Why this exists
I passed thirteen of the hardest exams in finance on my first attempt, and paid four-figure prep fees for every one. The CFA program alone ran over $5,000 once you add up registration, curriculum access, and prep materials. The actuarial path cost about the same. By the time I had both designations, I had spent more on study materials than most people spend on a used car.
Most of that money bought the same three things every time: question banks, lessons, and mock exams. The learning itself was free. The price was a moat, not a cost.
So I started writing my own questions. Then lessons. Then audio narration. Then mock exams. It turned into a full prep platform. I called it FreeFellow because the name says exactly what it is: the question bank is free, and "Fellow" is what you become once you pass.
What guides it
The exam is a fair gate. A four-figure prep course is not. FreeFellow takes the second gate down, so the exam is the only one left.
No trial clock, no email gate, no credit card. The question bank, worked solutions, lessons, and readiness score stay free, and they are enough to pass.
I paid for the big-name courses, found nothing I respected, and built the prep I wished had existed. Not a marketing team that has never sat an exam.
Credentials
I hold two of the harder credentials in finance, and I sat for and passed every exam in both pathways.
Why the question bank is free
FreeFellow is a sole-operator project, not a venture-backed content business. No investors to answer to, no growth metric that forces me to gate content, no sales team running on commission. One more candidate on the question bank costs me almost nothing (a database query and a little bandwidth). The optional Fellow tier pays for the infrastructure.
That makes the math different from a typical exam-prep company. Kaplan Schweser, Becker, Wiley, AnalystPrep, Mark Meldrum, and Bloomberg Exam Prep all have to charge per candidate to fund content teams, sales operations, and venture obligations. I don't.
The Fellow tier ($79 per quarter or $199 per year, per track) is for candidates who want pacing tools, spaced-repetition flashcards, a personalized study plan, and AI essay grading (five a day; uncapped on Fellow Plus). The free tier covers everything you need to pass.
What I built
FreeFellow covers 35 finance credentials: all three CFA levels and pathways, all six CPA sections, CFP, the SOA and CAS actuarial exams, both CAIA levels, both FRM parts, both CMA parts, FINRA SIE / Series 7 / Series 79 / Series 63 / Series 65 / Series 66, and IRS Enrolled Agent SEE Parts 1, 2, and 3. The entire question bank is free for every candidate, with no trial period and no credit card. That is more than 42,000 original practice questions, each with a step-by-step solution and notes on why every choice is right or wrong.
Every lesson ships with AI-narrated audio. Every constructed-response essay generates a structured copy-to-AI prompt for ChatGPT or Claude. Fellow members get instant grading on CFA Level III essays against the published rubric. You won't find this combination anywhere else as a free product.
FreeFellow LLC is a CFA Institute Prep Provider. CFA materials are validated by CFA Institute for substantial curriculum coverage and updated annually as required by the Prep Provider agreement. CFA Institute does not endorse, promote, review, or warrant the accuracy or quality of FreeFellow products and services.
Recommended reading
Six places to start if you're sizing up FreeFellow for your CFA prep.