CFA without having studied Mathematics currently, essential, knowledge, standard, without

cyber21

Hey guys,
Am new here and would really appreciate any help.
I’m currently working as a credit risk analyst at a bank and was considering taking my CFA. The only thing is that I dropped Maths after the 10th standard. I wouldn’t say that I am bad numbers, in fact I think I am quite good numerically - however,
Does any one think that a good knowledge of Maths is essential to complete the CFA examinations? Or will I be fine without it?
Thanks a lot!

hassan

YES IT’S ABSOLUTELY IMPORTANT!
You need to understand and interpret a lot of forumulas, and if you don’t have a good grasp of math, 1) you will find it very difficult to learn the forumlas by purly memorizing, 2) you are likely to make mathematical errors which will cost you the exam, and 3) most CFA-related jobs are math-focused i would say, so it’s a pre-requisite to be good at math in the industry i think?
NANA

Muddahudda

While there are a lot of formula, they are pretty much all ’plug and chug’.  That is, memorise the formula and then plug in the input values given to you in the question.
Lack of maths background may mean that it takes you longer to work through some things and understand the relationships.  But its not going to prevent you from getting the charter if you want it bad enough.  It just might require a bit more work.
Goodluck.

d2rockstar

You could get by with college algebra, but it helps to know some higher level numerical analysis to understand where the formulae are coming from in L2.

bkballa

I’ve only taken level one so far thus can’t comment on the whole curriculum. But for level one there is nothing difficult math wise. My advice would be to go to the khan academy website and look at some materials or download some algebra courses on iTunesU if you have an IPad. Spend a few weeks going through those then dive into the material. Follow the LOS and watch for words like “interpret” being used instead of “calculate”. The CFAI books will walk you through the calculations but many times only understanding and interpreting them are needed.

d2rockstar

I don’t know where the 10th standard is.  If you are comfortable with basic algebra, then you should be fine with 85% of the CFA material that is at all mathematical in nature.  Statistics is a bit wierd if you haven’t seen it before, but having calculus and other stuff doesn’t necessarily help you much there, and lots of people with good mathematical backgrounds have some trouble wrapping their heads around it too the first time they see it.
If you’ve had any calculus, it will help you a bit with the concept of duration, convexity, and some of the economic concepts like marginal cost and marginal revenue, but it isn’t absolutely necessary.

genuinecfa

^ +1 to bchad and greenie. My highest level math that I remember was a statistics class. Never took calculus. CFA math is just algebra, so the faster you can accurately figure it out, the better.
Just remember once you’re in a job, calculators and computers do all the tough math anyway. There are very few jobs out there that actually require that you know advanced math (beyond basic stats and algebra) IMO.

canadiananalyst

I’m confused as to what people are calling “college algebra”, cause the only algebra I ever took in college was linear/matrix algebra and that’s waaaaay beyond CFA. If I recall correctly, Algebra I was in middle school, and the basic 4 years of [US] high school was Geometry, Algebra II, Trigonometry/Precalc, and Calculus in that order (maybe switch the first two).

ayaz_mahmud369

In the US, college algebra is probably what you would call Algebra 2.  It’s required for most (if not all) US bachelor’s degrees.  Of course, some majors require that you take calculus and trig and diffyq’s, but if you’re majoring in History or English, then that’s all the math you have to take.

malbec

if you don’t love math, good luck.  strong correlation between Math and Finance.