Failed morning, don't know what I am doing wrong...

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simply_put7

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I failed - I did really badly in the morning. But there was only one question set I didn’t answer. I thought I understood all the questions, but some how I am not answering my questions in a way that the CFA markers understand. English is my first language.
I went through old exams, but that didn’t help because I need someone else to mark my answers so I can get honest feedback.
Are there any prep courses that will help improve my mark by focusing on the morning session?
Any thoughts? For the people that passed, what worked for you?
Essay
Q#
Topic
Max Pts
<=50%
51%-70%
>70%
1
Portfolio Management - Institutional
20
*
-
-
2
Fixed Income Investments
22
*
-
-
3
Equity Investments
19
*
-
-
4
Portfolio Management - Asset Allocation
13
-
*
-
5
Portfolio Management - Monitor&Rebalance
13
*
-
-
6
Portfolio Management - Individual
22
*
-
-
7
Portfolio Management - Individual
17
-
-
*
8
Portfolio Management - Risk Management
20
-
*
-
9
Economics
18
*
-
-
10
Portfolio Management - Indiv/Behavioral
16
-
*
-
Item Set
Q#
Topic
Max Pts
<=50%
51%-70%
>70%
-
Alternative Investments
18
-
*
-
-
Economics
18
-
*
-
-
Ethical & Professional Standards
36
-
*
-
-
Fixed Income Investments
18
-
*
-
-
Portfolio Management - Asset Allocation
18
-
*
-
-
Portfolio Management - Individual
18
-
-
*
-
Portfolio Management - Institutional
18
*
-
-
-
Portfolio Management - Performance Eval.
18
*
-
-
-
Portfolio Management - Risk Management
18
-
-
*
 
Was this your first attempt? How many hours did you study?
The reason I ask, and not to be rude but give honest feedback, is that your PM score isn’t really great either. I think that’s a max of 62%, meaning it was probably even lower. I would say that shows more that you aren’t familiar with the material than having trouble in the AM session only.
 
Same boat.
Went 5-4-1 in the AM 1-4-4 in the PM, thought I did better in the PM but didn’t do horrible failing only one topic (not ethics)
My downfall was for sure the IPS questions, failing all three. Strangely enough thought it would be my strength going in. Did 6 schweser mocks, 5 years of old CFA papers (last three years twice) and IPS were always my highest scores. More than 300 hours in.
To be honest, I think I just choked. Nerves got to me and couldn’t recognize what I normally would under non-stress situation.
Band 7 and feeling defeated.
 
nixon101 wrote:
Same boat.
Went 5-4-1 in the AM 1-4-4 in the PM, thought I did better in the PM but didn’t do horrible failing only one topic (not ethics)
My downfall was for sure the IPS questions, failing all three. Strangely enough thought it would be my strength going in. Did 6 schweser mocks, 5 years of old CFA papers (last three years twice) and IPS were always my highest scores. More than 300 hours in.
To be honest, I think I just choked. Nerves got to me and couldn’t recognize what I normally would under non-stress situation.
Band 7 and feeling defeated.
Click to expand...
I have the same issue, I am very familiar with the material and failed to manage stress and couldn’t eat anything before the exam for 24 hours. This is the the reason why I failed.
 
Glue85 wrote:
nixon101 wrote:
Same boat.
Went 5-4-1 in the AM 1-4-4 in the PM, thought I did better in the PM but didn’t do horrible failing only one topic (not ethics)
My downfall was for sure the IPS questions, failing all three. Strangely enough thought it would be my strength going in. Did 6 schweser mocks, 5 years of old CFA papers (last three years twice) and IPS were always my highest scores. More than 300 hours in.
To be honest, I think I just choked. Nerves got to me and couldn’t recognize what I normally would under non-stress situation.
Band 7 and feeling defeated.
Click to expand...
I have the same issue, I am very familiar with the material and failed to manage stress and couldn’t eat anything before the exam for 24 hours. This is the the reason why I failed.
Click to expand...
Its a logical problem, when you invest so much emotionally into one thing that has a binary result of pass or fail. Especially at this level where we are so close to the end, the sun came up today, life isn’t over. I plan to study similarly changing a few things, but to have more balance. Make time for the gym is top of the list.
 
I had the same issue last year: i knew the material very well, scored over 70% on the PM but somehow screwed up the AM completely. This year I took a NYSSA class with Nathan Ronen in additional to a premium Schweser package and scored really well on both parts.
Nathan is really good at teaching you how to write the essay: he explains the material and then gives you some past CFA questions and goes over them with the class. I also took two essay writing seminars that NYSSA offered, where Nathan gives you past exam questions, gives you 3/4 of the time to answer, collects the answers, then he goes over the correct answers, and grades your response. Yes, this is an extra cost, but it was well worth the money. For those who don’t live in NYC, I think they offer those online.
 
I couldn’t agree with you more. Nathan’s graded mock essay writing sessions helped boost my confidence a great deal for the AM session. Nathan pushes you to complete your answer in less time than allotted, forcing you to be succinct and to the point. I highly recommend it; it helped me tremendously.
 
I passed but not with flying colors as I had thought. Coming out of L1 / L2 i thought I did well on both and I did in the sense that I scored >70% on all sections but 2 on both exams combined.
For L3, I scored >70 on the PM on all sections but one, which was expected. AM was where I was surprised (4/2/4 split)… because felt like I knew 90% of the content on the AM. So my guess is that they didn’t like how I wrote my answers, and looking at the other candidates’ posts on here, that may have been the case for many others as well.
Reflecting back, I studied for all three exams as a loner without any classes, but for L3, a study buddy may help to get an objective view on your writing / marking of the AM portion. if you have money to spend / work reimburses you, I think a supplementary class would help as well to improve the written portion but that would only work if you know / understand the contents first. I saw someone talk about analyst ninja where they mark your exam as well. If i had re-write, I would check it out.
Cheers and best of luck next year.
 
Two attempts so far and ended up in band 6 both the times. Very upset with band 6. Can’t believe I ended up in band 6 this year as I was far better prepared and I think I gave a good shot this time. AM session killed me both the times. PM I did very good the first time and this year it was OK.
I think I did a decent job this time in AM. Was good with time management and was able to attempt entire AM paper (first time wasn’t able to attempt 30% of morning session). But still got killed by AM session. Was very surprised to see couple of sections in less than 50 column.
I had a charterholder colleague review my mock answers - and he said that I was writing fine. Bullet points, keeping them short and sweet. Did same thing in actual exam but still failed. I think that I know the material enough to pass it, but something is wrong with the AM session.
Thinking of using service from experts to help me with AM. I have read good reviews about Marc’s Levelup Bootcamp but it’s very costly and he doesn’t conduct his sessions in Charlotte, NC or anywhere close by. NYC is the closest that I have to go to. Fees+Travel+Accomodation = ~$2k. Don’t think I want to spend that much amount.
@bertran75 - how much did NYSSA class cost you? I will check for their online service.
 
I also attended a full day webinar conducted by Nathan and it was incredibly useful. The main takeaway was what and how much to write in a AM question. Other than that, it is absolutely necessary to ace the PM given the fact that the morning exam will surprise you in mysterious ways…
 
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