I didn’t walk out of the exam feeling as good as I did after Part I.
There was definitely a lot more theoretical application than I was expecting and a lot less calculation based questions. I did find the specificity of the theory questions rather annoying especially with respect to the Current Issues in Financial market readings. Though I was expecting some of those, I didn’t expect those many. There were some questions where I was saying to myself “What the heck? Are you serious?!”
The calculation type questions seemed relatively straight forward with maybe one or two curveballs thrown in.
Time didn’t seem to be an issue given the relatively large percentage of theory questions. I actually took a five minute break for snacks (banana and greek yogurt - great way to get that glucose level up) and was able to review all questions with some time to spare.
I imagine the cutoff would be somewhat lower than the Part I exam but that’s just based on how I felt coming out of this exam vs. coming out of Part I.
i appeared in part 1 and hope to clear it. we still have 6 months for part 2. can u pl suggest some tips for part 2- regarding the time required , the focus and any strategic diff in approach fro part 1. also is the schweser notes enough or do we need to go thru the original garp reading… thks in advance
A very slow response, I know - but I agree with a lot of your points. There were a lot of theoretical/application questions, and a few unexpected (and very specific) Current Issues questions. Time was not an issue particularly, which was good for me, as I really needed to think about a lot of it!
Having entered the exam room feeling quite unprepared (thanks Schweser!), but determined to grind out a result if I could, I felt fairly content on the way out. I found that the tough questions were front-loaded (I could answer maybe 5 of the first 20 on the first pass), and then the exam got easier. Once I was in my stride, I went back and figured out the tougher questions.
Bizzarely, I passed with 2-3 1st quartile sectional results!