Re: Ethics
Yes. Feel confident that I got 9-10 right. Only recall one where there was a trick that required reading for detail.
In the PM, how many “trick” questions did you guys notice? There were 3-4 that stood out to me where there was an obvious answer that was wrong because of a small detail included in the passage.
I wouldnt say there were any “trick” questions. I would say that if you knew the material, you could easily avoid the “trick” questions
I would say there are always “distractors”
I have researched several questions that bugged me. Four were correct. One strongly leaning to correct. One more I think was right, but not 100% sure on info given in question.
This is better than Level 2. I was 4 for 6 on questions I researched later.
AM :
I was screwed by the proctors and wasn’t let in after 5-6 minutes after everyone started writing. When I sat down and looked at my watch, I was totally freaked out. I went straight to the questions without reading the case. I wrote down the formula for the 1st and 2nd sub questions, and then trying to find the pieces in the case, but was still in the panic mode and wasn’t sure if the information I found was even right. I only hope the formula could help a little bit. Then I think I went to the wrong direction for one Individual IPS sub question. At one point I was 12 minutes behind and thought I was not going to make it. Luckily everything after that became instinct and I wrote like machine. Eventually finished everything with 2 minutes left. I checked quickly to make sure there are no questions left blank.
I did 9 AM mocks, and the scores were low 50s initially, then stabilized at mid 60s, and the very last one was 75 which was an outlier. Of course those are self-graded scores and could be biased.I don’t feel this AM is as hard as 2016, it probably more close to 2015 or 2012 to me. If it wasn’t the 5 minutes delay impact I probably would be more confident and could do mid 60s. Now I don’t even know how bad it could be. I’m less and less confident with time passing and everything becomes blurry.
PM:
It was more difficult than expected for sure. It took longer time solving some problems but once you get it you should be fine. There were definitely quite a few surprises. There were also a couple that I know the calculations inside out, but couldn’t find anything matching with my answer, which was strange. I counted the questions that I’m not 100% sure, it was about 14 questions, but there could be more for sure. I had about 15 minutes left. Rechecked some that I wasn’t confident with, but didn’t change a lot answers.
My mock scores from CFAI were 63 and 77. I feel the difficulty is close to the PM mock, but more confident with what I’m doing vs the PM mock I got a lot right basically by elimination.
I feel prepared when I went into the exam. The 5 minutes delay really screwed me. Now I’m prepared for the worst.
Found ethics to be hard, with some unsure questions. After checking my answers when I was at home gave me some confident, that I scored 70%+. But was really hard as I liked other topics in ethics more
Retaker last year band 6 with totally lack of preparation, this year i feel more prepared as compared.
AM- was going smoothly all the way and time constraint is not really a big issue for me as in previous mocks as I always can stick to within time by writing the latest time I need to finish by each question. Left a 3marks subsection blank I think I missed that topic revision. I think I also got some other subsection wrong 3/4marks. Hopefully overall can get >70%
PM- I think I am the the rare ones to hope my AM can cover PM. I originally thought PM is quite hard but now seems people find it easy as usual which is quite dangerous for me. I did mocks 2017 and average 70%, but this year definitely have some discount, quite a lot of questions need to choose between 2 chocies.
In general really hope can make it…it’s just too tiring….
Who knows? Nobody here knows anything.
Agree with that.
I can’t wait now!
Been a while… 10 months? Time flies. Really thought I would be a regular this year. Jobs, CFA studies and a life do that to a person.
AM was tough - I found it “longer” than any of the seven mocks I did - but fair. It was mostly longer because I spent too much time on the two important, calc-based subsections of the test but I think I broke even on both of those, which is good. Didn’t leave anything blank but did not answer a “explain why you circled X” subsection fully and ran out of time to double-down my response (2 points). Rereading material, it appears that I nailed the first Q and all subsections which many here are complaining about, so that make me feel better!
PM: felt like it destroyed me like all concept-over-calc PMs have in previous levels. Only did 4 mocks in this so maybe that is why? I think I just didn’t practice the obvious “be sure to try the reverse/converse of the example problem at home” topics, if you know what I mean.
What felt so bad about the PM was that I didn’t have that “destroyed the AM” buffer feeling like I did in 1 and 2 because it took me til the last minute to finish the AM - but who knows? Like the last two levels, I’ll squeak through if my AM is good enough.
AM is difficult for me because I write too much. Finished most of it leaving about 4 sub questions blank.
PM did not seem too bad. Finished with an hour to spare. Did not go back to review any questions because usually that just means trouble.
Last year I failed band 9. Wrote long responses to only a couple AM questions before running out of time, so maybe 20% of AM points. Left 70-80% of AM test blank. Did very well in the afternoon. Assuming a similar PM score to last year, and completing 90% of the AM with decent portion of them correct, should pass.
^^ thats very impressive that you got band 9 leaving 70% of AM blank!
I got band 9 last year also but my performance was more balanced between AM/PM… both around 60%
You left 70-80% AM blank and got band 9? This is a miracle! Did you get over 70 for all the sections for PM?
That’s pretty impressive indeed - probably implies 90+ on PM
Bro you are life saver for people left 60pts blank like me…
Felt confident walking out of Level 1 and Level 2. Less so here, especially due to PM.
My matrices for Level 1 and 2 were pretty much all 70+
The PM had 5 questions I know I got wrong, and AM maybe 15 marks I know I lost. Assuming I lost 15 more questions in the PM, and 40 more marks somewhere in the AM, hopefully will be a passing score - high 60s/low 70s
What do you mean 60pts. Like 60/180 i.e. one third of the exam?
Why did this happen? time or not knowing material?
does it really matter now ? although it might in august…
humans are interesting creatures… fault of others unconsciously makes them happy…
lol… only in the CFA program is a feat impressive even in a FAIL