there are a limited amount of vignettes so they cant test you on every single thing but the mocks are going to have some overlapping material. I doubt they put out a mock and then say we are gonna do everything not related to this on the exam
I was too burned out from Dec 09 L1 to give L2 the effort it deserved last year. I didn’t put in any real effort until 2 weeks before the exam and totally half assed the exam itself too - band 6 was the result. Not surprising in any way. This year, I have put in real effort and hours, and feel very confident about my knowledge of the material. That said, the mock exams crush every bit of that confidence, so I honestly have no idea what to expect. I didn’t know enough last year to compare the mock to the actual exam, it was all sort of Greek to me.
Sdanalyst - Thats what i thought and here i am retaking, be careful with that assumption
Failed band 8 and yes FRA < 50. You can’t pass L2 if you do poorly on FRA. Found the real thing to be as difficult as the mocks. If you’re hitting over 75 on the mocks without any aid, you can probably expect the same on d day IMHO
I felt like I was prepared last year and knew I was in trouble after guessing on first two item sets. This year, I’d say the law of diminishing returns kicked in 200 hours ago. I’m doing better on the mocks, but not that much better considering my doubling up on the effort.
the mocks will definitely have some overlap material, but to be honest, that doesn’t really mean much … IE a pension vignette could ask about economic pension expense, funded status and the impact of assumptions on PBO… Another could ask to calculate the IFRS Pension A/L, calculate current service cost, and the impact of stock price volatility on comp expense…
Band 8 LY… I actually found it harder to study this year, because remembering the concepts from LY, the CFAI text was quite boring. I found Schweser easier as it cut to the chase and was more focussed on how to answer questions. It wouldn’t be enough if i didn’t know the theory from CFAI though I beleive. I think it’s definitely important to keep a postive attitude during the exam. Go to the section you’re strongest on and answer those questions first. That way you will start off feeling good. Unlesss they screw you over with something impossible… Actually, that’s kind of likely to happen… maybe go to your weakest section first and get it over with…
I think that 25% of passing is all up to luck of the draw for the questions unless you are unemployed and had the time to learn everything inside and out. They can literally ask anything they want on any section and make it as tedious as they want. The test has 20 vignettes. Each vignette tends to focus on only one reading. They have 70 readings to choose from. Each reading has probably between 70-100 different types of questions that they can ask, with some bigger readings containing over 100-150 different possible topics for questions. In other words - we are all f8cked.
failed band 9 last year. did CFAI only. failed ethics and fixed income <50 alternative, corporate finance, derivatives, FRA and Quant >70 now I use schweser and i like it. it is to the point. CFAI has a lot of stuff that you don’t need to know on the exam. so if you have shortage of time schweser is good. but if you like to really know and learn. not just pass an exam: read CFAI. just my opinion.