So I took the first morning Schweser mock exam this weekend to assess where I am at…in sections as well as overall.
Pretty upset with the result…didn’t expect to hit average but the result was pretty depressing.
Considering I didn’t finish reading fixed income and derivatives… I need some advice/ plan from here on out.
Right now I plan to figure out why I got the problems on the mock wrong, reread my weak areas, do every single EOC on them, and start hitting the Qbank.
I also plan to finish reading up FI and Derivatives(I took the mock before, because I got discouraged reading Fixed Income).
Do you think with this plan, I should be able to raise my score on the mocks quite a bit? Are there any better methods/suggestions?
Hey man, don’t stress - I scored a 45% on my first mock exam at L2 and went on to pass the exam comfortably. Be sure to finish up fixed income and derivatives, and use the score as fuel to motivate you - identify your weaknesses and hit them hard! Occsaionally review your strengths to keep them fresh, but use the next 40 days to focus primarily on the holes. Good luck!
i would say about 55/63 readings considering FI and derivatives…
I haven’t read everything twice, just once and answered most of the EOC in Schweser however not the CFAI EOC/Qbank.
That’s all I’ve really been doing from January, just reading Schweser and doing the EOC on them. From reading other threads on here though, I feel like I should tackle CFAI EOC and Schweser Qbank and flashcard terms/concepts/formulas from here on out.
But any input/advice would be greatly appreciated.
The best part of your plan is to leverage CFAI EOC/QBank. I would prioritize this (after finishing your initial read of FI/Deriv) over a second reading. It will help to actively retain the material. Once you’ve done this for all sections, go back to mocks and you will see a noticeable improvement.
I think you dont need to worry…35 days to go. you can easily focus on the weaker areas and significantly bump your scores. CFA end of chapter questions are helpful.
I am looking for some good quality practice questions and doing some research on what is available in the market…anyone has any suggestions on good question bank in the market?
Given that there’s a little over a month (instead of 2-3 months), you need to hit the heaviest weighted topics hard. Finish your readings on Fixed Income for sure b/c that’s a highly weighted category. Derivatives is only 5% of the exam and its hard, so studying the topic is going to eat up a lot of valuable time. I’d argue your time is better spent on FRA, Ethics, Fixed Income, Equity and Quant. You can get less than 50% of questions right on Derivatives and still easily clear the exam if you know the other higher weighted topics.
Keep in mind there will be 4x as many questions on the exam on FRA than Derivatives and 3x as many on Ethics. Invest your time accordingly.
Thank you Sir! Equity section I did pretty well. I thought derivatives would be a breeze since I trade options…but the formulas are a pain. I will do as advised.
I will reiterate what cgott said…don’t freak out. I scored below 50% on my first Level 1 practice test and I didn’t take it until 3 weeks before the test, but I passed Level 1 on my first attempt.
Definitely keep track of which chapters you are struggling on on the practice tests. For Level 1, I hit the qbank hard. Don’t fool yourself with guessing on qbank questions. If you don’t know how to answer the question, make sure you understand it before moving on. Good luck!
Clicked on the Level 1 forum by mistake and saw the title - it reminded me alot of myself.
You’ll be fine. Want to know why? You’re starting mocks with more than 4 weeks until the exam - that’s loads more than most candidates! You won’t probably realise this (because you haven’t finished studying for Level 1 yet), but you’re defintiley on the right track at the moment.
Keep up the hard work doing the mocks (make sure you go over ALL the solutions to the questions you weren’t sure about and the ones you got wrong - make notes on these if it helps, that’s what I did) and you’ll crush the exam come June!
FWIW - forget the Qbank. Mocks mocks and more mocks is the key to passing level 1. Do EOC if you feel really weak on a particular area, but otherwise just keep bashing out the mocks and going over the mistakes. That way you’ll get all the concepts for each section sorted in your head by the time the exam comes.
You can (and most likely will) crush this exam if you keep at it, even though I am sure it probably doesn’t seem possible at the moment.
EDIT: Qbank is good for ethics if you feel lazy. Do 15 a day from this on ethics (either before bed or when you get up/get in early to work) and you’ll get that sorted in your head very easily.
I found the Qbank to be very helpful for Level1 (time will tell for L2). For the final month I just kept answering questions… Instead of completing tests before looking at answers, I attempted the question and if I couldnt answer, I would look at the answer and jusitifcation. I did this close to 600 times.
I even remember that on the actual exam some items came up that i had studied a couple of days before, and I think me passing depended on those particular items from the Qbank. Imagine, that item came up about twice in the total 600 of studying. You can say it is luck, but like they say “you create your own luck”
I am in the same boat… tried 2 mocks til now and getting 46%… And I am in a situation where my work is just not allowing me to study for 2-3 days a week for few hours even that close to the exam… I had almost read all topics once… yes, there are few readings which are still left… But my major problem is I am not getting time to revise… When I look at a question, I know I have read this, but just can’t remember the solution… I know I am in bad shape… I score above 70 in ethics in both the attempts and above 60 in FI… but other areas are low… mostly FRA, most difficult to recall…
Now I am on vacation for next two weeks and relying on that for study… Do you think it is possible to revise everything and improve in just 15 days?
You have zero chance of passing in June. That being said, you already committed the funds. Just take the test and get used to the experience of seeing those types of questions. At least they’ll give you a “band” afterwards and you can see how close you were. You have plenty of time to pass this December.
I score above 70 in ethics in both the attempts and above 60 in FI… but other areas are low… mostly FRA, most difficult to recall…