August 18, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Cyrus Ramezani, Cal Poly Finance Area Chair
805-756-1168; cramezan@calpoly.edu
Cal Poly Students Excel on Chartered Financial Analyst Exam
SAN LUIS OBISPO – In the latest Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Level 1 Exam, 12 Cal Poly business students outperformed thousands of finance professionals by achieving an impressive 60 percent pass rate—well above the national average of 39 percent.
The CFA Charter designation is the “gold standard” for finance professionals worldwide and requires passing three rigorous exams. Cal Poly students prepare to take their Level 1 and 2 exams as part of the CFA Challenge, a senior project created by Cyrus Ramezani, Finance Area chair in the Orfalea College of Business.
The CFA Challenge is a prime example of Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing approach to education. “Most professionals take this test after they have been in industry for 10 years,” Ramezani said. “Less than 1 percent are college seniors.”
Ramezani oversees and organizes the yearlong CFA Challenge, an intense, self-directed study of financial ethics, economics, accounting, finance and quantitative methods. Students form study groups and take multiple full-length practice tests, each spanning six hours.
“Knowing that I was being held accountable by other individuals helped motivate me to study more,” said CFA Challenge participant Ross Galloway, who successfully passed the Level 1 exam in June.
Dave Christy, dean of the Orfalea College of Business, said, “The continued success of Cal Poly’s CFA Challenge students proves that our finance curriculum is both comprehensive and rigorous.”
Supporting students who take the CFA exams enhances the Orfalea College of Business Finance Area as a whole, according to Ramezani. “Cal Poly is far from financial centers such as San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles,” he said. “If Cal Poly students continue to score well on these tests, it will broaden the employment opportunities for current and future finance students.”
For information on the CFA exam, visit www.cfainstitute.org.
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