CFA Institute to release crucial exam information later this week

Will the December CFA® exams go ahead or not? For the nearly 200,000 people who were due to take exams in June 2020, it's an important question: if the exams don't happen in December, candidates will need to wait until 2021, when they'll be able to sit them in February at the very earliest. Given the huge quantities of information that CFA candidates ingest, there are fears that knowledge could atrophy in the interim.

Unfortunately, and as with many things to do with 2020, there's still no certainty as to whether the exams will go ahead or not.

So far, the CFA Institute has indicated simply that it plans to, "to hold exams in any location where we can meet the applicable public health and safety requirements." The implication, then, is that where safety requirements cannot be met, the exams will not happen. And that this will be determined on a country-by-country basis. 

The Institute is providing updates on the test centers that will be open and the test centers that won't on this page on its website. For the moment, however, the page is empty, leaving candidates in the dark as to whether they should be preparing for December exams or not. If chosen test centers are closed, it is too late for candidates to switch their choices and take exams elsewhere. 

Fortunately, there should soon be more clarity. A spokeswoman for the CFA Institute says they're in the process of updating the site and that the test center information should be live later this week.

In the meantime, candidates are advised to "stay abreast of government and health advisories in your test area." Candidates in Toronto are already fearful that this means their exams will be cancelled following a new restriction of 50 people per facility, which was imposed last Friday. Of course, the CFA Institute could still hold the exams - but this would mean rebooking a large number of smaller test centers, which may not be practicable given its huge number of candidates. 

Photo by Frederick Tubiermont on Unsplash

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