Aziz44 do not be too afraid of the essay questions. One of them will be on ethics and guaranteed to be worth 10% of the exam. The other will be on current and integrated topics, and also worth 10% of the exam. I have just finished studying and making notes on those two topics. I am planning to eat these notes for breakfast every morning, and pin them to the roof in my bedroom so instead of counting sheep every night I can read these. If you nail these two sections that is 20% of your 70% needed to pass in the bag. I would advise you to understand the current and integrated topics, but also to know the key points or lists that are provided (That means learning them off unfortunately and dont neglect this).
The third essay question, can be anywhere from the 6 remaining topics. This one can be the most problematic in my opinion. My advice here is to keep an open mind when going through the material and if you spot something that you think might be asked focus on that. Also, you can get a calculation question here so be prepared for that. Practice doing the calculations using a computer, you might be surprised at how that can catch you out.
The Uppermark Qbank is better. Cant comment on the Uppermark notes - however the Kaplan notes are fine too. I’ve mentioned above, the Kaplan lecturer (Greg), is fantastic.
I passed both at first attempt with Schweser. Found Greg to be really good with the videos. I would advise the purchase of videos for L2. I did over 90% of the qbank and the mock CAIA paper to be prepared for exam. Prep can be done in 3 months while working. Content not as much as CFA.
Took Level II last week. It was tough but fair. The third “essay” threw me for a loop. I didn’t know it and I was well prepared. I’m hoping 75 on the multiple choice will get me through. How did everybody feel after Level II? If not for that constructive response question I’d be pretty confident. But I’ll be sweating got out for the next six weeks.
I took Level II yesterday. In the multiple choice section, there were some questions that I didn’t know. I am not sure about the Ethics part either. Are all of those covered in the textbook, Workbook, and CFA’s C&S? Or do you need industry experience and/or CFA to know all the answers?
From my experience of this week Superlamps008, the constructed repsonse questions should be OK. If you have coevered the material you won’t be caught out, I wouldn’t expect anything that isn’t in the books.
The time allowance is also rather generous so you have time to consider your answers. Good luck.
I am also sitting the exam this Friday. Spent time preparing the essays and now hoping for a decent exam paper. To comment on Inwmakmak, i personally reckon that being both CFA and FRM Charterholder definitely helps for CAIA, not that it is a pre-requisite.
Glad to hear from those who did well on the exam. I think I just wasn’t ready for calculation on that part of the exam. Hopefully I’m not alone. I still think passing the multiple choice with a 75/100 and picking up 20/30 on the essays could be enough to get me through. Good luck!
I will share my thoughts. I sat for Level II this morning.
The MC questions were fair. I would say more straightforward than any of the prep materials. I felt a bit rushed on the MC section and believe I may have left an answer blank. I spent a little too much time thinking through my choices.
The essay questions were a little awkward for me to answer because I wasn’t sure exactly what the grader will be looking for. I tried my best to be as comprehensive as possible.
Overall, I would have spent some more time doing practice questions and started mock exams earlier than a week ago. Hopefully, I did enough to make it through. Good luck everyone!
Theres a thought…how will the grader perceive your answer. Does the CAIA give partial credit on constructed responses? I sat for the exam yesterday feeling well prepared. MC seemed fair, I was able to budget my time with about 15 minutes left to review the ones I had marked. Going into the constructed responses, I felt I had this thing tackled. Leaving the constructed responses, I’m questioning if I had done enough to get the proper grade. We’ll see.
I was wondering the same thing. On my essay, I found it interesting that there were questions worth .5 points. Does anyone know the rules on earning fractional points as well and what the smallest possible point value you can earn is?
I will share my thoughts. I sat for Level II on last Wednesday and I found the MC questions much more straightforward than the MC questions of my prep materials (Uppermark) in which I didn’t spend much time preparing that kind of questions so I had to use more time than I thought to response them. In regard to the essay questions I had idea about what to answer in almost all questions and I tried to do my best but I don’t know if my responses were what CAIA examiners wanted.
Anyway, I only had time to do 3-4 mock exams days earlier of the exam so I know that I should have practiced more and now I am only thinking about to get more than 70% in both parts and I hope they establish the line for passing the exam around 70%.
Good luck to everyone!!! I think I will be just above or below the line…
MrNoFear and Topps86, in Uppermark they score each question in a partial manner. For example, if you has correct what standard of ethics was violated you have 1 point of 2 in that question and later if you describe the situation and the standard you will have another point. Said this, I don’t know if CAIA examiners follow the same criteria or not.
In March the last exam day was on March 24 and the results were released on May 1… that makes 38 days after the last exam day so maybe we can have the results the second week of November (06/11). The wait will be long…
