300Hours

Passing both FRM exams is only part of earning the designation. To use the letters “FRM” after your name, you also need to demonstrate two years of relevant work experience in financial risk management. This requirement trips up more candidates than you might expect, not because it’s hard to meet, but because many candidates misunderstand what qualifies, when it needs to be submitted, and how to write the submission effectively.

ACCA runs four exam sessions a year, in March, June, September and December, and each one comes with its own entry window, standard and late deadlines, and results date. Missing a deadline pushes your exam back a full session, so getting these dates right matters more with ACCA than with most other professional qualifications. Quick summary of ACCA exam dates: All four 2026 sessions are confirmed: March, June, September and December. ACCA runs one global exam calendar.

If you’re deciding between certifications, CFP (Certified Financial Planner) and CPA (Certified Public Accountant) are two of the most respected credentials in finance – but they lead to genuinely different careers. CFP is built around personal financial planning for individual clients; CPA is a state-issued accounting license centered on audit, tax, and compliance work.

Quick summary ChFC (Chartered Financial Consultant) is a US-only financial planning designation issued exclusively by The American College of Financial Services – there’s no international version. No bachelor’s degree required to enroll (high school diploma or equivalent is enough), but you need 3 years of relevant experience to use the designation once earned. Earning it means completing 8 courses, each with its own exam – there’s no single high-stakes cumulative exam like the CFP’s.

Choosing CAIA study materials matters more than most candidates expect. Get it right and you save real time, get it wrong and you may be looking at lost study time and retake fees. With only a handful of providers actually licensed by CAIA Association, the choice is narrower than for CFA, but that doesn’t make it obvious. Quick summary CAIA Association licenses a small set of third-party prep providers.

Looking for CAIA salary data? You’ll find wildly different numbers depending on where you look. PayScale puts the average base salary at $112k, based on 143 self-reported responses. However, this is not too helpful as an average misses out on the nuance of experience, location and sector. For a more helpful dataset, we instead chose to look at a small sample of actual live job postings in the US that mentions CAIA to see what salary ranges are involved, split by experience and sector.

Financial Risk Manager is one of the most respected credentials in risk management, but it’s not automatically worth it for everyone who signs up. Between exam fees, roughly 500 hours of study, and a two-year work experience requirement, FRM is a real commitment, and the payoff depends heavily on where you’re headed in your career. Is FRM worth it for you?

[Updated for May 2026 results. Help our FRM MPS research by !] Not to be confused with pass rates, GARP does not release FRM minimum passing score information to candidates. We understand GARP’s reasons for doing this, as FRM candidates should aim to acquire the necessary knowledge as a competent finance professional, rather than aiming for a specific score to beat since an exam’s difficulty can vary.

You’ve studied for months. With your upcoming CPA exam day, how you handle the exam day at Prometric matters almost as much as how well you know the material. Miss a single detail, the wrong ID, a forgotten NTS, arriving five minutes late, and you can forfeit the entire exam fee for that section, no exceptions. Here’s our straightforward, no-nonsense CPA exam day checklist to help you focus on your big day.

The CPA exam doesn’t come with a manual written by people who’ve actually lived through it. You’ve heard from instructors, review courses, and official guides, but what about the candidates who once sat exactly where you’re sitting now? The ones who worked full-time, battled burnout, failed a section, and came out the other side with a license?