Just needed some help and advice from you all. This will be my third time appearing for level 2. I have spent an immense amount of time studying for it both times and I have been doing reasonably well in the mocks leading up to the exam (scoring 70-80% on average). Yet both times I have not only failed, but done so badly (Band 3 and Band 4). I cannot seem to figure out where I am going wrong! I understand the material pretty well (I know its the easier part of studying for this) and I also do well in the practice sessions. I cant understand why I fall apart in the exam. I do wish to pursue and complete this course, because it is exactly what I wanted to do.
I would really appreciate you guys giving me some advice as to where I may be falling short. Is it the ability to tackle questions or am I probably not understanding the material well enough? Should I attend some prep classes? The subject wise grades have varied greatly… the first time round I did well in almost all except Ethics FRA and Equity (can see why I failed there). The second time I did really well in both Equity and FRA and just collapsed everywhere else.
Any advice regarding how I can improve my study technique or just how I can go about it would be really helpful! Thanks a lot in advance
That’s very surprising that you could score so well on mocks and fail with such low bands. Perhaps it is the pressure of the situation as some people are ‘good test takers’ and others are ‘bad test takers’. I’m not sure what to suggest other than to keep taking mocks in exam like circumstances.
I’ve never taken it but I think Schweser offers a live mock where you actually go to a site and they mimic the actual test. Perhaps that would be beneficial for you.
Are you scoring yoru Mock Exams yourself and saying “Oh, I got this one wrong but I would have gotten it right so I’m going to mark it right”. Scoring so well on the mock and poorly on the test means either one of two things: 1. You have anxiety during the test or 2. You not being honest with yourself when scoring your mock exams.
are you also just thinking - ok I got this question right - so giving yourself an overconfidence bias?
are you thinking about - what are all the other “gazillion” ways this same thing could be tested? Gazillion may be overstating it - but are you thinking I was given A, and B - needed to talk about C. Are there other ways this same could be tested or asked. Am I prepared for those?
Are you also using Schweser as your source ? And limiting yourself to the Schweser language, Schweser text? Read the book about the topic. You will see repeating patterns in the curriculum. (Something is repeated so often - that very often it does show up on the exams).
When I score my mocks I most certainly do not mark myself right on answers that I got wrong. Infact I even mark the questions where I have 90% guessed the answer and mark myself down for those too even if theyre right. I think we all know how different the mock and the actual exam are. I have somehow always found the exam harder than the mocks (contrary to what alot of people feel).
During the exam I feel as if I have left out alot of minute details, which is why I feel that perhaps there is something wrong with my approach to studying the material for this exam.
Regarding Schweser, I had relied on them completely for the first exam since I had only 4 months to study and ofc it was a complete disaster. Did not use them the second time round and relied instead on the CFA material entirely incl the blue boxes and CFAI questions and mocks plus schweser mocks. Which is why the band 4 completely threw me off. I was ready to accept a fail because I knew I hadnt done well in a few low weight areas but not a band 4.
The biggest difference is in the reading part. I personally found that the real exam tests your reading comprehension to higher degree than the mocks of lets say finquiz or schweser. So may be you got to work on your reading comprehension.
Also you could identify if you did badly in same subjects when you got band 3 and band 4. If there is a correlation, may be you should concentrate on that particular subject.
Doing mocks is good, but as CPK pointed out - did you really learn from the mocks? Mocks are particularly useless (IMHO that is) if you are only using them to know where you stand. You got to builkd knowledge from the mocks by thinking about the different possibilities. Checking even the answers you got right and comparing with how its solved in schweser books, really helps to build understanding.
Are you bombing in Ethics consistently? If yes, just do, redo, re-redo all the questions you can get a hand on.
Sounds to me like the rushing from the time constraint is what’s hurting you and making you miss details. Are you taking timed mocks so simulate the real thing? If you are and still struggling I would give yourself even less time when practicing the mocks so you feel like you have more time on the actual exam. I’d also look into how you’re reading the questions on the exam, to me part of the skill of beating the time aspect is making sure you’re checking the questions for what they’re looking for then recognizing that hey are asking the questions in sequence within the viginette versus reading the entire vignette and then having to back track to answer individual questions.
completely agree with you here… I do understand the topics in broad terms which is what the Schweser mocks tend to test and so I do relatively ok in them. I will definitely work on the comprehension aspect.
First time round I’d done well in almost all except FRA and Equity. Second time I did quite well in both but bombed everything else… need to do them all throughly I guess.
I probably only used the mocks to see where I stand in general and see where I went wrong and why. Will go for an indepth review of mocks too this time.
Sadly I bombed ethics both times… (thankfully looks like they’ve removed soft dollar standards this time). Definitely something to work on,
Thank you so much for taking out the time to help! Hopefully I will beat it this time. Also Congratulations on clearing level 3 and all the best for your future!
I begin with untimed mocks and then start timing them as I get closer to the exam. I havent really had time issues with the exams but I do agree that there could be a problem with understanding the questions for what they are. Though the questions on the exam are relatively straight forward mostly so we cant complain much :P. When I’d started off with level 2 for the first time alot of the old AF members had mentioned that going question by question was a better strategy than reading the whole thing and going back. Have been using that strategy since!
Why somebody would simply take a timed exam and grade the exam and never look at it again is quite beyond my comprehension.
Probably 80% of my progress was made on mock exams and answering questions. I never even timed myself. I would do a question (or an entire vignette), then immediately check my answers and force myself to work the problem again. I would work the problems that I got wrong, but I also worked the problems I got right, if I got them right for the wrong reason or didn’t completely understand them.
Mock exams, practice exams, and practice questions are a TOOL. You should USE IT TO LEARN THE MATERIAL.
And I want to stress the fact that I would do a vignette and immediately check my answers after doing the whole thing. The reason is because the stuff is fresh on your mind. If you look at it tomorrow, you’ll have forgotten the question, you’ll have forgotten the answer, and you’ll look at the answers and say, “Well, the answer is clearly A. Why did I mark B?” After 24 hrs have passed, you won’t remember anything you did or why you did it.
Green, you seem to have lost some of your cynicism for the CFA process. Normally if someone fails once you tell them to quit. Here we’ve got someone who’s failed twice (Band 3 and 4 at that) and you’re being encouraging. Have things started going better in your life lately? Promotion at work? Get laid or something? Why the attitude change?
^Yes, I would normally advise somebody who failed Band 3 and Band 4 to give it up. (Especially given that she bombed equity/FRA the first time, but bombed the other 50% the second time.)
But she’s already signed up for the exam, so we’re on to the bigger point of how to pass the exam. So if you’re bound and determined to take it, I’ll give you my pointers.
And BTW–if you fail a third time, even if it’s Band 10, I would recommend that you pursue other activities with your time and money.
