Was last year easier?

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icetonez

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I was looking at last year’s results thread and except for AI, it seemed like everyone crushed it. A lot of the passes posted weren’t even close (most cats >70%) and there were some brutal band 10 fails with >70% on CF, Equity, FRA, and Ethics. This and the 46% pass rate makes me think last year’s MPS was high. I hope this year’s exam was tougher with a slightly weaker candidate base (due to last year’s high pass rate), resulting in a lower MPS.
 
I took the exam in 2014 failed Band 8 with every section between 50-70%+ (Der >70 and AI <50). My feeling is that the level this year was about the same..
It really depends on how well you prepared and if things you knew came up on the exam.. The difference in MPS can be found at the margin of the very hard /very easy questions.. Questions that (everyone) got right or wrong so to say..both years had a fair share of gimmie questions.. If you knew the buzzword/ formula.. From everything I’ve read, the MPS may be a in a range of 2-3% which is 3 questions.. Impossible to tell how well other people did on the margin.
With that said, I remember this year had many “ambiguous” questions which should throw.. Everyone off.. But I’m not sure how that effects the MPS
 
Thanks Dan. I was also a band 8 fail so I think we were about 8 questions off the pace. Interstingly we got there very different ways. I was either >70% or <50%. I find it hard to believe that I was 8 questions better this year, but if the MPS can meet us half way, well then maybe I have a fighting chance.
 
67% seems a bit high as I was a band 10 (Studied 3 months) and was not prepared all that well.
Breakdown of Matrix:
<= 50 - Alt/Quants
>70 - Equity/FI/Eco
50-70 - Der/Corp/FRA/Ethics/PM
 
OP, I thought this year was harder, and agree with your theory on MPS being slightly lower. This year seemed to have more multi-step calcs and traps. Or maybe I was better prepared and saw them?
 
Yeah, I think some candidates will be in for a rude awakening in Equity and FRA
 
takeawalkk wrote:
67% seems a bit high as I was a band 10 (Studied 3 months) and was not prepared all that well.
Breakdown of Matrix:
<= 50 - Alt/Quants
>70 - Equity/FI/Eco
50-70 - Der/Corp/FRA/Ethics/PM
Click to expand...
Talk about close!
 
Portfolio Managment was a tough call for 2014 L2..
I would say 2015 pass rate would be higher than last year.. I expect 47%
 
If Pass Rate is 47%, MPS should be less than last year’s MPS. Level of difficulty was almost same if not slightly tougher this year
 
If I pass this year its because I quit smoking!
Smoking seriously takes up so much time..
I know it has nothing to do with the topic, but I wanted to say that..
 
lindsay99 wrote:
If Pass Rate is 47%, MPS should be less than last year’s MPS. Level of difficulty was almost same if not slightly tougher this year
Click to expand...
Agreed
 
danv0330 wrote:I took the exam in 2014 failed Band 8 with every section between 50-70%+ (Der >70 and AI <50). My feeling is that the level this year was about the same.. It really depends on how well you prepared and if things you knew came up on the exam.. The difference in MPS can be found at the margin of the very hard /very easy questions.. Questions that (everyone) got right or wrong so to say..both years had a fair share of gimmie questions.. If you knew the buzzword/ formula.. From everything I’ve read, the MPS may be a in a range of 2-3% which is 3 questions.. Impossible to tell how well other people did on the margin. With that said, I remember this year had many “ambiguous” questions which should throw.. Everyone off.. But I’m not sure how that effects the MPS
Click to expand...
I agree with this post. I was band 8 last year and feel the same way. Depends how much you prepared. I spent pretty much no time and didn’t know the formulas for the new PM readings so I was in tough on both of those item sets. AI I had no idea really and FRA gave me trouble. This year I was well prepared with no item set giving me the “what the hell is going on here” response I had last year, so the amount of preparation is going to play a big role in how hard you thought it was year to year
 
I failed Band 7 last year, <=50 in PFMan, Economic, Alts, QM and >70 in Ethics and Corp Fin. Overall, I think I found last year’s exam a bit more difficult, perhaps this is because I felt better prepared this time. Last year in the PM session I was struggling for time and rushing towards the end. This year I finished with 30 mins or so left in both sessions, and time to review some questions.
I think a big difference i noticed this year is lack of content/detail in the vignettes, which meant we had to make a lot of assumptions when answering questions. Ethics in particular I found lacking in detail, and this is an area I worry about this year having got >70 last year. Someone has already mentioned the ambiguity of questions and I completely agree, this left me slightly disappointed with CFAI as I got the feeling there were more trick/trap questions and not enough opportunity for candidates to demonstrate their understanding of the curriculum. Someone also mentioned that there were less areas where I was like “what the hell is going on”, again this could be because I felt more prepared. Last year I found PFMan particularly bamboozling, this is supposed to be my strongest topic yet I didn’t have a clue how to answer last year.
Like everyone else, I’m hoping I have done enough to pass. I know I have done better than last year, but sadly this means I could still be Band 8-10 fail (still better than last year!). Regarding my preparation, my approach was alot different this year, as I spent more time reviewing the material in the final weeks whereas last year all I did was questions. I think in level 2 questions are less important than in level 1, as level 2 it is more about having an understanding rather than just memorising formulas and ‘Plug and Chug’ as Schweser refer to it.
Anyway….my late grandmother always said “Hard work ALWAYS pays off”, she was rarely ever wrong about anything. Good luck everyone!
 
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