Wowsers. Perhaps time to look into a different prep provider, I doubt folks are studying less. I’d be interested to know what the fail rate is for the main provider Schweser versus other providers, with the new reduced-question format. Perhaps there’s less room for error or assumptions with the fewer questions and that comes into conflict with Schweser’s approach to using built-in assumptions and shortcuts. Without more data it’s hard to say, but in my experience Schweser gets you to the 70s score range which is fine when the MPS is below 70% but perhaps is a problem now that the MPS is at or above 70%… What do you think?
Ouch, can’t believe how low these scores are… Shorter test is a tougher test for sure, each mistake has a horrible impact. Way too much course content to reduce the exam, felt that way back when it was just a 6hr exam…
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I totally agree that the “low scores are due to covid disruptions” arguments are beginning to sound a bit like the previous “inflation is transtitory” arguments. Frankly I think some major prep providers need to adjust their approaches because this 70 MPS assumption is out the door. When I took the L3 CBT exam my takeaways were: (1) the questions were not as long to do, and (2) you had to be sure you got them correct because there were fewer of them. Also my Schweser QuickSheet had the Taylor Rule incorrect as well as a few other things that I thankfully caught before the exam. No small thing. Who knows if I would have passed if I missed picking up the errors and just blindly memorized what I paid to receive from them.
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Hahaha love the inflation being transitory reference. How long exactly is transitory has been my favourite question for a little while.
Think you are spot on, prep providers are going to need to step it up somehow. I didn’t find time to completion an issue, was actually very surprised at how much time I had for review and I was pretty surprised by some of the very specific questions.
Seeing these score makes me massively grateful I’ve passed, it’s done and dusted because this is soul destroying stuff 
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someone correct me if i’m mistaken here, but wasn’t level 2 and 3 only offered once a year before CFAI moved to cbt, which means candidates used to have an entire year to prepare?
with the exam being offered more often, candidates have less time to prepare, hence lower scores on average. For example, some candidate may have tried the august sitting after passing level 1 in February. Still, that’s a pretty low average.
Is the exam was really that much harder compared to previous sittings? Any cfa here tried taking the exam to confirm?
You could always take L2 6 months after L1 if you took L1 at the old December window. I’ve taken the L3 CBT and it wasn’t any harder than prior exam mocks I studied with in my opinion. I actually felt the exam was more straightforward in many respects… if my feeling was an accurate reflection of what CFAI thinks too, then that may explain why MPS levels are higher lately. But it also means you need to score above 70 to pass which means if a particular prep provider always aimed at digesting material in too general a manner in order to get you safely into the 70s, you might be caught out if you make too many errors because 70 might not get the job done anymore. My 2cents anyway.
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