Is anyone else feeling totally let down after that test? I poured in at least 200 hours to my studies and felt like I was outright guessing on most of the questions. Also, I noticed some grammatical errors on the exam. I am beat up right now, but that was my last crack at it. I don’t see any benefit to dedicating more time to this designation. I don’t think there is any chance I passed. I hope that it went better for everyone else.
I hope I pass, but I’m one-and-done regardless of whether I pass or not.
The consensus here and on r/CAIA is that the curriculum re-write has been a cluster-f**k from Day 1. Bad curriculum with terrible CIT articles, all delivered late so none of the test providers w prepared for.
Plus the CAIA textbook was riddled with errors, plus to your point both the CAIA mock and the actual CAIA exam had grammatical errors and ambiguous answers in a couple of places.
I hope I pass but I won’t wish I had spent more time studying if I don’t. I would never recommend this program to anyone unless they overhaul the curriculum.
Feeling exactly the same, and I am a re-taker of L2 after having passed L1 easy peasy. L2 is ridiculous, especially after new curriculum. They only care about keeping passing rate low.
It’s a business decision, I get it, but their approach is totally wrong. Even if I fail I want to feel at least I learned something. But with CAIA, I learned zero. I learn more from doing tons of Google searches on alts on my own, than the hrs I wasted on those books and MC questions. I bet when they meet they don’t discuss “how can we make this a learning and practical experience”, but rather “hey, how can we keep pushing the passing rate lower, so we can pretend we are as cool as the CFA?”. Guaranteed.
Did you use Kaplan or UM? I used K first time around and felt totally lost like you described. Used UM this time around and felt less lost, but lost nonetheless lol. But K sucks for L2 compared to UM.
I just used the CAIA curriculum which was absolute garbage. I’m frustrated that I wasted so much time. To your point, studying almost anything else is time better spent.
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See that’s what I don’t get…if ppl are feeling lost when taking the exam, even though they study with the official books…then something is seriously messed up. I still don’t understand why the CAIA mock would be way easier than the real exam. What’s the point in doing that?
Hi Bigdawg,
Sorry to hear that. Hopefully you did better than you think.
Quite a similar situation for me. With a full lockdown for the entire winter, I decided to give Level II everything. Easily did over 300 hours. Thursday was tough…paper was a lot more difficult than the Schweser QBank. I did 800+ questions on that with an average of about 81% but I struggled. I don’t think Schweser was good preparation at all this time. Their QBank was more difficult than Level 1 exam imo when I sat that, but much more basic than Thursday’s paper. Lots of questions where I felt I was guessing as well.
Paper 2 was better for me but depends on how strictly they mark it…not sure I made up enough ground on it.
Overall, I think the average score will be quite low, so am hoping I can scrape a pass that way!
Good luck!
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I felt the exam was tougher than I was expecting with allot of time spent deciphering the question than applying knowledge. I am a retaker from Sep 20 (judging from my report from that exam I was very marginal) and even being way more prepared found this round way harder. The most frustrating thing is I could have done 2 more weeks of solid study but doubt it would have helped one bit - the exam was not a test of ones knowledge in my view. Why do they insist in the time pressure disparity between MC and CS? If I don’t pass I won’t try again as I feel exam is a lottery …
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Did u pass exam level 2?
I am starting preparation for level 2. any suggestion?