Purchased and completed vol. 1 of the CFA Sample exams last night… that was pretty tough.
I found the vignettes to be quite challenging and in some cases a bit detailed and lengthy relative to the schewser practice exam vol 1.
Anyone else, especially those that have passed level 2 already, have any color on difficulty of the CFA sample exams relative to the schewser practice exams / cfa mock exams? Would be good to gauge some opinion, as its always a bit tough for me to score practice problems and afterwards take a morale hit if the score is poor.
I don’t have any knowledge about that yet, but I’d love to hear what people think about this as well.
Just a question for you kromzo, what do you mean exactly by “a bridge between CFA EOC and CFA Mock”? You mean CFA EOC is more difficult than CFA mocks so that the difficulty of the sample tests is in-between these two?
yes its just conjecture… but i would intuit that the CFA EOC questions are more specific to a subject, whereas the sample exams (from my experience – completed first one, taking second one tonight) – you really have to learn to ‘analyze’ the vignette well.
In comparision to the schweser practice exams, the CFA sample exams seemed to have vignettes that were a bit more comprehensive, and the questions were a bit more challenging (more mechanical / calcuation based then soley conceptual). So I’m hoping that the mock exam is dulled down slightly, but not relying on that.
Just my thoughts or maybe I’m just trying to justify spending $80 bucks on these two things.
Thanks for that kromzo…you just confirmed what I always thought that Schweser mocks are not an adequate representation of the exam esp after I gave the CFA mock…Schweser vignettes are too short at times and questions direct…
I know its not allowed to share specific questions, but as per you should we now spend more time doing the EOC or take up another mock exam from Schweser or revise concepts once more? Also are the sample exams similar to the CFA mock coz that really rocked my world ( compared to Schweser mocks where I am scoring ~ 66% avg)…
Rupee at historic lows doesnt permit me spend another $100 on sample exams, so your inputs will be appreciated!!
My personal opinion is that CFA mock exams are closer to the actual exam. The long vignettes with multiple financial statements correspond with the exam. I think they may be a little more calculation intensive than the actual exam but overall they’re better practice than the schweser exams. I’m using mostly CFA mock exams and doing EOC questions as well. Many questions can go off the concepts off the EOC questions. I’d rather tackle harder practice exams than easier because when I take the actual exam, I’d rather say that wasn’t as bad as I thought then stress because I’ve never conditioned myself to take a more intense exam.
swt326 unless you are a retaker you cannot say that CFA mock exams are closer to the actual exam. Have you taken level 2 before?
I found that schweser exams for level 1 were much harder than the real thing. I thought the real thing was a breeze compared to both CFA mock and schweser practise exams.
Trogulj, I am a retaker and the first time I made the mistake of just doing Schweser practice exams. I didn’t leave the time for me to take the CFA mock exam. I’ve learned from those mistakes the hard way
Swr326: So you think if you had left time to do the mocks, it would have saved you from failing?
Sorry I would doubt that. A mock exam may help you to get the feeling, but it doesnt make sense that you do the mock, and you will not fail just for the sake of it.
