Hi,
I just took prac exam #1 in volume 2, got a 76, but I was getting lower scores on the first volume (72-74), and got a 71 on the mock. Anyone take any of the exams in volume 2 of kaplan schweser? Just wondering what people thought of the relative difficulty.
Also, on the 2nd exam in volume 2, I got a 86.67 on the AM, haven’t taken PM yet, but this seems a bit too easy. On another note, maybe I’m just getting too used to Kaplan Schweser tests - do we think that the actual exam and mocks are like the Schweser prac tests?
I have only taken AM session of first exam in Vol.2, and yes, I agree with you. I scored an 80 and thought it was relatively easier than vol. 1. Some of the volume 1 stuff was pretty tough, and if I recall correctly, one of the exams had like a 64 average.
Yeah, it’s always tough to say. Because, on average, the people taking the volume 2 tests will have done the volume 1 and should be scoring higher by then and also are probably harder workers (on average!).
the 2nd book is slightly more difficult. Good luck.
Andrew, Did you take the 2nd book after taking the first book of exams? And also, how did your scores there compare with the mock exam?
these Kaplan practice tests get into rediculuous details on shit that I quite frankly dont see being tested. Like questions on ROE and CAPM, okay. But chi-squared tests and stuff like that, c’mon now. at this point i feel like all the practice tests r doin are A) completely shitting on my confidence and B) getting me to focus my efforts on minutia that prob wont even b tested…both very bad things. So yea im over them, sticking with quick sheet and secret sauce here on out. Besides, pretty much every1 ive talked to who took the test said it was easier than the Kaplan practice tests further confirming my theory. I feel like they think its their duty to cover everything under the sun in the P.T.s so no one can turn around and b like “oh but i took their P.T.s and never saw that”
I have heard similar claims as well, in terms of Kaplan test being slightly harder than actual L1 exam, but who knows for sure. I totally agree with you that Kaplan nit-picks the shit out some stuff, but I think the line of thought on their end is better off to be a little on the more difficult side. If candidates take lots of questions that are harder, then they will prob have satisfied customers when they pass the real one. If they make the shit too easy, customers fail and get angry that they paid an ass load for their package on top of CFAI fees and failed. It ultimately comes down to the person though. People who don’t study don’t pass no matter what kind of study ‘aides’ they buy.
exactly. u can get customers complaining they failed bcuz the practice tests were too easy, but u most likely wont find any who passed the test complaining that their practice tests were too hard, lol. thats the way i look at it. Regardless though i feel like confidence is key, and railing off barely 70%s on these things isnt helping, so im done with them,lol
A friend/colleague of mine took level 1 in December of last year (2010) and passed. Said he didn’t score out of the 50s on the Schweser Practice exams but walked out of the actual knowing he killed it. Sat for level 2 in June so I know he wasn’t bsing. Just goes to show you, everyone’s different and these practice exams can be very accurate but can also offer zero sort of indication of how well or poorly you will do…
50s as in aggregate? or 50%? I’m going to cocoon myself before I move into a space of false confidence.
So by following this thread and other similar ones, we have heard that people scored in the 70’s on Schweser/Stalla and failed, and on the other hand, had people scoring in the 50’s on mocks ‘kill’ the real exam. Your going to hear every permutation under the sun in terms of exam scores/study time/study materials vs. the actual outcome. I have given up trying to infer my outcome, although I still honestly hope the seeming popular opinion of Schweser is slightly harder than actual exam, turns out to be true.
my personal opinion is that the schweser mocks just try and be as tricky as possible… most of the CFA questions i’ve seen are more straight forward and test if you actually know the information more so than trying to confuse you throughout the question as schweser does… I think CFA will try to trick you by giving answers which could work if you compute something incorrectly but schweser is tricky w/ wording… Hopefully this is a good thing. I got a 73 on the first schweser test i took 3 weeks ago, have been consistently studying since and just got a 71 on one this morning… with a few low and mid 70’s inbetween… not really gonna put to much thought into the scores anymore, more so just making sure i know what i did wrong
tarik - are you referring to the practice schweser tests or the mock exams on the website that you can take for an additional fee?
practice schweser tests…I just noticed a lot of things with Schweser that are really over the top in trying to trick you but I guess I’d rather see it now than on the test…Like one problem I just reviewed was in the morning session of test 4 about the pv of an investment which involved failure probabilities… Gave you all the failure probabilities, the expected payoff and the discount rate and inital payout… so i calculate it as usual and put answer down… but then it turns out that the expected payoff they gave you had already been discounted using the success probability so if you discounted it again, you would get the answer i got and mark it. Just gotta read extremely carefully on all of these.