I wrote the exam in Toronto and it was mostly very young people (early twenties). Interesting to hear that this was not the case elsewhere.
To be honest, I felt that the AM session was a complete joke, which pissed me off because I could have studied 50% of the time I put in and still nailed it. PM exam tried to be very sneaky but was also very easy. Overall, CFA Level I experience was a total joke and I would be shocked if I didn’t score 70+ on every section. Having said that, I know the institute is going to come up with more at Level II and on.
In general i thought it went ok. I was a bit shocked at some of the questions and really couldnt believe that they would ask us certain things that seemed so insignificant in the readings while not even touching on other much more important and difficut concepts. Wish i had spent more time on the simpler stuff instead of spending som much time on other parts. O well. Hopefully got the pass. I dont know how im gonna wait until mid january though i need to know now!
@Omar I feel you man. Ethics was already kicking my ass before the exam and after the exam I just became fed up with it. I had to slog through the first 18 questions on both sessions but everything after that was a cakewalk. A couple questions here and there that I had to guess and a few that I should have known but realized later I got wrong. Overall I feel really confident but I don’t want to get my hopes up.
Just a general question, Do all these comments about easiness of the exam mean the passing bar gona go above 65-70% ?!
bez Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Just a general question, Do all these comments > about easiness of the exam mean the passing bar > gona go above 65-70% ?! I don’t think so, if you look at CFA Institute’s past exam passing rates. December’s pass rate always lower than June which’s around 36%
I wrote in Boston, mostly 20-somethings, only a handful over 35 I would say. I found the AM really straightforward along with most of the PM, but I’m pretty sure I got killed on the equity calls which is no surprise since I didn’t spend much time on it studying. I think I left one question blank by accident in FRA in the afternoon trying to get out before the 30 minute mark, but it would have been a blind guess anyway because my answers were coming up significantly different than any of the options. The guy sitting next to me didn’t realize he needed a pencil until they started reading from the front cover at around 8:50! Hopefully the karma will help me since I hooked him up.
My guess is that the people that take the time to read all the comments here, and post scores and worry about the exam, are more likely to do better then those that don’t. I think alot of people sign up for the exam either 1) straight out of finance school, don’t study as they expect to already know everything, 2)Expect to fail, and sign up to Dec exam thinking they’ll fail and will just do it again in June. As a result they do fail, or 3) Sign up for the exam with full intent to study, but life gets in the way and they simply don’t have enough time to properly prepare. Thats being said it is still a hard exam to pass. If it was truly an “easy” CFA exam, then the required passing mark will likely be higher.
I felt the AM was easier than the PM…once I got back home there are a few questions which I got wrong that I should have got right, damn! haha…overall though, I felt the exam was easier than Elan & Schweser…if you’re scoring over 70% on those exams, then there’s really no reason why you should fail the actual exam, unless you’re just having a bad day. anyone know if the proctors are actually charterholders?
jdhrjm Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I felt the AM was easier than the PM…once I got > back home there are a few questions which I got > wrong that I should have got right, damn! > haha…overall though, I felt the exam was easier > than Elan & Schweser…if you’re scoring over 70% > on those exams, then there’s really no reason why > you should fail the actual exam, unless you’re > just having a bad day. > > anyone know if the proctors are actually > charterholders? Proctors are not allowed to be CFA charterholders.
I appeared at NYC centre, it seemed to me that majority of them were either students or just passed out from a school. Overall, I felt the exams were way easier than Elan or Schweser mockups, in fact CFAI mockups were the hardest amongst them. The FRA was a piece of cake, if I do flunk, which is a possibility, admittedly, my areas to work on will be Econ and Derivatives. So, guys all the best for the results and till then enjoy.
I screwed up FRA I think as I hadn’t studied it too much. Overall the exam was much easier than I expected, presumably this will be reflected in the pass mark? There seemed to be a fair few trick questions but they were all easy to spot. Ethics seemed ok but I really have no idea how I did, could be 30 or 90 percent just don’t know! I still think I will me borderline for a pass! But will only have myself to blame given the ease of the test!
bez Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Just a general question, Do all these comments > about easiness of the exam mean the passing bar > gona go above 65-70% ?! I don’t think that passing score will be higher - I would rather say that the MPS might go as high as 80% instead - this is my opinion
notic4lyf Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > @Omar > > I feel you man. Ethics was already kicking my ass > before the exam and after the exam I just became > fed up with it. I had to slog through the first > 18 questions on both sessions but everything after > that was a cakewalk. A couple questions here and > there that I had to guess and a few that I should > have known but realized later I got wrong. > Overall I feel really confident but I don’t want > to get my hopes up. Same - my only concern is ethics; if it goes well, I’m definitely passing this exam
cpk123 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > since you did study from the text, and now with > 100% hindsight - go take a look at the book to see > how many times those formulae were repeated and > drilled (across a number of examples, material in > the text and so on). This repetition is CFAI’s way > of telling you how important that topic is… and > this feature does definitely repeat across in > Level II as well. (repetition in material = high > probability of being asked in the exam). Hi cpk123, That’s 100% right; however, one should not assume that because a ratio wasn’t tested in EOC problems or any mock exam that it won’t be tested on actual exam. I did this with some set of ratios that never appeared on any mock exam or EOC problems and CFA surprised me with asking about them. I guess they wanted to make sure that candidates don’t ignore stuff that appear to be insignificant
If MPS is 80, I need to register for the June 2011 exam soon. The exam overall was not as difficult as I thought it’d be. I used the curriculum text books to review in my final week before the exam so some questions didn’t surprise me that much. I doubt I’d fail but I’m not that confident about passing either, given everyone seems to have done well on the exam. In Tokyo here, lots of people didn’t show up in the AM session (almost half of the room was empty) and more people left in the PM session.
freyalam Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > If MPS is 80, I need to register for the June 2011 > exam soon. > The exam overall was not as difficult as I thought > it’d be. > I used the curriculum text books to review in my > final week before the exam so some questions > didn’t surprise me that much. > I doubt I’d fail but I’m not that confident about > passing either, given everyone seems to have done > well on the exam. > In Tokyo here, lots of people didn’t show up in > the AM session (almost half of the room was empty) > and more people left in the PM session. Both won’t affect MPS 
It is all about how they judge the difficulty of the exam
here in Sydney. Average age is probably 20s. There were quite a few Chinese, Japanese supermodel going to the exam. that made me kinda confident. Also approximately 15-20% quit! One guy, when he was told to proceed to next desk (check calculator), he said that I don’t need a calculator and the proctor was like (wtf?) What? Sorry? ~ I did not bring the calculator. ~ …Oh, OKK Some guys did not even get the ideas about authorized calculators until being told. Just want to inspire some of you!
Although a lot of people on this forum are saying they thought it was pretty easy, that does not mean that everyone who wrote the exam feels this way (obviously). There was one girl sitting near me who never even heard of Schweser or test prep materials. Like others mentioned, there were people who didn’t even know that certain calculators could not be used. Clearly, not everyone is as well prepared or gave as much thought to this exam as most people on AF. That being said, I’m hopeful that the mps won’t be pushed up to 80!
between a 68%-80%. What are my odds of passing given a standard deviation of 14% =P