This has been a reoccurring theme during my CFA journey.
I feel the best right after the exam. Then it’s all downhill from there. The closer the results day becomes, the worse I feel.
2016 LEVEL 1 (PASS)
Felt “OK” after the exam. Few days before the results, I was on nervous breakdown mode. I passed scoring the max points in every category (this was back then when your scores were marked “below 50%” “between 50-70%” and “above 70%”
2017 LEVEL 2 (BAND 10 FAIL)
Felt that I had been bent over and taken advantage off by a roman cohort. Few days before the results, I had accepted my faith of not passing. The band fail 10 did not come as a huge surprise.
2018 LEVEL 2 (PASS)
Felt like million bucks after the exam. I knew I was going to pass. No doubt about it. 2 months later…not so sure anymore. Passed in Top-10% all the while getting dummied by ethics.
2019 Level (TBD)
Felt fine. Highly confident that I’ll pass. AM section was difficult but only one question was completely unfamiliar to me. PM was relatively easy and I felt great. Now, 3 weeks later, I’m not so sure anymore. I can only recall the questions which I struggled with. By end of august, I’ll again be stressed like no other.
Anyone else have these same feelings? THe more time passes after the exam, the worse you think you did?
Feeling compares to the amount of confidence i had after doing (and passing) L2 for the second time. (first time band 9, knew it would be a lucky pass that time)
That’s always the case for me. The most accurate assessment of you did before we get results is how you felt immediately after. Most people second guess themselves and only remember and stew on those questions that gave them the most trouble as time passes.
Ms1 I agree with you but I still feel increasingly uncomfortable. I do ceaseless mental calculations of my score, stress testing AM or PM or both, and seeing myself not passing. I passed L1 and L2 on both attempts (December - June track).
Immediately after the exam I felt it was a pass. But I will not feel confident until I see the congratulations e-mail (whenever that is).
I was able somehow to predict level 2 results with some certainty. This level is almost impossible,
The PM has so many traps, so you may feel you picked the right answer, while in reality you’ve been tricked into the wrong answer.
For AM, I understand the there are some quality measures to ensure that AM grading gets as objective as possible.However, subjectivity cannot be eliminated.
If you looked at light blue thick line that gives a score range based on your knowledge the exam day, you will find the range is wider for AM and narrower for PM. You may be able to know if your going to pass or not using timed mocks by discounting your highest score by 15%-20% for AM and 7.5%-10%for PM.
For example if your highest score in PM is 75% and the highest score in AM is 70%.
((75%-7.5%)+ (70%-15%))/2= 60%, you might say with some degree confidence its pass. assuming the MPS is 60%, as observed from last year results.
Agree it is more difficult to predict your results on level 3 due to AM scoring. I have no idea how an answer which I deem correct is scored.
For level 1(2014) I came out of the exam thinking I probably passed but not with wide margin. My 20/60/80 score was 72% and rhe MPS was I think around 67 or 68.
For level 2 (2017) I felt very confident coming out of the hall almost saying the exam was ridiculously easy. Then I got discouraged by reading other peoples’ reflections and thought I must have fallen into a bunch of traps. Turned out I didn’t because all my scores were above 70%.
Now I left 21 points blank on the AM (16 out of it due to time constraint) plus I realized I screwed up 2 more sub questions. So I’m starting from 150 points downward. How I did in the rest and how many points I get for a question I deem correctly answered I just have no idea.
For the PM I guess I have 45/60, but can never be sure with ethics. Could be as low as 35/60 or as high as 55/60.
I felt great after leaving the 2018 level 3 exam but turned out I failed. Then for 2017 level 2 I felt really uncertain but passed. So it really depends…
I used to over think my scores post exam too, but somehow I stopped doing that since last year. Maybe it’s due to all that Netflix binge watching…Any who, look over your shoulder to see if there’s something you can distract yourself with until Aug 20.
I knew that I passed level 2 last year when I left the exam room. I felt a sense of joy that came from being able to perform well under pressure. It took me three time to pass level 2.
In terms of level 3, I felt very well prepared but can’t say I felt the same level of confidence leaving the exam room. Lately, I’ve become obsessed with the questions I know that I missed.
Waiting for the exam results is madding.
I think the anxiety associated with waiting is worse for level 3 than any of the levels. I can’t really tell if I passed or failed. At this point, I’d rather find out now that I failed so that I can move on from the anxiety and start with prep for 2020 exam.
Clearly I’d like to pass but the waiting game is killing me.
I find these tests to be the opposite of bad relationships. Bad relationship… you forget the bad part and with time remember mostly the good. Here it gets worse with time… I only remember the bad parts of the test.
May be you are young and at the start of your career, but it is Do or Die situation for people who are in industry for 10/12, with family and young kids. Overcoming the pain of failure and taking exam again after one year and going through the same sufferings (without any certainty) is really painful and difficult to decide.
I’ll be on vaca with my gf when the results are released. I feel bad for her. She has already suffered enough for my CFA stuff…having to go to through LVL3 passing score is not too fun for “amateurs” haha