Hey guys. I’m pretty sure this has been asked before, but I’m pretty desperate now. I studied for more than 400 hours (stopped counting when I reached that mark), but damn, are my mock scores disappointing:
Schwerser 2014 Practice Exam - 62.5%
Schweser 2015 Mock Exam - 40%
CFAI 2014 Mock Exam - 60%
CFAI 2015 Mock - 50%
During level 1, I was able to bring up my score from 58% in my first mock to 67% n my last mock. But now it’s the complete opposite, my first mock exam was my highest score. I don’t know how high I could bring it up in just one week, and I’m pretty burned out and I’m losing motivation. I don’t even know if I want to go through all this again if I fail. At this point, I just want to get the exam off my chest and chill the **** out! Hahaha good luck to everyone!
I passed level 1 never getting over 65% on a mock and I have friends who passed level 2 never getting over 65% on a mock. You can do it. Keep in mind lots of the mocks are confusing questions. How are you doing on the EOC’s? If I were you I’d be spending more time on those as well as the blue boxes because you’ll probably get more out of them than the mocks.
LOL. Nothing like declining mock scores to sap your confidence. Keep in mind that everyone goes through the same rollercoaster of emotions.
I think passing under 60% is unlikely but with a week left you’re still very much in a position to pass. Identify the areas that give the greatest marginal benefit to your score and hit it. Keep grinding away!
Thanks!! This gives me hope. Honestly, I haven’t done any EOCs this month. I did the schweser EOCs after every chapter and probably got majority in the 60-70% range.
I’ll give it a go this week. Thanks for the advice!
Yeah, if you’re asking if you can pass the exam getting under 60… I doubt it. But if you’re assuming you’ll get under 60 because of your current mock scores then I think that’s misguided. Take the above advice and go nuts this final week. Good luck!
Had the same experience thus far! First Schweser mock was my highest and since I’ve done worse on subsequent Schweser mocks and my CFA online practice assessment scores are aggregately lower than that mark as well.
Just got a 53% on the AM Mock so there’s that. Will be studying like crazy now. I’m happy I didn’t wait to do the CFAI Mock until later. Will work on EOCs. Good luck.
I think cs mocks get harder as you go though. the first tests you on the easier points but keep going and studying I took a some time to review my notes and refresh (is a lot to keep in your head). Make every wrong a learning experience. It’s just one more week you gotta do this for.
Well said. Review your mocks obsessively and note the areas your were weak on and had to guess, the formulas you couldn’t recall, or theories, methods whatever, then revise these, do an EOC or BB to confirm you get it and then move on to the next. I scored 45% on Schweser live AM last Saturday, had last week off and applied this method, in addition to get further advanced in my revision to get up to a decent 72% on CFAI 2015 mock yesterday. So yeah it can be done…with the right state of mind.
I absolutely agree with this point. The first practice exam was sooo much easier than the 5th that I just completed. The difficulty goes up every time so I may be getting better but my score stays roughly the same… I felt the same way for level 1. I never got out of the low 60s on practice exams.
Each practice exam hits you with a good amount of new and/or different concepts relative to the previous ones. They are trying to give you expsoure to a variety of different potential quesitons.
I think if you’re getting 50 the day before the exam , you’re unlikely to pass . But at this stage in your studying, you’ve got more than enough time to get that score up.
someone posted a youtube video of the Wiley guy giving last minute review advice. He mentioned late in the video that he was mid 50’s on the CFAI mock just a few days out and passed. I think it depends why youre getting questions wrong though. He mightve been missing tricky details that the real thing didnt get into, despite understanding the topic reasonably well.
this might be crazy of me, and i’m undoubtedly in the major minority with this, but, I haven’t attemtped a MOCK exam yet and might not entirely. I hope to take one on Wed or Thurs this week, but won’t sweat it if I don’t get to.
my reasoning is this…for level 1 in December, I studied my *** off, but honestly didn’t start feeling comfortable with all the material until the last week before the exam. I would revise EOCs/work through them, and eventually I felt reasonably comfortable with all subjects at one time, so I took the Mock on the Tuesday before exam…scored 80% on it. Took the AM on the Thurs that week, and scored 80 again, so called off the PM and reviewed until exam (I ended up scoring over 70 in every section on exam…even with just taking 1.5 mocks days before exam).
my point here is, you can prepare adequately by not taking any mocks. IMO, taking a mock before you feel comfortable with all the material will only serve to lower your confidence (ie. you likely won’t score well until you ARE comfortable with all the material). so i think it’s far more important to hammer the sections I don’t feel “comfortable” on until I get to that point of “relative” comfort, and then take a mock if I have time. But I won’t sweat it if I don’t. I know I have around 18 minutes an item set and have been taking EOCs in prep. In terms of stamina…I don’t think there’s necessarily a huge correlation to practising mocks and building stamina for exam, but more so with how you’re feeling mentally in the moment (ie. well rested, clear head, etc.). It will be a GRIND either way, whether you’ve practised full mocks or not (ie. just EOCs).
