Ugh where to begin . . . I felt quite unprepared for L1 exam after putting in roughly 225 study hours exclusively with Kaplan. I consider myself to have above-average intelligence and a pretty solid understanding of basic finance (BS Finance undergrad). Even with all the time I put in I still didn’t feel entirely confident. For starters, everything I deemed important in Kaplan was glossed over or barely touched upon on the exam. The exam wasn’t overly difficult, it’s just everything I considered difficult or important did not seem to be on the test. Rather, it was minute details that I thought a test of this magnitude and prestige wouldn’t have 50% of the exam be garbage like that. I think there is a 50/50 chance I passed, maybe a little higher with a curve. And worst case scenario, I know how to prepare and *WHAT* to study for December, but damn, I feel completely duped by Kaplan. Kaplan mocks were NOTHING LIKE the real exam at all.
I felt exactly the same way after the December exam which I failed. I retook it on Saturday and am still frustrated by their stupid trivia type questions.
Kaplan Schweser offers the 2 volumes of several sets of mock exams which are unanimously agreed to be more than suffice, if not more detailed than the actual exam. As someone who has done the mock and then the actual, there is no way you can say the exam was too hard if you actually went through kaplan/schweser mocks. If anything the actual was easier.
I generally dislike Schweser - I much prefer Stalla because they have outstanding lecture videos and their study guides are better. That said, you’re not supposed to “game” the exam…i.e. you’re supposed to study all of the LOS’, no matter how unimportant you think they are. I studied like crazy…was ready for anything, difficult or trivial pursuit. It doesn’t matter if something I consider important wasn’t tested - the point is I learned it and prepared to answer questions around it. I am a better educated finance professional as a result. To be blunt, plenty of people here prepare with Schweser and pass… it sounds like you were lazy with your studying by not completing the entire curriculum, and now you expect to pass? Quite frankly, it sounds like you deserve to fail.
spartanag07 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I generally dislike Schweser - I much prefer > Stalla because they have outstanding lecture > videos and their study guides are better. > > That said, you’re not supposed to “game” the > exam…i.e. you’re supposed to study all of the > LOS’, no matter how unimportant you think they > are. I studied like crazy…was ready for > anything, difficult or trivial pursuit. It doesn’t > matter if something I consider important wasn’t > tested - the point is I learned it and prepared to > answer questions around it. I am a better educated > finance professional as a result. > > To be blunt, plenty of people here prepare with > Schweser and pass… it sounds like you were lazy > with your studying by not completing the entire > curriculum, and now you expect to pass? Quite > frankly, it sounds like you deserve to fail. I deserve to fail? What kind of self-righteous douche are you? I studied every LOS and read every book twice. You don’t know anything about me, so it is quite offending to see you refer to me as lazy. I busted my ass studying for this exam. I took 4 mocks and improved from a 63 to 66 to 69 to 74. All I am saying is, in my opinion (which last time I checked I was entitled to) was that the actual CFA exam was extremely different from the Kaplan mocks and Kaplan led me to believe the types of questions I was going to see on the exam were different than what they actually were. If you’re gonna come back here on your high horse then please do me a favor and don’t bother responding.
“To be blunt, plenty of people here prepare with Schweser and pass… it sounds like you were lazy with your studying by not completing the entire curriculum, and now you expect to pass? Quite frankly, it sounds like you deserve to fail.” To be blunt, I think you can stick your opinions where the sun doesn’t shine. You don’t know him so don’t presume to judge him or his study efforts. Get off your high horse you self-congratulating, pompous ass.
Got to side with spartan. I spent about 200 hours purely on the Schweser Notes and mock exams and found L1 on Saturday a joke. I don’t see how you could fail if you conscientiously went through the material - it covered everything you needed to know. I have an engineering background so I don’t even have any prereq. knowledge in finance.
Those who blame Schweser for failing - ESPECIALLY level I - should seriously reconsider even if CFA designation is for you…I mean this only if you truly prepared and worked hard… No offense, but it only gets tougher…and much more challenging…and if you are already blaming anybody but yourself, well good luck in the future because you’ll need it blame yourself, and then maybe you’ll be able to succeed in the future exams once you realize the effort and dedication required.
That’s not really the point though is it Goethe. Perhaps you are more adept at grasping some of the concepts than other people (or perhaps you’re not and you’ll fail). The point is that his rather insulting comments were made without any real understanding of how much work he had put in. You don’t know him either - give the guy a break. He is voicing an opinion just like everyone else is here, clearly stressed out by the whole ordeal, and really doesn’t need you waging in with your comments (unless they are positive of course).
MFIN— Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Those who blame Schweser for failing - ESPECIALLY > level I - should seriously reconsider even if CFA > designation is for you…I mean this only if you > truly prepared and worked hard… > > No offense, but it only gets tougher…and much > more challenging…and if you are already blaming > anybody but yourself, well good luck in the future > because you’ll need it > > blame yourself, and then maybe you’ll be able to > succeed in the future exams once you realize the > effort and dedication required. Wow, somebody needs a slap.
Yeah…you do. You think failing an exam is anybody else’s fault but yourself? get a grip…I’m only speaking the truth. don’t blame others…failing an exam is not because of anyone else
Haha, pretty funny stuff. Hold on a second, we haven’t failed it yet have we? I do think their questions are pretty straightforward so I’m not too worried about passing or not. I’ll guess we’ll find out. I love the way you are all so confident though. I admire your optimism.
I wish I was confident…level 2 was definitely how I imagined it, so I’m praying it went well enough for a pass…time will tell and I need to just forget about it for a couple of months…finally time to enjoy the time off
Calm down guys. No need to be so harsh on the poor guy. I sympathize with Jonny. The schweser mocks aren’t that great, and this point was belabored on this forum in the weeks before the exam. I’m not the biggest fan of Schweser either. If he expected more from their mocks that’s an opinion he’s entitled to. BTW Jonny you can get a lot of questions wrong and still pass. AF is full of disciplined, dilligent people so it would be easy to get bogged down by how confident they seem to be. You’re probably having a hard time getting over some silly mistakes you made or some questions that you were clueless about. You just need to get two questions right for each one you get wrong and that’s a 67% right there. Relax, enjoy the summer and hope for the best. There’s no shame in retaking. I myself took the exam for the second time last week.
Aaargh… Can’t edit the post. Just wanted to add that you have good mock scores. You should pass. Howd you do on the CFA mock? I thought it was a good representation of the actual exam.
I don’t think the Schweser is suppose to be a substitute to the CFAI readings…? More of a supplement? And to be fair to everyone, some people need more in dept coverage of the material, and some people can just read the summaries and pass Level 1. I do agree with MFIN with the whole dedication and effort. The road only gets harder (from what I have heard). I don’t think it is safe to rely strictly on 3rd party notes. We all know that anything in the CFAI Volumes is fair game. How can the entire CFAI Level 1 - 6*500pages (averages), be covered in any 3rd party reading notes? Obviously things will be overlooked.
Schweser might leave a few stones unturned but I have used them for all three levels with full knowledge of these inherent deficiencies. There is always a question or two (or five?) that just doesn’t look familiar at all but those are just the trivial pursuit questions that a few people are lucky or smart enough to get right. Those shouldn’t turn the tide of the test for most people who have knowkedge of the core concepts. All study supplements have their flaws but as far as helping you drill concepts into your mind, I think they work for most people who utilize them. Most of the question banks etc. aren’t designed to help you test but they are designed to help you learn the material more efficiently. It’s still up to the candidate to assimilate and synthesize all the knowledge to be test-ready. When training for a marathon (hopefully an apt analogy to the actual test), runners rarely if ever actually run the 26.2 miles in training at any one point. They do wind sprints, hills, long runs, weight training, water workouts…you catch my drift. It’s the combination of all the specific training that prepares the runner for that one hard slog on race day. That being said…I’ll have to wait until the end of August to see if this worked for L3. More like the decathalon than a marathon!
To be honest, i barely opened the CFAI books and studied strictly through Schweser. I worked my ass off for the last semester. I watched every online lecture twice…I read every detail in the Notes…i worked every concept checker, I finished about 10 3-hour mock exam…I saw my grades go from 71% to 82% one day before the exam…and I have to say that I was quite happy to realize that the actual exam questions were much easier than I expected them to be. There is no secret magic formula to this thing…if you want to increase the odds of passing, make sure you set yourself for a grueling battle…and you will pass. I have to say that I’m feeling good about the exam…and I will be quite dissapointed if I don’t pass. But one thing I know…I did my best,and that’s all that matters. The world is full of talented people who are not willing to put in the amount of effort necessary to succeed…those will so much talent can be trapped with their own arrogance…those who work hard will always be rewarded. I’m glad I consider myself a regular guy with great passion for finance. Hopefully it will pay off one day. Good luck to everyone!
Wow, spartan and Mfin you may think you’re better educated finance professionals but you’re also better douchebag professionals too. What the hell?! Has it ever occurred to you that even if you study it can happen that you fail an exam? Has the guy not the right to let out frustration after 3/4 months of studying every minute of his waking hour when he’s not working 10-11 hours a day? I can’t believe your comments! That said, Johnny, Schweser should suffice for L1. I agree that the mocks were not that representative but that’s why it’s a complement and I think that the CFA mocks and EOC questions were better representative of the actual exam. On the other hand, Schweser prepares for you some curveballs and if you know the actual concept (which Schweser does a great job in taking out all the unneccessary fluff) you can make an educated guess even if the answer is not straightforward to you. Anyway, don’t worry. It always seems worse than it is. I’m also agonizing over the mistakes I know I made but alas, what’s done cannot be undone. And I agree with Cinderella, your mocks are good scores. You should be ok. Enjoy summer!
Schweser, Stalla or CFAI textbooks should all be ok for L1. It’s not really a difficult test. None of these references are perfect, but they certainly cover at least 70% of the test (or whatever you need to guarantee a pass). It’s hard to imagine that over a quarter of the test was comprised of weird curve ball questions that Schweser somehow missed. Furthermore, you don’t know that you would have done better if you had chosen different study material. Anyway, the exam is over, so it’s probably not worth thinking about this until you get your results. Go do some fun stuff.