I found the exam OK. Very surprised if I don’t pass but you never know. There were many difficult questions, especially in the PM. Results day will again consist of multiple trips to the bathroom.
Bizarre that you all found AM easy. I found it quite difficult (and most of the other people in Belgium). PM was easy. We all finished one hour in advance, all staring at the ceiling.
I’m typically the guy just reading the forum and such. But here is the debrief…
High level… I would be shocked if I passed. Glad I practiced the number of AM sections because my time management was on point and will be the only thing that saves me. The problem is… the 5 questions that I was on the fence about and double checked when I got back in my car…(Such as the AM question folks are somewhat referencing) I was 0/5. So my guessing game was way off!!
Also… Ethics is normally my strong suit but wowzer! The whole PM section crushed me
After the AM section I felt confident yet still on the fence of passing. So after lunch… I walked in and knew I had to rock the PM section and I would have this exam in hand. Well… the PM rocked me instead and I think I will be taking level 3 again next year… Which is of course the same month as my wedding… WOOF!
As a side note… Props to 125 mph. Great attitude and posts/help. He helped lead the way on this forum and appreciated his thoughts. Cheers to you mate!
Super interesting! That folks in Belgium had a different take.
PM was tougher than previous years, sadly I’m a re-taker and found previous years easier in comparison. The content is not the challenging part, I think the wording was a little tricky in places so I’m not sure. Gut feeling is +/- 70% for PM, leaning toward 67%.
AM was mostly ok, some tricky wording but that just could nerves at the time, I’m guessing 55% on AM.
I’d be incredibly lucky to pass, otherwise realistically I’m expecting band 10 (based on previous experience).
Spent way too much time towards the end of my prep trying to familiarise myself with topics with a greater level of understanding, frankly that never appeared. Should have spent more time doing mock exams. Everything seems simpler in hindsight though.
I think the exam went well. I was familiar with most of the questions and was able to at least an educated guess on the remaining.
AM was Ok. Run a little out of time but I think I did ok in overall.
PM ethics was a torture, especially the final 3-4 questions. I promptly dropped my pants and grabbed my ankles and let CFAI give it to me. Also item set #3 and #4 were difficult.
Overall I think fine and will pass but you never know with these exams. I have to come realize from doing mocks that how I feel after doing a mock and how I score on the mock have very low correlation…I may feel like I did great and end up scoring 60% or I can feel like sh!t and score 85%.
But there is no shame in failing that exam. Passing that exam takes quite a bit of knowledge and understanding of the material.
Looking at the comments at Reddit, AM was also for those not that easy.
Also, the feedback here is quite biased no? Small group of well prepared people only giving feedback when it went well…
Aa
I second you 100% - the test writers very clear in language and in what they are asking - I felt as if these were all real situations and I am asked to design/decide/construct.
a certain am case of netting portfolio positions were quite disparate - I had expected the 2 positions were close enough that you could mess up by flipping signs but that was not the case. I was wondering I got that wrong somehow…hv ne body else experience similar feeling on the question, if u know which 1 I mean?
I feel good about AM. They had a good split between easy ones and difficult ones. Taking previous mocks definitely helped out with time management. I think I was a bit ahead of the curve, so I felt good coming into PM.
The very first question in AM should’ve been an easy one, but I was not warmed up for that type of question. Sure enough, I came back to it after some time and was able to find the answer.
But PM was tough. It started out easy. I expected ethics to be tricky, so I was not surprised. But mid-way, the difficulty ramped up. It got easier towards the end of the test.
I felt so confident coming out of Level 2. But I’m not feeling so great about this one. And it’s not because of AM. It’s because of PM.
I think AM was very hard while PM was easy.
Yea most ppl on reddit found the AM difficult. Such a stark contrast here and it’s making feel anxious now lol.
I found the AM paper difficult but PM was ok. Hopefully i can score well enough for the PM.
AM : Couldn’t solve 1 problem set. Hopefully, all other questions were managable.
PM : Around 40ish was sure of the answers. Around 10ish had to pick 1 answer out of 2 options. Rest 10ish were guessing.
I was super prepared this time. I think, I have crushed both AM and PM. There was no a single question/subject/detail I was not aware about. The good thing is that I didn’t believe those guys who recommended to skip some sections/formulas of curriculum - I didn’t skip anything. Moreover, I derived/memorized every formula in entire curriculum and it paid off! I’m sure I have passed and I will be surprised if I’m not in top 10%. I’m not suffering from overconfidence bias - I’m just a realist.
Hey guys,
lets just reflect the AM session;
It was certainly not the same pattern which was tested in previous 5 years or so, in terms of areas and questions being tested, I may agree on the point that if you are good in certain topics, which were tested this time 2x than its usual pattern, most of above average guys feel paper was par. However, those who were preparing based on weightages would have certainly disappointed.
Certain topics which were usually 100% associated with level 3, haven’t been tested in AM and PM, for me thats not fair, where as certain topics being tested twice of its weightage in the AM and PM.
In that way, this year AM was certainly difficult than previous years for even well prepared candidates, come on, sub parts in Q1 in AM, does not have questions within its syllabus! I agree PM was fairly okay, and last two set of questions required extensive educated guessing!
In a nutshell, a well prepared candidate would have certainly got through the AM sessions of 2017 and 2018, but would have faced difficulties in 2019, even timing. Anyone who shares the same view kindly give your thoughts as well,
Cheers!.
“The way they structured the exam this year requires you to know the material inside out.” - That’s the statement which describes it all.
Did more ppl have over an hour left for the PM? I had time to double check almost everything…
Reading comments on Reddit and some here, i’m not sure what to think.
Like the Belgian said earlier, everyone was looking at the ceiling or relaxing checking the exam. (In Singapore)
Hey Guys,
For me both sessions were surprising.
AM I did not finish, left two entire subquestions blank, plus another one I had no clue (21 points in all). Plus I’m sure I screwed up at least two other subquestions.
Additionally I was writing so ugly and without structure, I honestly can imagine they will not be able to read everything. There was one question where I screwed up the formula, but I realized it, so crossed the whole page out and put the right answer in the very bottom of the page.
I talked to one guy, who told he had met a grader once and they don’t really make an effort to try and read very ugly writing or very messed up calculations. Which is OK, but bad news for me. Should have written out my practice answers more.
PM I found significantly harder than I thought it would be. I had 16 questions in which I was not sure, plus ethics you can never know.
I find interesting when I read that many found PM easy. That’s a significant gap in preparation / understanding between me and them
So all-in-all I would be very surprised if I pass, but I won’t kill myself, I know I had areas not properly covered. Only I don’t know how those people who cover and know everything can do it in studying 300 hours or less. I was over 800 (same with both LII and LI - though I passed those with good margin).
Agree, 2017 and 2018 AM papers were the easiest for me. I scored myself 64% and 68% on those.
But I’m not blaming anyone, there were quite a few questions in the 2019 which I reviewed the material, only when doing my last review I somehow thought they were not important.
Same here. Took in Singapore and finished PM paper with over 30 minutes left, and that is when I’m taking my time and re-reading each ethics question 3 times and writing down most of the calculation formula and steps. Noted quite a number of traps here and there but nothing compared to the difficulty of the CFAI practice questions online. Those are the only ones I did and I felt the actual exam was comparatively easier.
But morning paper was such an ugly surprise. Hahaha.