Ladies and Gents, I just read a post that talked about how people who were scoring in the 80’s on the schweser tests last year failed the actual exam, falling into “band 10,” or people who were close but just missed. My immediate thought when I first read this was, “forget it, I am totally f’d.” But lets take a step back for a moment. First consider this. Last year I took the level 2 exam, failed and fell into the “band 9” category. I know why I failed and it was a result of lack of preparation. In late april of 2008, in the midst of intense preparation for L2, I changed jobs. The learning curve for the new job combined with the level of intensity I needed to reach to prepare for the June exam proved to be too much for me to handle. Without much choice I had to dedicate most of my energy to the new job. The hours were long and exhausting and by the time weekends came around in May I was too burnt out to focus on studying. I took two practice exams 3 days before the test and failed miserably on both. I clearly was not prepared. But I’m also fairly certain that my band 9 categorization was not a fluke. I don’t think that I got all that lucky. I think that I probably new 55 to 65 percent of the material that was tested. So I’m thinking to myself, how could people on this forum who scored in the 80’s on the schweser exams have not performed similar when it came time for the real thing? I fell into band 9 and was underprepared. Were the people who fell into band 10 (and scored in the 80’s on practice exams) possibly overprepared? Granted, there is a big difference between falling into band 9 and falling into band 10. Band 9 is automatic failure and band 10 means you may have been considered for a pass. But wouldn’t you think that the difference between getting 80’s on practice exams and failing them all miserably is equal to if not much greater than the difference between band 9 and band 10. I think probably a much greater difference. My point is, from reading these threads, it seems that some a lot of you are freaking out for no reason at all. YOU ARE DOING VERY WELL ON THE PRACTICE EXAMS. This should translate into a successful exam day. Don’t freak out in the next two weeks and spend all of your time on the minute details of treynor black or foreign exchange parity relations. Focus on your strengths and on material that is sure to be tested. Try to improve little by little. Make sure you are well restsed and go into the exam with a clear head. I am not scoring in the 80’s yet. I’m still in the high 60’s, low 70’s. I’m not going to freak out and I’m not going to give up. I’m only going to focus on what I know and where I can improve. Hopefully this will translate into success for me too. To those of you scoring well and sounding like you are freaking out, you are probably going to do fine. Thoughts and comments welcome…
I agree with you about people freaking out about the test. It is a little ridiculous sometimes. At the end of the day, it’s just a test. There are way more meaningful things in life (for me at least). However, I don’t think people really freak out about it as much as they make it sound when posting on this forum. I don’t agree with the overprepared theory. In my book, there is no such thing. But, I think people who score well on multiple practice exams and fail the real thing do so for any one of a number of possiblilities; too nervous while taking the test, got unlucky with guesses (cuz inevitably you won’t know every question), or they really didn’t do that well on practice exams but posted good scores on the forum. Overall, I think nerves are the biggest cause of prepared candidates failing though. My strategy, as it was for L1 as well, is to be as emotionless as possible during the exam and for the couple days leading up to the exam. I remember seeing people during the lunch break last year that were so incredibly nervous and seemingly afriad. That is no mindset to be in when you’re taking a test. Just my opinion though.
There are always luck (both good and bad) and exam day condition (both good and bad). Like all tests, these factors aren’t entirely under one’s control. There is no reason to think CFA exams would be of any different. So just give it your best shot on D-Day and wait for the news in August. Beyond that leave it to CFAI to figure it out.
heres the difference, at least for me anyway - I’m scoring about the same as I did on practice exams at level 1 - in the mid 70’s to low 80’s. But for whatever reason, I don’t feel confident on a lot of questions. Like at level 1 - I was pretty sure what I got right and where i was guessing, but I feel like I’m guessing more at level II - combine that with the 3 answer choices and I feel like I’m getting a little lucky. I don’t want to depend on luck on the 6th.
eltia Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > There are always luck (both good and bad) and exam > day condition (both good and bad). Like all > tests, these factors aren’t entirely under one’s > control. There is no reason to think CFA exams > would be of any different. Hit the nail on the head there. I think luck has a big part to play in this exam. We all have areas we are weak on. Even people scoring 80%+. You gotta one remember one paper will only test a MARGIN of the sylabus so scoring 80% in one paper effectively means you know the material in that paper (not sylabus) very well (I am speaking from experience here) but you may score 50% in the next. With me, I’m convinced, no matter how much work I do it all hinges on what shows up on the day.