Most CFA exam results are a fail.

There have been over one million failed CFA exams over the past ten years. Behind each one is someone who gave up months of evenings and weekends, sat the exam, and then had to decide whether to go on. Failure is rarely spoken about. Very often, failure is also where the real work begins.

Get confidential, one-on-one guidance on retainer, from one of the world's most experienced CFA instructors. For serious candidates who have failed, those held back by fear, and those determined to pass the first time.

Who I Work With

The candidates I work with rarely lack ambition, intelligence or focus. What they need is an honest outside view, a practice that holds, and someone who stays beside them through the hard parts.

CFA candidates who have failed
A result can unsettle your confidence, your plans and your sense of who you are. Together we look at what happened calmly and honestly, and build the way back.

CFA candidates held back by fear
Some of the most capable people I have known struggled most in the exam room. Fear is not a lack of ability. With patience, fear can be worked through.

First-time CFA candidates
For those who want to pass every level the first time, and are willing to put in steady work over months rather than weeks.

How I Work

I work on a long-term retainer, not by the hour or by the course. Most exam support is organised around a course calendar and a single sitting. A retainer is organised around you: one-on-one, shaped to your circumstances, and continuing across levels, through setbacks if they come, for as long as the work serves you.

Before you begin
The best time to prepare for success is before the first page. We look at your life, your work and your reasons, and set up a rhythm you can sustain through to exam day.

Daily practice
A short, ordered practice for each day that leads you steadily into the official CFA curriculum itself. Disciplined study is a learned skill, and one that serves a whole career.

Constructed response essay questions
Level III asks you to think and write under time pressure, and many strong candidates fall here. I have built a library of constructed response questions across all three Level III pathways: Portfolio Management, Private Markets and Private Wealth. We work through them together until clear, precise answers become habit.

Guided essay mock exams
Mock exams taken with guidance, so that exam day feels familiar.

CFA failure analysis
After a result that did not go your way, a careful reading of what went wrong, topic by topic and question by question, so the next attempt rests on understanding rather than hope.

Engagement
Over time, the aim is a real relationship with the material: knowing the curriculum well enough to trust yourself with it, on exam day and when putting your knowledge to practice in the real professional world amid clients, colleagues, and the broader investing public.

Philosophy

The exams reward steady, patient work rooted in the official curriculum, and the discipline built along the way serves a whole career. No one needs to be perfect to succeed, and no one should have to face the journey alone.

Beyond the Exam

The CFA charter is a beginning. I work with charterholders at every stage of what follows.

Starting out
For the newly qualified: choosing a direction, finding the right first role, and making the charter count early.

Mid-career
For established charterholders: progression, leadership and specialisation, and reconsidering what the charter means to you and how you want to carry the designation.

Changing course
For those moving between sectors, regions or roles, or stepping away from investment altogether, and deciding where the charter fits in what comes next.

For a select few high achievers, the retainer continues across a career.

About me

I failed out of university in my first year. I went on to earn three degrees, among them an MPhil in Economics from Cambridge, and then the CFA charter in 1999, passing every level at the first attempt.

What followed has been nearly three decades in investment and finance around the world, and a teaching career that reached thousands of CFA candidates across several countries. For one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, I was the in-house CFA instructor, entrusted with bringing its own people through to the charter.

I have spent much of my working life inside the CFA curriculum, and I know the material as well as anyone. I also know what it is to fail, and to go on anyway. That is the ground my work stands on: patient, exacting, and always on the side of the person in front of me.

Today I work privately with a small number of CFA candidates and charterholders, on retainer and in confidence.

Independence and discretion

My practice is fully independent. I have no referral arrangements and no institutional ties. All work is confidential.

I work only within the CFA community, with candidates and charterholders, and with a small number of people at a time, each on retainer.

Take your time and look around. Everything I offer is here on this site. If you would like to talk, write to me directly.