Schweser PRACTICE EXAM Difficulty

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sdooley23

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Anyone else feel like the was a huge jump in difficulty from the first mock to the second? I just did the AM session of mock (EDIT - PRACTICE EXAM) 2 and I got absolutely destroyed. Made me realize that I need to start memorizing formulas ASAP….
Consider this a warning for anyone who has not yet started it… Haha
 
turns out I got a 65% in Morning and 66% afternoon. I felt like I had done much worse prior to grading it.
Hang in ther guys. I took yesterday off, think I just needed a break. Was starting to lose it… Brain almost popped.
Goal for this week is to write down every formula I don’t yet have memorized again. Then friggin memorize them. Need to build quick review sheets seperate from my notes.
 
As far as I know, Schweser only has 1 mock exam.
Are you instead referring to the six practice exams in the Schweser Practice Exams Volume 1 & Volume 2 books ?
 
Yea, the practice exams. Plenty of people refer to them as mocks. They are a really fun time! Thorw some really tricky stuff at you. I actually am finding them trickier the the CFAI Practice Test Questions.
 
Are they easier than the topical practice questions in the CFAI website?
 
danv0330 wrote:
Im a retaker from last year.. formulas are everything
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Hi danv0330,
I have heard that the exam is 30% calculation, 70% conceptual. Is your experience different?
 
Gebura wrote:
Hi danv0330,
I have heard that the exam is 30% calculation, 70% conceptual. Is your experience different?
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Level 2 is very quant focused. You cannot get by without knowing the math inside and out. But going as far to say formulas is everything is a stretch though. There is still a good chunk of qualitative material, and some of the quant questions still require you to understand the directions of cashflows. For example you might have the answer, but it shows up twice in the multiple choice, positive and negative, and you need to know which position is yours.
But you cannot get by without knowing the math. So do your practice problems. Do them until it feels like punching numbers into your calculator is the bottleneck. Then do them again.
I have found schweser questions to be easier on deciphering inputs (half the time they just give them to you), and harder on formulas and concepts.
I have found CFAI EoC to be difficult on deciphering inputs (they throw a lot of unneeded data at you), and a bit easier on the concepts.
There really is no substitute to CFAI EoC questions. Do them all. You need to be 100% confident on your inputs as well as your formulas. Sometimes you can get all 3 answers listed on a question, depending on what inputs you use. No formula is going to help you here.
 
Money Manager, have you worked the CFAI online test vignettes yet? They seem more straight forward to me then schweser questions… How do they compage to the CFAI EOCs? I really haven’t planned the time to work all the EOCs as I am planning to work mocks and CFAI online test vignettes from her on out. Appreciate the input!
 
Money_Manager wrote:
I have found schweser questions to be easier on deciphering inputs (half the time they just give them to you), and harder on formulas and concepts.
I have found CFAI EoC to be difficult on deciphering inputs (they throw a lot of unneeded data at you), and a bit easier on the concepts.
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This one of the best descriptions of the difference between the two sources I have read in awhile.
 
sdooley23 wrote:
Money Manager, have you worked the CFAI online test vignettes yet? They seem more straight forward to me then schweser questions… How do they compage to the CFAI EOCs? I really haven’t planned the time to work all the EOCs as I am planning to work mocks and CFAI online test vignettes from her on out. Appreciate the input!
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Despite my flair I’m actually level 3 candidate so I’m speaking from my experience last year.
I never did the CFAI online vignettes because they had the same questions as the mocks CFAI puts up, so I just did the mock exams.
I agree they feel more straight forward, given that you can confidently pick the correct inputs from the question, but don’t mistake this for easier. If you cannot, CFAI questions are going to be extremely difficult and frustrating.
The question might be a simple addition and subtraction question, such as calculate FCFF/FCFE, but they’ll throw unneeded data at you. You’ll find yourself knowing the formula, able to produce multiple answers, but unable to determine whether you should or should not include one item. There will be an answer for all results so you cannot do any sort of elimination. This is where CFAI gets tricky.
However, if you can practice enough to gain confidence in determining inputs, the exam is relatively straight forward. This is also why CFAI questions seem impossible when you start, and very straight forward when you look at the answer.
EoC are another beast in their own as a lot of them are long answer calculations. They are designed to teach you the content and calculations. There is no substitute for CFAI EoC and they need to be done in my personal opinion. They are the best bang for your buck and are very representative of the skills and knowledge needed to pass the exam.
The best part about them is they require you to do the answers ‘blind’; there are no multiple choice answers for you to check against as you play around with the numbers and inputs. CFAI is designed so all answers are produceable so its a waste of time to try and play around with the answers. Its either you know it or you don’t, and the CFAI EoC does a very good job helping you prepare for that.
 
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