I know a lot of charterholders and a lot of people who quit before the end and universally L2 seems to be the one that (anecdotally) most people fail. Does anyone know what the pass rate is for people passing L2 on the first attempt?
I dont believe this stat is available…
i think you can still come up with some reasonable estimates though? here are some crude numbers and estimates for june’11 assumption: number of candidates for all exams is consistent. June 2010 L1 pass-rate: 42% (from CFAI website) assumption: 75% of candidates who passed register for 2011 L2 2011 L2 candidates from J10 L1: ~32% Dec 2010 L1 pass-rate: 36% assumption: 40% of candidates who passed register for 2011 L2 2011 L2 candidates from D10 L1: ~14% assumption: 2% of L1 passers from 2009 and before register for 2011 L2 2011 L2 pass-rate: 43% assumption: J10 L1 candidate pass-rate: 43% assumption: other first-time taker pass-rate: 33% 2011 L2 first-time taker pass-rate: ~19% personally i think that number is slightly higher. i would’ve guessed 10%. guess this means my numbers are completely wack!
yikes that seems low
I feel smarter now
under 10% seems about right to me
My estimation would be 20%.
iteracom Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > under 10% seems about right to me that % is more like the % of people passing both 1 and 2 on first attempt
It’s probably around 25%. No matter how much you hear and read about L2 being more difficult than L1 many candidates don’t take it to heart and put forth the same amount of effort as they did for L1. Anyone with a finance or accounting degree and 200 hours of study can smoke L1. That same amount of effort would humble most people on L2.
Chuckrox8 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It’s probably around 25%. No matter how much you > hear and read about L2 being more difficult than > L1 many candidates don’t take it to heart and put > forth the same amount of effort as they did for > L1. > > Anyone with a finance or accounting degree and 200 > hours of study can smoke L1. That same amount of > effort would humble most people on L2. +1
it really isnt that difficult, if you have some intelligence and put the work in you should pass. The mps for the june 2011 exam was very low
escape-from-alcatraz Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > it really isnt that difficult, if you have some > intelligence and put the work in you should pass. > The mps for the june 2011 exam was very low Probably because the exam was hard…
Loup_Fenrir Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > escape-from-alcatraz Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > it really isnt that difficult, if you have some > > intelligence and put the work in you should > pass. > > The mps for the june 2011 exam was very low > > Probably because the exam was hard… i sat it and it wasnt that hard. Plus the mps was in the low to mid 60s so you didn’t have to get much more than 40% to pass (guess 1 in 3 of remaining 60%)
Realistically, it’s too short-sided to say that “it wasn’t that tough”. The fact is, there are a TON of combinations of exams they can come up with for only 120 questions given the amount of material in the curriculum. It is quite possible to have the same candidate sit for two different exams and score 45% on one and 90% on another. With that said, I felt that this last June version was pretty easy. I believe the L2 exam is so much more difficult than L1 for 2 primary reasons: 1) More application of material as opposed to simple knowledge of material 2) Fewer questions mean it’s more difficult to recover if a topic area isn’t well understood To the point of the original poster, I doubt the stat can be estimated very well (95% confidence for example) because you have people taking the exams back to back, you have people taking the exams years apart, you have people making multiple attempts, you have people getting through L1 the first time and not L2 and some people who take 3 times to pass L1 and once to pass L2; all of these which make making generalized assumptions difficult in my opinion. I will say this: I took L1 for the first time in December. I took L2 for the first time in June. I’ll be taking L3 next june for the first time as well. I don’t believe I’m an exception; given that most of the people on this forum speak English as a first language and are also taking the time participate in a forum where discussion of the exam material is taking place, I believe the stats here are much different than the population. (bayesian statistics 
) Anyways, that was kind of a rant…but 2 cents from a first time passer of both L1 and L2. Donnie
escape-from-alcatraz Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Loup_Fenrir Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > escape-from-alcatraz Wrote: > > > -------------------------------------------------- > > > ----- > > > it really isnt that difficult, if you have > some > > > intelligence and put the work in you should > > pass. > > > The mps for the june 2011 exam was very low > > > > Probably because the exam was hard… > > > i sat it and it wasnt that hard. Plus the mps was > in the low to mid 60s so you didn’t have to get > much more than 40% to pass (guess 1 in 3 of > remaining 60%) I wonder how your score matrix looks like.
zestzorb Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I wonder how your score matrix looks like. Item SetQ#TopicMax Pts<=50%51%-70%>70% -Alternative Investments18-*- -Corporate Finance36-*- -Derivatives36–* -Economics18-*- -Equity Investments72-*- -Ethical & Professional Standards36–* -Financial Reporting & Analysis72–* -Fixed Income Investments36–* -Portfolio Management18–* -Quantitative Methods18*–
escape-from-alcatraz Wrote: > i sat it and it wasnt that hard. I sat too (and pass). I found it easier than expected. However I am sur I miss some tricks. So since the MPS seems low I assume the exam was hard. escape-from-alcatraz Wrote: >Plus the mps was > in the low to mid 60s so you didn’t have to get > much more than 40% to pass (guess 1 in 3 of > remaining 60%) this would be true only if the number of question were much more bigger…
I am not sure but if i remember correctly wasn’t this the first year where MPS is not a function of the candidate pool’s performance?..perhaps the CFAI were still exploring this switch and so set the MPS a bit lower than what retakers of L2 expected…
Loup_Fenrir Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > escape-from-alcatraz Wrote: > > i sat it and it wasnt that hard. > > I sat too (and pass). I found it easier than > expected. However I am sur I miss some tricks. So > since the MPS seems low I assume the exam was > hard. > > > escape-from-alcatraz Wrote: > >Plus the mps was > > in the low to mid 60s so you didn’t have to get > > much more than 40% to pass (guess 1 in 3 of > > remaining 60%) > > this would be true only if the number of question > were much more bigger… not sure i follow, regardless of the number of questions you would expect to score 33% even if you knew nothing. Increasing the number of questions just lessens the deviation from this 33%.
escape-from-alcatraz, from your score matrix it’s not like you totally crushed the exam so hard that you could say it’s easy enough that “people with some intelligence” would pass. Personally, I found the exam harder than I thought, harder than any mocks or practice exams I’ve taken.