Hi, everybody.
June exam is over and I wanted to share my view on it. I�m not going to release any details but rather share my experience. Please do not hit me hard for this. Everything expressed below is just my opinion.
Part I. Overall Exam.
Exam organization:
Exam was well organized (at least in my location) and I think it helped a lot. I was not nervous at all. Make sure you have only �things� allowed by CFAI and you are not going to get in trouble. I had 2 calculators, pencils, sharpener and earplugs. Just bring them in without any bag or even a zip-lock. Earplugs were not necessary at all as well as pencil sharpener. I used about 10 pencils for both parts. Unfortunately, CFAI does not show the format of the answer sheet. If I saw it before I think it would be easier for me to adjust to the process. But my conclusion is that regular pencil is much better than mechanical to fill in the answers. My pencils were too sharp so I even had to intentionally dull them a little.
Exam perception:
You may hear people saying that second part is easier, especially due to the fact that you do not have so much stress. May be it happened because I was not nervous, but I found second part harder than the first. Questions were harder for me plus I was already tired. I talked to some people after the exam. Even though few of them had different opinion, majority agreed that the first part was easier. If I had to compare the complexity of the exam to the tests that I took I would rank then from most to least complex:
1. Schweser book 7 (I had low 60�s on it)
2. Part II of the real exam
3. Schweser book 6 (I had mid 70�s to low 80�s) and Part I of the real exam
4. CFAI sample exam which I purchased for $50 (I got 83 on it)
Real exam is much more analytical and less calculations than Schweser. My calculator power went on auto-save a couple of times because I did not use it. Nothing crazy like pooled variance or 3-asset portfolio stdev. Be ready to a lot of qualitative analytical questions. I did not see a single question in the first part that I did not understand at all and may be only 2 or 3 in the second part. Also logical chains in the second part were much longer. If part I was something like: �If A goes up what will happen to B and C� then part II was something like: �If company uses A and B how the change in X is going to affect Y and Z in comparison to the company which is using C and D�? Also I was more confident selecting the answer on part I than on part II. This does not mean that I selected the right answer. I was just more confident identifying which answer I�m going to pick versus fighting between 2 or sometimes 3 different choices in part II. Timing was sufficient. I have an average speed and I did not have enough time to do a Schweser exam in 3 hours. I usually marked 3 to 5 answers randomly on book 6 and 10 to 12 on book 7 to stay whithin 3 hours. On real exam I had about 10 minutes left after finishing both parts. I think this is due to the shorter questions and less calculations.
Conclusion:
Some people who passed exam before suggested that they were absolutely confident that they failed. My feelings are not that tragic. It is still a long waiting but I feel about 50/50 on this. I guessed a lot, but I hope it was not that bad.
I was going to publish more detailed opinion on each section (without specific questions obviously) but I�m not sure if this is helpful to other people. Exams do change from year to year, but if somebody is interested reply to this message and I will post part II later.
Good luck everybody.
Enjoy your study free life.
June exam is over and I wanted to share my view on it. I�m not going to release any details but rather share my experience. Please do not hit me hard for this. Everything expressed below is just my opinion.
Part I. Overall Exam.
Exam organization:
Exam was well organized (at least in my location) and I think it helped a lot. I was not nervous at all. Make sure you have only �things� allowed by CFAI and you are not going to get in trouble. I had 2 calculators, pencils, sharpener and earplugs. Just bring them in without any bag or even a zip-lock. Earplugs were not necessary at all as well as pencil sharpener. I used about 10 pencils for both parts. Unfortunately, CFAI does not show the format of the answer sheet. If I saw it before I think it would be easier for me to adjust to the process. But my conclusion is that regular pencil is much better than mechanical to fill in the answers. My pencils were too sharp so I even had to intentionally dull them a little.
Exam perception:
You may hear people saying that second part is easier, especially due to the fact that you do not have so much stress. May be it happened because I was not nervous, but I found second part harder than the first. Questions were harder for me plus I was already tired. I talked to some people after the exam. Even though few of them had different opinion, majority agreed that the first part was easier. If I had to compare the complexity of the exam to the tests that I took I would rank then from most to least complex:
1. Schweser book 7 (I had low 60�s on it)
2. Part II of the real exam
3. Schweser book 6 (I had mid 70�s to low 80�s) and Part I of the real exam
4. CFAI sample exam which I purchased for $50 (I got 83 on it)
Real exam is much more analytical and less calculations than Schweser. My calculator power went on auto-save a couple of times because I did not use it. Nothing crazy like pooled variance or 3-asset portfolio stdev. Be ready to a lot of qualitative analytical questions. I did not see a single question in the first part that I did not understand at all and may be only 2 or 3 in the second part. Also logical chains in the second part were much longer. If part I was something like: �If A goes up what will happen to B and C� then part II was something like: �If company uses A and B how the change in X is going to affect Y and Z in comparison to the company which is using C and D�? Also I was more confident selecting the answer on part I than on part II. This does not mean that I selected the right answer. I was just more confident identifying which answer I�m going to pick versus fighting between 2 or sometimes 3 different choices in part II. Timing was sufficient. I have an average speed and I did not have enough time to do a Schweser exam in 3 hours. I usually marked 3 to 5 answers randomly on book 6 and 10 to 12 on book 7 to stay whithin 3 hours. On real exam I had about 10 minutes left after finishing both parts. I think this is due to the shorter questions and less calculations.
Conclusion:
Some people who passed exam before suggested that they were absolutely confident that they failed. My feelings are not that tragic. It is still a long waiting but I feel about 50/50 on this. I guessed a lot, but I hope it was not that bad.
I was going to publish more detailed opinion on each section (without specific questions obviously) but I�m not sure if this is helpful to other people. Exams do change from year to year, but if somebody is interested reply to this message and I will post part II later.
Good luck everybody.
Enjoy your study free life.