Just want to see what everyone thinks. Do you feel CFAI Mocks (including the 2014 morning session) are easier or Schweser’s are? In the past, I have seen people indicating that CFAI’s are more difficult (for L1 and L2), but for L3, I feel CFAI’s questions are actually a lot easier.
I took the 2013 CFA AM exam this morning (did 2014 last Saturday) and a Schweser AM mock this afternoon. I think there’s a material difference. You’re majorly stressed for time on the CFA AM exam whereas I had plenty of time to finish the Schweser AM.
In terms of difficulty, I don’t think any single question is too terribly difficult if you know your stuff on CFA AM exams, but you’ve got to process the info very quickly. No time to waste at all. If someone had only prepared using Schweser mocks, I think they’d be in for a rude awakening on exam day for the AM.
In terms of quality of writing and questions, the CFA exams are a lot better. I understand why people have said in the past why the Schweser AM sections aren’t great prep. I think some of the quality of questions kind of suck on Schweser compared to the real CFA exams. Schweser’s PM seems fine, though. Maybe I’m just pissy b/c I did two AM mocks today but I don’t think the Schweser AM mocks are that good. Do the actual CFA exams if you want good practice.
Note: I haven’t taken the CFAI mock exams (multiple choice) yet so I can’t compare the two.
Is Schweser Mock different from Practice exam
^ I’m talking about the actual CFA exams for the AM session compared to the Schweser AM mocks. The CFA exams aren’t mocks.
How are the mocks coming along? Is it still eye opening? Ive got 1 more week before i can get there and i still feel damn nervous about it
^ Don’t be nervous about it. It’s necessary practice. If you don’t score well you’ll benefit from the experience.
I’m not an expert on this or anything, but I feel like someone may have enough knowledge to score 70% on the AM, but if they don’t know how to properly execute on the AM section (time management and concise answers) they may only get 55% ot 60% correct. With practice, you can craft your AM skill and bump your score up to where it should be. I left ~15% of the exam unanswered my first go around b/c of time constraints.
It’s a tough exam but I think practice adds value here.
I will be starting the previous exams / mocks soon so I have a question with regards to past CFA exams :
How do you guys deal with the change in curriculum through the years ?
I mean as time passes and the curriculum evolves, you end up with previous exams that not only don’t cover everything you need but also cover things that you don’t need anymore…
^ Viceroy I hope the below helps
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Last 3 years I generaelly looked at what has really changed or not changed and then attempted the mock. Actually nothing much material had changed in 2013 and 2014 (when I wrote level 3)
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IPS, Fixed Income, Asset Allocation and Risk Management - I did not notice too much changes from very old papers. Attempting those age old papers helped me tremendously.
Note - I was band 10 the previous year I tried, so I found reading the stuff quite boring and resorted to this sort of preparation.
Good luck folks!
Hi Sooraj and thanks for your input.
There must have been a big change from 2012 to 2013, then.
I last tried level III in 2012 and we had to value swaps, futures and forwards back then. If I am no mistaken the FX part was quite different as well.
The whole IPS / institutional / personal / PM parts feels relatively unchanged though.
Check this thread out if you want to know what’s still relevant from past exams.
http://www.analystforum.com/forums/cfa-forums/cfa-level-iii-forum/91329288
So far I’ve taken two past CFAI A.M. session tests and two schweser mocks. In my opinion, the schweser mocks are terribly worded and more difficult because of this. I’m thinking I will probably forego doing anymore schweser mocks, stick to past CFAI papers, review with BB’s and EOC’s.
One thing that was kind of ridiculous with the Schweser mocks is they’ll give you a vignette for the AM, and the questions they ask don’t even require you reading the vignette. Like, here’s a correlation matrix, std dev and expected returns for various asset classes and the composition of someone’s portfolio and the questions they ask are simply to define “global macro” and “convertible arbitrage” hedge funds. It’s like they aren’t even trying to make good questions. I think the PM sessions are worth doing, although I’ve only done one of them.
I’d have to guess Schweser makes its $$ from selling Level I material, and to a lesser extent Level II. There’s tons of Level I candidates out there – huge market compared to Level III. Lower demand for Level III material results in them devoting less time to it. Can’t blame them for slacking on the thing where they likely make the least money I guess
Personally I feel that Scheweser is easier and less tricky and require less time to finish one question than CFA past . I have done 3 practice exams 2014 and 2 past exams and feel very discouraged because the level of difficulity of CFA real exams. 
Anyone feeling the same with me?
Txs man