The test felt very easy to me, and that concerns me a bit. I took 7 mocks and I tended to do better on mocks that I thought were hard, and worse (though arguably passing) on mocks that were easier. I’m glad that happened…it forced me to go REALLY slowly on questions that I thought were easy and look for traps. I hope I found them all. For some calculations, I backed into the incorrect answers just to confirm that I wasn’t making a likely mistake. I avoided the temptation to leave early and went back to review some things, which I believe helped me lock in an extra 3 points. The afternoon was much easier for me. The test was much closer to the Schweser mocks and CFAI online assessments, and nothing like the CFAI or Boston Society mocks, which I thought had questions that were very poorly worded. Ethics was challenging, econ mixed, and everything else much easier than expected. I would be shocked if I didn’t pass…and one way or another, I’m never taking Level II again. Very few people left early at my test center. I was amazed by the people that dressed in shorts and t-shirts (we had some serious air conditioning during most of the test), nearly caused accidents in the parking lot, showed up with no food and had to waste their lunch break in a very long concession line, continuously failed to bring their tickets to the restrooms, brought 20 pencils, tried using the restrooms during the instruction period, kept working on their calculators during a medical emergency break, and brought in other stuff that was not recommended. There was some very humorous decision making on display for sure.
Its strange how the experiences seem so different. To me the AI questions seemed relatively easy and I am by no means a pro on the topic but I did the calculations in the material a couple times during revision. Even the FI one which a number seem to be talking about (except for one question) did not seem to difficult with some basic knowledge.
PM got me and I know I did not do well partly because I ran out of time. Also had some problems on one of the derivatives sections.
Mine was overvalued and that also by cents. I was confused whether to go with overvalued or fairlyvalued.
Guys, a reminder that even if you’re not writing about a specific question, you probably shouldn’t be indicating the relative weighting of the topics either. In other words, we knew when we walked into the exam that there were at least 12 fixed income questions because 10% was the minimum weighting, but we shouldn’t be indicating whether there were 2 or 3 or 4 vignettes (the max of 20%). If CFAI wanted to disclose how heavily topics would be tested, they wouldn’t have given us weighting ranges.
I’d hate to have passed but have my score voided.
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Odd, seems like one of us dropped the ball and the other one was correct regarding the calculation
Does someone else found the first question of the last item of the AM impossible to solve?
I spend 20 minutes at the end of the session doing the calculus and re reading every word carefully and still never got closed to one of the answer allow.
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Your calculation was lower than the price less margin? It was the opposite for me, it lied above the band.
Same for me if I remember right. I think the band was +/- 5% and mine was above by 5-6%
ditto
Level 2 exam could not have been any easier and I am so pissed at myself I didn’t do as well as I had done L1.
The margin for error is so small in this level that a few questions can make the difference b/w passing and failing. For me, AI and FI were the hardest - I totally blanked out on AI (maybe I got too tired or it was the air conditioning but I did). Ethics screwed me big time - I wasn’t sure about a lot of the questions.
Derivatives was easy - very! PM was fine too. FRA - well, that’s my weakest area, I’m not a guy who’ll ever get comfortable with accounting so it’s always going to be tough for me. Quants - OMFG, if I don’t get 100% in this one, then I really should jump out of my office building. It’ll be a disgrace to not get 100% in quants. I don’t know how they could’ve set an easier Quants vignette .
Overall: Whilst the exam was easy, I doubt I’ll pass. If I do, it’ll probably be because of a few good things I’ve done in my life and karma finally pays off. I’m already preparing myself to repeat in 2016, I would obviously hate to - but its mostly because I’m so embarrassed that I couldn’t ace this easy exam. Yes there were some traps but it was easy - I let myself down and I don’t have anyone else to blame but me. So yeah.
I can’t let CFAI beat me, especially with an exam this straightforward.
Sit tight, we all studied for 400+ hours, you never know how bad others did as well.
If I do repeat it, which is quite likely, I don’t think I’ll start studying until mid-March, I honestly covered the curriculum cover-to-cover. The lesson next time would be to take it slow with the exam. I felt like dishing out 9 months work just to get it over with, which I hope doesn’t come back to haunt me.
I have to say I have almost same overall perception on the exam if taking out the parts of specific areas you mentioned. Yes, for people who really prepared, the margin of passing and not passing is very thin. A few questions can make a different.
MrSmart I don’t know if I’m passing but you sir, are not failing. if you fail then I’m pretty sure there’s something wrong with cfai’s scoring system
Trust me, I will not be surprised if I fail.
I may have finished the exam in around 1.5 hours each, but I never stopped to think about any of the questions and answers. The issue for me would not be lack of preperation, but terrible execution. It is both relieving and pathetic.
Yes, if I recall correctly. Typically I wouldn’t make a mistake on such a calculation. It’s possible I did, but on something like that I don’t believe I typically would. Makes me wonder if they provide different number occasionally, or if one of us truly did something incorrect
I dunno how the hell you people remember the exam. I already forgot all of it.
Must’ve been the steel reserves I was chugging behind the dumpster post exam with my homeless friends.