- No Multinational Ops 2) Hardly Anything on CML/SML 3) 2 Vignettes of Earnings Quality 4) Entire PE Vignette 5) Morning Ethics - WTF? To me, this was as off-beat as the CFA Level 2 exam could have gotten.
Quite WTF considering multinationals was on EVERY practice/mock I took. FSA was very poorly selected, IMO.
definitely felt cheated after all the time spent memorizing those tax formulas. And what about pre-post valuation, LBO etc !!!
morning ethics gets a big WTF
It is impossible for them to test every major subject. If you scroll back to the posts after last years exam, you’ll see posts of people saying the same things as you except replacing “WTF no multinationall??” with “WTF no FCF??” It happens every year, there’s just so much they can fit into 120 questions.
The last thing I read on Friday night was Research Objectivity Standards, saw the item set and thought, “sweet”! Ten minutes later, feeling lucky if I got 3/6. So annoying when they get that cute with the questions.
i agree no multinational ops, no intercorporate as far as minority active/passive etc… no triangular arbs or forex arbs no FSA synthesis(glad about it but still…) none of the emphasized FSA material was on the exam a verry big WTF…
PURE WTF on the exams, CFA was out to get us, I hope they got everyone and not just me. I’m praying this year’s minimum pass mark to be lower but I don’t know how reasonable of an assumption that is.
That’s understandable, but I thought it was completely unnecessary to have 2 vignettes relating to good accounting / earnings quality. Those questions made it seem like they were trying to fail you rather than test you, but I am obviously biased since I didn’t know that topic well.
That was brutal. The question selection was bizarre at best, not testing every topic is fair enough, but missing out on the key topics is almost unfair. 5 questions on accruals… that was bizarre. Its a coin flip for me (and I dominated those mocks - which totally misled me).
HKHarry Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > That was brutal. The question selection was > bizarre at best, not testing every topic is fair > enough, but missing out on the key topics is > almost unfair. 5 questions on accruals… that was > bizarre. > > Its a coin flip for me (and I dominated those > mocks - which totally misled me). Feeling the same way…scored 85 and 88 on the mocks and will be lucky to get a pass on the real thing.
ScottyDoesKnow Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > That’s understandable, but I thought it was > completely unnecessary to have 2 vignettes > relating to good accounting / earnings quality. > Those questions made it seem like they were trying > to fail you rather than test you, but I am > obviously biased since I didn’t know that topic > well. I thought the same thing in my head. CFAI was trying to fail you than test you when they put in 2 vignettes on accounting shenanigans - took the words right out of my mouth. btw. nice reference to EuroTrip in your username!
What was the general scenario about ethic in the morning about again? That was brutal though I think I guessed on 5 of them, And i read the entire ethics book on friday too
i know its cruel to be praying like this. but i hope the minimum pass level is low this year. It was like CFA institute was out to get us students for the recession, since they couldnt punish the past members, who are relaxing in their jacuzzis and we are left with saying wtf
Personally, I just felt that a lot of the tested material was somewhat obscure and didn’t really test the overall knowledge very well. It was definitely tough. I think I almost said WTF out loud in the testing center a few times.
I think it’s safe to say that CFAI will always give you one or two vigenette’s to really make you or break you on the exam…I guess last years was the treynor black questions? Think about it…aside from the accruals vigenette’s, all the other topics were fairly straight forward (some were tricky) but they seemed to just be asking basic questions to see if you got the major points…but then they REALLY go overload on a topic or two to see if you really studied it… I can only speculate because we’ll never know, but I bet that those vigenette’s will be the deciding factor for most people who are near the bubble ***edit: don’t get me wrong, the exam was still hard as hell
I can’t believe they didn’t put in a Multinational vignette. Bastards! That was one of my consistently strong areas. I don’t think PE should be on your WTF list. Come on, you could see that coming a mile away. It was a HUGE section on a new topic. Dah! However, I was expecting a venture capital (Post, Pre, etc…) question, not an IRR question. As far as accruals, I think one vignette was to be expected.
This exam was very difficult and disappointed I didn’t get tested on more things.