shocked. absolutely positively stunned, i thought there was a shot that i passed, let alone failed by a slim margin.
i had mocked as high as 48/60 in schweser. and was consistently above 50th percentile on the CFAI QBank…despite never resetting the questions to get a higher score like so many others did.
I refuse to believe that my true level of knowledge/intelligence/prep was worse than 9/10 of candidates. my practice exam scores, while not earth shattering, simply were too high for this to be the case. i consistently would get 42+/60 in schwesers.
so here are my questions to you passers:
were you all ripping 50/60s in schweser right and left, and not telling us about it? lol
how many points did you leave blank on the essay? i seem to remember leaving 20-25, but clearly my memory doesnt serve me, as it must have been more than that.
can i get my work experience approved before registering again? i REFUSE/WILL NOT do this to myself another 5 months without knowing if im even gonna get the charter
given how poorly i performed…even if i dont think it was a fair representation of where i was at…do you think its even WORTH me doing this again? or am i soooo far from passing that ill likely fail again next year?
Same here, I failed item set miserably, below 10% so band 1 but passed essay. I sent retabulation request, which will be denied probably but given my shocking result I just need a peace of mind. You should do re-tab as well and then all we can do is just study again. Sorry for your result and pain, I know how you feel!
Seven years ago I found out, on my honeymoon, that I completely bombed a part of the CPA. Was in utter shock. Didn’t know what to do. I worked harder and got trough it. You can pass this, but how bad do you want it?
A mix of failure and dedication isn’t so bad in the end.
Tommy, how can you consistently get above 50% percentile if you don’t reset the QBank questions? don’t you have to reset them to practice them a 2nd, 3rd, 4th time?
I was band 4 last year and passed comfortably this year. I did CFAI QBank and CFAI online tests 3 maybe 4 times and 10 years of past AM exams 3 times. I did not use study provider, only CFAI. make sure to also do all blue box examples.
Note, I took and passed level 1 in 2003, so it’s been a long journey. Don’t quit now, you are almost there.
To answer a couple of your questions - I wasn’t even scoring a fair 60% on any mock exams (Schweser/CFAI). I even did poorly on a IFT mock which really killed my confidence.
In the essay session, i left some 10 marks blank, and wrote nonsense for another 8-10 marks.
That being said, my PM went really good, and my result justifies it.
TJ man it will be fine, we’ll come back and smash this BS and be done forever. I know you know how much easier L2 was the second time, we’ll be fine man.
I didn’t use Schweser or Wiley myself - don’t think they’re particularly good for level 3, at least Wiley. Gotta remember real motivated folks in this last level.
I used Bloomberg which has an adaptive course online which asks you questions all the time. I thought it really helped me. Also did LevelUp bootcamp only (No videos for me as I don’ learn well from them) Read the entire CFA curriculum online didn’t skip anything. For context with the bloomberg etc. I could manage about 70th percentile on first run which I did (Before LevelUP Bootcamp)
I left no points on essay. I didn’t do it in order, but would do a full question (with multiple parts etc) at a time. Wrote down time allowed next to each question as well as when I started it, so I knew when to have it done by. Couldn’t get it done in time - would come back to it later.
I dont know about this one
It could be. But you need to rehaul how you study and where you study from. I think Bloomberg + Adaptprep/LevelUp is a good formula, as well as doing as many AMs you can find
I am trying to make sense of how I failed. I am brushing up on the MPS line with half my score on the line…call it band 10. I was worried about the morning as I left one question blank due to time and could have pushed me over the line I guess but no idea how I got just above 10% mark on PM. This is utterly shocking like you I got over 70% in all CFAI TTs, 67-75% in previous AM exams (4 of them) all done under timed condition, and did everything in shcweser premium package including 80%+ in all the Qbanks and their exam book. I was sure I will pass when I saw the 56% passing rate but when I opened the email and saw “regret” felt like I had just gotten punch in the face and stomach a the same time. To give you more background it was my 3rd attempt at this level, first one in 2009 or 2010 and second last year with 7/8 years break in between. This program has been over a decade and i am still not done … I got married this past year (I am turning 37 soon) and looking to start a family and really considering if I should throw the towel in…I never give up in anything in life but considering making an exception on this one…
I am not sure if I should go for a retab as I doubt it will change anything and I rather give the $100 to those in need vs CFAI to be honest but at the same time can not belive that I was so out to lunch in the PM specially given how well I was doing before Exam…
Technically yes, I scored 80+% on the PM mock exams (although I only did about half of one of them and then checked on the questions I did).
None - you need to force yourself to be strict with timing. Bring a watch and adhere to it.
Yes
Yes. You worked hard and I saw that. Maybe it didn’t come together on test day, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. i think you’ll be fine dude. One thing I’d mention - I notice that you are saying you did a lot of schweser mocks. They’re fine on PM to practice, but focus on the CFA material. I did the AM schweser mocks in about 2 hours each time and they were not a good representation of the time management needed on the actual AM exam. That’s the first place I would suggest making changes, just focus almost exclusively on mocking CFA AM tests.
im getting a retab. 100 bucks IDGAF ive spent more on juuls.
im not expecting to retab-into-a-pass lol. just want it for peace of mind. i was mocking higher than 2 of my friends who passed. and i dont necessarily think i over-graded myself on schhweser AMs either. thought i was strict with myself.
i will say this: one of the sections i performed WORST in was PWM and behavioral, and that as we all know tends to be heavily weighted combined.
my PM score is what perplexes me the MOST. looks like i did like 38 or so/60. would be my second lowest schweser outta the 6. weird.
i didnt reset the QBank, only did it once. every question. are you suggesting i should have done the Qbanks more than once? perhaps, i never thought of that
passed comfortably…how comfortably do you mean?
i only did the CFAI AM mocks to 2014 i think. perhaps thats more food for thought, maybe ill do that next time. not all the previous stuff is relevant tho, which is why i was hesitant to go back to 2006
hmmm i never thought of that either. ive been a live and die with schweser guy. if anything, i remember scoring higher on the past AM mocks on CFAI (2015 in particular i think i ripped a 59 or something) than i did on schweser AMs
Congratulations to everyone who passed! Rex etc. : very well done to you guys! And here is another guy who failed:(
Thought I was in good shape before the exam - at least my mock scores suggested it! I marginally failed as well and most probably I got unlucky on exam day. It just was not meant to be this time and I now need to get on with it. It is what it is - I was not good enough. I am as upset and disappointed as everyone else. This is my first failure, but failure is part of growing. So I will learn my lesson from this utterly disappointing defeat and come back stronger next year. Good thing is that there won‘t be any World Cup next year. What I will also do is to make sure I sleep in two days before the exam and sleep in a hotel close to the exam venue the night before the exam.
Tough one Tommy. It’s impossible for anyone here to advise you on what may have gone wrong so I won’t try. Regarding your questions:
No idea, but Schweser’s practice exams leave a lot to be desired in my opinion, especially their AM mocks.
When I took the exam in 2017, I left 6 points blank, and mostly crushed the AM paper (1/2/7 in the old format). 20+ blank is a lot of points man.
Yes you can get everything approved and pay dues to become a regular member anytime you wish. WHEN you pass Level III the CFA letters will immediately appear in your member profile.
I think the exam just beat you this year. I wouldn’t extrapolate your results into the idea that you’re not able to pass this. If you can pass Level 2 you can definitely pass Level 3. If I have any advise to give you, its ditch Schweser and consider a review course like Level Up and study directly from the curriculum. Level III is as much of beating the exam as it is mastering the material being taught, and a course that includes advice on tackling the actual exam may help. Multiple choice mocks are just not good enough at Level 3.
All the best in the future Tommy. I know you’re really down right now but it will fade. Try to turn that feeling into motivation to crushing it next year. Good luck!
I passed this year after a band 10 last year. Last year I crushed the AM portion with all but 1 topic under 70% but totally bombed the PM section. This was 100% due to the fact that I did not use any of the CFAI text and went strictly from Schweser. This year I crushed AM once again but was also right at the 90% in the afternoon. Use the CFAI text and do the EOC questions.
