I thought L1 difference was minimal L2 difference was substantial L3…?
I’m not a retaker, but I have taken the 2008 and 09 morning sessions, and they’re decidedly different from Schweser. Same story at every level - Schweser is more calc intensive, CFAI is more concept-oriented. Why not take a past exam and judge for yourself?
CFAI = concepts (north pole) Schweser = calculation (south pole)
it’s a good question and I’d also like to know. For L2 last year, I felt that schweser’s exams helped me a lot. I am planning on using old CFAI mocks and samples along with schweser as well as doing EOC questions.
DoubleDip Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > it’s a good question and I’d also like to know. > For L2 last year, I felt that schweser’s exams > helped me a lot. I am planning on using old CFAI > mocks and samples along with schweser as well as > doing EOC questions. Not to restate the obvious, but you can simply take a Schweser exam and take a past year’s AM portion and compare the two. As far as the PM goes, I’d hope (and assume) that the mock is reasonably similar to the actual exam, and again, is much more concept-oriented than the memorization and calculation intensive Schweser PM sections.
yes, I know … but it would still be interesting to hear from people who actually sat for LIII… there have to be some of them lurking around here I would think.
Hi, lurker here. I actually thought the Schweser sample exam morning sessions were a bit more accurate to the real thing than the multiple choice exams . I mostly think that Schweser’s multiple choice exams are harder (more specific / ridiculously picky questions) than the real thing, but that their essays are slightly easier than the real thing. Some of the CFA essays (ie, WACC for pensions, implied assets - come on!) were harder than I anticipated them to be, and I also believed that the graders were harder as well. Last year I took a 3 day Schweser seminar prior to the test and the instructor kept saying that the graders would give lots of partial credit and go easy on us because they had all been there. riiigggghhhhtttt. Essays aside, ethics was very tricky last year as well. Lots of AMC questions. Fixed Income was also a weak point for me because there were several questions on calculations of a two bond hedge in the afternoon. Anyways, I failed last year and am retaking. I have never walked away from a CFA exam feeling as confident as I did last year, so I was fairly shocked when I failed. Actually, I never walked away from I or 2 feeling confident at all, so like I said, literally shocked at the results.
jrotimla Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hi, lurker here. > > I actually thought the Schweser sample exam > morning sessions were a bit more accurate to the > real thing than the multiple choice exams . I > mostly think that Schweser’s multiple choice exams > are harder (more specific / ridiculously picky > questions) than the real thing, but that their > essays are slightly easier than the real thing. > Some of the CFA essays (ie, WACC for pensions, > implied assets - come on!) were harder than I > anticipated them to be, and I also believed that > the graders were harder as well. Last year I took > a 3 day Schweser seminar prior to the test and the > instructor kept saying that the graders would give > lots of partial credit and go easy on us because > they had all been there. riiigggghhhhtttt. > > Essays aside, ethics was very tricky last year as > well. Lots of AMC questions. Fixed Income was > also a weak point for me because there were > several questions on calculations of a two bond > hedge in the afternoon. > > Anyways, I failed last year and am retaking. I > have never walked away from a CFA exam feeling as > confident as I did last year, so I was fairly > shocked when I failed. Actually, I never walked > away from I or 2 feeling confident at all, so like > I said, literally shocked at the results. Thanks, needed that motivation. Was gonna play some poker for a few hours but after hearing that, “attribution and two bond hedge, here I come”.
Haha, sorry about that. Actually last year there weren’t any attribution questions that I recall, with AMC I was referring to Asset Manager Code. I am definitely anticipating that they will have a micro attribution question this year - either morning or afternoon.
Level 3 is way different. Schweser was terrible. Good luck everyone. I will be pulling for you in 2 weeks.
This is great to know, thanks so much!