To write or not to write (in June) company, weekend, dilemma

whew1110

Ok so here is my dilemma: I've only covered Ethics, Quant and FSA which is 47% of the exam. I'm not sure if I have enough time to cover the remaining 53%. I dont like making excuses but I've had to be at work until 7pm the past two weeks and have had to work every weekend as well. I know my company would look at me negatively if I failed level 1. Should I still attempt in June or write the exam in December?

cchang

It is unrealistic of your boss to think you can both manage Level I and work late evenings and week-ends, although you might be wise enough not to tell him to his face that you (and others) think so. You will probably have to take the exam in December, regardless, so you can just as well regard the June exam as a pre-run. You might choose to focus on scoring well on Ethics and FSA and maybe one other topic (some topic you find useful and interesting). Then you focus on the rest of the curriculum this fall. That way you won't fail on the exam, you have just rearranged your plans and regard the June exam not as THE exam but as a test for the December exam. You will be surprised to see how many people from the June exam will show up on the December exam anyway. Since you will pass the Level I exam in December, the "look negatively upon"-effect will only be temporary. There are always people who have to reschedule, it might be from an overload of work, a change in family situation, illness or for some other reason. You're not the first one to sit the exam twice before passing, should you need to do so.

RobertA

unless you really think it will seriously damage your reputation within your firm, I would keep going. You have done a lot of the hardest material -- quant and FSA were the worst for me, and i'm sure lots of other people feel the same way. According to that (scary!)counter on the front page of this site, there are 52 days until the exam. if you can do 3 hours a day, that's more than 150 hours, which is quite a lot, assuming you have a good grasp of the FSA/Quant material and will only need to review it (not learn it).
up to you, but if i had put in as much time as you, i would give it a shot.

Londonrocks

Sit for it man, but no one has to know whether you sat for it until you pass