2015 vs 2016 PM Difficulty

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jamespeer

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It seems many, many, many people did horribly just horribly in the AM section last year but still passed because of PM section. I have read dozens upon dozens of posts like this. Not just those who did poorly in AM last year, it seems majority of all candidates scored well in PM last year.
I can’t see PM being the saviour in 2016 however, as many people have mentioned already it was a weird old PM section this year and those hoping for an 85%+ result in the PM to save them may well be disappointed this year. In my opinion that PM section would be tough for anyone to score that high because of the amount of subjectivity, very few calculations but seemed like a lot of educated guessing was required.
Can anyone who has sat both years confirm this? The only conclusion I can draw is that 2015 PM was a dream, and this year’s PM most certainly wasn’t.
 
I was band 9 last year (tried copy pasting my matrix but didn’t work). Anyhow, there is no real comparison between the two PMs as 2015 was real easy whereas this year’s one was tougher - some questions felt like the data wasn’t supporting the question and you had to fill in the blanks. However, this is compensated by the fact that the AM was easier, less time pressured than last year. So overall the MPS should be the same. I felt CFAI did this on purpose since loads of people passed last year with horrible AMs scores.
Last year I got minimum of 42/60 on my PM (70%) and failed with band 9. I estimated my overall score to be around 200-205 which would support the view that anything above 60% should be enough.
So all in all while PM scores this year will be lower the higher AM scores should make the MPS roughly the same.
 
i agree with you, this 2016 PM section was unusually weird, many candidates complained about it, and i’m not going to be optimistic about it :(
 
Afternoon was pretty brutal….it felt as if every item set was at best 4/6 with 2 questions complete guesses except equity maybe.
 
HG29JP wrote:
I was band 9 last year (tried copy pasting my matrix but didn’t work). Anyhow, there is no real comparison between the two PMs as 2015 was real easy whereas this year’s one was tougher - some questions felt like the data wasn’t supporting the question and you had to fill in the blanks. However, this is compensated by the fact that the AM was easier, less time pressured than last year. So overall the MPS should be the same. I felt CFAI did this on purpose since loads of people passed last year with horrible AMs scores.
Last year I got minimum of 42/60 on my PM (70%) and failed with band 9. I estimated my overall score to be around 200-205 which would support the view that anything above 60% should be enough.
So all in all while PM scores this year will be lower the higher AM scores should make the MPS roughly the same.
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Haven’t sat for both years but from the mocks etc. I agree. AM was easier, PM was harder than usual, probably intentional after last year’s large discrepancy between AM and PM performances.
 
Last year Band 7 and yes PM was way easier last year than this year. Last year I could not complete my AM paper. Left 2 sets totaly blank. Not subsets but 2 complete questions and that too the IPS easy questions. Do not know what i was thinking last year. This year made sure that I give only the amount of time required for each question and completed AM (may be this time it was easier.
 
Wrote L-3 for the first time, was confident after AM assuming that I would atleast score 45/60 on PM. But, then, PM seemed tough with more qualitative questions than quantitative ones. Educated guesses were definitely required. Saw so many ppl scoring above 70 in almost every section in PM in last year’s thread
 
well…. my experience somewhat differs from all of you, maybe i fell for curveballs in PM which i will realize in t+7
1) 2015 AM & PM Comparison, My Score : Band 8
Overall feeling was that AM was difficult for me and PM was relatively easy, however i was not confident on many questions. Still I believe i scored amazingly well (compared to my estimate) on PM and pretty bad on AM. This inspite the fact that i scored <50% on Q1 and Q2 in PM
Also i left approx. 10 pts. blank on AM
2) 2016 AM & PM Comparison, My estimate : Band 10 or Borderline Pass
AM seemed easy, because it had many easy calculations. However I missed out on some easy pts. Though Atleast i could finish the AM part on time (except 3 pts. where i had no clue on the answer)
PM started off pretty badly with Q1, Q2 being nasty for me, honestly I have no idea where i stand on these 2 Qs (Last year also i suffered the same fate). Then however the middle of the PM seemed a lot easier and the end the easiest. I am still optimistic about an improved performance on my PM score.
Overall feeling was still bad about AM and better about PM, i used to score on averge 35-38/60 in AM mocks and 43-49 in PM mocks. I expect 42 on PM and maybe 31 or so in AM on a conservative basis.
Maybe a pass/ most likely a fail depending on MPS
 
Interesting how opinions differ. I was band 10 fail last year and thought the AM and PM were brutal in 2015. Left the test room stunned. Not so in 2016.
I thought PM particularly was easier in 2016 to 2015. Perhaps I was just better prepared this year or maybe it played more to my strengths. In any event, I was a bit caught off guard by 2015 PMs difficulty as opposed to the other posters here.
 
Topperharley wrote:
Interesting how opinions differ. I was band 10 fail last year and thought the AM and PM were brutal in 2015. Left the test room stunned. Not so in 2016.
I thought PM particularly was easier in 2016 to 2015. Perhaps I was just better prepared this year or maybe it played more to my strengths. In any event, I was a bit caught off guard by 2015 PMs difficulty as opposed to the other posters here.
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I was band 4 last year, and completely agree with you. Not sure if it was being better prepared, or maybe nerves last year (which I had to admit was in part responsible for the epic failure as oppose to upper band failing…), but this year felt way easier. I’d hate to think this is the “band 10” feeling where you think you may have passed but didn’t, but coming out of it, I felt much, much better than last year.
5 days, roughly 23 hrs and change to go…
 
I wrote for the first time this year. I really don’t understand what people are talking about here re: 2015’s AM. I found it to be one of the easiest AM’s of the 6 mocks I wrote. I scored above 65%, considering also that I gave myself 0 for calculation errors where the end result was wrong but the process and calculations were correct. I found this years AM significantly more difficult than last years. PM was ok, I finished in 1.5 hours but definitely missed 5-10 questions (i.e. complete guess)
 
PM was very hard compared to any mock/ online sectional item set/ schweser practice exam.. many subjective questions as others have mentioned but also some particular fringe topics tested. In finished in about 2 hours, but the ones I didn’t know I could have sat there for 6 and it would have made a difference.
AM was in line with recent papers in my opinion with a theme that there are always a few questions that are only clear in hindsight after seeing the solution. The questions that were hard were hard for everybody, and i’m betting some people missed some of the calculations even if it looked easy.
I
 
imaginethat wrote:
I really don’t understand what people are talking about here re: 2015’s AM. I found it to be one of the easiest AM’s of the 6 mocks I wrote.
I found this years AM significantly more difficult than last years. PM was ok, I finished in 1.5 hours but definitely missed 5-10 questions (i.e. complete guess)
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I felt exactly the same about the 2015 AM paper – to me it was the least difficult of the five mock AM papers that I completed. However, the 2016 AM may have been my worst (and a pity that it is the one that counts most). The 2016 PM was okay for me; it seemed less difficult than the 2016 PM mock on the CFAI website.
Not long to wait now…
 
Imperfect hedge wrote:
imaginethat wrote:
I really don’t understand what people are talking about here re: 2015’s AM. I found it to be one of the easiest AM’s of the 6 mocks I wrote.
I found this years AM significantly more difficult than last years. PM was ok, I finished in 1.5 hours but definitely missed 5-10 questions (i.e. complete guess)
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I felt exactly the same about the 2015 AM paper – to me it was the least difficult of the five mock AM papers that I completed. However, the 2016 AM may have been my worst (and a pity that it is the one that counts most). The 2016 PM was okay for me; it seemed less difficult than the 2016 PM mock on the CFAI website.
Not long to wait now…
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My sentiment exactly. I believe 2016 AM was the worst AM paper I wrote. PM was definitely not as difficult as mock given by CFAI for me.
 
I’ve felt good about PM since exam day, meaning I obviously bombed it. AM… who knows. I answered everything and felt it was in line with prior AM sessions, but there was certainly many sub-questions where I could have gotten 0 credit regardless. Really hoping Ethics goes my way as I bombed it in L2 last year, but am guessing I need that boost for this one.
 
If say I got arse raped on the AM but didn’t get my arse raped as badly in PM - I have no chance of passing?
 
I think the pressure of exam day and the real time constraint makes AMs seem tougher. When I took 2015 AM, I thought it was the hardest thing ever. But when I looked back on the actual 2015 AM in my studies this year, I thought it seemed easy. Hindsight Bias I guess??
 
I thought that 2015 AM part was reasonable and the PM part was hard. I was surprised to see that i completely screwed up the AM and scored well on the PM (at least 70%) with the total band score of 6. I think that my AM score was affected by using quotes or paraphrasing the text from a question without tying it to the material.
Regarding 2016 exam, the AM part was challenging due to the time constrain. I spent more time on Q1 and Q2 than I should have and finished everything just a couple of minutes before the end. The PM part was harder than in 2015. I had to guess at least 6 questions and was 50/50 on 10 or so more.
 
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