AnalystForum
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- Jun 18, 2026
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Congratulations on surviving the Level I exam Please honor your pledge to the CFA Institute and do not discuss specific questions.
Welcome back, please don't discuss specific questions
- Thread starter AnalystForum
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So did the exam experience live up to the hype?
Personally I thought the exam was a bit easier in places than I had anticipated, but harder in others. By the afternoon session my mind was turing to swiss cheese - completely forgot a few things i definitely should have known and am sure I changed some correct answers to wrong ones d’oh. But I take comfort in the fact that you can probalby get 72 questions wrong and still pass.
I sat it in London EXCEL center, and the food options after the morning sessions were terrible. Queued up for a burger for 30 mins and ended up throwing it in the bin after 1 bite. I also found it a bit sinister when a proctor appears next to you during the exam and starts going through your passport - really breaks the concentration and think its a bit unnecessary as they have already checked them before they put you in your seat.
I think there were some strange people in there as well. Do you really need 3 calculators, spare batteries and 20 pencils? A lot of empty seats, and a couple that didn’t return to the second session.
Overall I think it was a fair exam and am glad that there were only 3 potential answers for quiestions instead of 4 when it came time to guess.
Personally I thought the exam was a bit easier in places than I had anticipated, but harder in others. By the afternoon session my mind was turing to swiss cheese - completely forgot a few things i definitely should have known and am sure I changed some correct answers to wrong ones d’oh. But I take comfort in the fact that you can probalby get 72 questions wrong and still pass.
I sat it in London EXCEL center, and the food options after the morning sessions were terrible. Queued up for a burger for 30 mins and ended up throwing it in the bin after 1 bite. I also found it a bit sinister when a proctor appears next to you during the exam and starts going through your passport - really breaks the concentration and think its a bit unnecessary as they have already checked them before they put you in your seat.
I think there were some strange people in there as well. Do you really need 3 calculators, spare batteries and 20 pencils? A lot of empty seats, and a couple that didn’t return to the second session.
Overall I think it was a fair exam and am glad that there were only 3 potential answers for quiestions instead of 4 when it came time to guess.
Yeah I thought it was very fair. I thought I did well because there were some questions where they were trying to trick you and I was able to recognize the trap so to speak.
How do we start a new topic on this forum? For some reason I can’t locate the button.
How do we start a new topic on this forum? For some reason I can’t locate the button.
I was just thinking the same……
I had a look back 6 months on the forum to see how people were feeling post exam, really helped seeing everyone went through the same anxieties back then.
Was I the only person who used a HP12C????
Didn’t see another one anywhere.
I had a look back 6 months on the forum to see how people were feeling post exam, really helped seeing everyone went through the same anxieties back then.
Was I the only person who used a HP12C????
Didn’t see another one anywhere.
chad.sandstedt
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- Jun 18, 2026
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Spongebob wrote:How do we start a new topic on this forum? For some reason I can’t locate the button.
Please try hitting refresh as it may be cached on your computer.
Please try hitting refresh as it may be cached on your computer.
Yeah, it was easier than expected, but the afternoon was harder than the morning possibly because I got tired. In the morning session I had time to revisit every question to double check but couldn’t do that in the afternoon. Had to guess a few but still hope to pass inshAllah
8 weeks is too much to wait though.
8 weeks is too much to wait though.Going_for_CFA_a
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I sat in ExCeL as well! DLR was packed, had to let 2 trains pass before I could get one.
I felt uncomfortable coming out of the morning session as I failed to manage my time wisely and ended up guessing quite a bit in the final minutes. I didn’t even bother to eat, I just went for a coffee and avoided the crowds in case I overheard people saying they thought it was easy (which would only make me feel worse).
Afternoon session went a lot better for me though, still had to guess a few at the end but was pretty sure of the rest.
Just like you I’m kicking myself for messing up on questions worth easy marks and for changing my first choices which turned out to be wrong! Good to know we’re still safe at 72 wrong but let’s see. I agree it was a fair exam.
And yeah, some people really went overboard with the calculators and pencils lol.
I felt uncomfortable coming out of the morning session as I failed to manage my time wisely and ended up guessing quite a bit in the final minutes. I didn’t even bother to eat, I just went for a coffee and avoided the crowds in case I overheard people saying they thought it was easy (which would only make me feel worse).
Afternoon session went a lot better for me though, still had to guess a few at the end but was pretty sure of the rest.
Just like you I’m kicking myself for messing up on questions worth easy marks and for changing my first choices which turned out to be wrong! Good to know we’re still safe at 72 wrong but let’s see. I agree it was a fair exam.
And yeah, some people really went overboard with the calculators and pencils lol.