BEFORE You Sit for the

CAIA EXAM
®

Advice from Past Exam Takers

See inside >>

www.schweser.com/caia | 877.633.3480 (U.S.) | +1 608.779.8398 (Int’l.)

 WELCOME
So, you’re considering
the CAIA® Program…
now what?

The CAIA® Charter is valued by top employers and recognized globally as the highest standard
of achievement in alternative investment education. You probably have a lot of questions about
the CAIA exams and the process of achieving the certification. We have enlisted the help of CAIA
charterholders who have successfully gone through the process, and asked them for advice on
what it takes to become a successful Chartered Alternative Investment AnalystSM. We brought all
of their advice together in this eBook to help you decide if the CAIA designation is right for you.

This eBook is broken up into two sections: 1) advice on passing the CAIA exams; 2) important skills
needed for future CAIA professionals.

We hope you find this resource helpful, and we wish you the best of luck as you begin your CAIA
journey.

Best,
The Kaplan Schweser Team

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ABOUT THE CAIA® PROGRAM

With new retail products and structures, investments from The CAIA program consists of two levels, which cover basic
insurance companies and pensions, and government and advanced concepts in the following topic areas:
investments in infrastructure and green technology, • Ethics
many companies are in need of alternative investing • Real assets
expertise. Completion of the CAIA program demonstrates • Hedge funds
an understanding of alternative investments, including • Commodities and managed futures
hedge funds, real assets, private equity, commodities, • Private equity
and managed futures. The CAIA program and curriculum • Credit derivatives
are very carefully structured to help candidates learn
Both the Level I and Level II exams are given twice a year,
exactly what they need to know to pass the exam. The
in September and March. Exams are self-scheduled during
CAIA curriculum is based on a series of core readings from
a 2-week exam window.
textbooks, professional publications, and other sources.

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SECTION I: ADVICE ON PASSING THE CAIA® EXAMS

Recognize that passing will require serious study time

“The time commitment is substantial. I didn’t know how many hours of

studying it would take to pass. It was at least 200 hours per level.”
– Candi Hughes

Almost every past CAIA exam candidate we heard from
mentioned the time commitment in one way or another.
The CAIA Association recommends that candidates plan to
spend at least 200 hours preparing for each exam. Many
of the people we talked with said their studies exceeded
the minimum recommendation. The CAIA exam covers
an extraordinary amount of the curriculum on a wide
variety of topics, including (as one survey respondent put
it) everything from real estate and film investment to crack
spreads and natural gas futures. With such a broad scope
of coverage, it’s unlikely that your professional experience
could have possibly exposed you to the breadth of topics
you will be tested on.
Get started early. That’s the best way to ensure you will
leave enough time to prepare. You can’t really cram for
an exam like this. Starting your preparation early will also
allow you to take a break if unforeseen circumstances
require it. You don’t want to feel rushed to cover an
excessive percentage of the curriculum at the last minute.
Out of all the people we surveyed, nobody said they
wished they had spent less time studying or started
studying later than they did.

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SECTION I: ADVICE ON PASSING THE CAIA® EXAMS CONTINUED...

Create a study plan and use a prep provider

“I wish someone had told me to sign up for

one of the study courses sooner than I had.
Getting through the material on my own
proved to be very difficult with a full-time
job. The Kaplan Schweser program helped
me develop a study program to really
understand the material.”
– Michael Campbell

Preparing for the CAIA exam is a remarkable exercise in time management. Determining how much time to spend on
specific topics or engage in specific activities is difficult. Before you begin studying, it’s important to map the curriculum
you need to cover with the time you have available to study. Set benchmarks along the way to help you identify if you
are on, ahead of, or behind schedule. This will help you ensure you leave ample time for each topic. But even then, many
respondents felt overwhelmed.

To solve this problem, many people we surveyed strongly recommend enrolling in an exam prep program. A good exam
prep program will provide a variety of study materials that focus specifically on the topics you truly need to understand
to pass the exam. In addition, you will receive tools to help you organize the material into specific assignments tailored
to the amount of time you plan to spend studying, as well as the time you have before you sit for the exam. This kind of
structure can be incredibly valuable if taken advantage of…and incredibly detrimental if ignored.

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SECTION I: ADVICE ON PASSING THE CAIA® EXAMS CONTINUED...

Practice questions are critical to testing your understanding

“Be sure to work on as many practice questions as possible. The exam preparation
journey is full of knowledge and insights. Try to treat it as a course, not merely a scramble
for the passing grade.”
– Richard Chan

The CAIA curriculum exists to help you learn new material
and better understand concepts you may already be
familiar with. Practice questions and mock exams exist to
ensure you’ve used the curriculum effectively and that it’s
done its job. They give you a simple way to put the concepts
you’re learning into practice and identify areas where you
still need more work. One survey respondent referred to
practice questions as “exercise,” and that’s an accurate way
to describe them. This is where the talents and knowledge
you’ve acquired have the opportunity to deepen, grow, and
improve your mental strength prior to the exam.
Practice questions can be valuable confidence builders
along the way. It’s one thing to think you understand
the curriculum to the fullest extent. It’s quite another to
put that understanding to the test with a mock exam.
As you sharpen and improve your understanding of the
curriculum, your question performance will improve.
Sometimes that added confidence and positive mindset
can make all the difference when you sit down on
exam day.

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SECTION I: ADVICE ON PASSING THE CAIA® EXAMS CONTINUED...
You should also know…
We had several other suggestions from past exam takers
that didn’t necessarily fit into a category, but felt worthy
of inclusion in this eBook. We’ve summarized some of
their tips in this section to provide additional support as
you begin preparing for the CAIA exam:
• Level I and Level II of the CAIA exam are not the same.
Several respondents said Level I was easier and more
interesting than Level II.
• For the essay response questions, pay attention to
ensuring you answer the question that was asked.
The exam graders are looking for a specific answer.
Putting a lot of information into a response without
actually answering the question is not answering the
question, and it will cost you points on the exam.
<< Previous
• If you’re lacking industry experience regarding
alternative investments and the technical “know-how”
of the various asset classes and investment strategies,
there is the option of taking the Fundamentals test
first, which can serve as a bridge or an introduction
into the more technical material of the CAIA Charter.
Kaplan Schweser offers a free eBook covering the
CAIA Fundamentals curriculum.
• One respondent said, compared to the CFA® exam,
preparing for the CAIA exam involved a lot less
memorization, and the curriculum was more
interesting.
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SECTION II: IMPORTANT SKILLS FOR FUTURE
CAIA® PROFESSIONALS
We asked CAIA® professionals what skills are important to the next generation of alternative
investment professionals. In the following section, we’ve detailed some of the skill sets that were
mentioned most often.

Quantitative skills
Quantitative skills, such as modeling, programming, and “There are always new investment
analysis, are at a premium in the alternative investment market.
products and ideas in alternative
Top-notch quantitative skills ensure that CAIA professionals
are prepared to properly assess and capitalize on investment investments. There is no formulaic way
opportunities. It’s incredibly important that professionals are
to approach new problems, so strong
able to combine solid financial comprehension across a wide
and interesting range of asset classes. problem solving skills are necessary.”
– Candi Hughes

Adaptability to shifts in markets and investment types

The cutting-edge nature of alternative investments means “Like the CAIA exam itself, the papers are
existing alpha eventually transforms to beta, and new alpha
not about memorization or rote learning,
sources emerge. CAIA charterholders must continually adapt to
changing market conditions and be knowledgeable about new but in learning and applying broad
investment types. Failure to quickly adapt to new information
concepts, to think out of the box.”
can lead to disastrous investment losses.
– Cyril Chua

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SECTION II: IMPORTANT SKILLS FOR FUTURE CAIA® PROFESSIONALS CONTINUED...

Asset class knowledge

CAIA charterholders need to be well-versed in both traditional “It’s important to understand the pros
and alternative assets classes. In addition to identifying the
and cons of using alternative assets,
right asset classes and investment vehicles, professionals
must understand how the correlations between asset classes how to use them, and in what format,
fluctuate throughout a business cycle, especially during extreme
structure, or wrapper.”
market events.
– Alessandro Petri

Macro view
To identify emerging investment opportunities and long-term
investment success, professionals need to ensure that they
incorporate a broad range of dynamic macroeconomic factors
(e.g., dietary trends, weather patterns, and biotechnology
innovations) into their investment strategies.
“How to see beyond their desks. It is
absolutely imperative to be an expert
in your job, but also to have an
appreciation for the concerns and works
of other industry practitioners.”
– Jeffrey Goddard

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WHAT DO YOU THINK?
After reading this eBook, we hope you feel helping individuals earn advanced designations
more informed on what to expect from the and succeed in their careers. We strive for
CAIA program and the alternative investment greatness, so our customers can do the same.
profession. If you would like additional After all, it’s your success that determines ours.
information, we encourage you to check out our
Visit our website to browse or enroll in one of our
expansive library of free CAIA resources, designed
CAIA study programs. Best of luck on your pursuit of
to guide you through the decision-making process.
the CAIA designation!
Since 1990, Kaplan Schweser has been student-
focused, results-driven, and fully committed to

www.schweser.com/caia | 877.633.3480 (U.S.) | +1 608.779.8398 (Int’l.)

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