retakers... your thoughts?

^ apart of one mock, I was scoring 80+ in all AM and PM. The feared 2012 AM was ok to me. I just flunked 2011 PM Mock that I’ve got 60+ in.
On the exam, what made me lose my confidence is:
- AM, I finished 10 min early, I skimmed through some of the questions and answers. I found a note below one question that i missed and made a huge difference. It rendered my previous answer invalid. so I changed the answer. I wonder how many of such things I’ve missed.
- PM. I calculated some answers, was confident. My answer was among the choices (of course). After the second round, I realized that there was a small twist. I recalculated. I wonder how many of such things I’ve missed.
This is beside the expected normal silly mistakes.
On praying, my God is not different than Thomas Jefferson’s.
I hope we pass man
 
i hope so too my man, it’s much deserved for us both.
 
harshd wrote:
I was wondering if it is possible to pass by scoring below 50% in Ethics and scoring above 70% in all other sections.
Click to expand...
Passed level 2 with <50% on ethics along with <50% on 3 others. Luck favored me that year, probably got just one or two points above band 10, Here’s my score matrix-

Topic Max Pts <=50% 51%-70% >70%
Alternative Investments 36 - * -
Corporate Finance 36 - - *
Derivatives 36 * - -
Economics 18 - * -
Equity Investments 72 - - *
Ethical & Professional Standards 36 * - -
Financial Reporting & Analysis 72 - - *
Fixed Income Investments 18 * - -
Portfolio Management 18 - * -
Quantitative Methods 18 * - -
 
Last year: took it on 2 hours sleep, band 10. Thought I got killed in the am session and I did fine, throught I did well in the PM session and had too many brain farts and failed pm which cost me overall. Also did lousy in ethics which I was upset at, you have to nail ethics.
This year: took it on 7 hours eleep, yeah for sleep!! makes a ton of difference. AM was very out of the box and hard, not sure I passed it. PM session I know I did very well including ethics. hoping for the best.
 
JuniorCk8 wrote:
dab4488 wrote:Do you guys mind sharing your results matrix from 2014? Curious how my feelings of performance stack up against a band 9/10 score.
Click to expand...
i would have no problem sharing this info; however, i don’t feel it would provide any value to you. to be 100% straight with you, your feelings of your performance are undeniably flawed and inaccurate - trust me. i thought i did well in the AM last yr and bombed the PM…. my results show the complete opposite.
here is a barometer for you 1st timers:
1. if you feel the AM was ok or straight forward, but challenging, then assess your PM. how you “felt” about the AM session is 100% irrelevant. if you feel the PM was a breeze and you caught the minor tricks, you should be okay.
2. if you bombed the AM because you skipped 20-30 minutes/points, rest up because you’ll be taking it again next yr.
3. if you think you did great on the AM and finished with ample time, and the PM was okay and/or fair and you feel you scored a 70% on the PM, overall you probably failed.
Click to expand...
This is so true. I was #3 last year. I’m not saying it’s impossible to slay the AM, but if you think you crushed it 9 times out of 10 you got crushed. Feeling #1 this time through.
 
Not trying to exploit or showcase your results here Traveller but this seems really good for a Band 10 considering only 7/19 sections >70%.
In fact I’ve seen a lot of results from 2011-2014 where there were in total around 6-8 sections >70% that either got Band 10 or just passed (Ethics adjustment?).
Is this common? Because this gives me an eerily false sense of confidence that I really do not want to cling on to until August…
[Btw I’m a first-timer on L3 and I agree with the majority of sentiment discussed across AF today.]
 
I was sitting in front of the bathroom and thought that once the exam began, nobody will go to the bathroom. I was wrong, there were someone going there every 2-3 minutes (no kidding).
I was hearing the hand dryers all of the AM exam. Its really bothered me and I lost my attention.
I’m really mad they did not oblige the candidates to use paper instead of hand dryer.
I ended up asking for a new seat for the aftenoon as I did’nt want losing time doing it during the AM session.
So far, it’s not fair because depending where you are sitting you have some advantages or disadvantages.
I paid the same cost than everyone and should have an equivalent seat i.e. NOT IN THE BATHROOM
 
That sucks. In my test center the bathrooms are a good 100 foot walk from the closest desk. Anyone using the hand dryer is just a prick.
 
It was my second attempt this year after a band 7 last year. I felt AM was tougher than 2014 and PM was trickier too. I fell for traps on the PM last year and lost valuable points including some crucial points on Ethics.i felt i did well on the AM last year only to be disappointed when the results came out. I think you need to discount atleast 5-8% from the score you expect for AM..overall 2014 vs 2015 i did marginally better or the same in AM and much better in PM. I think crushing PM (including Ethics) is the key to pass this beast no matter how well you think you did in the AM…
 
BearFlag wrote:
I was sitting in front of the bathroom and thought that once the exam began, nobody will go to the bathroom. I was wrong, there were someone going there every 2-3 minutes (no kidding).
I was hearing the hand dryers all of the AM exam. Its really bothered me and I lost my attention.
I’m really mad they did not oblige the candidates to use paper instead of hand dryer.
I ended up asking for a new seat for the aftenoon as I did’nt want losing time doing it during the AM session.
So far, it’s not fair because depending where you are sitting you have some advantages or disadvantages.
I paid the same cost than everyone and should have an equivalent seat i.e. NOT IN THE FUCKING BATHROOM
Click to expand...
If I’m your boss and I read this, I’d move your office next to the printing room. It would be mean, but so funny. I hate and oppose such mean acts, but this one is very tempting. Admit it, you yourself would laugh from inside. Sometimes irony is funny.
In other posts you mentioned you’re facing some difficulties in English as it’s your second language. Beside your current job, I would assign you the Editor in Chief of the internal company blog.
Though this is not my intention, but these actions of mine would make you stronger. I, as your boss, am accepting your sincere gratitude. You are most welcome
On a side note: I hope you’ve done well despite the circumstances
 
MJLU280 wrote:
Last year: took it on 2 hours sleep, band 10. Thought I got killed in the am session and I did fine, throught I did well in the PM session and had too many brain farts and failed pm which cost me overall. Also did lousy in ethics which I was upset at, you have to nail ethics.
This year: took it on 7 hours eleep, yeah for sleep!! makes a ton of difference. AM was very out of the box and hard, not sure I passed it. PM session I know I did very well including ethics. hoping for the best.
Click to expand...
I pulled an all-nighter, not by choice, both on last years and this years. My experience last year was the exact as yours. I was almost falling asleep towards the end of the PM lol. I actually did pretty decent though all things considered and how many questions I left for the AM (band 10). This year I, for some reason, functioned fine despite sleep deprivation. I thought this exam was really straight forward as far as the material goes. I am a little shocked at how many people are saying how brutal it was. I think the format is what through so many people for a loop. I actually agree with you on ethics. There actually weren’t a lot of tricks if you knew where to look. I can think of one question specifically where you could see how someone would cross out what actually was the correct answer, because it seemed so randomly off, and try to narrow it down the remaining two choices that were entirely subjective. The trick was that whereas with most past exams you can answer such questions by merely reading one paragraph for one question at a time, this one required you to read on into the next paragraph. Also, the AM was in a totally different format than anything I’ve seen in the past. I think someone on here saying it seems like CFAI has traded off depth for breadth and I would agree. The exam was not so challenging as far as the material this year, it was all about the format I think.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top