Sunshine after the rain

Yes, I passed!

Now I’m still reading the email over and over again and still can’t believe my eyes. I passed! All the efforts I put in during the last year finally paid back.

Almost a year ago, in the orientation, I heard about the practicum class and was very interested. The prerequisite for it was to take invest management class from Dr. Reichenstein. I consider myself really lucky that I went to talk to him and got myself a spot in the class. Struggling at the beginning for the jargons in the investment class, slowly I tried to catch up and decided to take CFA level one. This decision is not made because I want to work in investment banking or private equity management. On the other hand, CFA level one curriculum is so good that it covers all the topics needed in business world. By registering to take this exam, I can push myself one step further to study hard because I know without a deadline I can’t guarantee 100% efforts. The registration fee is relatively higher than I can afford, and Dr. Reichenstein again helped me on the scholarship. Then before the busy school work, I started my preparation from the winter break trying to get ahead of the curve. Though I made detailed plan for the studies during the semester, it was still hard to keep up with due to the school work. Sometimes I really need to push myself a little bit further to stay up late and finish the reading for the day. After the spring semester is over, I finally can concentrate on the preparation of the exam. Right when I thought I’m ready for the mock exams, I was shocked how many topics I was still not familiar with and failed the first mock exam. So disappointed at myself, I almost gave up. I told myself that this is a 30-40% pass rate exam and I just learned all the business knowledge for less than a year. I could fail it, but could I? No, if I was granted scholarship, then I’m trusted to pass. After spent time to review the questions I did wrong, I tried again the next day and the score was closer. Being more confident than before, on June 2^nd I was ready for the exam. After the whole day spending in downtown Houston, I was exhausted. Followed by that was almost two months waiting period. Until this morning, an email with the result came in. And yes, I passed!