I wanted to know what is the difficulty level of real exam… take away exam pressure, are the questions as tough or easier or tougher than the CFAI EOC. I sometimes feel the EOC are too straightforward… does others feel the same? Thanks. I tried the search but didn’t get anything.
Yeah I’d like to hear this too. I remember reading someone said they pull out some pretty tricky questions.
In general, no lengthy calculations, but you need to know which numbers to pick. They will give you a lot of numbers in the vignettes, so if you are weak/unsure, you will be confused. Yes, there are always tricky questions, or questions about things mentioned just a few sentences somewhere, so make sure you check the CFAI LOS. They will NEVER ask you anything not mentioned in the LOS. You can also say that tricky questions mean you really have to master the stuff well to answer correctly. E.g., pension questions, FSA You will definitely have enough time to work through each of your questions within the average time, with some time left at the end for quick doublecheck. That is if you don’t linger doubting. As usual under pressure, you will find that you oversee critical data and jump into wrong answers, even though you know the stuff (very well), so I discovered several “silly” mistakes at doublechecking. Good luck.
A few more comments while I am at it. In general, questions are asked in increasing degree of difficulties (w/i the vignette), with a few “giveaways” at the beginning so if you find yourself spending a lot of time calculating the first few questions, watch out. CFAI is not out to trick you, so not afraid of misleading/unclear questions (like the ones you hear alot on this forum), but you already know that (from level I). However, there are a lot to test, so they do pick and choose areas of focus (otherwise you can easy sit on a 3-day exam), so some time they ask a lot of “tough questions” in some areas, while leaving out a whole key area untested, so if you bet on areas, you may be out of luck, but if you cover all bases then no problem. but bottom line is that CFAI exam is FAIR and ask you questions you will able to answer if you follow the LOS.
Thanks elcfa. Very insightful, indeed.
thanks elcfa… What I conclude from your inputs is: There are at least half questions ( the ones in beginning) that would be of same difficulty as CFAI EOC…lets call it easy to moderate… other half will be tricky with lots of extra data… so unless one is clear conceptually they could cause problems… Aim should be to cover all the LOS… EOC from CFAI and Schweser… some tests ( I never get time for that though) In exam not to miss the easy points… and pray that you catch around 40% of tough ones… That makes it 70 %… phew… Thanks.
SidL1 Wrote: > There are at least half questions ( the ones in > beginning) that would be of same difficulty as > CFAI EOC…lets call it easy to moderate… I did not say that they are of same difficulties as EOC. I did not spend time thinking about it, so I would not venture an opinion. I did not say half of them are easy/moderate since they all depend on how well you master the stuff. If you do then, pick number a, multiply with b divide with c out of 20 numbers --> oh, answer 2 move on. 20 seconds spent. If not, is it b or is e, how come I don’t see x which I need,… next thing you know 4 min is spent. I did say the questions tend to be easier at the beginning. > > other half will be tricky with lots of extra > data… so unless one is clear conceptually they > could cause problems… Again, I would not dare put out a %. As I said earlier, sometime they spend a whole vignette focusing on a difficult area, asking say only about Durbin Watson and Hansen with some questions about Engle Granger thrown in for fun. If you are weak on that, then the answer is 100%, if it is your expertise, then it is piece of cake. If I remember correctly, very few questions even difficult ones require comprehensive calculations, or require a lot of data (except topics by themselves require a lot of data: swaps, foreign translations in FSA,…), but they do require you either to understand the finer nuances of basic stuff (no more difficult than the type of questions that you see posted here everyday) or more ‘obscure’ (a key difference btw USGAAP and IFRS mentioned in passing in the book for example) I don’t want to scare you. The questions belonging to the last category are NOT often, but they do happen. As I emphasize, take in TOTAL, the exam is Fair, questions focusing more on knowledge testing rather your calculation skills.
Thanks elcfa. Very useful information and opinion.
Thanks elcfa… that was very informative… I got your point…just wanted to relate the questions to EOC… which is what I am going to do this month… GLTA
Even though am not a retaker, I firmly think that reading the question again and again will give you idea what to calculate or answer, that REALLY clears off the silly mistakes even when you know the topic!
concepts, concepts, concepts, folks. Don’t just think of formulas (although you will need to them too), but also think of what the heck the idea is… why stock options exist, why do people use swaps, what all the variety of bonds used for, what P/E measures, etc. That way, even if a “new” question is thrown at you, you know what they are asking and you know how to deal with it. It’s good to make your study habit like that.
I don’t understand why people keep saying the EOC are easy/moderate. Maybe I’m up to my biggest disappointment when I start taking sample exams, as I haven’t done so yet, but I sure won’t quantify the EOC as easy or generalize them all as moderate. Some are very hard indeed and would think that the exam would be very similar to the EOC. The thought of having an exam much harder than EOC is destroying my moral. Am I crazy?
The EOC has easy to very hard questions requiring a lot of digging. Having been actually doing the EOC this time I think the exam is comparable but with more tricks, less text, sometimes less info when you need more info to make something clear. The core of both are similar. The EOC has longggg questions and some over the top that you won’t see on the exam. The exam sticks to the time per question limit. What makes the actual exam so hard it the time pressure and the fact that if you screww it up, you are doom for another year. You have to be on top of everything, no telling what they won’t or will cover in DETAILS.