Ethics in the world is rarely straight forward; it was simple in level 1, now you have to apply it. I think the ethics cases were kept simple. It’s not like that outside of the exam.
I agree on question interdependencies. Schweser handled that well in their mocks.
Yes there’s a lot of material. That’s what an analyst needs to know just as a starting point. They could cut down the material, but then we’d need 6 exams. They set the curriculum; if you didn’t read it or skipped something on the exam, that’s your fault. For the record, that happened to me - my fault, not theirs.
Econ isn’t simple - 200 theories to explain everything. They simplified it.
Answer - all the material is important.
I would take issue if they made the cases or questions overly wordy. Compared to the mocks from CFAI and Schweser, the exam seemed to have shorter and clearer vignettes.
WDM - regarding ethics - I understand the point that ethics is frequently murky. But the point of CFA Ethics should be to simplify ethical decisions. The point of Ethic Manuals at companies is to guide employees how to clearly deal with situations that could arrise. The CFA ethics manual would not be an effective ethics manual as it is not clear. It confuscates the issues rather than clarifies them.
I can’t mention specific questions on the test but I do believe there were choices that could be argued convincingly both ways. Btw - my 6th gripe with the exam - why can’t we talk about questions on the test? Why can’t the institute release the full exam afterwards so that we can discuss and learn from it? Treat it as a mock exam for the next year.
The ethics questions should be distributed to all current CFA Charterholders and see if over 75% of them get each one correct. If not, there is clearly a problem with the question.
I know that question!! that was a stupid one for sure. I mean you know the EASY calculations why not put the assumption to make it clear??? This was a question that REALLY pissed me
you can’t have it both ways: either the exams are easy and everyone is a f*cking charterholder or they’re a total pain in the ass and most people fail. i say this is a december passer who likely failed this time around, but i’m totally comfortable coming back next year now that i know what to expect.
you people are seriously utterly ridiculous. get the f*ck over it. you’re not entitled to shit.
I’m fairly certain there was a question in the morning session that could not be answered, and I STILL can’t answer it even at home and going through my material again.
That being said, with the exception of ethics I found things to be relatively straightforward. This is my second time taking the exam so take that for what it’s worth. I also thought I passed the first time around and I got level 6.
I agree with the two poseters. In my opinion, there were some questions asked which were out of line with the stated LOS as far as requirements. That’s just not cool.
My complaint is not so much about the degree of difficulty of the questions as much as the layout of the exam. There should be a standard that vignettes are always on opposite facing page from the associated item set questions to the best extent they can be. It’s so ridiculous that we need to flip back-and-forth between pages to looks at the questions and reference the vignette. It would take a few more “INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK” pages but it would significantly reduce the needless page turning which disrupts the exam environment and wastes precious time. Submit this request to the following “Exam Administration Comments” link and join the crusade to end this madness! Just copy and paste the second paragraph of this post when you make your submission. To submit a comment, follow these steps:
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I did the same thing. A day or two later it was still bugging me so I opened up the CFAI book and dug deep to find the formula that I had not seen in the 1000s of practice questions I took. However, the formula was in the book, so (unfortunately for those of us who were accustomed to nailing this type of question on mocks), it was a fair question.
I was very dissappointed in the level 2 exam. I spent over 500 hours studying and made sure to lock down diffcult concepts and formulas, only to find the exam was not nearly as challenging as expected or as “legend” makes it seem. That said, I’m positive I missed a fair amount of questions because I focused too deep and perhaps not broad enough.
Big dissappointments were Economics and Fixed Income. I expected so much more. That said, I can truly say I learned a tremendous amount from the curriculum, it really is some of the best material out there. Pass or fail, I have gained a tremendous amount of tools to my arsenal.
another thing… there is one formula which isnt given in the main text of the book but they have used it in a blue box question without even telling anything about where the formula came from
yes but we are paying them for their material and not because we want to look up things on the internet…also since the formula is not given in the main text it gives the appearance of not being testable
My point is that in the vast majority, the material is ok, you are taking a few examples and say that the curriculum is bad. For the price the material is very good in my opinion. You will find many materials used in other topics or business schools which are vastly inferior and contains more errors/typos.
I kind of agree with you on the testability of a few formulas in blue areas but they are a tiny % of the test, in the grand scheme, these questions are unlikely to be the reason for failure or success for the vast majority of us.
