Poor CFA I Sample Exam Scores

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Buffettology88

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Hi. After 500 hours of studying the readings (yes thats five, zero, zero) and all EOC problems 3 times over, I came into the CFA sample exams very confident….wrong!!! I scored 63% and 61%, respectively. Ahh!! Thats all I had to show for all this studying. Very frusterating and stressful. Has anyone else taken the samples yet?
 
I am sitting for my first mock exam on Saturday and will be satisfied with a score of 50%. You have to start somewhere, right? Assuming that I take a mock exam every weekend and address deficiencies in between, I hope to add 5% to my score with each passing mock exam- putting me above 80% heading into June 1.
Relax - it sounds as if your preparation has been solid up to this point. Address your weaknesses and aim for a modest improvement next week. I would imagine that most Level 1 candidates would love to trade places with you right now. Congratulations on all of your efforts thus far and keep plugging away!
 
are you talking about the online sample exams or the downloadable mock exam?
 
I know exactly how you feel. I just did my first half-mock and scored 57%. At first, I thought I was grading myself with the wrong answer key! At least I know where my weaknesses are. Surprisingly, quant was my highest scoring topic.
 
hei.so wrote:
I know exactly how you feel. I just did my first half-mock and scored 57%. At first, I thought I was grading myself with the wrong answer key! At least I know where my weaknesses are. Surprisingly, quant was my highest scoring topic.
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Me too - Yesterday, I scored a 51% on my first mock exam (Schweser Practice Exam #1). If I could not at least make an educated guess, I left my answer sheet blank. I want guesses to benefit me on exam day. Today, I will be reviewing the answers - all 240 problems. I hope to add 5% to my score each week and get my total score on the Schweser practice exams to 80% by end of May. That gives me a fighting chance of attaining a 70% on the actual exam. The AM and PM exams took me less than 2.5 hours to complete, so time may not be as big of a constraint as I had thought.
 
Buffetology and anyone else that has taken the Sample Exams.
Do you remember a very weird economics question in the samples exams?
There was one about Nash Equilibrium where I’m sure the testmakers made a mistake. Do you recall this at all?
 
Dude, don’t worry about it at all. From what I hear the sample exams are rough to begin with. Doing EOC 3 times over and even reading the book front to back will not get you a high score. You need to know of all the different ways they can test your knowledge. Keep doing the sample and mocks man.. review your results carefully, pick yourself up, and do it again. Keep going until there’s no more time left. Since you’ve done all the reading you can, it’s practice practice practice time.
I’m about to sit for my first mock tomorrow and I realistically expect a 60%. Just going to review from the mistakes I made and then take 5 or 6 more practice exams.
 
rayankh wrote:
Dude, don’t worry about it at all. From what I hear the sample exams are rough to begin with.
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I pray that’s true. I’ve been pretty diligent in my studies and I’m scoring slighly above 60% on my mocks.
 
My sample scores have been low as well. Don’t let the mental frustration take over. Focus on your weaknesses and try different means of studying.
 
has anyone been doing schwesser practice exams,are they easier than the cfa mocks? if you have,what are your scores on the schwesser practice exams?
 
my average is around 65. scores around 80-90% for every topic except econ and FRA……..
sigh… they just don’t make sense to me
 
I did a complete set of mock exam on Saturday. My afternoon scores are lower. In the afternoon, it just seemed a bit harder to focus.
Anyone knows how to keep yourself alert in the afternoon session?
 
I did one of the CFA sample exams today. I thought Schweser was harder.
 
@zxfmontreal i have the same problem. I do better in the morning sessions.
 
zxfmontreal wrote:
I did a complete set of mock exam on Saturday. My afternoon scores are lower. In the afternoon, it just seemed a bit harder to focus.
Anyone knows how to keep yourself alert in the afternoon session?
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5-hour energy(s) :D
 
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