CFA® exam results and pass rates
Access your CFA exam results, and check the latest pass rates and results timeline.
Results timeline
Within 5-8 weeks after the close of your exam window, you will receive an email from CFA Institute notifying you that your official exam results are available. You will receive a result of "pass" or "fail" along with information on your topic level performance. (Candidates who pass Level III will not receive detailed results.) Use the CFA Institute exam performance guide to help you interpret your results report.
After you receive your CFA exam results, you may register for your next exam. If you do not pass, we encourage you to use the exam result information to guide your studies and to re-take the exam at a later date. You can take as much time as you need before registering for the next exam.
Pass rates
Below are the CFA Program Level I–III exam pass rates for each of the most recent exams administered. Please see the CFA exam historical pass rates (PDF) for the pass and did not pass percentages each year since 1963.
CFA Level I exam pass rate
- November 2023 CFA Level I exam pass rate: 35%
- February 2024 CFA Level I exam pass rate: 44%
- May 2024 CFA Level I exam pass rate: 46%
- August 2024 CFA Level I exam pass rate: 44%
CFA Level II exam pass rate
- November 2023 CFA Level II exam pass rate: 44%
- May 2024 CFA Level II exam pass rate: 59%
- August 2024 CFA Level II exam pass rate: 47%
CFA Level III exam pass rate
- February 2024 CFA Level III exam pass rate: 49%
- August 2024 CFA Level III exam pass rate: 48%
Results process
After all testing is completed and the exam window closes, CFA Institute begins conducting a thorough analysis of exam questions/candidate performance to identify the minimum passing score (MPS) that represents basic competence in the subject matter. For Level III grading, hundreds of CFA charterholders will participate in an essay grading event. The Board of Governors will then convene to approve the MPS. Rigorous quality control processes and data quality review steps are completed to ensure results are presented accurately to all tested candidates. Candidates will receive periodic messages to keep them updated on the progress of exam results, and additional information will be published to this page as it becomes available.
Individual candidate results are released only to the candidate and are never released to a third party; however, lists of passing candidates are provided to societies for membership purposes.
Detailed exam scores and responses to exam questions are measurement information and part of a candidate's test record, both of which are owned solely by CFA Institute. This information is not given to candidates.
Minimum passing score (MPS)
After each exam administration, the CFA Institute Board of Governors sets the MPS for each level. The purpose for this approach is to ensure fairness to candidates across administrations as the difficulty of each test is taken into account when setting the MPS (PDF). CFA Institute does not release the MPS or individual candidate scores.
How to access past exam results
Exam results are available for approximately one year after the test date. After this date, candidates may prove their status with CFA Program by generating and downloading a verification letter from the Verification Letter section in their Account Profile. The verification letter will confirm a “pass” or “fail” exam result, but the topic area performance summary will not be available.