Totally agree with Bearded. I did not pass in 2015 and 2017 (both band 6, skipped 2016) and in 2018 I passed scoring almost in the top 10%, what did I do differently in 2018?.
Study using CFAI material (readings, BB and EOC)
I hired an external grader to review both the quality of the responses and the legibility of my handwriting of the AM session
Use the Qbank of the CFAI website. It is really good
Do not underestimate the stress in the real exam (I scored above 70% in essay exams and according to the exam results reported my AM score was a little above 50%)
Good luck to 2019 retakers because I really Know How are the emotions after failing this exam.
great advice Patches. I would add make a formula cheat sheet. There isn’t as many calculations as L2, but nailing them on the exam will help pass. There is a lot of subjective and grayish material that will chop away points. nail those ‘easy’ ones.
Ethics exam questions also come from CFAI material. Ethics has over 250 pages of material, one of the longest topics in the entire curriculum. Most don’t spend a lot of time reading through the examples.
Stick to the curriculum. And if you default to a 3rd party provider, then you should also make sure whoever that is, that they stick to the curriculum. Make sure it’s not watered-down even though I know that’s easier said than done.
For some of us using CFAI material would have been like gambling. I never would have made it through the material in the time I ended up spending. I need condensed, focused material to learn most effectively.
or look at the people who comment that CFAI is good at testing the material in different ways. Way more important to learn the concepts than the specific way CFAI presents it as a result.
best advice anyone can give you is to figure out what works best for how you learn and do that. Anyone saying only one method is best doesn’t understand basic learning theory.
common theme. past CFAI AMs. schweser PMs are solid but the AMs are trash. hitting keywords in your AM answers is paramount. and you only pick up on those keywords through repetition and pattern recognition.
I hated grading my AM practice exams but I was absolutely ruthless on myself. I’d deduct points if my verbiage wasn’t identical to CFAI. After a while you realize inconsistency in YoY CFAI answers. Despite the angst this may cause, take solace in the fact that you’re moving in the right direction. I scored top 10% in AM.
If your scoring 70s on your practice AMs and failed then you weren’t grading yourself correctly. Or you were not following the proper time intervals or you were referencing notes during practice exams.
i found Schweser am’s more helpful than CFAIs due to the grading key. Perfect answers from CFAI are only moderately helpful because it’s not realistic to write that kind of answer for more than 1 or 2 questions on the actual exam.
I disagree they’re not helpful. Agreed it’s not realistic to write out exactly and as comprehensively as the answer key CFAI provides for mocks, but that’s not the point. After doing 10+ CFAI mocks, you’ll distinguish the important keywords from prose and you’ll be able to answer the same but in a concise way, e.g. using bullet points. I’ve used Schweser for all three levels, but even though Schweser is on point in terms of conciseness for answer keys, their mocks miss the point in terms of questioning AND CFAI vocabulary.