The pass rate has been trending down in recent years. If you extrapolated the past few years of L1 exams, one would expect a pass rate of around 33% or 34%. 40% is larger than that, but it just shows the dangers of extrapolating out of your data set. If you put the recent 40% on a line graph, it doesn't look like an outlier or anything.
The test did seem to be a lot more conceptual and less calculation-oriented compared to the practice exams I did (Stalla) and compared to some of the sample exams on the CFA website (the free ones, I didn't pay for any of them). People who took the December 2005 exam also commented that there were fewer calculations on the June 2006 exam. So the difference in the test may explain the higher pass rate, and it sounds like there are some internal changes at CFAI that are going on and may be driving the changes in the test and the pass rates. I have no hard data or evidence on this, just instinct and the "mosaic theory."
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 11:43PM by bchadwick.