I’m curious if the practice exams are comparable in difficulty to the real exam. Those, who took both, I’d really appreciate your opinion.
maratikus, one thought to consider: I think many people don’t account for their relative levels of preparedness when answering questions like this. For example, candidates who pass the real exam may have struggled to keep pace or answer questions correctly on practice exams, finding them difficult, but after reviewing their errors and continuing to practice, stand in great shape for the real exam and find it relatively easy. Anyway, I’m sure you’ll get some valuable opinions on this question, but keep in mind the ever-changing “preparedness to difficulty ratio” (I think that’s in the FSA section…)
Thanks, hiredguns1. You are right, I will probably get very biased responses. My observation is that most people feel underprepared at this point. It seems like there is so much to learn and so hard to retain all concepts. At the same time I think being comfortable with most concepts should probably be sufficient since most questions are going to be conceptual. My assumption is based on two practice exams I took this week. I’m trying to verify if my assumption is accurate.
Maratikus, I have done both and I think they are very similar. Some of the questions in June were literally the exact same with just the numbers changed. The one thing you have to remmber as well is that when you do the practice exams you are only doing 60 questions, when you do the real thing you are essentially doing four of those exams in a 6 hour time frame. By the afternoon it is pretty exhausting, however if you are killing the practice exams I think it is a safe bet that you wil be in good shape on December 1st.
What score would you consider as “killing” the practice exams?
mid to high 80s probably
CFAI means the online test ? Do I need to pay for it? because i just register for june 2008. THX. (p.s. I am a newhand)
@ keung, $50 an exam. There is a total of 5 with 60 questions.
I’m also a little confused. Regarding the CFA website exams: Can we pause the exam and take notes, for reference? Yes/No
Whether or not you agree with the tactic… will screen shots work?
Thanks for your input, theDubs. You are right about exhaustion, it’s definitely going to be important to get a lot of sleep the night before. I’m also planning on taking book 6 exams to get used to longer exams.
On the same note…I found book 6 exams more challenging than the CFAI online exams (I just took the 1st one). I agree the there is a huge difference between taking two 120 question tests and taking 1 60 question test. I was wondering if someone has an opinion about the BSAS tests? Are they worth it? I am in Seattle, and there is no way for me to take those tests live, but I can buy the test off their website for like $50-70. Shall I do that or focus on Schweser book 7.
Is this the test you’re referring to: http://www.bsas.org/education/education_detail.asp?program_id=80 even the $100 / $150 bucks is probably worth it. They also sell their old exams, but I wouldn’t go back further than 2006. In terms of wording and concepual testing, I’d say the BSAS exams are probably closer to the real deal than Schweser, so it might be worth shelling out the extra cash, IMO.