I know it will differ from year to year and every candidate has different speed for solving questions but still I would apreciate if you share your experience. I used to have no less than 40 min left in Schweser practice exams and I was unpleasantly surprised when 3 hours weren’t enough for me to do CFAI Mock AM. As a result when I did the PM part I was in hurry and I made stupid mistakes. It occured finally that I managed to finish for 2.5 h but one can’t check for errors all 60 Qs for 30 min.
everyone has their own speed… the schweser exams are faster IMO because the vingettes are generally the same standard lenght and format… the actual exam has longer vingettes with more tables/charts.
speed is a problem for me because i am generally slow… 3 hours is not enough for me so last year i ended up rushing for the last 20minutes flipping back and forth between problems
Exactly, Schweser text & tables are much shorter than these in the CFAI mock. They left you with the impression that one will have more than enough time on the exam day. I was wondering whether the CFAI mock is outliner in this aspect or we should expect such lenght.
That’s why you should start practicing with CFAI mocks to condition yourself.
No more than three hours per session.
I faced the same issue on the CFAI mock examination. At least on the real deal, we can come back to questions we know are going to be a challenge to calculate. For example, it takes me forever (unfortunately) to calulate market values on swap contracts, so I’ll be leaving those for the end.
I would use a watch to manage your time but it really comes down to how well you know the material. If you know it well time won’t be a problem. If a couple item sets give you trouble it could be close.
On the real test, are there really long solution problems or can most be done with simple calculations? For those who are retaking it, what do you think is vital to get in this week?
Thanks for the replies, guys. I scored not bad on the CFAI mock - 72% but most of my mistakes were from neglect and haste instead of lack of knowledge. Funny thing - I had less mistakes on the AM part which was more difficult than on the PM part in which I was hurrying. I wonder what exact time management strategy to apply on the exam day.
I think my strategy is to hit up all the sections that I am comfortable with. I struggle with FRA so hope to save that for last.
In my opinion one of the six questions could involve longer calculations. An example would be in equity they may give you a question about porters five forces that you can answer in about a minute, but then you will also get a question that involves calculating ROE which lets you then calculate G which then lets you calculate value based on FCFF. I don’t recall being asked to do anything crazy like an entire binomial table, for questions like that some of it will already be filled in.
In terms of what to study this week I think making sure you have the formula’s down is key. Any question that is plug and chug you cannot miss. Besides that I am reviewing the blue boxes and EOC’s, especially for the most heavily weighted topics. As long as you can get over 70% on equity, fixed income, FRA, ethics and corp fi you are probably in good shape to pass. I purchased that 300hours.com book with the results in it (big waste of money don’t buy it) and while it is fairly useless the one thing I did take away from it was a chart in there showing what sections people that pass and fail in do the best/worst at, and based on that chart the majority of people that pass the exam get over 70% in FRA, equity and corp fi. I would add fixed income to that list because now that one is more heavily weighted and that new weighting isn’t reflected in their results. I also think ethics has to be over 70%. So if you can hammer down on those 5 topics you probably have a really good chance at passing.
Time should not be an issue for L2. It’s only 60 questions per seesion and you have 3 hours per session.