folks, there is a question in post-exam survey: I had adequate time in the morning session to complete the exam
Those who think CFA Institute overly focuses on test-takers ability to manage time in the AM session must participate in the survey for the sake of this single question. Still a week to submit your replies.
I wrote 13 mocks and never once went over the 3 hour mark in the AM session. If you cannot manage your time well in the 3 hours, learn to do so.
I think formulating thoughtful answers, specifically this year given the instructions for written responses, was particularly challenging in 3 hours time. I completed 14 mocks in 3 hours, yet I respectfully disagree that this was ample time, this year specifically given what I mentioned. That being said, it’s all relative to how they grade these answers. If the instructions that were given on this years exam are strictly enforced then I believe more time should be given. Just my two cents.
Sorry kjames, but to respectfully disagree, I did 13 mocks as well (i.e. all six Kaplan exams, all EOC Kaplan questions, all EOC CFAI questions, all online CFAI MC questions, 2010-2015 MC mocks, and 2007-2014 CFAI actual essay mocks). If you add up the question count, this is probably well over “13” exams.
i timed myself on every essay mock and never went over 3 hours from 2007-2014 (with the exception of 2013 because I found that one to be a bit challenging relative to others) and even had 15-20 minutes to spare often times.
If you did not feel rushed for time on this year’s AM then I seriously applaud you and would love to know your secret for success.
My secret for success is managing my time well
As did I and in fact I finished the exam with 10 minutes to spare and only skipped one 4-pointer completely because I didn’t know how to answer it at all (hence I knew it was a lost cause anyway).
My point is that in that 10 minutes, I was scrambling through the test and was barely able to go back to other questions to review/revisit.
-Read the question before the text
-Use lists, bullet points, and focus on key words instead of grammar
-Use only 1-2 of their 8 pages they provide
-Know your s***
That being said, I wrote almost right up until time was called.
In the end, everyone is in the same boat, and the test is scaled. So suck it up and enjoy the summer.
baspy and kjames - you neglect to factor in the “scores” on your “13” exams you wrote prior to the test day. if you are cruising through the AM session with ample time but scoring a 55-60%, then finishing early and/or on time is irrelevant. i’d rather answer 160 out of 180 questions (being cut for time) but do so at a 80% accuracy.
this year’s AM session was fairly long, and i’d argue only the top 5% of test takers finished early (with a fairly high accuracy), and would also argue there were about 15% of test takers who finished on time (but rushed through the exam and their answers were the first thing that came to mind, and/or misread the question, rather than the correct answer - resulting in a low 45-55% score).
finishing early and/or on time has very little bearing on whether you scored well on the AM session (obviously, i’m not thinking of or factoring the folks who were completely unprepared and missed like 30-40pts in the AM session). as i mentioned in another thread, a good friend of mine missed an ENTIRE question and its subparts (15pts), skipped another 1 or 2 subparts, and still passed last yr.
Wait am I understanding this correctly - your asking kjames05 what his secret to success is (and he is happy to provide it) for whatever that is worth - before he got his exam results lol. Well done sir but, respectfully, hope you managed your answers as well as you claim to have managed your time. Finishing on time is the easy part!
I got 70+ on all the mocks with the exception of 2013 which I got low to mid 60s I believe. I thought this exam was closest to 2013 in terms of length, depth/breadth, and overall candidate caliber required to nail it.
i honestly have no idea what to expect on this one…