What was the most difficult section in Level 1 on exam day?

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yancey

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Was it FSA?

Was it Quant?

Was it Ethics?

I am having the most difficulty with FSA and Quant. For anybody who has taken the exam, do you have any suggestions on the best ways to overcome these difficult topics?

Thanks to all who respond, and good luck to all who are sitting in December.
 
Yes I had the same experience this spring so I made extensive use of the QBank and all three areas you mention here were actually turned into my best topics according to the Level I score board (I passed this June).
 
You are right that these 3 are most weighed sections of the exam. Quant is comparatively easier. So, I think FSA is the most difficult part.

To pass, you cannot have difficulty in FSA and Quant. They are important sections. If you go through the result of failure, somebody get 50-70% for all sections or with 1 to 2 >70% and still fail. It is unlikely to pass if any of the three subject score less than 50%. Ethics is a bit arbitrary and uncertain.

FSA requires some accounting background. If you don't understand what your study notes say, get other text book for detail. "Financial Reporting and Analysis. Revsine, Collins & Johnson. Pearson/Prentice Hall" is good for FSA section.
 
Thanks for the responses. Right now, Quant (regression analysis) and FSA (leases, taxes, ratio analysis) are the most difficult.

I am arranging at least 100 of the most difficult question in these sections, to review everyday....plus the Schwesser q bank questions.

Thanks again for any feedback.
 
Economics was toughest in June but that is not too heavily weighted.

Bear in mind that Ethics and FSA >70 is the key to success.
 
I think the Ethics was the toughest section this June. There were several times (>5) I had to flip coins for the two left choices.
And to my feelings, PM was the next toughest. I totally forgot under what circumstance the investment was capital conservative or @#$%&......etc.

But i had them scored >70%. So my two cents is to think through, reflash what you read in the book about that part.
 
The latter part of the curriculum was the most difficult part for me as I had rushed through it towards the end of my studying in order to make room for taking many practice exams.
 
Econ was the worst for me by far. Then again, I didn't do much studying for it in order to focus on more important sections, and it paid off overall.
 
I thought economics would be an easy section, but in June it was, by far, the most difficult section, bar none, hands down, no contest.
 
- I felt economics was the most ambiguous
- FSA hardest for me (no background)
- actually found ethics pretty easy in the morning, but got tricky in the afternoon, quite comparable to CFA online or shcweser practice exams though
 
Studying for FSA is hard. Concepts are not difficult but it's hard to retain information. I hope solving Qbank and CFAI problems for a month is going to help.
 
Afternoon, FSA. I did score > 70 on FSA.

Before i went into the morning session I promised to myself that I would leave my ego at the door and not be too ashamed if I could not answer a question and move on. This worked very well in the AM.

PM session - I forgot about my vows - got into a nasty quarrel with a FSA dividend discount model/ROE/stock price question - finally I won - But I must have wasted an 20 - 25 minutes on that question and I had to rush through the rest. Thank God for my fundamental understanding of concepts.

I could zip through the rest with educated guesses (did not touch the calculator even for duration/convexity questions) and I passed with > 70 in all except Portfolio Management and derivatives which I suspect was more due to the zipping through than lack of knowledge.

don't fight FSA - move on.
 
for me eco and Portfolio Management (i was not at all expecting that kind of question for PM, I rather wanted calculator question instead...)
 
I agree that Econ was the toughest section, but it was very redundant.
 
Econ... though I didn't feel it on the exam. It was my only section under 70.
 
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