Where's the disconnect?

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L3BeatIt

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I did poorly (<50%) on ethics this year. However for kicks I just did the CFAI eoc practice questions and got over 50 correct out of 61 without reading anything beforehand ( incidentally it’s a nice way to get acquainted with the new 3 answer choice format)
The only thing I can think of was it was a constant feeling of being rushed (carried over from morning essays) that got in the way with my ability to make correct judgements. (i.e. i said to keep the IM who kept violating, not fire him.)
whatever it’s water under the bridge now..
 
Not sure. I have always considered ethics to be one of my strongest areas in the curriculum while studying. I got almost all the CFAI and Schweser ethics questions right and then got 50-70% on the exam, and failed it on level 2. I really have no idea how they expect people to do well on this section.
 
practice questions are way too easy and are definitely not an indicator of how one would fare in the actual exam. I have never scored over 70% in all the three level but I never scored below 50 either.. I guess if you could manage to get a score of more than 62-63% and score above 50% in eithics you should pass..In level 3 ethics for assest manager will evenutally appear in some form or the other. I would suggest reviewing the material and analysing it threadbare should probably help..
 
comp_sci_kid Wrote:
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> i think most of people who aced ethics were
> getting 60/61 out of 61
That’s right. I am strong in this area and that’s about what I got. These questions are more straighforward. The test requires deeper understanding of the material.
The best way to nail ethics I think, is to do a ton of Q-bank questions. The repitition and different scenarios really help prepare. I may have missed 1 question at the most this year in Ethics. Since my AM was so bad, my overal score was probably close to MPS, that strong Ethics score may have given me the pass. You get the most return per time spent in this section, so there is no reason not to score 70+ here.
 
to be honest, i think doing practice questions for something like ethics is a waste of time. when i study i don’t do any practice questions unless they involve numbers and formulas because all else needs to be thought about uniquely.
now I’ve only done LI and LII exams so I’m not even sure of the difficulty of LIII, but I think hammering down on the important points that are new information to you is most important because you can assume alot of stuff, i mean, its ethics, all you have to do is think whats right from a moral POV. you can’t study for ethics, i think it comes down to reading every possible question and answer very closely and just going on a hunch of what you believe to be morally right.
maybe i’m just made out to work for the SEC?
 
There’s a huge difference between Ethics at L1 and at L3.
After some practice, the solution to L1 situations becomes obvious in seconds. Not so at L3. On the L3 exam, you’re looking at extremely nuanced situations where, unless you specifically remember something from the CFAI book, you usually have to pick the better of two good answers. It seemed very much like the Trivial Pursuit version of Ethics.
Still, if you’re good at finding needles in haystacks, Ethics was worth 10% of the 2008 exam.
 
frisian Wrote:
——————————————————-
> After some practice, the solution to L1 situations
> becomes obvious in seconds. Not so at L3. On the
> L3 exam, you’re looking at extremely nuanced
> situations where, unless you specifically remember
> something from the CFAI book, you usually have to
> pick the better of two good answers. It seemed
> very much like the Trivial Pursuit version of
> Ethics.
I think the key word here is trivial. You can understand the spirit of the rule and still fail because you didn’t catch all of the tiny details.
 
My suggestion would be to solve the practice question in the following way:
- read the question
- answer it without looking at the variants suggested
- read the variants
- correct yourself if needed
- check the result
Unless your answer is absolutely the same as the correct one, do a quick review of this LOS. I did both LI/II with 70+ in Ethics and imo only due to the understanding how ethics works.
Once you get it (the thinking inside the suggested framework), things should get way easier.
 
Matt, I was the opposite of yourself in ethics, I only did questions and didn’t even read through the material and got > 70% in ethics for level 2. I found scenarios helped me more than just reading rules and regs, but everybody is different. Also the exam would always put 2 questions together. One always seemed to be a no brainer and the other made you think. I felt like I was always choosing between 2 answers instead of 4. Kind of nice.
 
I also think ethics can be one of the highest return for time spent, but for me I need to both read the text & do practice questions. The practice questions get you thinking about how to approach the subtle nuances of the spirit of the rule, while the reading gives the hard facts allowing you to remember small details when needed. Once you have both of these down, you can reason out any type of scenario even if you’ve never seen it before
 
weird K2.
its cool how people’s study preferences and learning styles differ.
and vanz, I know what you mean, because I feel ethics is the easiest part of the exams, I swear I’ve gotten every question right in both exams so maybe I think in that framework and don’t even realize…
 
bromion Wrote:
——————————————————-
> Not sure. I have always considered ethics to be
> one of my strongest areas in the curriculum while
> studying. I got almost all the CFAI and Schweser
> ethics questions right and then got 50-70% on the
> exam, and failed it on level 2. I really have no
> idea how they expect people to do well on this
> section.
isn’t 50-70% considered failing a section?
 
vanz1212 Wrote:
——————————————————-
> Once you have both of these down, you can
> reason out any type of scenario even if you’ve
> never seen it before
Second that.
Ethics is essentially the set of rules that explain why good is good and bad is bad. If not for the cruel world around us that spoils, everyone would be able to crack the questions without any preparations.
 
I wouldn’t go in any CFA exam without doing practice questions. This includes ethics. Although it may seem like a waste of time, since the ethics questions on the exam are always different than the practice questions, I believe it sets your frame of mind of what is ethical and what isn’t.
 
I normally blast through Ethics with >70. True at L1, L2, and on virtually all practice exams I took.
On the real L3, I got <50%, which was a real surprise and shock. Fortunately, I passed anyway. There must be some aspect of the situation that I did not understand or read carefully enough.
It’s also true that since I had been doing well all along, maybe I didn’t review enough during cram time.
I do agree that ethics is generally a very good return on your time investment, in terms of expected points returned per hour spent studying.
 
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