CAIA Level 1 March 2020 - how did your exam go?

CAIA
#21

Big congrats to everyone!!

How are folks thinking about L2 timing with the virus? Still aiming for September or holding off to next March?

#22

Congrats to everyone~!

I passed with 3 strongest, 2 stronger , 2 borderline

#24

very cool! congrats!

#25

Interesting to see everyone’s experience. I thought for sure I failed as I agree, the actual exam seemed quite a bit different from what I saw from Kaplan. I was getting 69% on pretty much every practice exam and I got a 69% on the Kaplan mock. I took the CAIA mock a couple days before and got a 64%…

I ended up passing with one borderline, 4 higher and 2 strongest. Not sure how I did that well when I wasn’t doing all that great on the practice exams.

Congrats to everyone that passed. Keep your head to those that were close - you got it.

#26

That’s unfortunate. Based on your result breakdown and the level of effort you put in, looks like you must have been extremely close to the passing score. As you know, the total score is the only deciding factor in passing. My guess is the passing score was around 65% i.e. 130 correct answers. (At 70% or above - you are guaranteed pass). Folks who scored higher or strongest in every topic must have scored greater than 70%. Additionally, borderline score means that you are .5 standard deviation away from mean. I was borderline in everything except two big topics. So, putting all this together, here is my guestimate

  1. Hedge Funds - # of questions 30 - # of correct required - 20 - 24
  2. Introduction to Alternative Investments # of questions 45 - # of correct required - 30-35
  3. Private Equity # of questions 15 - # of correct required - 8 -12
  4. Professional Standards and Ethics - # of questions 35 - # of correct required - 22 -26
  5. Real Assets- # of questions 35 - # of correct required - 22 -26
  6. Risk Management and Portfolio Management - # of questions 15 - # of correct required - 8 -12
  7. Structured Products - # of questions 25 - # of correct required -15 -18

So if someone scores high in any of the two - Ethics, AI, Real Assets, HF, they are bound to be at + 60 total score. So it could have been a matter of just couple of correct answers. Not sure if this helps in any way. Tough luck and wish you success in future.

1 Like
#27

Looks like you brought your A-game on exam day. Congrats!

#28

I think you’ve done everything right in terms of preparation (did the hours and getting 80s on the qbank and mocks) I suspect that you’re very close to making it - just a few more correct answers and you’re in. You just need a bit of luck.

#30

Thank you! you did really well!

#31

Congrats to all that have passed! I have passed with strongest on HFs, stronger on Intro on AI, 4 topics are in borderline, and structured products as weakest… my strategy for preparing was not the best, I think I was reading too much in the textbooks (Kaplan Schweser / Wiley)… and should have focussed more on practice questions.
Now I will register for Level II in September.
I have read here somewhere, Uppermark represents the better prep material for Level II…

#32

I have the same question. It will be great to hear from Level 2 passed candidates on Kaplan vs Upper Mark…

#33

Hi there - Congrats to everyone. Thought that would be good to share my experience. I passed with strongest in all topics, besides Private equity which I got higher. My strategy was not the smartest one - First I read the CAIA official book and the used the UpperMark (UM). I am not sure for level II, bur for level I the official guide is too dense and I reckon that UM is more straight forward and less complicated. When I did not understand a topic I used investopedia - useful information over there. I did lots of questions of UM and did the CAIA Mock test (I think I got 84% at the first attempt).

I used the 4 hours of the exam and when I finished it I had the feeling that was not superb, but was not the worst exam as well. At the end of the day, it was a good outcome.

In summary: For level 1 - Go with UM and do as many questions as you can (some questions were quite similar to qbank / mock test). Having the big picture of the topic rather than memorising everything is the smartest approach (I think Eddyble has a non-sense guide to pass both exams which I found to be really useful).

Note: my background is in engineering, so a lot of concepts were new for me.

Any tips for level 2 would be highly appreciated! Still deciding whether I should go for level II in September… A little bit lazy!

Cheers

1 Like
#34

@eddyble Hi Eddyble, are you based in Sydney?

#35

Hey mate - i am, you too?

#36

Yep - Sydney as well, mate! Would be great to catch up at some point, if you are available (corona virus permitting)! @eddyble

#37

Yeah sure, happy to grab a coffee and have a chat - once this all blows over, pm me your linkedin

#38

@eddyble Great, mate! Couldnt find the DM optionOnce you seen this, I edit the message and take out my name.

#39

Added - best remove your name bud! Should’ve just dm’ed me haha

#40

Hello,
I have my exam in September por CAIA level 1 but can’t start to study (ebooks of Kaplan still not available).
Has someone any recent version in pdf?
Thank you.