Yah, I’ve known a couple of people that sat L1 without calculators because they simply didn’t think it was necessary. I remember after I sat L2 helping my friends take practice exams for L1. The process we used basically meant I got to take the practice exams along with them. I was easily scoring 80+%'s without a calculator or scrap paper just eyeballing the answers despite being a mediocre L1 candidate like 8 months prior. You’ll be surprised how easy this exam will look once you’ve progressed through L2. Definitely a lot of work, but looking forward to progressing is something to get excited about.
Would you be able to translate, say, a Money Market Yield rate into a Bond Equivalent yield without a calc? Don’t take me wrong, I am not being skeptical, I just want to know what kind of things people may calculate with their heads in a reasonable amount of time. For continous compounding for instance, it would be just impossible to do it…
Of course you can’t calculate exact figures. However, we know that the effects of continous compounding are 10-15% more as compared to simple compounding over a short interval. I was thinking to myself as well, during the exam, it was doable. Maybe 10-15 would have required a few calculations but it is definitely possible.
It’s more of an eyeballing the question then looking at the existing answers and coming up with a reasonable approximation. Maybe you miss a few, but as I said, I was knocking out 80+% on samples / mocks doing this.
Guys, Just wanted to confirm if the admission ticket is taken away by the proctor during the second session?
Yes, it is. Don’t ask me why, though.
Thanks for confirming!
I get the whole eyeballing thing, but it seems kind of foolish to just not bring a calculator because you think you can eyeball every question. It just seems like a extremely minor inconvenience just so you can say I took the test without one.
Evening was harder, overall straightforward in most of the areas. Hope to pass 
They take away the admission ticket to check that nothing was written on it at any time during the exam, I believe. The calculator is definitely helpful, but if you know your stuff, I can definitely believe it is possible to pass without it. I’m very happy I didn’t have to do it that way. The woman who had a nonstandard calculator and being given an HP12c: it must have been horrific to try to figure out how to make it work without the equals button if she’d never seen RPN.
Even so, knowing that you paid a thousand dollars (excluding prep material costs) to sit for 6 hours of the exam, that is about 150-200 per hour. I’m sure she earns lesser than that at her current job. Why not take it as another day at work and try your best? Why give up so easily?
Then again, the fact that she had a nonstandard calculator throughout her studies shows that she wasn’t really serious in the first place. The calculator was the first thing I saw. In the schweser books, the CFAI books, the internet, it’s everywhere. How can you miss it?
I must be the only person who found the afternoon session easier than the morning one. After the morning session, I was so disappointed that I considered going home. The only thing that kept me going was that it was about to start raining and I didn’t have an umbrella so needed some shelter. When I got back to the center I found that the person in front of me gave up on the afternoon session. And I found the afternoon session much easier. However, I’m still not confident of passing overall. It was like trying to make a comeback in soccer from 3-0 down at half-time.
Haha, keep your head up. It always feels questionable afterwards. Consensus is morning is easier, but I always did much worse on the mornings while everyone felt great and rallied for a really awesome afternoon while everyone else was looking miserable. So you’re probably just the same way.
i found the afternoon easier than the morning too… the morning had a few more things that i just didn’t know how to do on it, couldn’t even really make a half ass attempt at a guess or narrow it down because i just did not know some of the quant and econ i saw. Still confident though that I was able to stay within passing range. I barely even remember the questions on there except the ones I had trouble with, it’s like i blacked everything else out
i found the afternoon easier than the morning too… the morning had a few more things that i just didn’t know how to do on it, couldn’t even really make a half ass attempt at a guess or narrow it down because i just did not know some of the quant and econ i saw. Still confident though that I was able to stay within passing range. I barely even remember the questions on there except the ones I had trouble with, it’s like i blacked everything else out
My test center has so many weird people, the girl that sit next to me bring some pens, highlighters to the test center instead of pencils and was apparently very panick when the proctor not allow her to bring in those stuff. I think this is extremely ignorant because at least you must know that you need a pencil to fill in the answer script, I thought she did bring pencil and only pens to write but it turns out she has no pencil with her. She ended up borrow a pencil from a guy who brought 8 pencils (yes i counted 8!!!) and she did not turn up in the afternoon session so it is really a waste of money. Another man infront of my desk keep shaking his table that make me feel so uncomfortable because of the noise, but luckily i have my ear plugs! Oh and by the way, I saw one guy sleeping outside the corridor when walking out of the test room in the PM session, he was inside the room taking the test in the morning, perhaps he took a quick nap during lunch break but turn out he slept away the entire PM session!
My test center has so many weird people, the girl that sit next to me bring some pens, highlighters to the test center instead of pencils and was apparently very panick when the proctor not allow her to bring in those stuff. I think this is extremely ignorant because at least you must know that you need a pencil to fill in the answer script, I thought she did bring pencil and only pens to write but it turns out she has no pencil with her. She ended up borrow a pencil from a guy who brought 8 pencils (yes i counted 8!!!) and she did not turn up in the afternoon session so it is really a waste of money. Another man infront of my desk keep shaking his table that make me feel so uncomfortable because of the noise, but luckily i have my ear plugs! Oh and by the way, I saw one guy sleeping outside the corridor when walking out of the test room in the PM session, he was inside the room taking the test in the morning, perhaps he took a quick nap during lunch break but turn out he slept away the entire PM session!
I found both sessions equally challenging, even though this is my third time taking the exam, I found many questions in this exam very hard and I’ve never seen before. It can be easily seen as very easy at the first glance but once you read it a second time, you may find that there are many tricks, traps which requires a deep level of understanding. The ethics questions are also very tricky and the answers are purposely worded in the way that make us very easily pick the wrong answers. With 3 years of studying the level 1 curriculum, to be honest I can read the notes in every chapters in the reverse order (except for the new material parts) and I found many tricks are carefully crafted in this exam! Feeling very anxious for the exam result though!
Long time reader, first time posting. This was my first time to sit for the exam and I put in a considerable amount of time – 325+ hrs plus long working hours. I thought the afternoon was easier than the morning. I agree - it really is an amazingly written exam. The morning might have been harder to me because the topics that I pounded out the week before weren’t prevalent. I feel the same way as a previous post - even if we were able to discuss the exam, I’d have no info to give you because I only remember about 5 questions on the test. It’s definitely a unique atmosphere. My life has been hell so I’m gracious to have a little break.