the 2 cfai mock exams on their website for 2014 are recycled from 2011/2010 mocks…
not only can we not print these dumb exams in PDF format like past years… but now the questions are recycled from 3-4 years ago! wow… what a joke.
All of the questions?
CFAi do recycles questions.
So long as the syllabus is same CFAI can recycle questions and use previous yrs questions in the current yr.It is the property of CFAI.
One of the reasons CFAI insists that you don’t talk about the content of the test, and in particular, specific questions and wordings, is that it is remarkably difficult to produce good test questions that tests the material at a sufficiently challenging level, that tens of thousands of test-takers each year around will understand consistently if they are sufficiently prepared, which are doable in the target time alloted, specific to only one or two LOSs, and capable of being put into a multiple-choice form with “incorrect” answers that are plausible to come up with if you make common mistakes.
They have to be designed, tested, tweaked, and retweaked many times before it becomes usable in practice and there realistically are only so many variations they can do on most topics.
This is one reason why the mock exams produced by test providers often have much more difficult-to-understand questions than the actual CFAI exam or CFAI mocks. The questions are hard to create. The providers may try a cover like saying “We try to make it harder so that on the real exam, you feel better prepared on test day,” but I suspect the real reason is that it’s just very challenging to create good questions, and the test providers either aren’t able or are too cheap to do it.
So yes, things get reused. However, I have heard that many times, some questions are lifted almost verbatim from the CFAI mock exams (and end-of-chapter-questions), so this can work in your favor too.
I noticed this too. Definitelty dissapointing.
The CFAI assetments and 2014 mock provided zero value for me as I had already finished 2010~2013 mocks. I score mostly 5/6 and 6/6 on the assessment and 80+% on both mocks but I still feel underprepared because the questions were just too easy.
^ I am in the same boat as you my friend.