I am preparing to take Level I in June this year. I am wondering if the successful Level I candidates here (all of you!) have experience with the following: Most candidates say that the real exam (Level I) is only ~30% calculation-based, i.e., most of the questions are theoretical, conceptual, and what someone on this forum called “obscure.” Two questions: 1. As such, which question bank (Schweser/Stalla/Allen/ any other), is most similar to the real test in this aspect? 2. Does it matter if a candidate prepares mostly with “calculation-based” questions (from Schweser/Stalla) and then applies those test-skills to the mostly theoretical questions on the real exam? Appreciate any insights.
- No, not similiar at all. But, the calculation intensive questions prepare you for the conceptual questions. 2. It depends however you learn best.
I would focus the other direction, focus on the theoretical part and let that drive your calculations, this doesn’t mean you dont need to know how to do the calcs, but will give you the big picture behind them. Get the big picture, that will lead you towards the answer. I’ve only used Qbank, it works fine. do the practice or mock exams (whatever they are called), those are the closest thing to the real exam but Qbank will help you get the concepts down. Good luck.
- did not use qbank for L1. went straight to the schweser practice exams 2. if you understand the logic behind it, then you should be fine. maybe you find something here: http://www.cfainstitute.org/cfaprog/courseofstudy/sample.html
ok - great thank you. One more query: I find Stalla lectures and notes much easier to follow vs Schweser’s material/lecture (I got both for June Level I). I am working through Passmaster and get scores around ~80% but am not planning to do Schweser’s QBank. Do you think Qbank has more difficult questions or “better” questions that prepare you better for the exam? Am I missing something by sticking with (only) Stalla questions/Passmaster only? Should I worry about how rigorous Passmaster is and if its alone enough to prepare for the exam? Any thoughts? Thanks.
the passmaster questions are fine. my problem with it is that there are a pretty small number. If you have Qbank - why not use it? the more questions the better in my opinion.
I found the Schweser exams were much more calc intensive than the real thing. The main impact is time, calculations can be very time consuming even when you know what you’re doing. So while I never had extra time while doing schweser exams I finished with 30 minutes to spare on the real thing.
When I was trying to Book-7 at L1. I remember each question taking me around 15 mins each to get done. Book-7 is a joke to humanity. Book-6 is also much more calculation intensive, but it’s good for practice under non-timed conditions.