I gave up on marking my own AM practice exams. Seemed frustrating because a lot of times the questions are vague and the answers are ultra-specific. And there’s no way to know how CFAI really marks it. Seemed like a waste of time. I just reviewed them without assigning scores. Because everybody who participates is a true winner!
Yeah, I felt exactly the same about the afternoon session… which is probably not a good sign. So I think I can try again next year.
this is where the fun begins
Every year i feel optimistic, and come result day i fail Band 8,9 or 10 (i have actually got all those bands, Band 8 being the latest)
Lets see what happens this year
And they said Level III was the easiest…
i was conservative. if i got the right answer but it wasn’t as wordy or missing something from the guideline answer, i took off point(s). but CFA says the guideline answers aren’t the grading key, so i was most likely taking off too many points.
this post will keep people up at night. If you can do 8/10 in the 70% camp and still not pass - holy smokes that’s scary. Schweser notes say that people on the borderline get their entire exam reviewed (including AM) by their more experienced graders. Not sure how true that is but posts like yours make me think the people grading the morning are too critical. You obviously know the material if you can pull out such good PM scores.
took my first exam in 2010, this year was my third lvl 3 and fifth CFA exam in total. really tired of this s***, hope this year we can pass this exam. gud luck everyone GBU.
Level 3 is definitely harder than Level 2. The most difficult thing about it is the constructed response format.
No.
The AM and PM were both full and full of tricks. Seems as if I’ll have to take a go again next year.
I don’t think anyone can tell if they passed or not i mean unless they are perfectly knowledgeable about all the question topics asked. I know a friend who was boasting about how good the exam went last year when I was not able to say anything sure - I passed at my first attempt and he failed for the second time. It is good to know though how hard the people think the exam was. I think the morning session was hard and the afternoon had easy looking difficult questions. I believe my afternoon session was better than the morning so if I pass it will be based on my afternoon results although morning session was not too too bad either.
Bro I am in the same boat,
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Level 1 in 2010 - Pass
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Level 2 in 2011 - Fail
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Level 2 in 2012 - Pass
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Level 3 in 2013 - Fail (Band 10)
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Level 3 in 2014 - Fail (Band 9)
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Level3 in 2015 - Fail (Band 8)
I hope, i am not geting Band 7 this time, this exam has left me emotionally drained, problems in personal life, months of preparation time with no social life whatsoever.
My grades have declined from Band 10 to Band 8, last year i had a feeling that i cleared but was <50 in (the most difficult and confusing Topic on CFA).
This year i have a good feeling about the exam, i missed out on 5-6 points in the PM (stupid errors), besides i can never be sure about that one topic(everyone fears the most beacuse of subjectivity)
So I don’t know, one thing is sure though, i will give up if i fail to clear. Need to get back my life.
Agreed… PM seemed to have a lot of very awkward questions which looked easy but couldn’t figure out a definite answer for. I preferred AM as it felt more straightforward in terms of testing what we had studied.
Won’t make it.
AM was tough - no spare time left. I nearly left 2 questions unanswered as I rushed through. Had planned to answer them at the end but nearly forgot…well, that was close. Did not know the answer to everything, so far from a perfect run.
PM went very, very smooth for the first 4 item sets. Skipped #5 (?), took 6-10, which were a little more rought terrain, then back to #5. Anyway, finished 30 min early and tried to figure out ONE studip answer (same was in Schweser or mock or CFA somewhere) and could not figure out.
Bottom line - I call it a fair exam after all, and if I had learned just a little bit more I’d even call it easy. So, let’s keep our fingers crossed, after all it can be crushed. More than 50% did in the past and more than 50% will do this year as well
I’d say yes…
Did AM on time and seemed fair overall. Neither I found anything extremely crazy and a couple I had to “invent” I check out once I’ve arrived home and I thing got them right. Expecting above 60% based on conservative grading on past mocks from 2005 (went from 55% to 68-70)
PM was a bit trickier than expected and definitely harder than 2016 Mock. Expecting between (67-75)
I hope I’m not wrong
Was feeling extremely good but the retakers’ horror stories about similar feelings on failed exams are making me nervous. Then again I figure that the majority of those who felt confident after prior exams must have passed. After all 50-55% do make it through so here’s to a bit of positive thinking. Was averaging 75 in prior year exams and did 75 in the 2016 mocks. I felt the exam was easy relative to both and I finished both parts in time… so I’d venture that I passed. I do fully recognize that this post will put me on the wall of shame if I get bad news in August!
I don’t think I made it. Didn’t finish almost ALL of the last question in the AM session but I blitzed the PM section finishing half an hour early.
I was a Band 6 fail last year. I just hope and pray I get through this year. :\
I think it will be close but I don’t think I made it. Didn’t get into a groove in the morning after the first question. The afternoon session was a lot better – I finished it with about 45 minutes left and went back to questions I was not sure about. Ended up changing 4-5 of those answers (hopefully that was a good call).
Would rather be pleasantly surprised in August, so preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.
It’s the power to turn back time