2nd time at L3. No one around me finished the AM session last year and no one did this year either, I think it’s all about survival and do the best you can then kick butt in the PM.
#damagecontrolintheAM #killingitinthePM
#hasbeensaid100xbefore
Finished with 5-10 minutes to spare in the AM. Improved a few answers a little, replaced one completely. I had written two answers to a question asking for one asnwer, with the stronger one second. I crossed out the first one.
Felt like AM was manageable, but far from easy. There was only one sub-question that I read and had no idea how to approach. It was only a few points, so I wrote some quick nonsense and moved on. No use.
The first fifth of the PM made me nervous even though I had reviewed that content but it was OK after that. Finished in about an hour and forty five minutes, but I used ALL of the remaining time to firm up a few answers. Annoyingly, two of my complete guess responses turned out to be right when I remembered how to do the question and muscled through it. I don’t remember uncovering many “tricks,” so maybe I missed a few of those. I feel pretty good, overall. The person I sat next to didn’t finish a few questions in the AM. Same for a coworker of mine.
Practicing those AM time management skills is so important.
Here’s the thing about tricks - they’re not really tricks if you know the material inside-out. There were a few questions in the pm - if you didn’t know the concept well, you fell for the trick.
But the fact that countless people on here always mention ‘tricks’ is encouraging for the rest of us. That being said, still not certain I came out on top from this one.
If that’s what people mean by tricks then I feel better. There were definitely a few questions where I looked at one of the options and could tell how one was the “easy” wrong answer. Rather, there’s always one answer that can be eliminated quickly, so I mean to say that between the remaining two there were a few cases where I could see “Oh you get this answer if you mess this up.”
I left entire individual IPS blank…
Can anyone tell me how many minutes were allocated to the last two questions on the AM section? I left those two questions blank - what do you think the chances of me passing are? 
When did you start practicing the AMs? 1 month before the exam?
Is this your 1st time taking it? How early did you start studying and how long it tooke you to do that many times for mocks?
Because you didn’t have time? How many questions? One single question wasn’t huge enough.
it’s not a total exam killer, but that’s a chunky section for sure
It was certainly a mad rush for time. Half way through I stopped to count my time and was 17minutes behind the clock, then made a big rush to skip around and did all the easy questions first, got back to 13 behind, then scribbled something down for at least chicken scratch points on 2 subquestions. About three times, I started writing then my inner voice said to me -Stop that’s wrong!- then I re-read, it was and had to rewrite from a different position. Why I got a little behind.
But pretty sure I passed the AM though, walked out thinking THANK GOD for Marc’s darn 10 years of old exam binder that I did ~92% of, otherwise it would have been fatal.
I even labeled better and wrote neater this year.
Doing it for the first time
my schedule:
Sat May 16th 2013 AM exam
Sun May 17th 2012 AM exam
Wed Evening May 20th 2011 AM exam
Fri Evening May 22nd 2010 AM exam (I am married. Friday night I have the “pleasure” to stay at home. It is unfair to singles, I know)
Sun May 24th 2009 AM exam
Headache strucked. From here on I just scratched the answers. Not worried about writing, but the concepts and calc. It took me 90-100 min for each.
Tue May 26th 2008 AM exam - lunch time (In Brazil it is okay to have 1:30 hour lunch. It is unfair, I know)
Sat May 30th 2007 AM exam - For sure one of the best birthdays of my life… (It is not fair).
Sun May 31st CFA AM/PM Mock (Item sets)
Thu June 4th 2014 AM Exam (It was holiday in Brazil). Real mock, writing comeback. Revised my notes collected from correcting the exams, 6 pages.
Friday afternoon went to a crummy comedy movie, Spy with Jude Law. It was awesome.
I was doing EOCs and questions from CFA website since March (Even before finishing all the material). I managed to read 90% of it. Just CFAI books. Skipped some parts of RM (since I’ve done the FRM and traded options).
Revised exercises during May.
Mock till you drop!
Had enough time to answer everything (not that they’re all right) and go back and revise. Even caught a couple of mistakes. But AM was still hard af and a little different from what I expected.
So very true. I definitely was not prepared for how time sensitive the AM session would be. Finished all the questions but had to throw in some serious BS there towards the end. Hopefully neglecting AM time management doesn’t cost me a pass.
I always find currency management tough , dunno why
i did finish all the exam, but confident of accuravy on 130 marks to be conservative. Rest 50 , i did write something or the other
I skipped individual IPS first…and don’t have time to look at it at the end. I don’t even know how many questions there.
I skipped a few sub questions and wrote total BS for most of the others. The individual IPS question I may as well as have skipped entirely!
I know I bossed the first 5 questions as spent quite a bit of time on them and probably wrote too much, so hoping i get 50% of marks in the remaining questions to increase my score…
Pokhiim do u think attempting 130 marks well and writing something or the other in 50 marks will fetch an overall score of 60%