Just took it yesterday. Even though the waiting period is shorter than the CFA, I still WANT MY RESULTS NOW! Bah…
I took L1 today. That was the most unusual test I have taken. The CFA was just plain hard. This was hard because of the wording of the test. I’m 35 and have a really good/broad exposure to the PE/finance community and there were terms on it that I had never even heard used. I’d really be surprised if I passed.
REALLY? damn… I was thinking I have nothing to worry about… I’m taking it this wednesday… I guess I should worry a bit more?
Meh. I wrote CAIA L1 a couple days ago, and found it to be straightforward. Much easier than any of the CFA or FRM exams. Each half of the exam was 2 hours; but I think either half could be completed in 90 minutes or less.
That’s a bit reassuring… But, I expected CAIA to be much easier than CFA… I think I studied 1/5 of what I studied for CFA level 1… Considering that you found the exam straightforward… can I ask what you were consistently scoring on the practice questions and exams? I’ve started hitting low 80’s… so i’m feeling pretty confident, but I just wanted to get people’s view. Thanks!
Hey MK514, I’m sitting the exam Friday and I’ve probably put in 50 hours max. I just passed the CFA Level II this past June so none of the 50 hours incorporated Ethics. I’ve been getting mid-70’s on the Uppermark practice exams. I feel like I’m missing something, but none of it seems to difficult but that might be my background (I have a Masters of Applied Finance also). Either way, I’m not too worried. Good luck.
Took it today. Thought it would be a breeze (compared to CFA) but it was bit tough. I used schweser notes and uppermark testbank. 1st session definitely caught me off guard. guessed on many questions and almost ran out of time. 2nd session was very similar to uppermark which was what I expected. Finished 2nd session with 30 min to spare. Started off with high 60s on testbank. lately hitting low 80s. Will see what happens.
I also took the exam yesterday… I thought the exam was some what on par of what I expected after doing countless uppermark questions. I too was getting low 60’s and hit consistent 80’s towards the end… Though I do have some complaints… For one, just like uppermark I was getting VERY similar questions asking the same topic, and area multiple times… I just figured that uppermark didn’t have a great algorithm in place to distinguish say a specific question on something from being repeated during a single exam… I really think level 1 is big enough to ask a variety of questions… And, I also thought that the questions were akwardly worded on many cases… This again very similar to uppermark. As for the time… I had enough both morning and afternoon… Finished both exams within an hour and 15 mins.
I agree with everything the MK514 wrote. My biggest issues were ambiguity of a decent amount of questions, which I commented on in my review, and Uppermark’s overemphasis on thematic and repetitive questions. I had plenty of time (about 1:20 on both sessions), but hard to gauge what my score is going to be.
Did anybody else find the comment section to be odd? What other exam does this? Although they may have been trying to give people a chance to explain the reson for their choice… but why would they need to if they carefully chose each and every question? We shouldn’t need to go to a multiple choice exam thinking we would need to provide reasoning on questions because its hard to understand. I’m just worried… because more and more I’m starting to wonder if the comment section is some what of a “requirement” rather than something “optional” if I wanted CAIA to consider my answer choice due to the reasoning i put on the comments.
I stick by my earlier comment that this was one of the most unusual and poorly worded tests I have taken. I guess there’s just some folks out there that are too smart for the rest of us!
I have to disagree with most of the posters here. I only wrote one comment on one of the ethics question because I felt that the “spirit” of the question was unclear. Except for that, I didn’t really face any problems? Maybe it was luck. But, I did go through the CAIA handbook thoroughly before the exam.
The comment section is entirely optional and is intended to provide an opportunity for candidates to provide feedback to the CAIA Association on specific test questions, if they wish to do so. It is not a forum for explaining one’s reasoning, but rather for notifying the test makers of concerns you may have about a particular question.
And just to add to MK514’s question, PRM also offers a comment section during the exam, although you don’t get extra time for it.
I also went through the CAIA textbook thoroughly, it was the only study material I used except for the uppermark question bank. Regarding my comments above, my biggest issue was the Ethics section. I guess some were able to interpret the questions better than others, but I am simply surprised that their question style was, in my opinion, quite different than the CFAI’s style, even though they are using their material. I have my CFA charter and though I realize that does not give me any more support for my criticism, I just think it is worth noting for my familiarity with the CFA material. I wish everyone here the best of luck with their results.
Ok… After hearing many of the comments here… Is it safe to say… that the people who took/earned the CFA charter… When you come out of the CFA exam. Whether you felt like you got your B*TT kicked by the exam, or if you passed with flying colors… you felt that the exam was fair… and if you don’t pass, you understand why… because the questions were fair, and the only reason why someone would fail is because they weren’t fully prepared on the topics questioned that day… BUT! CAIA… you don’t get that same feeling… because even if you feel that you KNOW the material… (that’s the way I felt at least) the questions throw odd wordings and such that makes you wonder if you passed or failed… CFA gives you curve balls… so you just need to watch out… but i don’t know how someone can watch out oddly worded questions…
I know that we are bound not to reveal actual questions. But, can you vaguely give an example of an unfamiliar term that you encountered on the exam? Because I didn’t. Not one. Only one very ‘curvy ball’ in the ethics section.