Can anyone speak on how well the questions in the Schweser Q-Bank and Schweser practice exam books compare to the actual test. Not looking for any information about the content of the test. I want to know how well they approximate exam questions. Thanks.
They’re easier than the exam.
my experience years ago was that schweser exams are harder
^ agreed. I was speaking to the difficulty of the QBank questions - sorry.
The full practice exams are a bit harder. If you “build” a practice exam from Q-Bank, it will likely be a bit easier.
Thanks everyone, appreciate it. It seemed like some of you were comparing the Q-Bank to the Practice Exams. I was more interested in how each of the compare to an actual CFA exam. There’s the Schweser EOC, Schweser Q-Bank, Schweser Practice Exams, CFAI EOC, and a handful of questions on the CFAI website.
Could someone rank them like:
Hardest
2nd Hardest
Etc.
Etc.
My post was meant to indicate that the full practice exams are a bit harder than the real exam, while a practice exam built from Q-Bank is a bit easier than the real exam.
For me as a non-native English speaker:
Schweser practice exams (and QBank) use the same “language” as the study books, and when I encouter a real CFAI composed question (let it be EOC or mock exam) takes me more time to understand the question or some of the answers. So CFAI mock is way way harder for me.
This is one of my biggest fears now, that Igot too much used to the Schweser type of explanation.
Anyone else having similar feelings?
Depends. Schweser is more mathematical, the actual exam is more conceptual. If you’re great at crunching numbers, Schweser will be easier.
From my experience (I’ve worked every single q-bank question for all 3 levels, 10,000+), q-bank is easier than the end of chapter questions and CFA mock/real exams. I found it useful to build speed and endurance, and to shake out sections that I was weak in. To me, logically, that makes more sense than doing a bunch of practice exams because there’s no point in reviewing material you already know well.
Regardless, the actual exam will always be tougher because of the time constraints and the nerves.
never understood why this is the case. Why doesn’t schweser strive to be more conceptual?
Thank you everyone for your responses.
Thanks everyone. Yeah I could see how the CFAI would want to focus on the conceptual and also how those would be harder. Sounds like improving speed is the best approach so there will time left for the hard ones. I’m holding off on the CFAI mock because there aren’t many and I think they pull from the topic quizzes to make the mock, so the overall amount of CFAI questions isn’t that much.
^ Taking the two CFAI mocks the week before exam after completing all the Schweser ones. I want to feel ready for their format vs Schweser.
did the real cfa mock exam. I did high 50’s felt like crap. did the pqs and average was 67%. felt confident. took schwesser mock exam got 49%. yea buddy. not sleeping this weekend.
You shouldn’t start mock exams until you are ready. Your 50% score clearly demonstrates you weren’t.
lol typically i dont mind scoring low on mocks but the score is pretty sad. but anyways. i juss heard from schwesser that the downloaded pdf mock exam had incorrect content. They even asked if i want to reset the mock. so um disregard my previous comment. i pre did the exam then just entered it in the online mock. So I really dont know how i performed. But regardless it felt tougher. Juss FYI to all.
Gosh! Done all Q Bank. Respect. Please don’t tell me you are one of those who studied 150-200 hours and this fit all (studying, Q Bank and other practice)…