I have now done a few of these and I’m consistently finishing them in around 2 hours, sometimes less. My scores have also been very good. This is making me worried that perhaps they aren’t a true reflection of the difficulty of the PM paper. I’m expecting the PM paper to be far less time constrained than the AM on June 4th as this is consistent with what other Charterholders have told me, but to be able to breeze through one in 2 hours or so makes me skeptical. The CFAI Topic Tests on the other hand I have found much harder, the answers are rarely as ‘clear-cut’ as in the Schweser PM Mocks where I’m usually almost certain when I know the correct answer, and when I’m wrong I understand exactly why. I wonder what everyone else’s thoughts are? I still have 2 of the V2 mocks to do but not sure if my time would be better spent doing Topic Tests and EOCs instead (as well as AM practice of course!)
I write this having just completed the ‘V1 Exam 3 Afternoon’ in 1hr 53mins
I’m still going through the TTs, and yes, some are very difficult. I also understand that the 2016 CFAI mocks are pretty up there in terms of difficulty. I’d set these as a benchmark.
If you’ve done those and the EOC, that’s more than enough for the PM (close to 50 hours I’d guess), you should be doing a lot more for the AM anyway, so you’re most likely behind in that segment.
I have gone through all the online topic tests (TT) 3-4 times each and the problem I see is that many core topics are not covered or in some cases duplicated with very similar questions so the scope of the example suffers from sample selection…Schweser is good in that over the 6 PM practice exams (60 PM item sets)… they at least make sure to cover everything.
Which topics were poorly covered? I’m assuming Individual and institutional investing.
+1
I mean concepts/formulas/calculations… between all the selection of online item sets… there are holes in the curriculum… just to be aware of that
The main benefit I have found with schweser exams is the more comprehensive explanations of answers compared to the CFAI Topic Tests. Sometimes it’s not clear on a TT why the right answer is right, the explanations are too brief to be able to ‘learn’ from. I suppose just because they are more difficult doesn’t mean they’re better for revision. I also agree that the scope of coverage is quite narrow, for example there are 10 TTs for fixed income, but similar topics are tested multiple times such as Yield Beta and leveraged portfolio return. Another Schweser V2 exam tomorrow. Going by the up and down pattern I’ve had in recent weeks (one good day followed by one bad day), I will be back to being certain of failure tomorrow lol. Wish you all the best of luck in your studies
What is your definition of “very good”? Like around 85?
I also found that the PMs in general (both Schweser and CFA 2016 mock) take roughly 2 hours. I wouldn’t be worried if your finishing in ample time and getting good scores…imagine if you were in the reverse situation.
“everyone” finishes the PM portion in about 2 hours on exam day… but only 52% pass 
I’m familiar with this line of thinking.
Get a bad/average score: “Ugh, I suck”
Get a good score: “This can’t be right”
I really can’t think of a better feeling than getting 6/6 on the first attempt #feelsgood
Yeah those are nice. I got a 1/6 on an Alts topic test last week and I basically wrote this year off completely. #overreactions
Yea I did the V1 3 AM & PM today and got 74% AM and 83.33% PM. And yeah the immediate thought was “this can’t be right, must be too easy” lol. A bad score = a catastrophe “I’m never gonna pass…” a good score = “well, that was just an easy exam, the real exam is gonna be a lot harder”. Funny how we think.
Lol…you hit the nail on the head.
My Schweser 1 PM I got 52%, my Schweser 2 PM I got 88%. Go figure.