So I feel a bit better. Took the Boston CFAS exam and scored a 141/180 on the AM and 132/180 on the PM for an overall of 75%. This matches my other Mock and Past Exam scores. Still a bit baffled by the sample exams. I will just keep on doing tests over the next 20 days and hope to be ok. Does anyone know if the Boston is indicative. Or is it asymmetrical, meaning that if you dont do well, you have some studying ahead of you but if you do OK, it doesnt necessarily mean you’ll do well on the real exam?
No comments on the samples, but this seems like a good thread to share my misery. oh man. I was feeling pretty good about myself over the last few weeks, scoring respectably on old CFA exams, just did hard reviews of FI and IPS over the last few weeks, and I’m pretty sure I just got my ass handed to me on a schweser morning exam (have not graded). This is vol 1, exam 1. (I mistakenly did a few practice exams with Vol 2 first, so just now starting on 1). Not to mention the 3 FI EOC item sets after reading 30 I did last night. Got slaughtered by leverage after spending 2 consecutive days reviewing FI. So discouraging! Better today than June 5 I suppose. Afternoon session of above mentioned Schweser exam coming up… Then it will be Blackhawks and beer the rest of the day.
Paul - are you taking the exam at McCormick or another test city?
Paul, I wouldn’t get discouraged. I feel Schweser did a great job with the practice exams in levels 1 and 2 but really missed the boat on the practice exams for level 3.
I wouldn’t pay too much attention to the scores- for Level 2, I failed all the sample and mock exams that CFAI published on testrac and then passed the exam. On Level 3, I got above 70 on all of them (last year) and failed. The score isn’t predictive- what might be more predictive is where you score in relation to other candidates-
smokin’hot - Why do you think you failed level III? Some insight would be appreciated.
I got a 53 on the first sample last week. haven’t dared to try the 2nd one yet. Potentially stupid question, but how do you take the test again? I know we can, just can’t figure out how to physically do it on the testrac site.
CPierce - I will be at McCormick with 10,000 of my closest friends!
sebrock, I think I failed, because, basically, I didn’t know the core curriculum deeply enough to pass. Not trying to be coy- but I think that the exam is actually harder than most people think it is- but it’s not an unfair or impossible exam. I studied hard- took Windsor, took lots of practice exams, but I failed. Looking back, what I’ve done is spend more time with the CFAI texts (I barely opened them last time). I also finished my review and started practice exams this time around much earlier- I’ve done around 16-20 exams so far (lowest score 68, highest 82, median around 74), and plan on doing as many more as I can manage before June 5th. My hints- what I see on this board too much is candidates spinning out of control obsessing on irrelevant details- and also obsessing on getting ahold of past exams. The CFAI website is very purposely granting access to the past exams that they think are most relevant, and I think it’s a waste of time to dig around and take the ones that are older than that. Also, the core curriculum is plenty to master, focus on the core LOS and don’t get dragged down in too much minutiae. As my prior post indicated, you can’t really take your prior test scores as predictive. It’s really about overall fluidity and depth of understanding of the material. CFAI has a way of testing concepts in ways that you can’t predict or anticipate, so the more ease you have with the concepts the better chance you have to pass. I simply think I “thought” I knew enough to pass but really my understanding was relatively shallow and it wasn’t enough to get me over the pass mark. I was close, though. I also think there were some pretty smart folks on analyst forum last year and it’s worth looking up some of those old posts to see what they were focused on in the two weeks prior to the exam last year- mwvt9 and mcleod come to mind as “outliers”.
Agree on the old exams - I’m a multi-time taker myself, and I have old exams going back to 2000, but not even going to bother with exams older than 2007. The questions gets less and less relevant. *sigh* just took the 09 mock and scored a whooping 55%. FML.
Thanks, totally agree with you about the focus here. People really concentrate on minutia. I do feel that I have a deep understanding of the curriculum and could have a very intelligent and professional conversation about the material with anyone. I’ve done a ton of exams as well and going to keep on doing so. Really going to keep on hammering down Lessons 4 & 5 since you can not pass without knowing these cold and keep on doing Ethics and GIPS problems. Then the rest I think you can practice by doing questions since there is nothing that I don’t grasp; it’s more of a matter of rote memorization. I just wanted to walk out of there this time knowing I aced the exam, but I come to realize that is always impossible. After Level II I thought I did well but you never know and it was torture waiting all summer for my scores. This will be the same I suppose. In reality you probably need a 65% to pass which means that if you do well on 65% of the exam, luck should get you where you need to be even if you are on the left side of the luck curve.
smokin’hot Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > sebrock, > I think I failed, because, basically, I didn’t > know the core curriculum deeply enough to pass. > Not trying to be coy- but I think that the exam is > actually harder than most people think it is- but > it’s not an unfair or impossible exam. I studied > hard- took Windsor, took lots of practice exams, > but I failed. Looking back, what I’ve done is > spend more time with the CFAI texts (I barely > opened them last time). I also finished my review > and started practice exams this time around much > earlier- I’ve done around 16-20 exams so far > (lowest score 68, highest 82, median around 74), > and plan on doing as many more as I can manage > before June 5th. > > My hints- what I see on this board too much is > candidates spinning out of control obsessing on > irrelevant details- and also obsessing on getting > ahold of past exams. The CFAI website is very > purposely granting access to the past exams that > they think are most relevant, and I think it’s a > waste of time to dig around and take the ones that > are older than that. Also, the core curriculum is > plenty to master, focus on the core LOS and don’t > get dragged down in too much minutiae. > > As my prior post indicated, you can’t really take > your prior test scores as predictive. It’s really > about overall fluidity and depth of understanding > of the material. CFAI has a way of testing > concepts in ways that you can’t predict or > anticipate, so the more ease you have with the > concepts the better chance you have to pass. I > simply think I “thought” I knew enough to pass but > really my understanding was relatively shallow and > it wasn’t enough to get me over the pass mark. I > was close, though. > > I also think there were some pretty smart folks on > analyst forum last year and it’s worth looking up > some of those old posts to see what they were > focused on in the two weeks prior to the exam last > year- mwvt9 and mcleod come to mind as “outliers”. Couldn’t agree more with this post, but I kinda like seeing all those people focus on memorizing lists - makes my job that much easier 
Sad to say, but “I don’t need to beat the bear, I just need to beat you”. Anyhow, something tells me that the CFAI is more worried about us understanding the curriculum than testing our memorization skills, but I’ve been wrong before (but I really think I’m right).