Ethics was always going to be BS. I thought the rest of exam was quite fair. I relied heavily on Elan and I dont think there was anything on the test that I was not prepared for. Spotted quite a few ‘tricks’ that CFAI was trying to pull with their questions so I am quite confident of passing this time around.
Looking at people’s feedback it appears that the test was easier than last year and definitely much easier than the CFAI mock.
Did anyone else feel the test was too straightforward? I looked hard for tricks and only found a handful…can’t imagine 65% of the scores will be below 70. That exam was easier than any of the schweser mocks I took.
Question is…are the people on this forum a true representative sample of everyone taking the test?
For the record, I found it suspiciously straightforward as well. Looked at historical pass rates and they are consistently in the low 40’s the last few years I wonder if that trend will continue
I had expected Alternatives and Economics to take smaller weights on the exam, and fixed Income a higher weight. I was wrong! If i failed, this will be what killed me - and the PM derivatives of course.
Overall, I think the exam was fair. I felt i could have easily scored above 80% in the morning exam. The afternoon session threw me off -
I feel I’m in the same boat as everyone else it seems. Felt the test was pretty easy and that I did quite well. I think I would have preferred a test where they really brought the hammer down because I think I would have fared better relative to a lot of takers. I’m amazed at how many finish so early. I went over time in both AM and PM, only had to guess 2-3 in the morning but probably 5 in the afternoon due to time constraints. Regardless I expect to be moving on to L3, and will log a lot more time of the forum im thinking for that level.
FI was so bloody disappointing!!
how can this forum have so many people who thought the exam was easy, but also complain that sections were “totally unfair” or otherwise talk about having to guess on “only a few”? Those are what make the level 2 MPS stick to the mid 60s and the pass rate to the mid 40s. The more familar we are with a topic, the more straightforward the questions seem. and in my experience, the CFAI is really good at giving you questions that require 2-3 concepts or require a logical leap that can only come from complete understanding.
for me, the AM was more difficult. The afternoon seemed less so. But that could be total fool’s gold. I put my score around 65% and hope it’s good enough.
For what it’s worth, I was crushing topics where I used the CFAI texts. And was consisently 4/6 for topics that I leaned heavily on schweser.
I was also pissed off at the FI section. I really knew this topic but didn’t feel how I did on this topic was representative of my knowledge. I usually always got 80%+ on FI, probably only got ~50% on the exam though.
I liked FI apart from that formula that was required that wasn’t in the text (3rd question). I think you guys might know what im talking about. WTF was that (rhetorical question).
I dont know if anybody think one of the ending question in FI is really tricky, the one that have plus and minius thingy! So frustrated I cannot say in more details!!!
if you know the formula it was plug and chug mate, no real trick.
but you need to add or subtract something from it after using the formula and it is very vague, I guess that last small thing is very tricky because the 3 answers are so close
I do not think the test is STRAIGHTFORWARD!!! I think it is not difficult but to call it straightforward is really over the top
found AM tougher that PM… AM i would call tough however not as complex as CFAI mocks. i definitely faired better in PM… took almost all the available time in both sections… etics PM seemed comfortable to me… but that’s anyones call. Hope MPS hovers around 65%
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On a side note, can someone enlighten me why every question is worth 3marks… keeping to just 1 mark each would be simpler right? why scale by 3… i must be missing something…
I thought it was okay, it was relatively easier than the mock exam. PM was definitely more challenging than the AM session. I’m also worried that I missed tricks in there.
People in general appear to me more confident this year, but not too many people have posted their thoughts yet. I personally found the exam easier than last year, but that could also be because i was well-prepared for it and that reflected in my performance on the mocks.
Here are my thoughts. I found the exam easier than CFA mock(s), comparable to Schweser mocks. Equity & FRA were basic stuff which i did very well and also Corp. F and Alternatives were good. The stuff that i thought was harder is Ethics, FI, Derivatives & Port. M. Quants and econ are also ok, with probably one miss. I also didn’t have a clue on last 2 questions in port. m. Seems to me that it was something that schweser neglected or i was missing something do to fatigue. How did you guys find the port. m. set, was it hard or is it just me? I was sure only about 1 q., 2-3 are borderline and 2 guesses. That was the worst item set for me next to AM ethics. I agree with the derivatives remarks regarding LOS. I also felt there a few other questions that schweser didn’t cover. And yes, AM was easier then PM imho.
Derivatives had a misleading table in the afternoon session. I shall be writing a complaint letter this week to bring my thoughts to their attention.
Other than that, morning session was straight-forward and afternoon session was harder (relatively speaking).