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300Hours: Finance Certifications Hub for CFA, FRM & CAIA

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Should I Be Taking the CFA Without Finance Background?

Zee Tan

28 Jun 2025

CFA, Career Advice, CFA Level 1

If you're studying for the CFA without finance background, would that put you at a disadvantage when it comes to passing the exams? Since 2012, we have built up a robust, 13 years worth of data from our awesome readers to answer that very question. Each time when CFA results are announced, our readers shared their results as well as details of their work and education background. This research allowed us to analyze how pass rates varied across candidates that had different ...