Scored around 80% in the PM. Right on the 90th percentile.
Scored rock bottom in the AM. BELOW the 10th percentile even.
This doesnt feel right at all. I didn’t do enough essay questions but still this is hella insane.
What happened here? Was my handwriting so bad entire answers got zero? Should I ask for a re-score? Holy crap I’m seething (at myself mostly)
I had the same result last year and felt the same way. Above 90 afternoon before 10 morning. Outside of a standard deviation ofall my mocks. I blamed my instructor for misleading me.
This year I went to see Marc from level up. He had you go through every relevant essay question from last 15 years where my other provider said just do the last 3.
Once the anger wears off a little go see Marc.
I feel you bro. I had been in this boat before but take a deep breath and recalibrate yourself for next year. Re-scoring is a waste. I have never heard any successful story. Get you a review provider to help you. I failed with a band 5 , then 7 but last year Marc Levebvre helped me passed. There so many little details you can overlook in the essay.
I been there as well bro. I couldn’t believe it as well last year to be bottom 10%. I was averaging 60-72% in all of my practise exams. I walked out the exam the most confident in any of my written exam. I even paid the $100 bucks to get it retabulated for peace of mind. I still don’t believe I failed last year and will never let go of that grudge but I rewrote it this year and made it my bit**!
This is the first time I failed a level you guys. I have no clue how to process it. All these congratulations I was going to receive are just a distant fantasy. I told myself that if I failed I wouldn’t try again. Maybe this is not for me. Maybe I am meant for something else. My item set is almost MPS but my essay is below 50% which is unbelievable given I answered all the questions and I studied with Marc at LevelUP so it really makes no sense to me that I wouldnt even get partial credit on any of it.
How did you answer the questions? Did you use bullet points? Was your handwriting sloppy? AM is just as much about writing ability as CFA knowledge.
Secondly, your profile says you used Schweser. If you did use them to prep, I can tell you that may also be part of it. I used them and felt slightly underprepared in certain AM topic areas. It may help to focus more on CFAI material.
Dude (or Dudette), 1/5 of people who sit for LVL1 exam end up becoming Charterholders. It’s a tough exam and it really takes a toll on you But you have come so far. Do not make any decisions when you’re upset or angry. Give it some time…come back with a fresh mindset, knowing what you want.
I failed LVL2 in 2017 and it sucked. Big time. It’s hard to rebound when you know you have to wait 12 months. It feels like forever But it’s gut check time. Do you really want it? In 10 years…do you really care if you got your charter in 2019 or 2020?
Balancing between AM & PM is the key made me passed this year (retaker 3rd time).
For essay i go to Darren for grading 2 mock exams from him (last mock exam is 2 days before the real exam date).
practice by my self (mostly only write out the answer with bullet point style) : CFAI Past exam 2006-2018 (repeat twices), Fitch learning 3 mocks, Boston 2017, 4 Mark meldrum mocks (written by S2000magician), Bloomberg 8 mocks, Adaptprep 3 mocks.
i don’t need feedback about your PM, because your PM is far better than mine.
CEO10K-DAY can tell you what to do
Had a decent AM section in the exam. But the result is completely opposite of what I had expected.
I completed the AM section on time with 80% confidence but scored 45% in the exam. Can anyone help if there is a way to improve on the AM part with external help?
P.S.I did many CFAI mocks during practice and compared the answers with CFAI solutions.
My handwriting is a nightmare and only gets worse the more I write so that may have been a factor. That’s the only explanation that makes sense. But dammit failing a paper because I don’t write crystal smoothly while under pressure?! I dont even write in my job as everything is digital these days. Argh! I need a beer. Several of them.
Schweser were enough for me to pass the exam. I guess it depends on individual but their material is enough to pass.
My writing sucks too but I passed with 90 percentile in AM. U lacked content or way of writing but not the handrighting. It is not that important.
I’m not gonna tell you that you lack content or whatever but what I can tell you is they read a lot of crappy handwriting. I’m no 90% scorer but i’m fairly certain my handwriting is pretty much on par with the worst of the worst.
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I feel you guys out here damn… I failed level 2 and I managed to put a smile on my face cause failure builds character! I was certain I failed this level but turns out I passed on my first try and in terms of prep I did all the mocks (2019 to 2008 ish) specifically focusing only on the AM in sections I knew were large (PWM, AA, Equities, etc). In the AM I left about 1.5 cases ENTIRELY blank cause I knew I didn’t know my stuff good enough there (performance and GIPS flat zero). I’d say its a relatively tough exam but the most critical thing is time management in my opinion on the AM portion - I’ve read on this forum how people had like 30-40 min of spare time in the am? I was not like that at all - I had no time and when I answered the AM essays questions I’d write full sentences and bullet points (things got out of hand depending on the time crunch I’d flip modes). One thing I would have done differently if I had to redo it is - more mock exam practice, not disregard the PM MC section to be easy cause I found it hard to be honest. Also I’ve never ever ever sat down to do a mock exam full out and then grade myself… I find this to be a critical misconception - your grade does not matter while you prep, you will have one shot to kill it on exam day and thats all that matters, so instead of burning time on grading myself I’d focus on polishin the weaker areas which you should get a feel for when you do the EOC in the CFA curriculum.
Stay positive and come back with more energy than ever and I’m sure you will shine!
Essay portion is very prone to human error (By graders) and should be done away with for future exams. There are other mistakes made by CFA insititue too. (See https://casetext.com/case/beiro-v-institution-1)
I scored 90th percentile with terrible handwriting. I had a professor in college that said it was the worst he’s ever seen. I don’t think it was the handwriting that did it, I think you need to practice more AM questions and understand what gets you points and what wastes time. I was in your position last year. I can’t stress it enough - to pass Level 3 you NEED to do as many mocks as you can. Simulate the testing environment and either take advantage of a mock grading service or be extremely hard on your own answers.
So because some sour-sally from London couldn’t stomach her L2 score, you infer that the L3 grading process is invalid ? IMO, the questions in the AM section for L3 are so to-the-point and unambigious that failing definitely can’t be blamed on the graders. Anyone with some knowledge on the topic at hand can grade the AM portion well enough, and I’m sure the CFAI doesn’t just pick “anyone” to grade the exams.
+1