I remember from last year discussion post exam that you guys felt that PM exam was easier than AM exam. How easy was that? Easier to score>70%? I know AM exam had curve balls (Implied Assets, WACC and Grinold equity return in different format etc) so it was hard to score. What were the curve balls in PM exam?
PM exam last year was much much easier to score > 70%. AM exam is a lot difficult. I hate using the same book for both question and answer. You always need to flip around question pages and answer pages. Easily missed out questions. I remember many people missed out Q11 or found it only in the last minutes. Does anyone have good tips of avoiding missing out questions?
I believe at the very front of the AM exam, the number of questions and the time allocation per question is listed. The allocation of time is more of a guidance but you should absolutely pay attention to how many questions there are. In recent years there have been anywhere from 9-12 questions in a given morning exam. Make sure you at least attempt every single question. Don’t spend 5 minutes staring at a question you do not understand, come back to it and move on. I’ve heard horror stories of people not seeing a question at the very end until it was too late. Don’t let this happen to you. Pay attention and flip through every single page of the exam booklet.
anyone else? C’mon don’t shy and share your experience.
Sure, I’ll share… I walked out thinking the afternoon was extremely easy, but then my pm score was a lot poorer than thought would be. e.g. bombed FI, which was like 2 of 10 item sets. I must have f****d up the calc’s - probably a brain fart. Also failed economics, which I didn’t think would be that much of a problem (I can’t remember exactly what they asked, but I hadn’t looked at econ. since like early May because was focusing on IPS). For the am, definitely don’t get stuck on anything. Answer the IPS pretty quickly, because they’re a huge time suck. You want to leave enough time to go back and review what you wrote… but be careful about second-guessing, which is what I did (I changed half my answers to Institutional IPS question #2… dumb). My advice is, don’t be like me… get it done in one year!!!
i’ll share too. Walking out the exam last year, I also felt pretty good - probably the best among the three levels I took. (I felt not doing well in Level I and Level II, but passed both). So you get the idea. I finished PM ahead of time and started to QC (a.k.a., second guess my own answers) and changed several ones (such as the two bond hedge - originally done correctly, but somehow recall Schweser notes saying short 5-year bonds and long 20-year bonds, and changed my calculation), big mistake. So, the journey of Level III is like walking on eggshells - can’t be careful enough. Need to drill down on the concept in a deeper level.
thank you guys. This is helpful Also what were the sections they tested in FI? Any curve balls in PM?
I’m going off memory obviously… think there was a dollar duration question, what’s the rebalancing ratio? Also, should you employ cash flow matching or multiple liability immunization - which was appropriate given the circumstances? Maybe others can chime in, if I’m wrong. There weren’t any problems in the pm where I was like “I can’t believe they’re asking THAT”
surprizes me to see that you guys remember so much of your real exam … for me i just remember my exam centre and exam date for 2009 exam 
Bumping this thread up (and also kind of hijacking it), I was wondering how any of the retakers felt about which questions/mocks/samples most closely resembled the actual test. Have gone through Schweser about 1.5 times and am halfway through the CFAI books (first time ever using them), and to me it seems like the EOC questions (have done them all) in the CFAI books are just ridiculous and not very value-adding - if my suspicions are correct, I’m going to get to the Schweser practice tests sooner rather than later, but if indeed that is what the test is like, I’ll just suck it up and finish the CFAI books. Thanks for anyone’s input, and good luck everybody.
i wrote last year and walked out of there thinking i did really well (best in all 3 levels) thought there was only a 5% chance i failed…but somehow i must’ve fell for the traps! i studied quite a bit and felt the exam overall was fair if you were prepared. there were a few questions that made you go wtf??? but thats always expected. all i can say is do as many questions as you can. thats my stratefy this year
i wrote last year and walked out of there thinking i did really well (best in all 3 levels) thought there was only a 5% chance i failed…but somehow i must’ve fell for the traps! i studied quite a bit and felt the exam overall was fair if you were prepared. there were a few questions that made you go wtf??? but thats always expected. all i can say is do as many questions as you can. thats my strategy this year
skillionaire Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Bumping this thread up (and also kind of hijacking > it), I was wondering how any of the retakers felt > about which questions/mocks/samples most closely > resembled the actual test. > > Have gone through Schweser about 1.5 times and am > halfway through the CFAI books (first time ever > using them), and to me it seems like the EOC > questions (have done them all) in the CFAI books > are just ridiculous and not very value-adding - if > my suspicions are correct, I’m going to get to the > Schweser practice tests sooner rather than later, > but if indeed that is what the test is like, I’ll > just suck it up and finish the CFAI books. > > Thanks for anyone’s input, and good luck > everybody. EOC questions are supposed to help with understanding of the concepts and are more exercises to supplement the material not necessarily examples of what you would see on the exam. They are good to go through while still looking back at the material. Their value varies by SS. I like them and will try cover all of them before starting on the Schweser material questions.
Blamey Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > skillionaire Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Bumping this thread up (and also kind of > hijacking > > it), I was wondering how any of the retakers > felt > > about which questions/mocks/samples most > closely > > resembled the actual test. > > > > Have gone through Schweser about 1.5 times and > am > > halfway through the CFAI books (first time ever > > using them), and to me it seems like the EOC > > questions (have done them all) in the CFAI > books > > are just ridiculous and not very value-adding - > if > > my suspicions are correct, I’m going to get to > the > > Schweser practice tests sooner rather than > later, > > but if indeed that is what the test is like, > I’ll > > just suck it up and finish the CFAI books. > > > > Thanks for anyone’s input, and good luck > > everybody. > > EOC questions are supposed to help with > understanding of the concepts and are more > exercises to supplement the material not > necessarily examples of what you would see on the > exam. They are good to go through while still > looking back at the material. Their value varies > by SS. I like them and will try cover all of them > before starting on the Schweser material > questions. Thanks - you think it’s really a good use of time to go through all the CFAI EOC questions? The ambiguity of them really makes them a time drain, and (IMO) they don’t seem to reinforce concepts as well as Schweser (again, IMO). If a retaker can confirm that the Schweser practice exams are fairly comparable to the real exam, then I believe I’d stop doing the CFAI EOC questions and refocus back to strictly Schweser (save for some problem sections, where I would do the CFAI reading and EOCs).
I think the consensus is that the Schweser exams are NOT an accurate read on what we’ll see on exam day although you can benefit from getting more practice there. the more difficult Schweser exams can be kind of “out there.” I’ve found going through the actual '05 and '06 CFAI exams is the best way to get a feel for the real thing.
cfafa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think the consensus is that the Schweser exams > are NOT an accurate read on what we’ll see on exam > day although you can benefit from getting more > practice there. the more difficult Schweser exams > can be kind of “out there.” I’ve found going > through the actual '05 and '06 CFAI exams is the > best way to get a feel for the real thing. *possible stupid question alert* Where does one find those exams? I have the essay portions from the website for the the last three year’s exams (still haven’t looked at them, though) - are those old exams posted somewhere? Thanks.
I knew I was in trouble when EVERYONE I talked to on LIII thought they did well. I personally found the AM portion easier, but that’s just me. FI smoked me in the afternoon.
skillionaire Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > cfafa Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I think the consensus is that the Schweser > exams > > are NOT an accurate read on what we’ll see on > exam > > day although you can benefit from getting more > > practice there. the more difficult Schweser > exams > > can be kind of “out there.” I’ve found going > > through the actual '05 and '06 CFAI exams is > the > > best way to get a feel for the real thing. > > > *possible stupid question alert* > > Where does one find those exams? I have the essay > portions from the website for the the last three > year’s exams (still haven’t looked at them, > though) - are those old exams posted somewhere? > > Thanks. skill waddup boi! as far as i can telll only the morn essay past cfa exams are released… i have search hi and lo and cant find any afternoon item set questiion exams…
@skillionaire: the essay portions are available, and that’s what I’ve been working with. I don’t have the multiple choice portions of those exams. Are those online…anyone? anyone?
Hey Spongey- I totally agree. I thought I did really well. And then freaked when I heard the same from everyone else. Also, I passed every Mock exam I took on the CFAI website (over 70). So my take is that there were curve balls on both sections. I mean, I failed ethics in the PM and for the life of me, I still don’t know why.