make no mistake about what this means. If you are beginning this journey you are about to go to war. This is a war against a rigorous exam, a war against a daunting amount of material, and most importantly, a war against your own limitations. The only way to win this struggle is to fully dedicate yourself. You will win by planning and carefully dissecting your opponents’ weaknesses and using your strengths. You will win because of training. You will win because you are a Ninja.

The Ninja Study Plan takes its namesake from the Japanese warriors, ronin who ignored the traditional bushido and fought in their own way. What they lacked in honor they made up for in cunning and preparation. They were masters of their craft, loners in a world run by masters, and through their covert skills were able to overcome far superior opponents. This is exactly what you must become to succeed. While you will not need to besmirch your own honor to become a CFA Ninja, you will need to master the weapons of study, without a master or tutor, to win this war. Ninjas are not born. They are forged through struggle and perseverance.

The ninja are none other than persons of perseverance and endurance

-Masaaki Hatsumi, ninjitsu master

ORIGINS OF THE NINJA STUDY PLAN

I was just like you at one point. I was a bright eyed candidate with dreams of a CFA charter, but I had no idea the journey that really lay in front of me. No one told me that the tests are only going to get harder, and that my life was only going to get busier. Looking back, I wonder what I was thinking just to begin that journey…

It all makes sense now, of course. I was 22 when I took the first CFA exam with plenty of youthful ambition on my side. More practically, I had a job that was flexible enough to offer me the time the curriculum requires and no major family or life obligations yet. I was also conditioned to standardized test-taking very early in life so have always been pretty relaxed about it. But this was different. There was so much more on the line. So I did what I never needed to do much of before. I studied! I probably put 400 hours of study into that first exam, and I was still nervous on test day in a way I had never experienced before. It was unlike any exam I’d ever taken and I quickly realized required different ways of thinking about test-taking.

The hard work did pay off. I passed, but in that first level I learned the most important lesson – HOW