AM Session and Timing

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Tommy83

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I took the 2014 CFA LIII AM exam yesterday. Time management really stood out to me. I found it challenging to complete all questions within the allotted minutes for each question. I timed each question and was consistently over for the first 5 questions. There was some major hustle toward the end after a naive, methodical approach to start. I ended up leaving 31 of 180 points unanswered. I even felt like I was concise with my answers, but apparently I need more work. If I could somehow get 50% on the stuff I didn’t even get to I’d be golden but that is going to be DIFFICULT.
I only post this b/c I’m curious to hear if others are able to actually finish this thing entirely and feel confident in their answers within 180 minutes. That is no easy task.
 
First time self-grading these and I think I was fair but who knows: 108/180 on the AM for 60%. I took a Schweser PM mock, too, and I thought it was a lot more simple and scored 75% on that (didn’t do the Ethics questions though b/c I havent studied it yet).
In retrospect, there were some questions I was a bit clueless on in the AM and I probably wasted 10-15 minutes on those trying to get an answer but ended up getting zero points on. I get the feeling there’s going to be questions on the AM that you’re just not going to know, and trying to figure them out on the fly is just wasting time. Take the hit, move on and invest that time better on questions you know?
 
Tommy83 wrote:
First time self-grading these and I think I was fair but who knows: 108/180 on the AM for 60%. I took a Schweser PM mock, too, and I thought it was a lot more simple and scored 75% on that (didn’t do the Ethics questions though b/c I havent studied it yet).
In retrospect, there were some questions I was a bit clueless on in the AM and I probably wasted 10-15 minutes on those trying to get an answer but ended up getting zero points on. I get the feeling there’s going to be questions on the AM that you’re just not going to know, and trying to figure them out on the fly is just wasting time. Take the hit, move on and invest that time better on questions you know?
Click to expand...
I am not grading AM mocks..too confusing..
 
Tommy83 wrote:
First time self-grading these and I think I was fair but who knows: 108/180 on the AM for 60%. I took a Schweser PM mock, too, and I thought it was a lot more simple and scored 75% on that (didn’t do the Ethics questions though b/c I havent studied it yet).
In retrospect, there were some questions I was a bit clueless on in the AM and I probably wasted 10-15 minutes on those trying to get an answer but ended up getting zero points on. I get the feeling there’s going to be questions on the AM that you’re just not going to know, and trying to figure them out on the fly is just wasting time. Take the hit, move on and invest that time better on questions you know?
Click to expand...
Couple of points.
1. Dont go sequentially. Finish IPS & then take up other stuffs which are your strong points and finish them.
2. If answer doesnt strike you, reading the question first - then time to move on and collect points from the rest.
3. There will always be questions which you have no clue on, you are correct about them. And they carry the same points as the rest. Key is to forget our ego, accept that we dont know the answer - then move on and collect points elsewhere which are available lot easily :)
 
Better idea: don’t start with IPS.
They’re long, and it’s easy to spend way too much time on them.
Start with something shorter that you know well, then come back to IPS when the butterflies are gone; you’ll do much better. And you won’t waste nearly as much time.
 
Thanks Magician! Good Idea to skip it at first….I usually spend double time than we should in IPS. :(
 
I think most people over-allocate their time on IPS questions during AM session.
 
A few years ago I was talking to the finance professor I’d had in university. It was August, and his son had just learned, officially, that he’d failed the Level III CFA exam.
He already knew that he’d failed, however. When he took the exam he started in on the 30-minute individual wealth management question #1 and was quite pleased with his answers … that is, until he looked at the clock and realized that he’d spent 1½ hours on it.
 
Yes, they are long and it really takes time to extract the information we need. And a lot of infomtion involved especially required rate of return…
 
Magician and sooraj, thank you both for your input.
I think there are major points to be gained (or saved) if you have good strategy and time management skills on the AM session. I never had a major problem with time at previous levels, but it seems very relevant for the Level III AM session. This is going to take lots of practice to get down. Thank you!
 
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