Each time I come here and i see people talking about scoring >70 in their practice tests or mock, i get discouraged. I have read my study notes(Schweser) twice and kicked off on the Schweser practice notes in May. I am scoring really low - late 40’s and its really discouraging. I work (in a non financial related firm) an average of just 60hrs a week and reads at night and dawn. I am taking a two weeks plus leave as from 19th to focus on practice questions and a final dash through the readings. Can I still make the 70’s required to pass L1? Is is still possible to raise my scores by a 100%? Please i need help! I really do.
Do you feel that you really KNOW the material. Are you making careless mistakes, forgeting formulas, or do you just not know how to get through the practice test questions?
Oh, its beatthecfa! Great guy! Yeah, more of forgetting the formula or inadequacy of depth especially in Quant,FI,PM & Derivatives. I have a feeling that I could dramatically improve if I really have time to ‘dig the trenches’ but I dont know if the time left can be enough. I also started with Shweser Practise Volume 2, not 1 and i learnt yesterday that the Volume 2 is more difficult than usual. Any help and advice would do.
dont give up …try and identify your mistakes in the tests and read those again and again , whenever you are reading news papers (markets) etc try to relate especially economics , fixed income . you have scope to improve your score till the day before the exam so keep pounding questions and make sure you are not making careless mistakes
Hi Damoch, Don’t give up. 1st of all, there are still 25 d left until the exam. That’s plenty of time to get from your 40’s scores to the 70’s and 80’s, especially if you’re planning to take time off from work. If you have the Schweser notes as well as the CFA books, you should be pretty much set. And if worst comes to worst and you do fail, then you already have a solid (40%) base for the December exam. Waiting half a year is not the end of the world.
By the way, you talked about studying at dawn. How do you manage to get out of bed that early and concentrate on your studies? I’ve been wanting to do it, too, but without success.
There is enough time for sure. You can’t let your head drop at this stage. I had a student once who scored less than 50% overall on her first practice test and went on to pass the test. I am not going to lie to you- it’s NOT going to be easy. But it has been done before and there’s always hope. Otherwise, as Lara said, waiting 6 months is not so bad plus you’ll have a better foundation for Level II.
I have to say i was in the same boat (40’s-50’s)…and really freaking out. I got a level head and kept doing practice questions after question and i am see my scores increasing each week. I am almost to the point of not having to reference equations/notes maybe once or twice in a 60 q quiz. That was about 2 weeks ago and now I am in the 70-75 range. I know it sounds silly but have that can do attitude and do question after question and things just fall into place.
Which practice test do people commonly refer to? My Schweser pack has 6 practice exams but I haven’t started it yet. I am still doing CFAI and Schweser end of chapter practice questions.
Many thanks for your responses. To my pleasant surprise,I have noticed improvements with every round of questions i deal with. I suppose i didn’t read into detail when i was studying. I mentally frontloaded them. It seems i got to pay for it now. Nature finds a way of making us pay for our misdeeds and the greek gods can’t stop it.(pun intended) @Lara-Lilly. Its tough waking up at 4am but here are some tips. 1) Set the alarm and place far from your bed- a walking distance. I hate alarms so am always motivated to stand up. 2) Find something to do- sometimes i brush my teeth. 3) Get someone to call you like 10 minutes past 4 - My fiancee makes that sacrifice 4) Motivate yourself with some qoutes and wise words. I tell myself, boy, you have got to dig the trenches. You have got to do it, boy. I also like qoutes from Jose Mourinho and Mohammed Ali. Thanks so much everyone. Tanks. Nothing is gonna stop me now!
Jose Mourinho!! haha I guarantee 90% of the people reading this post wont have any idea about the ‘special one’. You a Chelsea fan?
also remember that there is a survivorship bias in terms of who posts their scores on this site. i.e. more people are willing to say, “is it ok i’m ONLY scoring in the low 80s??” versus “is it ok that i’m only scoring in the mid 40s.” there are a lot of lurkers that are in your same boat… plus you’ve already paid to write the exam, you might as well go for it.
I was in a similar situation once. I took many practice test before the exam, most of them in the last week or so. It was a gruelling experience but then the real exam felt like nothing more than “two more tests” and nothing to worry about. For now, you should start by working through the answers, question by question. Don’t study any more from the textbooks but have them ready in case you need to look up some concept. Get Schweser’s practice tests (6) and the extra tests (+ 6 = 12 exams @ 120Q). What would be reasonable? Try to work through 20Q every night and 2 x 120Q if you have taken the entire day off.
Do CFAI EOC questions help us for the CFA exam?
OH YES! bigspydee Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Do CFAI EOC questions help us for the CFA exam?
3 weeks left…and im very bad with FRA… please guys… any tips…??? i always keep thinking tht im gna fail this section…and its not helping me study at all… can sum1 whos given the exam please tell me what shud i be focussing on, in FRA, at this stage?
you still have time. If you have the videos use them. Go through the EOC CFAI questions, put the time in and you should be fine.
ok, i didnt take the exam yet, but i’d say make sure that at the least you’re comfortable with leases, FIFO/LIFO (including the affects on all the ratios), and key differences between us- and international gaap.
hmmm…by “CFAI EOC” ques u mean the practise questions at the back of each chapter in the cfai books right? ive been studtying from schweser…havent even looked at the cfai books… and I’ve only been doing the schweser concept checkers… Are the CFAI questions significantly different???
I would recommend going through the CFAI EOC questions instead of scheweser.