I am currently a senior and am trying to decide which test I should study for before I graduate. GMAT lasts only 5 years where the CFA Level 1 lasts forever (plus 2 other exams). I am curious to hear peoples opinions about which exam they think would be more beneficial in the future.

Thanks!

your question is worthless without describing what your goals are in life, in 5-10 years and immediately post-college.

also, GMAT takes 20ish hours to study for. you could literally do it in a weekend.

I don't have the next 10 years planned. After college I will be working at a bulge bracket bank and would only go to graduate school if I could go to a top 5 or 10 university. Really just looking to utilize some free time this year.

Thats an interesting point with the GMAT but I would probably take more time to study. Was guessing around 100-200 hours but I could be mistaken.

What division in the BB? The 5-10 year goal question is really relevant because both can make either a GMAT or CFA completely worthless for your intended career path. For example, a trader who intends on staying in trading would not be much better off (and could be worse off) getting an MBA. If you are in IBD, the GMAT tops the CFA assuming your goals for the future stay on that path.

EDIT: Also yeah the GMAT does take time to study for if you want to get a 720-750+. There are a bunch of tricks for saving time so that when the test gets progressively tougher (since thats how it works) you can spend more time on the tougher questions. These tricks are different for varying for the different kinds of problems you will come across and so going over them repetitively is the best practice there. Beyond that, making sure your knowledge is up to par for all the sections is important too. The amount of time actually needed is subjective, and different for each person.

To answer some of your questions - I will be in a product group in the investment bank. Also, I would only go to grad school if I could get into a top 5/10 school. Somethings I am worried about is that 5 years might not be enough time to head back to grad school so the GMAT could expire. Thanks for your input.

Yes but what is the title of the division and are you BO/MO/FO? Also basically everyone at BB investment banks only want to go to grad school if its a top 5/10 school, so you are effectively joining the masses in that regard. 5 years is a long time and the vast majority of people do not wait that long to head to grad school.

If you can swing it, study for the GMAT now rather than when you're working in ibanking. You'll struggle to find the time and inclination to study while working 70-100 hr weeks. How long you study for is going to depend on your current comfort with what the test looks for and your ability to quickly learn the tricks that will enable you to actually finish the test on time while doing well (as mentioned above).

If you're in ibanking, waiting longer than 5 years to head to grad school is not ideal. 2-3 years on the low end, maybe a little more on the high end.

For studying - I'd recommend Manhattan GMAT. Their tests are the hardest (which is good since it preps you for the real thing), and from what I understand their books are the best.

If you have any questions feel free to PM me - my path was a lot different than yours (I dicked around for a bit after school before joining a startup, that ended up not being successful) but I managed to crush the GMAT and am currently at a top MBA program.

i got higher than 720 studying very few hours for the GMAT. the law of diminishing returns quicks in VERY quickly for GMAT studying.

Depends on the level you start at. If you start at <600 studying can improve your score a lot. Also, I got 730 after studying a few days and I'm sure I could have gotten 780+ had I studied longer.

I've been studying for CFA Level June 2015 and was wondering if anyone has any good recommendations on where I can find good instructional videos.

a few responses to different posters.

I agree with doing GMAT ASAP after undergraduate. that knowledge (basic math and esp. basic writing) dissipates fast....

CFAI level 1 is pretty easy and nice thing is that once you pass that you can say you are in the CFAI program.. and i don't think there's any limit on time spent in program (i was probably 17 years between L1 and L2. yes, i failed L2 16 times .... i'm kidding but there is no time limit that i'm aware of.

as per CFAI videos i'm not aware of any........ to me it's the amount of material NOT the difficulty. only difficulty on calc's to me is that there are a lot of similar but subtlety different calculations for interest rate forwards/futures/etc.. like how to the interest rate (exponential vs. 1/(1+r)x.....

my one piece of advice on CFAI is to photocopy the summaries at the end of each reading and put them in their own 300 page book. the key challenge for me was just remembering that there is so much material. easy to forget about sections but you can just scan the entire program over a lunch hour to keep it all "in front of you". obviously you are just scanning it and looking for weak areas.........

or make your own notes once and put them in their own book..... or write out things you have a hard time remembering and look at every item on the list a couple of times a week.

the people i know who did badly did the readings once or twice and then reviewed the last 3-4 weeks whereas i advocate doing the materials many times but in a condensed format.

the cheat books (schweiser) are good for L2 but they are very big for L3. not much of an advantage over the original material for L3

CFA is pass/fail multiple choice.

You can get through them just by pounding test banks non-stop. ~70% is pass.

not level 3.. and level 1 is super-easy..............

test banks fit nicely with what i said about photocopying the summaries and looking at every section of the summaries every few days. just keep the all material in front of you constantly.

took GMAT a long time ago so not sure of my comments... but i agree, GMAT is stuff you've been learning the last 15 years of your life (whereas CFAI is a lot of new stuff, esp. for anyone who didn't take finance in university)

the GMAT knowledge dissipates pretty fast if you aren't using it in your employment very regularly....... "different than" vs. "different from". i have no idea now many years removed from high school (which is where you learn that kind of stuff). i think it's "different from"

Doubtful this strategy works for level 2 or 3. Level 1 is super easy though

It does. But worth noting it means reading through tons of explanations that will cover pretty much all of the books Cfa gives you

I just think when your goal is 80% to guarantee pass, it's more efficient to make sure you know enough to answer all the questions than to know every nook and cranny.

If you had a high SAT score 1500+ not counting writing you can probably hit 700+ on the GMAT no problem. GMAT is a much easier test than say the GRE.

I didn't study for the GMAT at all and got a 710. You'll be fine.

There's no way for us to know how well you personally do on standardized tests, but in my experience those skills don't dissipate quickly enough for you to feel a sense of urgency to write the test before you have any idea of what you'll be using it for.

I mean if he can score a 710 u should be able to score an easy grand or a 750 or w/e the hell the test is outta

800

but yeah well played. I'm much better at standardized tests then I am acting like what is considered a normal human being.

In my experience (lots of tutoring and lurking GMAT forums), if you start at 650~720, you can get to 750 relatively easily just by drilling through the exams and reading explanations for questions you get wrong.

If you start below 600, you really need to systematically attack the GMAT by learning strategies to solve every question effectively and efficiently. With a lot of work, these guys usually end up adding 100 points. Some, with dedicated studying for year+ of 3 hours a day, do manage to get to 750. But the wall for most of these guys is right at about 650.

To get 780 or 800, you pretty much have to start in the 700 range and then dedicate yourself to practicing GMAT strategies for extended period of time. Getting a 780 or 800 is actually quite a bit more impressive than 760.

I took Gmat for fun/competition last year, and can agree returns diminish quickly. Some verbal parts like Crit reasoning/reading comprehension u can be very good at already with zero studying. Spend most time on sentence correction esp if youre not a native English speaker. Quant u can get better at with studying, u can speed up a lot once u know all the standard stuff. Some of the 780-800 questions are just impossible to solve in time unless u have seen the exact concept before and it takes a lot of time to prepare for those. In general once you get to the higher range (750+) every 10 points extra are super hard to obtain. For the parts that do not count for overall score, The essay is fun but easy to prepare. Integrated reasoning was little harder than expected for me

Actually probably gonna take it again next year or so, gotta push that highscore

Cfa sounds boring

In my experience, non-native speakers actually do pretty well with SC. They straight up memorize the idioms without relying on their ears.

Obsessing over the test is a mistake - top business schools (that actually require competitive scores) won't be on your radar unless you have highly competitive profile otherwise and most people who do won't have difficulty getting the scores they need.

And if you're not shooting for a top school - the majority just aren't very competitive on the basis of standardized test scores.

An article about the merits of each,

http://www.businessinsider.com/mba-vs-cfa-2013-4