Hello, I’m a big fan of Schweser but found that Uppermark materials and questionbanks where more similar to the real exam. I lost Level 2 once and this second time that I used Uppermark I felt much more confident. Hope my experience helps!
I agree! Schweser got me through CAIA I w/ no issues - comp/high in all with maybe 60-70hrs of total work between the class and books
CAIA II - thought I could do that again and failed (had to end my hot streak eventually)… got the Schweser materials (for free due to the prior failure) and did the official CAIA II workbook (literally every question) leading up to the final day. I think the extra 20-30 hrs with the official CAIA mocks and workbook really boosted me from low/comp (fail) to high/strong (pass).
At the end of the day, how you learn is different than other people - so find something that works and whoever didn’t make it this time will smash it out of the park in September! and best of luck for the fellow people sitting for the FRM with me in 20days! haha
I’ve been there too! After taking the CFA and CPA, I found the CAIA exam questions cryptic as well. They just aren’t clear. After using the Uppermark test bank, you somewhat get acclimated to the kind of quirky questions they ask and I really do believe this helped me. I did not pass CFA L2 the first time. Most of us have been there – just remember that after putting in quality study time the first time, it will make the second time easier.
I figure up it from 300 hours to 400 hours and Uppermark for the second go around and see if it gets me over the top. LOL . I will say the CAIA folks get the award for “Psychops” (psychological operations for those not in the military) as far as the questions are concerned. They are the masters of “distractor” answers and " can you guess what we are asking" questions. I can only hope the “quality control” in the question writing improves. For those that will be joining me either in Sep 2019 or March 2020 good luck and those that passed congrats
Forgive me if someone already mentioned this (I glanced through all the posts and didn’t see anything), but do we all think it’s safe to assume that with a 69% pass rate there was likely very little if any curve? I wouldn’t think they would have used the curve to bring it up to that high a number.
I was wondering the same. 69% is a full 11 percentage points higher than the March 2018 pass rate.
That certainly sounds like a logical assumption. They offer so little information about how they score the exam that it makes it hard to determine MPS or curves.
I was not aware the passing level was 11points lower in March 2018. I find that interesting since this I believe was the March 2019 was the first time the CFA exemption for level 1 was allowed. Did the CFA charterholders bring up the score vs what it would have been without them ? Did CAIA want to preserve the integrity of the exam by making it more difficult given the CFA charterholders were taking it ? I am not sure ,but i can tell you from the grid they provide of where you scored well or not well i would have passed easily (assuming the previous post is correct) the passing rate was 58% in March 2018.? I am guessing CAIA will not share the data as far as how the CFA chartherholders did relative to the non CFA charterholders for the Level 2 Exam in March 2019.
To clarify the 58% pass rate I mentioned above, this is the percentage of people that attempted Level 2 and passed in March 2018 (not the “score” needed to pass). I was one of the 42% of people that failed Level 2 in March 2018 which is how I have that figure…the whole, “We regret to inform you…” letter. I don’t know, but I would assume the passing score was in the 70% or slightly lower neighborhood, but I don’t think anyone really gets to see that number.
@seekingalpha: I completely agree with your comments re Kaplan Caia 2 premium package. I was scoring in the 86% range on the questions but failed the exam. And I agree the way the exam questions were worded were baffling and unnecessarily so. I hope you will take the time to provide your written feedback via email to Kathy Lyons. I am speaking tomorrow with the head of the CAIA programs at Kaplan to share with him the numerous problems I found with their level 2 materials, including their contracted lecturer. I will be trying Uppermark this time along with the CAIA materials. I would also urge you to request a refund for your Kaplan materials. I too have had good experience with Kaplan but for this time.
@mabmba, CAIA will send you the pass rates for the last few years if you ask them about it. I got this information last week.
Nice table here on historical pass rates:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartered_Alternative_Investment_Analyst
Hello,
Uppermark for CAIA is fantastic. I urge you to try it. How the questions are written and the type of questions from the QuestionBank is very similar to the real deal.
Good luck!