So what did you guys think about the test?

i think you have implicitly disclosed something lol (only kiding)…

Like someone mentioned on this thread, there were a few AM questions that were too twisted and difficult to understand (and I’ve got an overall 8 in IELTS, in case you’re wondering about my English proficiency). Hopefully, the possible partial credits on offer might take me through the AM exam.

Yep, the PM was comparatively easy, but there WERE a few curveballs thrown in there as well. I suppose someone who’s on top of their game would definitely have found the PM session to be a breeze.

BTW, in one of the AM questions, where it asked to circle a choice and then give 2 reasons for selecting the particular choice, I had put down the required 2 reasons, but didn’t circle a choice because I was torn between two of the options. I’d intended to go back and circle one of them towards the end of the exam, but got so time-constrained that I forgot to do so. Assuming that the quesiton was for 5 marks (out of 180), and assuming that the justifications were correct, do you think I’d still get partial credit despite not having circled a choice? (I had put a small mark beside the choice which I felt was, most probably, correct, but didn’t want to circle it in case I wanted to circle the other choice).

Overall, I felt it was easier than than the 2014 and 2015 papers, but still not confident enough for a pass

My understanding is that without circling something, you will get no credit. Sorry… Hope I’m wrong.

Impossible to know how CFAI actually assigns marks. Could go either way.

AM session was relatively better. I see lot of people talking about 1st item set, I didn’t find it tough (spent 10 more mins than allocated time though) and hopefully I didn’t miss any trick there. But from next item set, I made a point to save 1-2 mins every set to make up for time lost. There was one 3 minutes question on which I had no idea and I thought it’s better to leave that and concentrate on item sets I know. At the end, I was able to finish all except that 3 pointer with 3-5 mins to spare. I am hoping I did well on 6 item sets and was average to below average on rest in morning

PM was tough but not impossible kind. I was able to answer 60% of questions confidently and rest is more like 50-50 with very few (5 or so qns) guessed.

On a conservative estimate, I am hoping 65% am and 70% pm. I am not sure that will take me home or land me in band 10 :frowning:

you should get credit for justification, assuming it’s right. And you will get no cedit for the circling part. I am saying this based on how schweser guides us to grade our own mock tests.

thx, whew

In AM, i corrected on many answers, I am afraid that the graders may not consider my final answers (do you guys think, they check for final answers - to be sure everywhere i have mentioned “final answer” besides my final answer, will that help?

In PM,

  1. I had less problems with the mathematical stuff

  2. had some problems with the conceptual stuff

  3. had lot of problems with “the most interesting and confusing topic in CFA”

A…

Found the AM easier for me than past papers - feel fairly confident. PM I found very tricky. Not very black or white - I can’t be sure whether what I settled with were the correct answers or not.

Overall - pass I hope?

Hi

I think my PM performance will be similar to yours. What was frustrating for me is that I didnt have to totally guess on questions but some of the topics I knew in and out were asked involved a ridiculous amount of trickery. I was able to recall about 55 questions and I only missed 10 of the ones I remember. However, I’m thinking I probably misread a few questions or screwed up in some other way so 70% is where I think ill wind up. I was a little more pessimistic about it earlier though. It’s just real frustrating when you know something in and out and then it’s asked it a really complex manner that is outside of the LOS the question was likely based on. Anyways I’m still crossing my fingers for a pass. I hate to be the guy who starts the MPS talk already but if you get anywhere close to those scores you’ll pass for sure.

Marc from LevelUp told us that we wouldn’t get credit if we didn’t circle and he was a grader in a former life. Maybe there are exceptions.

A general Question

If i circle a particular choice, then cancel it (using Pen)

Then circle the correct choice (according to me) and mark besides it “final answer”

If, my justification also supports my “final answer”, should i get full credit for it? (incl. credits for the circled choice part)

did ethics show up in am finally lol?

Honestly, when I walked out of the exam in the morning, I felt it was fair overall but time was definitely a factor. I answered all the questions except one 3-point question that I did not recognize at all (immediately skipped it). “Finished” after rushing a bit on the last 3 with about 5 minutes left. Hoping for at least 60% in the morning.

Felt the afternoon was a LOT easier, especially as time didn’t seem to play a factor and stress me out like it did in the morning. Maybe that’s why I felt more confident about the afternoon, i.e., my state of mind was much more relaxed with more time to think. Around 4:10, I started rechecking my answers. There were a few questions that were more difficult but I felt these were far and few between. In my spare time, I checked my numerical answers twice over to make sure I didn’t miss anything that was “easy”. Guestimated about 43-45 out of 60 if I don’t count any guesses.

Is that a pass? Granted, my estimates are very, very rough and remember the state we are all in. After the morning, I could recall at least 3 or 4 of the questions pretty well that slowed me down. After the afternoon, I’d forgotten many of the details for at least two of them now. Just food for thought.

With any luck, I pulled this through. Either way, I am not going to stay up all night again the day the results come out. I had been very keen for the email after Level 1, and I NEVER got the email. I had to contact the institute the next day to find out how I did.

So, best of luck to everyone in two months or so, but do NOT wait up all night like I did.

It was harder than I expected, and I was very well prepared. I finished the AM right on time and thought there were a couple of questions that were asked in ways that I didn’t anticipate, but I didn’t think they were unfair. I made sure to skip anything I didn’t think I could solve quickly and revisit those at the end. I was flying through the PM and really made an effort to slow down and double check everything, but I still answered about 54 questions in 2 hours, then had an hour to work through the other 6 and review everything again. I think I may have figured out a few of the 6 that I struggled with, and they were mostly from one item set that was as hard as anything I’d come across in my preparation. When I reviewed everything else, I found a couple of tricks and changed 2-3 answers. I would agree that the wording of a couple of questions didn’t reflect the usual CFAI clarity. I didn’t walk out as confident as I did for L1 and L2, but I think I did enough to pass unless I had a major outlier performance. It was probably a good thing that I had to stay for the full 3 hours because I definitely would have left the PM over an hour early if I could have, and I think that would have hurt me.

Probably because they recommend you use a pencil or erasable pen.

I found the morning much more challenging than the afternoon. I finished up the morning with about 4 minutes to spare, and I hope for some partial marks here and there to add to a few that I knew I crushed. I thought to myself on the way out that it wasn’t amazing, but good enough to give me a chance if I did well in the afternoon.

I found the afternoon pretty straight-forward. I knew I was in for a long day when I was about halfway though (30 questions) and we were 40ish minutes in. I finished with almost two hours to spare. I sat there for the remainder (not a big fan of the new policy where we can’t leave) re-calculating things and playing around with answers I couldn’t get to work out. I changed six answers and I’m interested to see the overall marks based on those decisions (as much as you can tell from your marks I guess).

I’m cautiously optimistic. I won’t say that I passed for sure, but if you had a gun to my head then that is what I would say. It just felt like a pass…so I could still end up in band 8-10 for all I know.

I do think its ridiculous that we have to stay for the entire time though. In the morning I don’t care, because I don’t think that many people were dying to get out of there. I think that almost everyone was done the afternoon early though (from my extremely limited glancing around the room). To me that was the worst part. I was done, and bored after a while…but you have to look at the ceiling or something because you don’t want to even come close to looking in the direction of another paper inadvertently. So what do you with yourself?

The AM was more straightforward and direct than last year (band 10 retaker), but I felt the CFAI purposely made the PM more tricky to compensate for the straightforwardness of the AM. I felt a little cheated to be honest since the CFAI know how much candidates bank on the PM to save their scores.

One of the trends I noticed during the practice exams, is that in both the AM and the PM, the tests start of reasonable/easy-ish, then they get hard around the middle, and then finish on an easier note in the last few questions/item sets. I think what this does is that some candidates become so demoralized midway through the test they never manage to steal the easier points at the end due to time constraints. I definitiely felt this was the same game being played this year but I still worry that I got caught in the trap.

Looking back on the exam, there were a few of questions where I made silly errors (both AM and PM) that I would have never made on a timed practice exam. This is honestly the worst feeling - I am fine losing points on a topic I am clueless on, but not on a topic I consistently do well on. Concepts that I had mastered during my practice exams, suddenly became banana skins on the main stage and I hope the points I lost on those questions do not cause too much damage. Looking back, there are a few questions I am kicking myself over because I know I became a victim of “exam conditions” . Its funny how losing points on 2 or 3 questions, makes you forget about the 50 other questions you may have done great on.

As one person put it on an earlier thread, the AM is “damage control” whereas the PM should be where you ace the test. I think I did enough damage control in the AM and if my gut is correct, I might have done relatively well. When I think of the PM though, my stomach twists because it was definitely not the clean sweep I had banked on. However, during one of my practice PM exams, I though I had done pretty badly on it, only to grade it and realize I had gotten a high score. I’m hoping this is the case for this years PM. I cannot go through this experience for a third time!!

Final thought - A colleague of mine who knew someone who had graded level 3 exams told me that what they sometimes do on questions that may have confused candidates due to wording/phrasing, is they either give everyone the points or they toss the question. I feel like this will be the case for a few of the PM questions this year - some questions felt a little lazy in how they were phrased which is what I think caused the confusion you see on the threads today. I definitely noticed one question which Im certain was a definite error though I was able to understand the spirit of the question and figure out the answer.

I also noticed people appeared to have finished the afternoon session with some time to spare. But definitely not the person sitting at my table. Think he barely finished the afternoon, and he said he was a retailer.