Voided
Well I gave myself a 5-10% chance of passing when I walked into the exam. This was a guess based on how I was scoring on the Schweser, FinQuiz and CFA practice exams. By the end of the exam, I think that I felt a little bit better, but overall I wouldn’t give myself more than a 50/50 shot of passing. I found the AM session slightly better than the PM session. However, in both sessions, I struggled on the final two item sets. Ethics was tricky too. AI was surprisingly not too bad on the test (this had been an area of weakness for me in the practice tests). I think that I fell for a few tricks along the way, but was able to spot a few others. At this point there is really nothing that can be done until the results come out, so I’m fairly relaxed (… but we will see what happens in 8 weeks!)
This difficulty of PM is definitely related to the PM prep from Schweser. I’m an equities analyst so the FRA and such was easy. they really abide by the “if you pass accoutning, corp finance, and equity you will pass” mantra and IDK, It got me through level 1, I’ll cross my fingers it gets me through level 2. And economics? Fuck dude, I was an economics minor and TA in college and I still don’t get some of it and I use Cobb-Douglas on a daily basis!
We must have been on the same test center. A huge section in the middle of the room was empty.
I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been telling this to whoever I meet. I majored in Economics and I still had a hard time grasping the Economics section for both Level 1 and Level 2 (Level 1 more so).
I think it’s got more to do with the way they explain the material. Since I’ve learnt those concepts during my undergrad, I could read CFAI’s description (with my previous knowledge in my mind), and compare. I found that the material is made confusing just by the way it is put out in the text. It could be explained in a much better, easier to understand way.
I opened an account after reading these comments so I can add my cents and hopefully calm some people down.
The test was FAIR and NOT markedly easier than before:
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Re-taker sample bias in comments 1 - most posters here are re-takers. A re-taker myself, I knew a ton more, knew formulas I never thought exited last year, read some CFAI instead of just Schweser, avoided crucial mistakes from the prior year and was a lot calmer and collected.
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Re-taker sample bias in comments 2 - since retakers failed last year, its only natural to think that last year was “oh so hard” and since we were better prepared this one is “oh so easy”
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Poor memory from last year 1: last year I did not prepare well and read through the 2012 and 2011 mocks (did not do them, just read through) the day before the test. I clearly recall thinking that it was a great advantage that I read them as as tens of questions on the test were verbatum from the mocks. This was not the case this time around.
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Poor memory from last year 2: Last year I studied very little due to work issues and did ZERO tests. I did not do a single question until the week before. I went to the test panicked with no sleep. I was useless in morning and guessed on 2/3 of the questions. A bit better after the break, guessing on 1/2 of the questions in the afternoon. With terrible pefromance and little preparation I was in high band - not so hard after all.
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Underestimating this year:
— Ethics was the worst I’ve ever seen. I’ve never scored less than 70% on it in practice and on the L1 and L2 actuals. On this test I guessed on most of the Ethics questions - I though that they were borderline unfair and a even an advanced knowledge was not sufficient.
— Derivatives and PM were hard this year compared to lasy year. I was stumped multiple times even though I knew the formuals. Last year I did not have this issue.
— Vast amount of questions required multiple caclulations questions which drained the time available. This was not the case last year. I am slow with the calculator, so had to re-key multiple times, and the numerous cals weighted very heavily on my timeliness.
— AI had obsure questions whereas it it was 100% common sense last year. I barely covered that material and was got >70.
my 2 rubles:
Apart from ethics, a well prepared cand should find no difficulty whatsoever.
Ethics seemed to be full of judgement, though a skill of higher quality, seemed not to fill in the whole profile of the exam
Anyway I was unprepared for ethics, so according to overall commentary here, did not lose much
Pray-pray-pray…
Out of the tests I’ve taken from easiest to hardest 2011>2013>2012>2010. 2011 I barely studied for and got band 9 that test was simple. This isn’t uncommon for everyone to say this . Everyone said how easy 2012 and 2011 were at the time and the passing rubrics would make your head spin how bad they are.
MissCleo
What is you opinion about the magical ethics “adjustment”?
Does it really resurrect the dead and kill the unethical?
I gotta stop reading these L2 reviews or I’m gonna flip out and have to pay out of pocket for a psychiatrist.
good investment
Definitely not enough to resurect me last time. Then again I guessed straight out on roughly half the questions… Still a high band though which may or may not be due to the Ethics…
Hey Ivan,
I am a firm believer of the magical powers that lie within Ethics because in Dec I barely passed L1 but I absolutely crushed Ethics. Coincidence? Maybe.
Alas, this time I neglected Ethics thinking it was so easy last time anyway and I mostly guessed and even though I felt good about the rest of the exam, if I fail I will certainly know why. Do not anger the mighty Ethics!
I have the same worries. However in “Officail 2012 L2 results” saw lots of passes with ethics <50% and some more sections <50%. Could not discern a clear relationship, where ethics would outweigh other areas up or down.
Seems the overall score is the key. Do not panick now. Let yourself enjoy summertime!
Thanks, that is good to know!
ps: I will enjoy summertime if it ever decides to show up. It has been cold and rainy in Switzerland for weeks but I hear you had quite the heat wave up in Russia, right? WTF, the weather is all messed up, haha!
Oh yeah, May was too hot, now seems better. Though changing so furiously fast from rain to sunshine. The weather is indeed messed up!
да хорош, погодка норм
I’m sure many who felt unprepared took the exam, especially if they are getting reimbursed by their employers. Many employers require you to submit the results in order to get the exam fee reimbursed. So, unless you want to just toss your money down the drain, you suck it up and go take the test even if you aren’t prepared so you can get your money back.
edit
Overall, I walked out with a confidence level similar to what I had walking out of L1 last year… I feel I nailed it but there’s still a small possibility that I failed. If I had to make a bet between passing or failing, I’d go with passing… but I’m not 100% sure on that.
Since the exam, I’ve had dreams/nightmares of both passing and failing the exam (on different nights)…