CFA Exam Cancelled - 22 May 2007

Today the first email that I checked in the morning informed me that CFA exam has been cancelled in India this june. I couldn’t really figure what it really meant. For starters, I just couldn’t believe that this could be true. An institute which is over 60 yrs old and which has been conducting exams in India for the past 10 years, can’t really show up 10 days before the exam and say,”listen folks, I’m sorry but we ain’t gonna conduct this exam” right?

Wrong. They did send us a terse letter telling just this. And I ( & others as well) who has slogged so long for the past 7 months has been left high and dry over this ugly battle between CFAI and ICFAI. All my hard work has gone down the drain, and even the moolah might be in danger. But most importantly, what about my time?? What about so many hours of reading and mental acrobatics over arcane topics which could’ve been utilized more effectively.

I feel cheated. Money is not the issue. The real issue is the time that I spent and which will never come back. Yes, Its true that all this time & hard work that I had put in has added value to me as a professional. Its true as well that preparing for this exam exposed me to so many new things that I did not know about finance. But still, there was always that aim to get the coveted three letters appended to my name that made me go on even though when I wanted to quit.

I remember that even in the final hours before the trimester exam I was still preparing for CFA. And this was so because all this time I always considered CFA to be more prestigious than MBA. MBA received a step brotherly treatment from me rather. If I had some time left, I’d listen to Saradhi’s bakwaas or Sindhwani’s diatribe in between changing from one page to another on my FSA book, but I had my priority clear in my mind

Now I observe, that I actually learnt nothing from MBA because I consciously CHOSE NOT to learn. CFA took priority over MBA because I deliberately downplayed MBA in my mind and that’s why I’m feeling so bad about this sine die postponement of the exam. The two years that I spent in IIFT could’ve been utilized much more efficiently. I could’ve made many more friends, I could’ve read so many more issues of HBR or done some research work on neural networks per se. But nothing.

So now I’m left with a knowledge, which although adds value to me as a person, means nothing for the employer because it’s simply not recognized. And in this pursuit of neverland, I’ve screwed my MBA experience and am just the same person that I was, 2 years before I entered this school

So long, big hopes. Time for reality check now.


Paradise lost.