Anyone have any idea if the mps has historically been much lower than 70% for L2?
The exam was no in shape and form reflective of the long-winded mocks exams that I took. The vignettes were much shorter and the questions were very straightforward. It didn’t involve detailed calculations. FSA was a lot better than I thought and that’s one of my weakest sections. However, there were a good amount of questions that were freebies that I didnt know and certain vignettes left me clueless There were topics that I glossed over, particularly parts of Alternative Investments that left me scratching my heads. There was also a question in Equities that I couldnt figure out how to calculate the WACC (without revealing any specific details).
Overall, I felt mixed coming out of the exam similar to how I felt coming out of L1. I finished with 10-15 mins left in each section and guessed on a handful. It could swing both ways for me. Seriously spent the last month doing mock exams and memorizing formulas only to come out feeling a little uneasy and perhaps disappointed.
76/120 questions was the max possible score of a guy who may have passed barely last year on L2. That means 63%. He had 50-70 range in ethics.
Dont know if this year was tougher than last year or vice versa
I feel a lot less confident than I did on L1. I breezed through AM, finished it with 1h to spare. PM was a LOT tougher for me, especially one item set I had to guess a few answers. If God was with me on the few guesses I made, it should be ok. If not, I wouldn’t be surprised of failing neither.
Exam was fair overall imo
My boss once told me CFA tests are test of knowledge, not test of intelligence. Walking out of the Hynes Convention Center (Boston), I couldn’t agree with her more. It’s the sheer amout of knowledge that you have to memorize and, to certain extent, apply, is what makes this exam so tough to pass…I think my 350+ hours of stuyding were definitely required, and if I passed, well spent.
Overall, I thought the test was very straightforward. If you knew the formula or related concept, you could solve the problem quikcly. I left each session 30 minutes early (wish I had this kind of luxury when I took the SAT). Considering it takes me longer to read vignettes (English is my 3rd language), I think the CFA level 2 is really, really testing your midium-term memory in different areas of finance.
One thing I can say for sure is that being on AF should definitely help your odds of passing. I felt so anxcious when I started seeing “oh I’m getting 70%+ on mock exams, how is everyone else doing?” sort of comments, I simply studied more. Another component, which I think is more relevent, is that this forum gives you the exposures to different resources available.
One comment had a link to Wiley’s 40-minute video on final exam tips, and after watching the video, I felt the urgent need to buy the 11th hour guide. It was 10 days before the exam, but it was worth every penny. And the guy in the video was spot on - you should ignore all those people on AF saying how good their results are (LOL) and if you get 50-60% on mocks, you have a good chance of passing.
I feel like I’m starting to write “how I passed level 2,” but actually I’m quite anxious (maybe you should ignore my comment too!) as to how I actually performed. I actually want to write a detailed review since AF helped me a lot during the preparation process, but time will tell if I’ll be granted that opportunity this Auguest, fingers crossed.
I felt mixed about the exam. I think my performance was not bad but seeing many happy faces of other candidates as we walked out the test center really makes me less confident. It seemed they crushed the exam. Retakers commented this year questions were easier than last year ones (I believe it is partly because they were more prepared , no??).
May i know which item set ?
my self troubled with Fixed Income.
Like most people that I have talked to so far or that i have read on this board, I though the AM went well, but the PM was a lot more diffcult. Quant was tough this year and also fixed income in the afternoon had people on edge a bit but overall i feel good about it. Now its up in the air and all comes down to where they set the pass rate.
We are obviously talking about the same item set. A lot of people did not manage well on that one…
I felt the exam was well done, but it did hit some areas I was weaker in. To be perfectly honest, I’d be shocked if I passed. I simply had to guess on too many questions to feel very good about my chances. I definitely slam dunked some areas, but I was terrible in others. About half way through the PM session I flipped ahead and just had to laugh at the last two vignettes. I knew I was in trouble on those. It was worth the experience though and it helped me identify areas I need to improve assuming I retake next year. I managed 350 hours of prep over 4 months and that wasn’t quite enough for me personally.
I thought it was easier than I had expected/feared, and walked out of both the AM and PM sessions 30 mins early. But probably I just fell into the ‘easy trap’ really badly…
i was so unsure over so many Q’s…in total i think i might have 20 blind guesses…and maybe same amount in which i was 50-50…and i dont know how many of cfai tricky Q’s might have undone me…In all i think i might have guessed half of the exam(50-50, unsure ones, blind guesses)…i think i need 30% of those to go right for me if i have any chance of passing…and intrestingly i was little short of time on AM and PM
This is frightingly scary.
I finished the AM section in one hour, revised for 10 minutes and left.
The PM section was little more difficult, took me 2 hours + revision.
Either I destoryed it, or fell for every trick in the book and floored big time.
PM section did have a lot of traps. I remember quite a few of them giving the wrong answer for the trap answer as well.
You really needed to know your fundamentals and not just memorize the equation or else you’d fall in a trap.
It was fair the exam. PM section again just more wordier and full of traps than the AM section.
Finished the AM section in 1 hour.
The PM section took me the full 3 hours. 1 hour and 30 mins…going through it…then another 1 hour 30 mins realizing for all the traps I fell into.
Even though i have a habit of reading Question 2wice and quickly going through the approach to solve again…but 1 hour seriously… 
Yeah dude i felt the same way going through both parts and now that it’s over i keep thinking “i did read it all right? they didn’t ask for that…” Almost to the point where you think they were trying to trick you. Then again, I remeber that Kaplan peeps say just work with the information you have in the question and problem, don’t try to infer any mind tricks or overcomplicate anything.
I feel the same way after L1…confident after but now all these “what if” thoughts creeping in my head. oh well, time will tell.
besides two Vignettes i feel pretty good and didn’t guess much.
Lol crap I don’t recall any specific traps in the PM session. I guess I either fell for them all or saw right through them without even noticing (yeah right). Sigh.
AM was easy but tired at PM session though struggled on last 2 sections of the exam (AI, FD ( a lot of calculations at the end of 6th hour, duh … ) and 1 section of FSA.
Actually Etthics was the easiest one, hope to get 100% 
the last note: CFAI mock was much harder than the real one.
Same here! im getting a bit nervous cus of the tricks people are talking about in the PM section. cus i noticed only one. AM was straightforward although i still had to make some guesses. PM required more effort though. Does CFAI consider vignettes that a lot of people messed up in? cus FI in the PM session was horrible for quite a few people.
Dude delete your post because you are in violation by discussing question that either appeared or did not appear on the actual exam.