Hi - just have a question for mock exams (6 from kaplan / 1 from the CFA institute). Is taking 3 mocks under timed conditions (3 in morning and 3 in the afternoon) a good strategy? I would take the other 4 mocks I have in 3 hour increments over the month of May (take a am or pm and review…rinse and repeat). Should I do all 7 under fully timed or would this be a good strategy?
Personally - I think you should start off doing the three hour increments (at least 2, so 1 full mock) before you take a full timed mock exam. It will give you a better feel of how you stand on timing before you actually dive into the full exam. If you have issues with the timing on one three hour session, then you will almost definitely have issues on the full mock given that people’s brains (at least mine…) slow down a little bit during the second session of a full mock.
If you have issues on timing, its important to note why you think you have those issues and adjust them accordingly. Keep in mind that you have one minute and a half per question. Some questions you will most likely be able to answer in under 20 seconds since they are simple concept checks, which gives you more time for the calculation based ones. If you find yourself spending more than 1.5 minutes on a question the first time you read it, its probably best to move on and come back to it when you finished the rest of the exam.
I’m not a big fan of full 6-hour mocks, and think half-exams are sufficient. A 6-hour mock will drain you, and make it difficult to get any other studying even the next day. A 3-hour mock is sufficient to get you used to pacing and time-budgetting, and can be combined with follow-up.
It’s similar to my marathon running days - we never did a full 26 in practice - the longest we ran was a handful of few 20 milers.
But I’m sure others will disagree.
Thanks guys!! I love the marathon analogy!