CFA Level Three....Finally!

'Dear Adebayo Oluwaseun Babalola,


Congratulations. I am very pleased to inform you that you passed the June 2011 Level II CFA exam. You are one step closer to achieving your goal of earning the globally respected CFA charter.'
 
I got the email yesterday and after waiting for over 24 hours without receiving this...
 
'Dear Adebayo Oluwaseun Babalola,
 
We apologize for having misled you. You did not pass the exam. But on the real though, how could you think a nitwit like you would pass our 'prestigious' exam? Kindly re-register for the level 2 exam if you want to continue claiming to be a 'Level 2 candidate.''
 
I can safely scream...YAYYYYYYYY!!! I'm just glad that i've crossed this bridge....third time lucky i guess. Now the question is...do i attempt to take the level 3 exam while at Oxford next year. It will be extremely tough...deadlines are crazy and from the stories i've heard, my all-nighters would be taken up by Oxford. I will pay for the exam because i need to be registered for level 3 to have it reflected on my CV and then make a judgement call on how much study time I need to allocate to the exam without affecting my performance in school.
 
Oxford Update: Trying to round up the admin tasks. Sent in my student contract last week and should receive my SBS email address soon. Also about to apply for the UK visa....hopefully there'll be no issues with that. Also getting to know more of my classmates via our Facebook group....it's extremely active and someone's always discussing something which is nice and makes it easier to communicate. I've also been selected to blog for SBS on the official blog page http://mba.sbsblogs.co.uk/....another Yayyyyyy!!!! I requested to be considered and sent a link of my blog and the request was accepted. 
 
Happy times....now reaching for a glass of wine....

Damn Essays!

Phew! Just wired $650 to the CFA institute......only just made it before the dealine. Once again i apologise for my absence from this forum, i've been too busy massaging my bruised ego. Infact, i hereby apologise in advance for any future acts of disappearance!

No i did not pass the CFA Exam (I'm sure you gathered that from the first paragraph). If i passed, i would have posted here immediately, screaming to the high heavens about the birth of Nigeria's latest finance prodigy! Instead, I've been left to lick my wounds, ponder about the nature of the failure (worse than last year) and entertain fleeting thoughts of hugging a transformer! Anyway, i've registered to take the exam again next year......finger's crossed.

MBA applications? Admissions season is finally here......I plan to apply to cambridge before the third deadline on December 7th (they have five deadlines) and Oxford before the second deadline in January. I should have heard from both these guys by February......i'll apply to Cranfield if i don't make it to either of the two. I've started working on the essays.....damn! It's tough! Especially as thats my only way to impress the admissions committee. I have a pretty average profile so i'll need to have stellar essays to have a chance. I'll need to make them laugh, impress them and make them absolutely want to meet me in person. Maybe I should outsource the job to Basket mouth although i doubt jokes about kanayo o kanayo would suffice. I'm currently working on the Cambridge essays;

Essay 1
What are the key issues facing organisations in your sector over the next three years? What course of action would you recommend to such organisations? (300 words)

Essay 2
What did you learn from your most spectacular failure? (200 words)

Essay 3
What are your short and long term career objectives? What skills/characteristics do you already have that will help you to achieve them? What do you hope to gain from the degree and how do you feel it will help you achieve the career objectives you have? (please do not exceed 500 words).

I have drafts for Essays 1 and 2 but i am far from happy. They just don't sound outstanding. I learnt to be Tenacious, Focused and Driven after i failed to make a 2.1! Who cares? Private Equity firms have to deal with inferior management teams....duh! everyone knows that.....now i understand what novelists go through! I haven't even started on the Oxford Essays;

Essay 1: Explain why you chose your current job. How do you hope to see your career developing over the next five years? How will an MBA assist you in the development of these ambitions? (1000 word maximum)

Essay 2: Which recent development, world event or book has most influenced your thinking and why? (2000 word maximum)

Recent development? That'll be a struggle as well........I'm thinking about using The West Wing (a series about the Presidency in America) to showcase how its got me thinking more about politics.

Anyway, till next time......adios, my non-existent fan base!

Ramblings....

I know I know....I'm a terrible blogger! Its been almost a month since my last post....I would like to say I have a good excuse, but I don't really....I've been busy trying to study for my cfa exams and tidy up my love life. I am happy to announce that I have made progress on exactly NO FRONT! No I won't tell u about my love life but I can talk about the CFA though. Its an extremely punishing examination....I wrote the first level in 2008 and made it in one try...of course I felt like the best thing since the simpsons! Now I have been humbled...I am writing level 2 for the second time in about a month and I feel like I know even less than I did last year when I failed it and I might have studied harder this year. Only explanation is that my brain cells have gone cannibalistic and started feeding on each other!

Yeah I know it's an MBA blog, but I felt the need to rant....I'm up at three in the morning trying to figure out why option adjusted spreads derived from binomial models are best for valuing bonds with embedded options for crying out loud! I attended the QS world mba fair in lagos a couple of weeks ago....a few good schools were there, IMD, Insead, Iese, IE etc. I had a 30 minute informal chat with an alum from Iese who told me I had a good chance of entering the school (maybe she was afraid I'd kidnap her or something given the stories she had heard about Nigeria). It was a nice enough chat but it left me wondering, why would she be working for the school full time? She paid all that money for school only to be an mba recruiter? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying its bad, I think its quite noble to do what u enjoy and stuff, but how the hell is she gonna pay off her bloody student loans? She also painted a pretty grim picture of the job market in spain (apparently, the unemployment rate is 20% over there now!) This whole thing just adds to my concerns about the Mba...is it worth the cash outlay? Can you get a big enough bump in pay after graduation to restart your life, get married (in my case....and its funny I should mention that when my love life is in shambles) and service student loans? Its all pretty confusing to be honest.

On a happier note, my very good friend had a very good kellog interview. I'm thrilled for her....we started dreaming about the mba at about the same time, in fact she sorta introduced me to it! She gets notified on the 19th of May and I do hope she gets in....finger's crossed.

I'm hungry! Where do I get food at 3am? Hmmm.....maybe I should apply to columbia....afterall, New York never sleeps!