2013 June Level 1 Review

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callmenoobie

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I’ll start…Challenging, probably as hard as the mock. But it was definitely “trickier”….A lot of trick words and distracting information =/
 
Hey guys, I’ve lurked this forum almost daily for the past couple months. I feel I finally do have stuff to contribute, so here we go…
I’m happy to say I did well. I, as opposed to callmenoobie found the exam much easier than the CFAI mocks.
To study, I used CFA’s material only.
 
I was scoring in the high 60s and low 70s in the mocks. Honestly, I don’t think I passed. Found the exam to be just as hard if not harder than the mocks.
 
Well, there was a decent amount of material in the exam that wasn’t really covered by Schweser/Kaplan….Unless I missed them in my reviews.
 
Did you guys find the afternoon session a lot easier? I certainly did.
 
gm83 wrote:
Did you guys find the afternoon session a lot easier? I certainly did.
Click to expand...
To me, the afternoon session is harder while the morning session is easier…
 
I also found the afternoon session to be a bit easier. I used 2 hours and 45 minutes for the morning session, but was able to finish the afternoon session quicker and had time to review some of the more challenging parts. Or, maybe after the morning “warm-up,” the afternoon was just mentally easier. Overall, I thought that the exam was challenging, but I thought it was fair. There was nothing on it that made me think, I can’t believe they’re asking that…
 
I’d say the afternoon was easier if you read the question carefully…there was quite a bit of trick wording.
 
IMO, I thought morning was a breeze, finishing with 10 minutes left. Afternoon was definitely harder but I finished 45 minutes earlier. Can’t explain that.
Overall, I thought it was definitely easier than the mock by a huge margin.
Having said this though, I won’t be content until I see my mark. I graduated university last year and out of all the exams I’ve ever taken, this has been the best. I left feeling confident I passed.
If I don’t pass this, I don’t think I will go for the charter since I hear that L2 and L3 are harder.
 
Yeah, some questions, especially those in the morning sessions, were unexpected to me. I socred mid-70s in CFAI mock and over 70s in Schweser mocks…but I am not sure if i did well enough in the real exam to pass…..
OMG studied a lot for it…
 
i agree with the afternoon exam being harder, but overall i felt it was a fair exam.
What surprised me was the sheer amount of people taking the exams. It was alot more than i expected.
 
I really don’t know how the exam was. Some of the questions were so easy that I couldn’t believe that they were part of the exam but then I also realized that there were a lot of tricky questions.
Also, there were some questions that I had to guess on so I have no idea how the exam was. I am just hoping that I pass :S
 
I wanted to add that I felt that difficulty level was almost the same in both sessions but I did get the afternoon session done quicker than the morning session.
 
I suspect a Band 9-10 fail for myself, a pass will be a pleasant surprise. I was done in 2.5 hours in the morning, 2 hours in the afternoon. Thats more a reflection of my exam writing style than anything else. I refuse to double check answers and only make sure that I filled in all of the bubbles at the end. If I don’t have a clue how to do something, I remove the answers that I can and take a logical guess if possible then move on. Did anybody hear the story on the Toronto news about students ditching their cars on the 401 to make it there in time? I just heard from the other room but I thought they said 40 cars were abandoned on the side of the road because they were going to be late.
 
I believe the afternoon was the less difficult of the two sessions.
I felt that the real exam was comparable in terms of difficulty to the Schweser mocks, and I believe slightly less difficult than the CFAI mock exam. I think the real exam was very well worded – I don’t think there was a single question where I was confused in regard to what it was asking. It was better written than the other mocks out there.
The thing that stood out to me the most was how many hours I spent studying certain topics that didn’t even show up on the exam! There were lots!
 
Sens89 wrote:
Did anybody hear the story on the Toronto news about students ditching their cars on the 401 to make it there in time? I just heard from the other room but I thought they said 40 cars were abandoned on the side of the road because they were going to be late.
Click to expand...
How does this work? Was it really that bad? When I was getting off the 401 onto Dixon, it was pretty slow but not stuck.
 
I thought the morning session was a bit harder than the afternoon session. I seemed to fly right through the afternoon session without ever second-guessing any of my answers as I did during the morning session.
Overall, I agree that the exam seemed to be slightly less difficult than the CFAI mock; however, I say that and I may have failed the test, there’s no telling until the results are released.
What is the exact date the exam results are released?
 
hei.so wrote:
Sens89 wrote:
Did anybody hear the story on the Toronto news about students ditching their cars on the 401 to make it there in time? I just heard from the other room but I thought they said 40 cars were abandoned on the side of the road because they were going to be late.
Click to expand...
How does this work? Was it really that bad? When I was getting off the 401 onto Dixon, it was pretty slow but not stuck.
Click to expand...
Yes it was. I was going to the level 1 and I was stuck on the highway around 7:45. Luckily I was getting a ride, so I, along with several other people ended up walking on the highway to the TCC. I heard similar reports about folks ditching their cars and just deciding to walk because it traffic was moving at a snails pace. Pay the 500 dollar fine and get their car towed. I’m not sure, but didn’t the ticket say that you can still be admitted to the exam after it starts if you’re late?
In terms of the exam, I actually found it easier than the mocks as well. I did the 2009-2013 mocks (excluding 2011) and I found those harder than the exam personally. I was scoring anywhere from 65-72 on the mocks on average so I have no idea if this will be a pass or a fail. I think it is a coin toss at this point. I also found the afternoon session easier than the morning, I managed to power through it all with 30 minutes left. However I felt I wasn’t sure about a lot of my answers either.
Anyway good luck to everyone!
 
Traffic in toronto was horrible, not surprising given where they held it this year though. In previous years it was downtown, more accessible by subway, but this year everyone had to drive to get there. I’m definitely planning on complaining.
I don’t think I want to speculate on how I did, I did find it easier than the cfa mock exams though. And I finished early in both am and pm, where with the mocks I was over in both.
 
I agree with the Traffic issue on Saturday, it was quite bad.
In terms of the exam, I strongly felt the afternoon session was way easier for me, I finished within my regular time. I found the exam more tricky than tough in comparison to the CFAI Mocks.
Good luck to everyone, I really hope I passed and you all as well!
 
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