It applied to any for me. I had to no-show my first attempt at Level 2 due to a new job. I finally retook it a few years later (this March) and only had to pay the retake fee despite the time difference. Also, I failed, so I’ll be retaking again as well…after a needed break.
Looking forward to be as excited as those who passed. I am writing L II in September.
Just out of curiosity, what is the exam pass rate on your performance report?
Huge Congrats for all of you who passed and for those who did not, you are only few month away for getting it, so keep grinding.
Exam pass rate was 58%.
I thought i failed the CRI as i was not sure about some of the questions but somehow it ended up being my strongest topic.
My advise to the people taking the september exam would be to just give it your all. I must have spend over 400hrs on level II.
I did not get uppermark and i also did not use the CAIA text book eventhough i bought it. I purely just used the Kaplan materials and CAIA workbook to study.
Good luck to everyone!
To nshan’s point above, I thought I did terrible on the CRI section (literally left an entire question blank) and it was one of my higher topics (“higher”). I ultimately failed the exam but that definitely sounded an alarm for me on the scoring as I thought I performed very well on most of the multiple choice sections and some of my strongest topics in the practice exams ended up being my weakest, which also is mind boggling to me. Know it probably boils down to me just having a bad test day but has anyone ever heard of a successful retabulation/score review for the CAIA? Lot of people talk about it for CFA as it is a handwritten test on a scantron but I don’t see how it would be beneficial/worth it for CAIA as it is taken on a computer. Does anyone know their process for reviewing scores for the CAIA vs CFA?
BeanTown 77, Eventhough i was not sure about my answers to some of the CRI topic, i did not leave any essay questions unanswered and managed to write whatever i could with regards to their question so maybe (assuming) they were lenient with their scoring and managed to clawback some points here and there.
I also believe it is harder to be confident on the topics which are multiple choice based as there were few questions which i came across where they were very similar so unless you know the topic very well, it is very easy to select one of the wrong option. I got “comparable” in Hedge fund but it was my strongest topic in Level 1 and i was more confident with it for Level 2 but only managed to get average so i think it is harder to predict the outcome of the exam based on the Multiple choices unless ofcourse you are 100% confident with each answers you had selected.
[quote=“nshan03Uk”]
BeanTown 77, Eventhough i was not sure about my answers to some of the CRI topic, i did not leave any essay questions unanswered and managed to write whatever i could with regards to their question so maybe (assuming) they were lenient with their scoring and managed to clawback some points here and there.
nshan03Uk,
Can you shed some light on how many total CRI questions where in your PM part of the exam.
Also, since we know that Ethics and CIT sections will always be tested in a CRI format, I am wondering whether there were more than one question of these 2 topics in the CRI part of the exam or not. In another word, do they really also test the MCQ subjects (Topic 3 to Topic 8) in a CRI formate as well , and what is the split?
Gogo,
There are 3 CRI questions split into multiple sub parts worth 2/3/4 marks.
1 question will be based on Ethics, another question will be based on any ONE of the Constructive Response topics. The 3rd essay question can be from any ONE of the topics from Topic 3 - 8.
I was told by Kaplan that there is chance for CAIA to split one essay question into multiple sub parts from multiple topics as opposed to just one topic. However, i am yet to see a question in that format.
The essay questions were not tough but the questions do come from all corners of a particular article so its best to read all of them without skipping any pages. I was only able to answer some essay questions because i read all of them and some of the topic were not even covered by Kaplan as they usually focus on the main points.
Yup - does the same for me too. Membership Type: Full | Expires: May 31 2019
So just to confirm. Three constructed response questions. One from ethics is a given. One from either asset allocation/institutional investors, private equity, real assets, commodities, hedge funds and managed funds, or structured products. And then one more which will be totally based on just one of the ten current and integrated topics? So we have to read all ten of these boring topics and only will be tested on one of them? That’s just great LOL!
Yes and no. Without delving into too great of detail, there are typically 3 main areas: i) ethics, ii) CIT, and iii) remainder of curriculum. Each area contains multiple questions with sub-questions affixed. Ethics obviously can only be ethics. CIT, from what i gather, can be focused solely on one of the allotted readings. The remainder of the curriculum will tend to focus on a broad topic area, but can pull in outlier info that is parallel to questions from other readings. At least, that was my experience; certain parts of the question were incredibly nuanced and specific to a certain topic, while others could be construed as being covered in multiple readings/topics.
Hope that clarifies.
[quote=“nshan03Uk”]
Gogo,
There are 3 CRI questions split into multiple sub parts worth 2/3/4 marks.
1 question will be based on Ethics, another question will be based on any ONE of the Constructive Response topics. The 3rd essay question can be from any ONE of the topics from Topic 3 - 8.
I was told by Kaplan that there is chance for CAIA to split one essay question into multiple sub parts from multiple topics as opposed to just one topic. However, i am yet to see a question in that format.
The essay questions were not tough but the questions do come from all corners of a particular article so its best to read all of them without skipping any pages. I was only able to answer some essay questions because i read all of them and some of the topic were not even covered by Kaplan as they usually focus on the main points.
nshan03Uk
Thanks for your explanation. Did you feel Kaplan prepared you enough for the CRI section of the exam? and if you had to do it again, how would you study for the CRI section? I am really scared of this section. it is one thing when you pick the correct answer from 3-4 choices but constructing a response is a whole different ball game.
Gogo,
I understand how you feel as i felt the same when i was studying CRI. It was worrying that they can ask questions from anywhere and however they want. Hwoever, what i noticed in the exam was completely different. CAIA was very straight forward with their questions so there were no curve balls as per se.
Ethics is just ethics so as long as you get an understanding of all the laws then you will be fine. there is nothing to memorise for it.
For the Integrated topics, i read through all 10 topics without trying to memorise anything so more of a light read whenever i had spare time or while traveling to work. I read each topics twice but more so to understand the concept than trying to remember every single points and calculations. The questions i received in the exam were very straight forward and i just wrote whatever i could remember on that particular topic and tried to explain it in my own words. It ended up being my “Strongest” topic so i am assuming CAIA are not expecting you to remember everything but they are testing you on the concept to see if you had read the topics. That is all so my recommendation is not to spend too much time memorizing all the points.
The last essay question can come from any of the other topics which you would have already covered while studying for the Multiple choices so no point spending too much time on this for the essay part. Again, the questions are straight forward and it just clicks if you had done the work.
Just do not leave any questions unanswered. Write whatever relevant points you ccan write on that particular topic and you will be fine but don’t write too much. Two mark essay question require only two sentences so do not waste time writing a paragraph.
Just trust your instinct and you will definitely pass if you put in the hard work. Good Luck!
My 2 cents as sadly I have seen the level 2 exam twice. Multiple choice will obviously be on it. I thought this March it was a cake walk compared to September questions. Practice problems til you can’t take it anymore.
CIT - these were about the same. As others have said you have to cover all the topics and memorize things knowing only a small fraction will be test.
Other essay - This March I thought the topics tested were very fair and important enough. You would have worked on them during your normal course of studying. September seemed to have one or two sub questions on random areas. You recalled them or you didn’t.
I would do ethics and a quick read thru of CIT at the beginning of studying for the exam. The last portion of your studying should recover ethics and then work on practice problems on the CIT. Best advice I can come up with.
Good luck
govt_cheese and flashfoward - congrats on a most impressive joint CFA - CAIA run. Would you do it again? lol. Enjoy your summers.
thanks Berchtesgaden!
that’s a pretty funny question when looking back in hindsight! the sum total of hours spent across all levels of CFA and CAIA combined amount to approximately 1600. that’s a heck of alot of hours toiling away over the last 3 years all while holding down a pretty demanding full time gig, to say the least.
however, to answer your question, i’d do it all again in a heartbeat. the knowledge and experienced garnered from both programs has been invaluable to me and my line of work. i went into the CFA incredibly headstrong and stubborn, and left humbled and appreciative of the life lessons it taught me, among everything else academic. CAIA was just the cherry on top.
nshan03Uk
Thank you much for the invaluable insight. I am starting seriously into the curriculum this weekend and i just have to let it roll and trust my training. I am sure it will play out OK. Thanks again and congrats again.
Thanks for the advice. Let’s hope that Sep 2018 questions will be more like March 2018 questions. Congrats on your CAIA.
If I had to do it again, yes, I would go through this - the knowledge has been invaluable and has opened up many avenues to explore further and understand better - you do not find this kind of information otherwise brought together without getting too mathematically involved in equations. caia just gave me more insight into the private equity and hedge fund strategies and some more to open up my eyes about how these sorta work… these certifications are no doubt very helpful if you can spend the time to go through them.