QuintEdge Pass-Rate Report 2026: Methodology Behind the 88% First-Attempt Pass Rate

QuintEdge advertises an 88% first-attempt pass rate — about 2× the global average. A claim like that invites one fair question: says who? This report answers it. The 88% figure is QuintEdge's CFA Level 1 first-attempt rate — this page defines exactly what it measures, publishes the cohort and verification method behind it, reports the companion FRM cohort the same way (ACCA outcomes are published as named results only — no ACCA pass rate is advertised), and puts everything next to the official global pass rates published by CFA Institute, GARP and ACCA — with sources and dates for every external figure.

The Headline Numbers

QuintEdge figures: internal records + published results walls. Global figures: official publications, cited with dates in the tables below.

What Does "88% First-Attempt Pass Rate" Actually Measure?

The headline figure is QuintEdge's CFA Level 1 rate: the share of QuintEdge students who passed Level 1 on their first attempt, out of all QuintEdge students who sat Level 1 for the first time in the measurement window. The FRM rate further down uses the same definition, applied to its own exams; for ACCA, QuintEdge publishes named results only and advertises no pass rate:

"First attempt" refers to the student's first attempt at a given exam level or paper — a student who cleared CFA Level 1 elsewhere and prepared for Level 2 with QuintEdge counts toward Level 2's first-attempt cohort only. The comparable global statistic is the first-time candidate pass rate that CFA Institute publishes alongside each window's overall rate; both comparisons are shown below.

QuintEdge vs Official Global Pass Rates, Certification by Certification

Every global figure in this section comes from the certifying body itself — CFA Institute's press room, GARP's FRM program pages, and ACCA's sitting-by-sitting results announcements — accessed 4 July 2026. Nothing is sourced from third-party prep providers.

CFA: QuintEdge 88% (Level 1, First Attempt) vs 39–50% Globally

CFA Institute publishes pass rates after every window, split by overall, first-time and previously-deferred candidates. The most recent published windows:

CFA Institute also states the 10-year average pass rate is 40% for Level 1 (Feb 2026 release) and 51% for Level 3 (Feb 2026 release). QuintEdge's 88% first-attempt rate is measured on CFA Level 1, and its numerator is the wall itself: 151 published Level 1 passes out of 171 first-time candidates across the February 2024 – May 2026 windows — an 88.3% first-attempt rate. The wall also lists 24 Level 2 results and 1 Level 3 result (176 CFA results in total); those cohorts are currently too small for QuintEdge to publish standalone rates. See the CFA results wall for every name.

FRM: QuintEdge 85%+ vs 47–50% Globally

GARP publishes pass rates on its FRM program pages. For the most recent published window:

GARP determines the pass/fail threshold after each administration rather than publishing a fixed passing score, so global rates move window to window — Part I has ranged roughly in the 40s–50s over the past decade. QuintEdge's FRM numerator is its published wall: 144 first-attempt passes (115 Part I, 29 Part II) out of 167 first-attempt candidates across the May 2024 – May 2026 windows — an 86.2% first-attempt rate. Every counted pass is listed on the FRM results wall.

ACCA: Named Results Only — No Pass-Rate Claim

ACCA publishes paper-wise global pass rates after every sitting. From the March 2026 sitting (results released 11 April 2026; 103,785 exams completed) — shown here for the papers where QuintEdge publishes student results:

QuintEdge publishes no pass-rate figure for ACCA — in line with ACCA's guidance for tuition providers, which does not permit institutes to advertise pass rates. The ACCA wall is also a partial listing: 24 results are published, but many ACCA students' results are not published on the website, so the wall could not serve as a verifiable numerator in any case. ACCA outcomes are therefore evidenced as individual named results only, with the official global paper rates above as public context. See limitations. Named results: ACCA results wall.

What "≈2× the Global Average" Means, Precisely

QuintEdge's 88% is a CFA Level 1 figure, so the fair comparators are Level 1 rates. Against the most recent overall global rates, 88% is 1.96× the Feb 2026 rate (45%), 2.26× the May 2026 rate (39%), and 2.2× the 10-year Level 1 average (40%). The strictest fair comparison — against CFA Institute's first-time-candidate rates (45–50% at Level 1 in 2026), the same population QuintEdge's metric counts — puts QuintEdge students at 1.76–1.96× the global first-timer benchmark. "About 2×" is the honest round number; the range across Level 1 comparators is 1.8×–2.3×. The FRM cohort runs at a similar multiple: 86.2% vs 47–50% globally (≈1.7–1.8×).

The Evidence Base: 344 Named, Checkable Results

Aggregate percentages are only as credible as the records behind them. QuintEdge publishes individual student results — with names — on public results walls, so anyone can inspect the underlying outcomes rather than take a percentage on faith:

Of the 344 published results, 310 (90%) link to the student's public LinkedIn profile and 340 carry a photo; 63 students asked to be listed by initials for privacy, and their entries say so. For CFA and FRM, the walls carry every verified pass that enters the pass-rate numerators — students who prefer not to be named appear by initials — while first-attempt fails are counted in the denominators but not published individually. That makes the numerator of each published rate fully public and checkable. The ACCA wall is a partial listing (many ACCA results are unpublished) and ACCA's guidance for tuition providers does not permit advertising pass rates — which is why no ACCA rate or cohort appears anywhere in this report.

Methodology

Cohort and Measurement Window

The passes column below is exactly what the results walls publish — the numerators are fully public. The denominators add the first-attempt fails recorded in the same windows:

Counts are first attempts at the specific exam level or part; the same student can appear in more than one cohort (e.g., FRM Part I and Part II in different windows). Rates are stated to one decimal and always rounded down in headline use (88.3% → "88%"). ACCA is not in this table: QuintEdge publishes named ACCA results only and advertises no ACCA pass rate, in line with ACCA's tuition-provider guidance — see the ACCA section.

How Outcomes Are Verified

Every counted pass is backed by a document. After each results release, students submit the official result email or score report issued by the certifying body — CFA Institute, GARP or ACCA — to QuintEdge. A result is included in the pass-rate numerator, and a student is listed on the public results walls, only after that evidence is on file. Self-reported outcomes without a score document are treated as unconfirmed and handled as described under non-response below.

Inclusion and Exclusion Rules

• Included: every enrolled QuintEdge student who sat the relevant exam for the first time within the measurement window — passes and fails alike.
• Excluded: enrolled students who did not appear for the exam in the window (no attempt to measure); repeat attempts (tracked separately from the first-attempt metric); free-resource users who never enrolled in a course.
• Non-response handling: students whose result could not be confirmed with a score document — typically students who stop responding after the exam — are excluded from both the numerator and the denominator. Only confirmed passes and confirmed fails enter the rate. The bias this can introduce is stated plainly in the limitations below.

Limitations — Read the Comparison Fairly

• Self-selection: students who enroll in structured coaching are, on average, more committed than the full global candidate pool, which includes self-studiers and no-shows who registered but barely prepared. Part of the gap over global averages reflects who enrolls, not only how they are taught. No coaching provider's pass rate — QuintEdge's included — is free of this effect.
• Denominator differences: global rates count all candidates who sat; QuintEdge's rate counts enrolled students who sat. The exclusion of non-appearing enrollees is stated above; global bodies likewise exclude registered no-shows from pass-rate denominators.
• Sample sizes differ by certification: the CFA and FRM cohorts are hundreds of students per year; the ACCA cohort is smaller (24 published results), so its rate carries wider uncertainty.
• Non-response exclusion: excluding unconfirmed outcomes assumes confirmed and unconfirmed students pass at similar rates. If students who go quiet after an exam are more likely to have failed, the true cohort rate would be somewhat lower than the confirmed-only rate reported here.
• Windows don't align perfectly: QuintEdge's rate spans multiple exam windows, while each global comparator is window-specific. The tables therefore show several recent global windows rather than one cherry-picked comparison.
• Not independently audited: figures are QuintEdge's own records, published with methodology and named results so they can be externally checked. Global comparators are from the certifying bodies.

How to Cite This Report

Journalists and researchers: for cohort-level data or comments, contact info@quintedge.com. Global pass rates cited here should be attributed to CFA Institute, GARP and ACCA respectively, not to QuintEdge.

Sources & References

• CFA Institute — Level I May 2026 results (23 Jun 2026) · Level I Feb 2026 results (19 Mar 2026) · Level II Nov 2025 results · Level III Feb 2026 results (7 Apr 2026) · Exam results & pass rates archive
• GARP — FRM Program & Exams (Nov 2025 pass rates; accessed 4 Jul 2026)
• ACCA — March 2026 sitting pass rates (11 Apr 2026)
• QuintEdge — CFA results · FRM results · ACCA results (published student outcomes)