The 4/6 rule is based on the assumption that the lowest score of the top 1% is 115/120. So after adjustment, 4/6 is roughly 70%. I don’t think there are much empirical evidence to support this yet. But as a rule of thumb, it is sound in principle.
i found last years test to be not that bad at all. Of course i didn’t pass, but i only had 1 month to really study for it while starting my new job and commuting over and hour to and from work everyday. I went in with no intentions of passing but as i was writing i was thinking to myself “wow this isn’t as bad as i thought” and i really thought i had a chance of passing…i ending up in band 10 and some ppl on here that posted their results had the exact same score as i did and passed, so i know i was very very close. this year i put in alot more time studying so far, so we’ll see.
CFA_10 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Ths can be little off topic but i would love to > know from level2 retakers about the final score… > i mean every one is talking about 4/6 (66.67%). > 4/6 is definitely < 70% so i want to know has any > one managed to pass level 2 with score of 50% to > 70% in all the 10 sections? That 20% interval is so wide it would be hard to tell, it would probably depend on what the MPS is for that year.
I found last year’s exam pretty fair game. I ran out of preparation time last year so I missed the opportunity. Oh well.
I failed last year on the Band 10 so I’ll sum it up the best way I know: Portfolio management was a killer last year for me and so was the ethics. FSA was a joke compared to what Schweser puts you through. Definitely the Ethics is what you need to pass, if you even get in the 50-70 band for ethics (like I did) and your borderline, you will NOT pass. I’m 1000% positive if I had nailed ethics I would be in the Level 3 forum right now. Lesson here: ethics, ethics, ethics…and some portfolio management
What was FSA like last year? What was Derivatives like last year?
DanLieb Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > What was FSA like last year? > What was Derivatives like last year? 1. Easy if you know what you’re doing 2. Easy if you know what you’re doing I’m pretty sure I got almost 100% of these points, which definitely helps the bottom line.
What was tough about portfolio management? Concept, calculations, or were the questions vague? How would you suggest preparing for portfolio management or ethics this year? deep2002 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I failed last year on the Band 10 so I’ll sum it > up the best way I know: > > Portfolio management was a killer last year for me > and so was the ethics. FSA was a joke compared to > what Schweser puts you through. Definitely the > Ethics is what you need to pass, if you even get > in the 50-70 band for ethics (like I did) and your > borderline, you will NOT pass. I’m 1000% positive > if I had nailed ethics I would be in the Level 3 > forum right now. > > Lesson here: ethics, ethics, ethics…and some > portfolio management
I think bannisja has mentioned before about an entire vignette on the Min. variance frontier which was not covered well in Schweser last time that caught lots of folks off guard.
well i dont know what thngs schweser has not covered will be asked this time …actually it is possible tht it might be just be coincident that what last year schweser didnt cover was asked in the exam …i dont thnk cfai will make papers based on schweser books
L3er lurking on here cause I’m sick of studying. About last year’s test…as with any CFA exam there were sections that much easier than expected (e.g. quant which was all single variable regression questions) and some were harder (PM since they focused on one topic and Econ b/c they had BoP questions). I think it’s really stupid to say the CFAI searches for what Schweser doesn’t cover then “surprises” everyone with questions on it. You have to realize every LOS is fair game and how well was mean-variance covered in the CFAI texts? Probably not enough that the text only readers focused on it. The CFAI retests so many core subjects time and time again that if you master those and gain a semi decent working knowledge of everything else, there shouldn’t be a problem. If you master the core topics you will be able to work quickly through these sections and spend more time improving your educated questions on those evil “surprise” item sets. Again, focus on dominating the big 3 (FSA, Equity, and Ethics) and be proficient in other areas and you will be fine. Also, word of advice - don’t be afraid to look at the formula sheets at the end of the books and relationship tables within the text and pick out ones you don’t know. Memorize/learn them. L2 is not as analytical as everyone makes it to be. It’s item set so the data is not setup all nice and neat for you like at L1 but at the end of day, it’s still plug and chug (e.g. if you spent time learning formulas the real estate vig was a joke - also, didn’t we learn those real estate formulas at L1 as well?).
psn0706 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think it’s really stupid to say the CFAI searches for what Schweser doesn’t > cover then “surprises” everyone with questions on it. Actually this is the wrong way to think about it. CFAI is not going to “search” into SchweserNotes to look for weak spots. Rather, they could ask people who have experience with SchweserNotes to come up with a set of problems they feel are fair. Repeat the same with Stallar / BSAS, etc. Then compare the problems with the ones that CFAI considers fair and see if the CFAI ones are particularly biased towards one exam preparation package. They really don’t need to “search” for these surprises. Because once you compare the various versions of problem, you are bound to see similarities and differences. Besides this, I agree with pretty much what you said. To the rest of you. Aside from the lesson that CFAI would pretty much find ways to cover many areas on the exam, there is no guarantee that the past exam would be a good predictor for this year’s exam. I suggest we should move on and focus on this year’s exam, rather than mining patterns from last year’s exam.
^^ enough said … let’s move one. 11 days left!
hi , i am a RETAKER …everyone saying that they test in the details is RIGHT …however i think mastering the acing the “big dogs” will clear you , score above 70 in FSA and equity , and in the tie breaker (ethics)…get 50-70 , all else …U R OUT of level II …good luck to all of us