My story...
I started preparing for CFA lvl 1 in January. I was slacking off here and there but since April, I did all I could to allocate time to study. There were a number of days where I studied 14 hours or more. By the end of May, I was doing quite well with the practice exams. My average was mid 80s on CFAI online tests(fee based) and high 70s on Schweser.
I was really confident the night before the exam, as I managed to review all my notes and was in bed ready to sleep at 9:00pm. All I had to do was sleep well and I'll pass... I thought.
Well, I couldn't. I was tense and nervous and had to concentrate hard to not think of anything CFAI related as doing so causes my stomach to ache, and my heart to pound furiously. I was rolling all over my bed and ofcourse I prayed for sleep. By 3:00am I was filled with anxiety and despair. I lost all hope as I'm fully aware how exhausting the exam is. Even If I pass the morning session I'll be in no condition to attempt the afternoon session.
Around 4:00am I was worrying about my heart. I'm only 25 and I already have heart problems? Fortunately for me, things started to get better. First, I somehow fell asleep! I can't recall but I think I fell into a really deep sleep for an hour or two. Secondly, after I told my parents about my stomach, they gave me a pack of Gas-X (Simethicone). I took one tablet immediately and it calmed my stomach. My heartbeat also slowed down to a comfortable level. Either the gas in my stomach had some effect on my heart or I was less nervous.
My friend arrived at my house at 7:00am, we had breakfast together, checked our bags and off we went at 7:15am. I took a small nap in the taxi and arrived at the Toronto Exhibition Place at 7:45am. Right after I got out the car I realized how weak I was. My hands were numb and cold, trembling a bit too.
Before exam started, I took another Gas-X tablet. Exam started sharp at 9:00am. I felt dizzy and light headed. Nevertheless, I did all I could to remain focused and concentrated. There were two instances where I thought I was about to pass out, luckily i didn't. I took little time to decide on questions that I didn't know or unsure of. I remember there were about 1 or 2 GIPS questions that I spent less than 10 sec on.
After finishing the last economic question I looked up at the clock and it was 10:15am. I was doing great, although there were about 6 ethic questions I had trouble with, quant and economics were easy. My condition was also improving, I didn't feel as tired as I first did. Next up was FSA and finance, they weren't difficult but boy were they brain+time consuming! I was a bit worried about my time so I skipped that huge retirement question. Luckily, I had time to go back and finish it and still have 10 minutes left.
My parents came and took us out for lunch (I read on this forum that the Exhibition Place will be crowded during lunch and food is difficult to come by). There is a nice Japanese restaurant that is quite close to the Exhibition Place. The food and atmosphere was good. And most importantly it was really quiet and there were only a few customers. I think we were the only candidates who had lunch there.
We got back to the test center at 1:30pm, first thing we did was drop off our stuff in Exbition Hall C then proceeded to Hall A. The place was really crowded, quite a number of people were sitting on the floor in the storage area of Hall C. I couldn't help but think that by having lunch outside, we might have had a small advantage over those that stayed.
Back to my table at 1:45pm and took another Gas-X tablet. 1:58pm, two minutes till the afternoon session starts and I'm asking myself "should I go pee? yes? no? yes? no?...." While I was still busy debating this serious issue within myself, a guy sitting a few tables infront of me headed off to the washroom. In the end I decided not to. I believe the sense of urgency/desperation would keep me awake. And guess what, I was right! My mind was sharp and I finished the exam with 30 minutes left! I didn't rush either, I took my time to read the questions over carefully and identified a number of tricks along the way. After we were free to leave, I walked over to congratulate my friend thinking that we both nailed it. To my amazement my friend looked awful. He said he became really tired and couldn't concentrate during the beginning of the test and had only an hour to complete the last 60 questions (he starts with quant and ends with ethics). Fortunately he managed to finish the exam with 10 minutes left.
All in all, I found the afternoon session to be a lot easier although I did struggle a bit with a few economic questions (thought I had the section mastered so I didn't review it much). In comparison to the morning session, I'm sure I did better. Adding up the questions I'm positive I got wrong from both sessions = 7. Do I think I passed? Yes. But that doesn't stop me from worrying. I'm worrying about lost exam sheets, whether I filled the personal information section of the form correctly(although I checked that part atleast 3 times), number of careless mistakes I made etc.
I started preparing for CFA lvl 1 in January. I was slacking off here and there but since April, I did all I could to allocate time to study. There were a number of days where I studied 14 hours or more. By the end of May, I was doing quite well with the practice exams. My average was mid 80s on CFAI online tests(fee based) and high 70s on Schweser.
I was really confident the night before the exam, as I managed to review all my notes and was in bed ready to sleep at 9:00pm. All I had to do was sleep well and I'll pass... I thought.
Well, I couldn't. I was tense and nervous and had to concentrate hard to not think of anything CFAI related as doing so causes my stomach to ache, and my heart to pound furiously. I was rolling all over my bed and ofcourse I prayed for sleep. By 3:00am I was filled with anxiety and despair. I lost all hope as I'm fully aware how exhausting the exam is. Even If I pass the morning session I'll be in no condition to attempt the afternoon session.
Around 4:00am I was worrying about my heart. I'm only 25 and I already have heart problems? Fortunately for me, things started to get better. First, I somehow fell asleep! I can't recall but I think I fell into a really deep sleep for an hour or two. Secondly, after I told my parents about my stomach, they gave me a pack of Gas-X (Simethicone). I took one tablet immediately and it calmed my stomach. My heartbeat also slowed down to a comfortable level. Either the gas in my stomach had some effect on my heart or I was less nervous.
My friend arrived at my house at 7:00am, we had breakfast together, checked our bags and off we went at 7:15am. I took a small nap in the taxi and arrived at the Toronto Exhibition Place at 7:45am. Right after I got out the car I realized how weak I was. My hands were numb and cold, trembling a bit too.
Before exam started, I took another Gas-X tablet. Exam started sharp at 9:00am. I felt dizzy and light headed. Nevertheless, I did all I could to remain focused and concentrated. There were two instances where I thought I was about to pass out, luckily i didn't. I took little time to decide on questions that I didn't know or unsure of. I remember there were about 1 or 2 GIPS questions that I spent less than 10 sec on.
After finishing the last economic question I looked up at the clock and it was 10:15am. I was doing great, although there were about 6 ethic questions I had trouble with, quant and economics were easy. My condition was also improving, I didn't feel as tired as I first did. Next up was FSA and finance, they weren't difficult but boy were they brain+time consuming! I was a bit worried about my time so I skipped that huge retirement question. Luckily, I had time to go back and finish it and still have 10 minutes left.
My parents came and took us out for lunch (I read on this forum that the Exhibition Place will be crowded during lunch and food is difficult to come by). There is a nice Japanese restaurant that is quite close to the Exhibition Place. The food and atmosphere was good. And most importantly it was really quiet and there were only a few customers. I think we were the only candidates who had lunch there.
We got back to the test center at 1:30pm, first thing we did was drop off our stuff in Exbition Hall C then proceeded to Hall A. The place was really crowded, quite a number of people were sitting on the floor in the storage area of Hall C. I couldn't help but think that by having lunch outside, we might have had a small advantage over those that stayed.
Back to my table at 1:45pm and took another Gas-X tablet. 1:58pm, two minutes till the afternoon session starts and I'm asking myself "should I go pee? yes? no? yes? no?...." While I was still busy debating this serious issue within myself, a guy sitting a few tables infront of me headed off to the washroom. In the end I decided not to. I believe the sense of urgency/desperation would keep me awake. And guess what, I was right! My mind was sharp and I finished the exam with 30 minutes left! I didn't rush either, I took my time to read the questions over carefully and identified a number of tricks along the way. After we were free to leave, I walked over to congratulate my friend thinking that we both nailed it. To my amazement my friend looked awful. He said he became really tired and couldn't concentrate during the beginning of the test and had only an hour to complete the last 60 questions (he starts with quant and ends with ethics). Fortunately he managed to finish the exam with 10 minutes left.
All in all, I found the afternoon session to be a lot easier although I did struggle a bit with a few economic questions (thought I had the section mastered so I didn't review it much). In comparison to the morning session, I'm sure I did better. Adding up the questions I'm positive I got wrong from both sessions = 7. Do I think I passed? Yes. But that doesn't stop me from worrying. I'm worrying about lost exam sheets, whether I filled the personal information section of the form correctly(although I checked that part atleast 3 times), number of careless mistakes I made etc.
