How do you think 17 compared with 16? Or further back if youve failed more than once.
I thought 17 was harder despite being better prepared and in a better state of mind.
Im expecting a lower MPS and some ugly passing matrices.
Also, mini rant. Why cant there be more topic diversity within questions? Theres 2 AM questions that i have in mind. Its so easy for them to pivot to another topic for a subquestion. But nope A B and C are so close together. I think it would better test candidate knowledge if subquestions were less similar.
band 9 in 2016 left about 10% blank in AM… poor execution lots of dumb mistakes in hindsight… it was close… “could have passed”
2017… studied another 300 hours (600 total over 2 years) AM was harder (considering it covered more obscure topics/concepts) i.e. did not include questions I specifically focused on -had a different “feel” compared to previous years. Left about 5% blank but less confident on the question I did answer… 2016 I had more confidence in my answers based on question variety.
PM was about the same IMO… although I was better prepared did not feel there were any item sets I got 6/6 on…
REALISTICALLY would not be surprised at another fail band 9/10… if I pass it will be at the margin as I didwith level 1 and 2
danv, nice assessment. we’ve basically had the same testing experience over the past 2 years. spoke to a friend of mine who took it for the first time this year and he had to skip 2.5 AM questions. my gut says us marginal retakers have a better chance than we think.
Me too, band 9 in 2016, left almost 3 sets incomplete (very poor time management, lost time developing long answers). Did much better in the afternoon session but it wasn’t enough.
I found this year’s morning much easier. In part because I learnt from last year’s experience, but I think this one was also a bit easier.
Didn’t note any difference in the afternoon session, maybe a bit more difficult, but I don’t think I did any worse/better…
I don’t feel I was more prepared this year, but experience definitely helped a lot.
Retaker as well. I didn’t count my hours for neither last year or this year but its definitely 300+
Felt confident last year and failed with band 7. Although I felt PM last year I didn’t do that well.
Fast forward a year…
Felt the exam was about the same. Maybe less confident in both AM and PM just b/c I know how much of a beast this exam is and nothing is really certain. Super subjective. This year I just focused on writing in short concise sentences. Left a sub-part completely empty (like 1 A) simply just because I ran out of time.
In AM I wrote gibberish for 2 questions the rest i was comfortable with but some of my answers to sub questions will defo not get full marks. From matrices I have seen I reckon if you have about 4>70 in AM and half decent PM you should be ok. Hoping for the best.
AM was a bit easier in 2016 but I think I did better in 2017 with the help of experience.
PM in 2017 was more difficult. I think there was a lot of tricky questions with the wording not clear. If you studied through CFAI books and mocks then it shouldn’t be a big problem, but still very tricky.
I had studied and knew the material, but did not practice the AM format. During the exam wrote a couple very long essays, then time was up. So stupid. I left 70% of the AM blank. The PM I did well and finished with time to spare.
This year I focused on AM prep. I figure if you can nail AM questions, then PM should be relatively easy. This year did about 90% of the AM exam, most of which I feel good about. The PM I expect I did as well or better than last year. Finished with an hour to spare.
I did not feel the exam was harder or easier than last year. Surprised at how similar it was actually.
Band 9 in 2016 as well. Felt that apart from 1a and b, the AM was a bit easier than last year. PM felt harder than 2016 but also more doable being second time around.
Yes. I spent so much time on a couple questions writing very long answers that I did not have time for the others. I did not do any AM mocks. I answered the questions like essay exams I had in grad school. I knew the material well as evident in the PM score. This year I did AM mocks and kept my answers brief and completed 90% of the AM.