Post exam - how’d it go?

[justmapping]

@barracuda

Do y’all really want the passing rate to be +50%? Do you want the ‘average’ candidate who focused their studying predominantly on the “major” items to pass? How about candidates who simply rehash previous exams and are unable to think outside the box / fold under pressure; should they pass? I, for one, definitely think not.

In hindsight (I’m obviously biased), I’d prefer it if the CFAI dropped the L3 pass rate to sub 35%. Would make the value of the charter for both existing and future charterholders much more valuable.

Like you I am also fine with a 35% passing rate for the exams… But only once I get my charter!

Seriously, I somewhat agree with you. There are increasingly more candidates participating. And I know my fellow millennials enough to say that the quality of the average candidate is certainly going down.

[barracuda]

Broheim - my post contained no ill malice or self righteousness (apologies if you interpreted it as such); it was a finite statement that undeserving candidates should not become charterholders and that the bar gauged to qualify success at L3 should be raised significantly.

My signature is a poor attempt at humor, a “joke”; nothing more, nothing less.

[jounin83]

@barracuda

My signature is a poor attempt at humor, a “joke”; nothing more, nothing less.

I think your signature is great, mentality of balancing strategy since beginning. Its like hastagh also repeatly said “Damage control in AM, ace in PM”.

Now i know exactly what it means.

[saurabh03121992]

wow, this thread is just bringing out a lot of prowlers and stalkers from the shadows who never even said a word during prep.

[justmapping]

yeah Saurabh u got this right i have definitely been stalking you a lot from the shadows

[Tommyjohn]

the more i think about the exam, the better i think i did on AM and the worse i think i did on PM.

i got 43/60 and 44/60 on the CFAI 2019 exams, so hopefully my “floor” is a 40/60. i dont think its *possible* for me to have failed if i got 40/60 on the PM because that would mean an AM worse than 56%

*anything is possible

[CEO10K-DAY]

@barracuda

Broheim - my post contained no ill malice or self righteousness (apologies if you interpreted it as such); it was a finite statement that undeserving candidates should not become charterholders and that the bar gauged to qualify success at L3 should be raised significantly.

My signature is a poor attempt at humor, a “joke”; nothing more, nothing less.

I didn’t mean to be a dick - I’ve been so up tight lately with this exam and shouldn’t have taken it out on you.

[fucci10152]

Looking back, I think both portions (AM and PM) of the exam were both challenging in ways but also fair. I personally thought there was a nice mix of both easy and hard questions. Overall I think my total score will range anywhere between 65% - 70% (fingers crossed I passed).

However, after reading all the comments on this thread it seems like those who were the most surprised about the questions being asked on exam day were those that did countless older mocks and nothing else to prepare.

My take on it is that the CFAI grew wise to this strategy and went out of their way to shake things up to bring the pass rate back down since it went up to 15 year high last year. Me personally I don’t believe in taking 3rd party mocks because I feel the authors either make the questions to easy, hard, or its ambiguous on what’s being asked relative to what the CFAI test makes come up with.

Cheers and good luck to you all!

[Tommyjohn]

schweser mocks were NOTICEABLY harder than previous CFAIs (2010-2018) but not harder because of material. harder due to ambiguity.

[justmapping]

@CharterMartyr

That’s exactly what I’m trying to convey here, and in my case it could be that the Schweser material didn’t do the best job of preparing me for the exam…those niche topics weren’t covered in great detail by Schweser.

Indeed, I somewhat agree with you regarding Schweser (L3). I have been using them for all 3 levels, and L3 is the only that left me disappointed.

Many mistakes to begin with: spelling or formulas (subscript) Some of these mistakes were later updated in the eBook versions of the notes though.

Also, multiple times I was wise to double-check the outline from the curriculum. For instance, Reading #17 - Equity market valuation As per CFAI curriculum, there are TWO types of Relative Value (RV) models: - earnings-based models: Fed, Yardeni & CAPE - asset-based models: Q-models (Tobin’s q & equity q) In Schweser, the latter are not even clearly identified as neither “asset-based”, nor RV models.

L3 was actually the first time I opened my CFAI eBooks for something other than the EoC questions!

[Tactics]

@barracuda

In hindsight (I’m obviously biased), I’d prefer it if the CFAI dropped the L3 pass rate to sub 35%. Would make the value of the charter for both existing and future charterholders much more valuable.

35% pass rate, along with genetic superiority and 180+ IQ, 6 pack abs and 500lb deadlift, 9 inch penis, minimum $1M/yr after-tax income, Porsche 911 in the garage, Malibu beach house, and a Polish supermodel girlfriend, should all be criteria for the charter. Objectively speaking…

[HerbsDelite]

…Man you mean 125mph and s2000 are the only qualifiers …

[CEO10K-DAY]

What sort of chump wouldn’t drive a GT3 if you netted over a mill a year??

[niso7]

…

[niso7]

@barracuda

Do y’all really want the passing rate to be +50%? Do you want the ‘average’ candidate who focused their studying predominantly on the “major” items to pass? How about candidates who simply rehash previous exams and are unable to think outside the box / fold under pressure; should they pass? I, for one, definitely think not.

In hindsight (I’m obviously biased), I’d prefer it if the CFAI dropped the L3 pass rate to sub 35%. Would make the value of the charter for both existing and future charterholders much more valuable.

Wow, there is so much wrong with this response, I don’t even know where to start.

[Imperial_Luwan]

Pass rate is to ensure that most of the survivors had made reasonable efforts (or less but with fine test-taking techniques) before the exam day. No significant correlation between one’s value to the CFA society and how much his/her score exceeds the MPS (a roughly top 50% percentile which is just fine I think). The value of the charter is just over there.

[Equityhacker]

who feels bad that they left some questions unanswered… almost every level 3 candidate i have met left at least 15 points, so its kind of normal.

remember that the last year 90th percentile is approximately 68-67%.

I would say the exam is designed to filter casual takers whom may be passed L1 & L2 by focusing on practicing Multiple choice questions only and without mastering the material and concepts.

[Iprofit4sure]

If you are just good at process of elimination, plug and chug memorization, you won’t pass level III. I wasn’t very surprised the lack of times I really needed to pick up my calculator during the AM session. As others have stated, you must have an in-depth qualitative understanding of the material.

[sp03673]

@Tommyjohn

one thing i will say, is that the “INSANE TIME PRESSURE AHHHH” component of the AM exam, get progressively easier, and easier, and easier to deal with…the more timed AM mocks (closed book, of course) you take.

i took all 4 schwesers and every single mock from 2010-2018 and i think it helped me perform. on saturday, the AM was certainly challenging, but i can say with confidence that there was never a point where i felt outta control.

i still couldda failed. for sure. but idk. i think the AM gets an overstated reputation.

(keep in mind, im saying this from the “privileged” position of a retaker, who left 35+ points BLANK last year, i knew what i was getting into this time. I would be curious to see what the pass rate is for retakers)

and CFA institute knows this that every passing year candidates have more and more materials (3rd party, prev exam papers etc.) and they try to stay ahead of the curve either by changing curriculum or presenting questions in different language / on different topic

[Mattyj7183]

@CharterMartyr

@glorysk87

I don’t think the exam was “unfair” per se, but it was definitely not a comprehensive test of the material. There were quite a few large subjects in the material that just didn’t show up on the exam at all. And there were quite a few very small niche subjects that showed up multiple times on the exam.

For someone who was extremely well prepared, then it was probably no issue. But for the bulk of candidates who try to prioritize their limited time and memory on the seemingly important subjects just to find that on June 15th that they weren’t even tested on the exam - I can understand the frustration.

That’s exactly what I’m trying to convey here, and in my case it could be that the Schweser material didn’t do the best job of preparing me for the exam…those niche topics weren’t covered in great detail by Schweser.

That was my biggest complaint about Schweser for L2 and the main reason I switched to Wiley after I failed L2. Great at the core topics, barely anything for the niche concepts.