If results are only out end Jan, we can only register for Level 2 after that (if we pass). That leaves us with 4 months to prepare! Is that sufficient???
its called going to Amazon or eBay and buying 2010 level II material and using that to read over topics like equity and quantitative methods, since those valuation methodologies do not change from year to year.
ginger Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > If results are only out end Jan, we can only > register for Level 2 after that (if we pass). That > leaves us with 4 months to prepare! Is that > sufficient??? keep in mind if youre a student you cannot register for level II until you have earned your degree. that means once your school has validated your degree, not once you take your last exam…
a lesson learnt: read through every LOS. All are important. Don’t emphasize too much on calculations. I hardly used the TVM functions during the exam.
PM I thought was 10 times easier than the AM. Some of the questions on the AM were beyond me…and PM was a breeze! can’t believe there was so much disparity in the level of difficulty there (for me, at least) but I hope it all balances out in the favor. fingers crossed.
Here’s an idea: someone who has taken the level 1 in the past and failed and also took this most recent one could share the relative difficulty differences and clear it right up. 
stavrosbezas Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Here’s an idea: someone who has taken the level 1 > in the past and failed and also took this most > recent one could share the relative difficulty > differences and clear it right up. They’ll likely say this one was easier, atleast they should if they’re taking it for the 2nd time.
Exam review: To my surprise, the exam was cakewalk! The only section I had trouble with was ethics and that too on just a few questions, other than that I am fairly confident that i nailed it! I got done an hour early on both parts. My strategy was to leave questions I needed time to solve and come back and do them at the end. Considering the abundant time I had remaining, I made sure I solved every question to the best of my knowledge (a few educated guesses here and there, probably 8-10, including ethics, on each exam). Mock & practice exam review: Overall, the exam was much easier than the mock and schweser practice questions. I purchased Schweser prep material, and though most of the questions on the actual exam were as easy as on the Schweser Qbank…a resource I was p*ssed about wasting time on when I solved my first CFAI Mock exam (I felt mocks were very tricky compared to the much simpler Qbank questions). I scored between a 70% to 85% on all 8 mock and practice exams with an average of 75.8%. Preparation: I studied on my own and purchased Schweser prep material.Started casually reviewing material in April and forgot it all by June-end. Started again seriously in July. Killed the social life and just studied. Full-time job in investment & corporate banking doesn’t leave much in terms of time and mental capacity when I get back home). I must have put in over 300 hours for sure but this charter means a lot to me and I don’t mind the sacrifice in terms of time-spent & personal life (I missed birthdays, parties, events…a lot of people don’t talk to me anymore). 5 days before the exam, I took time off work and went underground putting in over 12 hours a day. I’m a smoker and caffeine addict so my room smelt disgusting and a cloud of smoke followed me whenever I opened my door to step out. After reviewing my mistakes on all the practice & mock exams, I knew every formula (except for a useless one which I was sure was too trivial to be asked in the actual exam) and the Schweser Secret Sauce (an invaluable resource imo) by heart! Irrelevant: I sat for the exam in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. A number of candidates had flown in from surrounding countries because the December exam is unavailable in their hometowns. A lot of no shows though. Age group was between 23-30 (I’m 27) with a few 40+ candidates. The guy sitting next to me had flown in from Jordan and said he was flunking for sure because he didn’t study seriously due to work commitments. It was his third time and he hadn’t been serious on either one of his attempts. L2 prep: Taking it easy for a few days and will start this weekend. I have my schedule chalked out and have the Schweser L2 material in hand. I do not want to waste the 6 weeks before the results come out. Imo, these are 6 weeks I can spend reviewing and practicing exams once i complete the material early (don’t want to underestimate how extensive L2 material will be). God forbid I am wrong and confident for all the wrong reasons; thus, end up flunking L1, I will still have all of Feb-May (4 months) to revise L1 material again which I think is enough time for a second time prep if a first time prep was done thoroughly. Great forum: I found this forum during my 5 day hibernation period while I was scouring the net looking for comments on actual exam difficulty after my first mock (felt score in the mid 70’s was low for all the time I put in). Read through Anaylyst Forum once every hour during those 5 days. Felt a weird connection with people complaining about mock & practice exam difficulty. A lot of people posted some good info on exam day mistakes. Hopefully will see most of you L1 takers here in the L2 forums soon!
I thought the exam was really easy. I was very well prepared for it too so that may have something to do with it. Stop worry about how everyone else did. The exams are not graded on a curve.
Where is english tested on L1? or did i give a wrong exam lolz. If you guys were referring to Ethics then the language used there is way 2 easy. About Exam I gave it from Mumbai, morning session was a disaster for me. Surprisingly PM was way too easy for me, I found FRA in both sessions to be very very simple Ethics in pm session was very simple, found Ethics in am to be difficult i expect a way below par score of 40-50% there, this is because i took ethics very lightly in my preparation it seems. Quants in both session was ok. (I think i guessed 2-3 Qs in each session for Quants) Same with ECON i believe i am gonna get somewhere between 70-80 for both Econ and Quants Corporate Finance - very very easy 80-85% conservatively Equity,Fixed Income,Derivative,Portfolio Mgmt a bit tough in AM session for me - i have doubts here, frankly have no clue hw much i m gonna score here. One doubt though, it will look a bit silly to ask, whether Derivative + Alternate Investment score is combined for passing or seen in isolation. Summery : If i clear it will be if i clear Ethics, apart from Ethics am disaster, everything was ok and alreadys seen stuff for me. Vikrant
gave the exam in dubai… mostly people in age group 25-30…most people working in banks…mostly asian…indians… there was alteast 1500 people in the hall…and not more than 10% left within 2.5 hrs both in the AM and PM session… moreall mixed feeling…thought PM was easier than AM…but found a few ques which I thought were less significant in the sense that there were areas that were more relevant… very little use of calculator… thought PM would ask ques on areas not asked in AM…but it wasnt the case… some ques looked were easy but were tricky not in calculation but what data to use in calculations… I would hate to fail and study this “basic” stuff again…hence seriously hoping to pass… as a self fulfilling prophecy hope the MPS is sub 65…hehe…
I dont believe there are section wise pass marks…ur overall score is all that matters… vgmalu Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Where is english tested on L1? or did i give a > wrong exam lolz. If you guys were referring to > Ethics then the language used there is way 2 > easy. > > About Exam > > I gave it from Mumbai, morning session was a > disaster for me. > > Surprisingly PM was way too easy for me, > I found FRA in both sessions to be very very > simple > Ethics in pm session was very simple, found Ethics > in am to be difficult i expect a way below par > score of 40-50% there, this is because i took > ethics very lightly in my preparation it seems. > Quants in both session was ok. (I think i guessed > 2-3 Qs in each session for Quants) > Same with ECON i believe i am gonna get somewhere > between 70-80 for both Econ and Quants > Corporate Finance - very very easy 80-85% > conservatively > Equity,Fixed Income,Derivative,Portfolio Mgmt a > bit tough in AM session for me - i have doubts > here, frankly have no clue hw much i m gonna score > here. > > One doubt though, it will look a bit silly to ask, > whether Derivative + Alternate Investment score is > combined for passing or seen in isolation. > > Summery : If i clear it will be if i clear Ethics, > apart from Ethics am disaster, everything was ok > and alreadys seen stuff for me. > > Vikrant
that true, you can fail a section and still pass the exam.
Whoever it is that said that people who visit/write in this forum care and prepare more for the exams, I agree with you. I mean I’m relatively new here and this is just my 2nd post but I do visit regularly and certainly did put in a significant amount of my time studying. That being said, I thought the exam was a bit easier than some of the mocks I took. I was also thinking, was there also a there a thread such as this one regarding the previous lvl 1 exams? And if so, how did the AFers who took lvl 1 then react to the exam after they took it? hmmm…
If that’s the case then I’m all good. I was worrying about AI a bit because i had no clue about few questions there.
Hmmm. is this true? does this mean i can get < 50% score in a section and still clear if i have > overall score of 70%+ ? Vikrant
I wrote in London, must have been 2-3k in total writing at the Excel center. Felt that AM was tougher than PM and Ethics was the real wildcard for me. I had 35ish questions where I narrowed it down to 2 and had to make a guess - in hindsight these were all ‘easy’ questions but I didn’t spend much time memorizing definitions and accounting regulations, because I never felt that would be a core component of CFA testing material. My view all along has been that I can get 72 questions wrong and still get a 70%, so still a decent margin of error given my guesses. For all the people that say it was easy and will get 80%+ you’re either brilliant, naive or spent too much time studying! I really think the MPS will be aligned with previous exams, I trust that the institute has a pretty good handle on the level of difficulty and the capability of candidates. The point was made earlier, but the contributors to this forum will likely be among the more prepared for the test.
I was in London, thought they didn’t test alot of relatively difficult concepts, and the exam appeared easier. But having said that, i have been talking to alot of people who thought it was not easy, so may be it is just that i spent way to much time studing and was better prepared (:D), and so are the loads of other people on this forum Ethics was definitely far more difficult than anything that i have seen before, similar to the CFAI sample mock evening session. I don’t think any amount of studying can change much in Ethics
vgmalu Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hmmm. is this true? does this mean i can get < 50% > score in a section and still clear if i have > > overall score of 70%+ ? > > Vikrant yes you can definitely get a section under 50% and still pass.
I felt ethics was super tricky both sessions (a lot of how many or which of these were violated), but PM was definitely easier if only because I am more of a quant guy and there seemed to be more quant in the PM. No idea how I did though. I felt confident, but I mean, it’s multiple choice an they put in answers that you would get to if you do it slightly wrong. So you might think you got it right, but it’s wrong.