Vote of Confidence

Hey guys just a vote of confidence here, I took 2 CFAI sample exams and passed one with a 73 and failed the other with a 63. Took 2 CFAI mocks and failed them both with a 69. Was averaging mid 60’s to mid 70’s on Stalla practice exams and scored a 76 on the Stalla Mock and I passed Level 1 in December. You’ll see the exam isn’t as difficult as some of the practice tests make it out to be. The questions will be very clear and easy to read. If you studied and read the text, you’ll be surprised how much you actually remembered from the readings. Keep in mind you do not need to know everything just 70% of the material, so stay confident and if you think you’re failing the test, you’re prob doing better than you think. Good luck!

Dude, you’re the man!

Posts like this are like gold! Thank you…

very encouraging … THANKS!!

Thanks JP_RL_CFA. I must say studying for a test without knowing exactly how much you need pass is something new to me.

Thanks JP! I’d like to know when was the last practice exam you took while preparing for L1? Week before the exam? Day before?

Thanks for the pick-me -up

I think I took that last CFAI mock on the either the wed or thursday b4 the test. It totally crushed my confidence because like I said I got a 69 on it lol. But it all worked out I guess. I remember the AM session all I was thinking was wow I’m doing it, I’m passing this exam. I couldn’t believe how straight forward it was. However, the PM was like 10 times harder lol. But that’s when you have to remain calm and make sure you don’t waste too much time or brain power on one question. B4 I knew it I was done with the test with like a little less than an hour to spare and thought that the PM section wasn’t as hard as I once thought. I struggled with time on all my practice exams but the real test in both the AM and PM session, time was def not an issue at all. I completed the AM part with over an hour to spare and the PM with like 50 min to spare. You’re all gonna do great and by this time next yr you’ll be posting on the Level 2 forum and hopefully I’ll be on the lvl 3 forum lol. Like Olinto says, people do do it, patience, practice, persistence.

JP_RL_CFA , really great post , at least it gave me a boost to continue what i am doing , frankly speaking i am feeling that i am loosing confidence and getting so tired from studying , i actually feel like my brain is going to explode i am planning to start the practice exams by tomorrow , i already solved like half of the qbank , do u think that’s enough ?

Is the PM session much tougher than the ones in Schweser Book 7?

The Schweser exams were a bit more difficult than the actual when I took it '06. My highest Shweser score was around 67-69 (did not break 70%). On the actual I got over 70% on all topics except 50-70 in economics (worth 10%) and <50% in derivatives (worth 5%)

I am just going to write something random here so I can move this back to the top of the list. Honestly, a great post, and a really solid point. Use the study guides as tools. Getting a 61% on a mock exam doesn’t man you auto-failed, in fact it means you have a solid chance of passing…don’t give up, just keep at er. Take those inches…or someone else will…

So what did you guys think? Lvl 2 was pretty rough lol

Pretty straight forward… or at least I thought so immediately after the exam… have learned I made at least a handful or two of dumb mistakes… just hope and pray it does not cost me.

“You’ll see the exam isn’t as difficult as some of the practice tests make it out to be. The questions will be very clear and easy to read” Agree! Now my results will tell me whether my failures in mocks and practice exam mattered or no

Hey guys, just thought I’d send this to the top to help motivate you guys preparing for the December exam

But friend, isnt it wrong to say - you need to know only 70% of the stuff? I mean what if the 70% of the questions come from the 30% somebody left?

While its really good to start tests early, I still believe you got to read 100%. I mean 100% atleast once!

Sooraj, you obviously have to read all the material. What I’m trying to say is that don’t be so nervous if you get a few questions wrong on the exam, especially at Level 1. And if you don’t completely understand a topic, don’t get too discouraged. They can’t test everything. There is margin for error at level 1 is what I’m trying to get across

I don’t think you understand the intent of my post at all actually. You would still encourage everyone to score above 70? really, why??? (just in case you can’t pick it up, I’m being sarcastic)

Obviously you should score as high as you can on any test you take but, my post should provide some encouragement for those who aren’t scoring as high as they would like on the CFAI sample exams a few weeks before the exam. What do you mean by the comment that they should score above 70 before writing? So if a week before the exam you’re scoring in the 60’s, you should not even bother showing up for exam day? Makes no sense. The CFAI sample exams as well as some of the Schweser mocks are typically harder than the actual test at Level 1 (from the consensus when I took it at least back in December of 2008).

BTW, I passed all three levels of the CFA so I understand very well the stressful nature these tests can have on you on and during exam day.

I was reading this thread going “JP_RL_CFA” has the wrong title. It should be “Passed Level I” or “CFA Level 2 Candidate”. Then I saw the dates lol – glad to see you made it :slight_smile: