A: Cengage Learning delivers highly customized learning solutions for colleges, universities, professors, students, reference centers, government agencies, corporations and professionals around the world. These solutions are delivered through specialized content, applications and services that foster academic excellence and professional development, as well as provide measurable learning outcomes to its customers

A: Cengage Learning’s mission is to shape the future of global learning by delivering consistently better learning solutions for learners, instructors and institutions. Our customers believe in advancement through education. Cengage Learning is the trusted partner that delivers teaching, learning and research results through offering the most proven, integrated print and digital materials that deliver results through engagement.

A: Professional Exam Review is part of Cengage Learning and draws upon more than 100 years of business publishing excellence from South-Western -- the world’s largest Business and Economics educational publisher in Higher Education. South-Western is also known as the clear market leader in Finance delivering relevant, current and complete educational products and information for personal and professional success.

Building on this proven publishing history, Professional Exam Review also leverages the high educational quality of online training resources from CompuTaught and the entrepreneurial spirit of USA License to deliver superior online learning tools for professionals. Together they represent nearly 35 additional years of innovation and leadership in providing online courses and exam preparation.

A: The comprehensive Professional Exam Review study notes and online exam review materials for the Level I CFA exam were built by a stellar team of highly qualified and knowledgeable university finance professors with more than 70 years of combined experience preparing CFA candidates.
Mike Joehnk, Ph.D., CFA – Arizona State University
Randy Billingsley, Ph.D., FRM, CFA – Virginia Tech University
John Paul Broussard, Ph.D. FRM, PRM, CFA – Rutgers University
John Howe, Ph.D., CFA – University of Missouri, Columbia
Ed Nelling, Ph.D., CFA – Drexel University
Chris Prestigiacomo, Ph.D., CFA – University of Missouri, Columbia
Clay Singleton, Ph.D., CFA -- Rollins College
Ted Veit, Ph.D., CFA – Rollins College

A: Our customers believe in advancement through education. Professional Exam Review was born out of a century of excellence providing learning tools and educational resources for business and economics to bring you the most rigorous review materials possible to help ensure your success.

As part of Cengage Learning, our goal is to deliver results through engagement. To do this we assembled an entire team of university finance professors with more than 70 years of combined experience preparing CFA candidates. Each of the expert authors on this review program is a CFA charterholder and experienced CFA educator – who have worked together to develop an innovative and time-tested approach to help you pass Level I of the CFA exam.

Success is all about making the right choices. That’s why Professional Exam Review lets you choose only the review materials you need to help you master the CFA® Program curriculum. Our program is built on a fundamental formula for success: Your Commitment + Our Experience = A Winning Strategy. When you couple your strong commitment to succeed with our rigorous review program, we believe you’ve got a winning strategy for success on the CFA® exam.

A: The CFA designation is one of the most prestigious global certifications – a true mark of distinction in the investment profession. This professional designation is awarded to individuals by CFA Institute http://www.cfainstitute.org/ (formerly AIMR). Candidates are required to pass three levels of exams covering areas such as accounting, economics, ethics, portfolio management and quantitative methods.

A: The CFA Program is an educational program that tests your mastery of the Candidate Body of Knowledge™ through a series of exams. If you pass these three exams and meet other requirements, you earn a CFA charter.

A: The CFA® charter is the designation you earn when you successfully complete the CFA Program. When you earn a charter, you become a CFA charterholder.

A: A candidate is a person enrolled in the CFA® Program.

A: To be accepted into the CFA Program, specific criteria must be met. For details about the requirements set forth by CFA Institute for attaining this designation, please visit http://www.cfainstitute.org/cfaprog/getstarted/requirements/index.html

A: The typical CFA® candidate takes 4 years to complete all three levels of exams before obtaining the CFA charter.

A: CFA Institute has carefully structured the Candidate Body of Knowledge™ to cover everything a practicing financial analyst or portfolio manager needs to know. Periodically they ask CFA charterholders what they do and how important it is to their work. These topics and their importance are the framework for the examination. The CFA Program curriculum is designed to help candidates acquire the knowledge and master the skills and techniques the profession requires. Understanding how the program is structured will make your preparation more efficient.

Topic Areas
The Candidate Body of Knowledge™ has ten topic areas divided into 18 study sessions. Each topic area has a brief overview to orient you to the topic and highlight key concepts. The topic areas are not created equal. As CFA Institute explains, they base the topic weights on a periodic survey of the profession. These weights are displayed in the following table.

Readings
Each reading has one or more Learning Outcome Statements (LOS) that explain what you are supposed to learn from that reading. Many readings originally came from textbooks published by Cengage Learning. The LOS guide you to the important parts of the readings.

LOS
Each Learning Outcome Statement (LOS) has a command word – a verb that explains the breadth and depth of understanding required. Explain, distinguish between, calculate, define, and diagram are some of the command words. These words tell you a great deal about the type of question to expect. Obviously these command words do not translate into multiple choice questions. We can, however, learn from these LOS.

A: Yes. Beginning with the 2008 exams, the complete curriculum is included as part of your registration for Level I of the CFA exam. The exam is developed directly from this curriculum and is consistent with the learning outcome statements (LOS) assigned by CFA Institute; therefore, you should review this material carefully. Additional study and practice using our supplementary review materials and study tools available can only improve your mastery of the curriculum and greatly enhance your chances for success on the exam.

A: As a CFA candidate you realize how challenging the CFA exams will be. There are three levels to the exams. The Level I of the CFA exam consists of 240 questions – 120 questions in the morning session and 120 questions in the afternoon session. Each session covers the same ten topic areas:
ethical and professional standards
quantitative methods
economics
financial statement analysis
corporate finance
portfolio management
equity investment
fixed income investments
derivatives
alternative investment


You will have three hours for each session which means, on average, a question should take you approximately 1½ minutes to answer. The exam writers know this too and don’t design questions they think will take the average candidate longer than about 2 minutes. Generally you can expect one LOS per question, though some questions may involve more than one LOS. The questions themselves are all multiple choice with a stem and four possible answers.

The exam is scored by the number correct. A strong performance in one area will compensate for a weakness in another. Of course, if one does poorly in one of the heavily weighted areas, like financial statement analysis, an individual will have to do very well in most of the other areas to recover. The Level I of the CFA exam is offered twice a year in June and December. Preparing for the exam requires commitment and dedicated study (generally estimated at 250+ hours).

A: Please contact CFA Institute http://www.cfainstitute.org/

The December 2007 Level 1 Pass Rate for the CFA exam was 39%. The June 2007 Pass Rates were as follows:
Level 1: 40%
Level 2: 48%
Level 3: 55%

The December 2005 Level 1 Pass Rate for the CFA® Exam was 34%. The June 2005 Pass Rates were as follows:
Level 1: 36%
Level 2: 56%
Level 3: 55%