Official Schweser Mock Discussion ($40 mock)

I now see why they are offering for $100 the detailed answers… bums only put the bare min in the answer booklet for AM session… I am sure there are going to be a lot of questions about this exam, so might as well post them in the same place… What did everyone think of it? I scored about 130 points, but question 3 and 4 crushed me… I dont remember seeing 4 at all in SChweser while reading… the tax formula in question 3 hurt me… I only got 19 points out of 47 in those 2 sections… the rest of the exam seemed pretty easy to be honest… stupid mistake with CPPI/Constant Mix what you all think?

I just bought it too. Is it worth getting the explanations for 100 extra? anybody took a look ?

stupid exam…Hardly any change to volume 1 exam. Waste of $50 just completed AM and scored 62%. I have done few past CFAI exam and have never seen CFAI giving more than 6 points on return calculation but schweser is giving you 14 points…very unreal. If you get it incorrec then you are screwed. Also so much calculation oreinted. CFAI exams are not. I mean every problem had something to calculate which is not the case in CFAI.

Hi. Is it possible to forward it? if yes then it will be great. thx. a_shah2@rediffmail.com

good lord not this again…sack up the $50 and pay for it

a_shah - It wasn’t different than volume 1 exam.

Is it worth($50) to give a try?

I did the first q- how you guys attempt it-does anybody has a strategy to approach this kind of problems ? Make a cash flow table? I got confused between coming year and now and year of retirement-time line

I just set up a time line for each year and listed out all of their expenses and income… i actually nailed this one completely and was shocked… i guess the practice is helping… Side not, has anyone tried to enter your scores online yet? I am only able to do it for the AM session and not the PM… I took the PM and scored 72% on it… second ethics section was pretty tricky, and behavioral finance always confuses the hell out of me… how did everyone else do?

yea man, morning was a little ridiculous but whatever that’s expected with schweser. Not to mention their answer key has some flaws (liquidity for Q1, says gift to charity even though that happened 2 years prior) Anyone explain what the hell is going on in question 3 part c in regards to taxes, and why they are paying income taxes on investments? -or explain the whole formula cuz it doesn’t make any sense to me.

Hazy… that formula is straight from the readings… it was just a plug and chug… i couldnt remember the formula though so I used the wrong tax rates… the one I really had no clue with in their answer was Question 3B… no clue where that formula is from… I did that problem by saying they need 3 million at FV, so pretax they need 5 million… 3 / 1-.4 I then said that he wants to pay all ordinary and gift taxes, well the kids will have gift taxes of (1 million - 13k) * 25% or 740,250 total for all 3 of them, I then added this number to the 5 million, and got a total future value needed of $5,740,250… That then gave me PV = 3.7 million FV = 5.74025 million N = 7 Then solve for interest rate of 6.47 which is what I got… did anyone get this question right?

alright I’ll look for that formula, the tax rates are the confusing part. I’m sure i can find it but if you know the page in schweser or secret sauce that’d help. For 3-b I got the right answer but didn’t use that formula. I took 3million divided by 1-T (.75) the gift tax rate and get 4mill, then I divide 4mill by 1-T (.6) T= ordinary income tax rate. and get 6,666,667. Then I put (6,666,667/3,700,000)^1/N and get 8.78% I am unsure If they would have given credit, but it is another way to reach the same answer I just worked backwards.

Just finished the PM exam and scored 67%. Ethics Q- 2 - 1/6 ouch. Next week I have to do ethics. Procrastination is not helping in scores. FI - Few mistakes in Fixed Income, calculated wrong dollar duration etc Basically I would have scored close to 75% if I knew the ethics and had I learn all the formulas which I am going to do in last couple of days before exam. Overall exam was fair.

boston21 - 1.5 million which Mike is going to get at retirement which is after 2 years so why the fk they took in next year?

Took the Schweser mock in mid-town, NYSSA’s (new) headquarters… lots of tourists in Times Square today. Scored 73% on a.m. session. Approached the same as hazyskunk… worked backward, instead of CFA formula (which I forgot). So, gave myself full 8 points where I’m not sure the graders would see that way. Also for 1A, my return was off by 4 bps because I didn’t inflate the mother’s medical (reading didn’t say it changed with inflation, although guess you could infer). P.m. was a disaster for me - 60%. I am depressed, but now re-looking it’s not so bad…I lost most of my points on Ethics, GIPS (neither of which I have finished reviewing), Behavioral (haven’t reviewed yet), and Equity (that section on Style Fit - blanked). So, once I have time to review these maybe won’t be in terrible shape.

Also part c- of q3- where does it say that Perkins was going to pay gift taxes? The formula they have used is for that

cfaboston… it said he gets the 1.5 million the day he retires… which technically is year 2 is how i looked at it, so on his last day of work he would get his last pay check plus the 1.5 million…that is why i added it in year 2

Then how about 250K used in current year’s calculation when she is retiring next year.

I see where you are getting confused… i took it to mean current year as in year coming up, the year she is retiring… so that is why she gets the payment then… it was a tricky problem though

I messed up that problem and assigned myself zero points. The frustrating part is that calculation was of 14 points which is kinda stupid as it won’t happen in real exam. Also taxes stuff - I mean c’mon we are not doing MS in taxation or CPA. I am surprised how did you get the full answers with right calculation. Good for you, mate! I am kinda pissed by wasting $50 and 3 hours…