Failed Band 9 last year. Thought this year was easier, but was better prepared, did 6 Kaplan and 1 CFA mocks. I thought AM was pretty straight forward, and expected PM to be harder, but it was actually ok until the last three vignettes. I passed FI last year, but don’t think I did this year, but think I did better on FRA, CF, Deriv, and Ethics this year. Time will tell.
AM: felt pretty good
PM: felt alright. Not that good, but not that particularly bad either. Average. Had to guess too many questions for my liking though!
Happy that fatigue did not kick in. I ate very lightly this time and it definitely helped me getting through the PM session.
2-3 exam questions keep haunting me, but there’s no point worrying now. I need to relax and enjoy the Summer.
Only the CFA gods can tell now whether I have passed or failed.
Ditto also failed band 9 last year, I thought this year was very similar to last years exam, would even say there were almost identical questions in a few topics. I thought both papers were ok nothing hard, just a couple tricky questions which tested the peripheral topics and not the core content. With that being said you just don’t know…
@ Band 9-10 failers last year , have you ever counted the total number of your uncertain questions? And what were they? I had roughly 35 uncertain answers last year exam and the one before that and ended up with band 10 fail for both times. This year I had 30, god bless me! Lol
Overall i had 20 uncertain questions assuming i got 33% correct that’s 6.6
The remaining 100 assuming i got 75% correct that’s 75
A total of 81.6/120 = 68%
It is what im hoping for anyway…
I felt Ethics was on the similar line. Rather most of the papers. FRA and CF were <50 last year
FRA and CF went definitely better this year. Based on my calculations i think i scored around 72-75 probably and 75-78/120 could be a pass.
Haha not at all.
back-test with how you did last year to reach out the probabilities for both certain and uncertain parts
I found the exam to be quite doable. Had about 30 mins to spare on each sit to go over some questions that I wasn’t able to answer on first pass. PM actually felt like a breeze despite the odd questions every now and then, it was harder than AM but for some reason I had more spare time during PM than AM. Fellow candidates at the test center shared the same experience.
Mostly disappointed about how CFAI decided to test Ethics.
The exam felt fair, with a few tough sections. Especially one item set in Equity and one in derivatives. Upon reflection I have realized several sloppy errors I have made (misreading questions, or just rushing through them too quickly) for what should have been theoretically easy marks for me.
If I fail, it will be so disappointing, but I am at peace with it. I can’t have put anymore work in then I did. My fear is that I am a marginal candidate, and that my poor ethics performance will bring me under the line.
Oh well.
how does it work so that c. 45% people pass…
I can’t imagine there are that many people at Level 2 getting 50% or less so really we are probably fighting against the tiny threshold of a respectable 60% and failing, or getting a slightly more respectable 65% and passing…
mmm…
AM I found quite easy, I was quite sure to pass AM on its own. But PM I found way, way harder from beginning to end.
In general I have problems concentrating in the PM session up from the middle, my brain is too exhausted at this point. Was the same with Level 1 last year. I will definitively do not do any mocks on the last day to the exam and try to refresh more…
I felt the AM and PM were of similar difficulty because I had roughly the same number of uncertain questions (18 - 20). By uncertain I meant the questions were complete rocket science to me (about 3 - 5 in each sessions) or I was only able to rule 1 option out and had to make an educated guess, and some I marked uncertain just because I’m not feeling my answer is quite right. The rest I can be confident to be correct in at least 80% of them. If the chances are generous and I’m getting 50% of those uncertain questions right my score could be in the high 60s and close to 70 which is a somewhat safe spot, hopefully…
AM felt definitely easier, but finished with 1 min or so to spare, which wasn’t enough to tackle one question I had left out, so I had to put an educated guess there.
PM felt harder, but was going way faster. I spent probably 10 minutes on 1 or 2 derivative questions because I saw I had so much to spare. Had to make 4-5 educated guesses on PM, most of which turned out to be incorrect when I checked after. Hopefully the rest will carry me to a pass.
MPS aren’t disclosed but guesstimates are 63%-65%. A group of CFA charterholders determines the % of minimally competent test takers that should get each question correct, the % are averaged and an MPS range is determined. The Board will then set the definite cut score. I believe this last step, setting the definite MPS, is influenced by the resulting pass rate in order to stay close to the x-year average pass rate.
I found the exam is more straightforward than the Schweser mocks but as equivalent as IFT mocks. But it is technically more difficult than IFT mocks. Besides, there are a lot of tricks.
For me, the PM is easier than the AM. I finished with 15m to spare and 10 educated guesses for each exam.
When I just finished, I realized make 4 mistakes on AM and 2 on PM. The nb of wrong answers of course must be higher for sure but I feel that I can not fail this exam.
I agree AM felt easier, but took much more time. Plus for some reason I was so nervous and also sick during the AM session that I was already in the 5th vignette when I stopped shaking. I don’t remember one single question from AM, I could not count my unsure answers as I just finished 2-3 minutes before the end.
PM was harder, did contain tricky questions and also quite a few from parts of the material which were not tested in the TTs, even EOCs or did not get much emphasize so I had to make educated guesses which turned out to be wrong when I checked at home.
I’m pretty sure I will repeat LII next June.
But overall I’m sad because I think the exam was doable, had I not been so nervous, would I looked up some non core material by the end.
65? You really think so?
Band 9 in 2016.
Less than 50. AI. Corp F.
Between 51-70- Deri, Equity, Ethics, FI, PM
Over 71- Econ, FRA, QM.
exactly, can you imagine 55% of dedicated level 2 candidates getting less than 63% - madness
How are the bands constructed? Do you have the same number of candidates in each or is it split for result range?