I took this exam and realize why people thought they failed it last year. This was a killer and I don’t even feel like grading it. The time pressure was too much and I didn’t finish the last two questions. I realize I didn’t have all the details pat down for things like VWAP and CPPI (which were pretty easy reading). This was way tougher than 2007 and 2006. I am glad I took it now, so that I have a few days to recover from the shock. Lastly, I missed two questions because of the way the exam is formatted. The template for question D is after questions E, F and I forgot to come back to them. Gotta remember NOT to do that in the exam!! Anyone (retakers), know whether the actual exam will have white space for the answers in sequence so that you don’t miss a question by mistake? On the positive side I got the return calculations right for the first time, at least making some progress.
I felt the same way. I am working now on trying to fine tune some of the things i got wrong on the test. Problem is its taking a long time but at least we have some time to work out the kinks. Good luck!
2009 AM is going to be brutal. CFAI doesn’t seem to have any respect for their own time allocations any more.
any thoughts on how the REAL exam is printed and formatted? in the mock exam templates of earlier questions were after some later questions. this caused me to miss a couple of questions. felt like kicking myself…
KnightRider Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Anyone (retakers), know whether the actual exam > will have white space for the answers in sequence > so that you don’t miss a question by mistake? > I was just going to ask this. Anyone? Sometimes they don’t give you anywhere near enough space to write out the answer. I’ve assumed (hoped) that they give you more space on the actual exam.
I REALLY hope that CFAI learned from their experience last year (after receiving thousands of unfinished exams) and decides to make this a test on the MATERIAL and not a fucking speed-writing competition…
i’m betting it changes. it will be as difficult, but shorter.
This exam has really pi#$d me off! The 2008 exam has good take aways, gets into details of stuff that seemed easy in the readings. But the time is just too short and you end up doing a sub par effort due to time pressure. I graded myself to ~63, but it could well be 5-10 points lower. Time to review each question carefully and hope CFAI has learnt from feedback from the 2008 exam!
The shortest 3 hours of my life: 9AM - 12PM on 6/7/08
Did 08 saturday and it took maybe 2hours 15-20 minutes. I haven’t had one take more than 2.5 (out of 7 or 8 practices). Don’t know why I finish so quickly. I hope my answers aren’t too short.
i took it and failed last year… 1) time management, time management, time management… Time management is everything, i remember saying "holy shit a dozen times after finishing the first three questions, it was right about 10:30am. Try to find the balance between writing short and right stuff 2) yes, you’ll need (and they will give ) more space for some answers, obey the instructions and don’t worry about it. Lack of knowledge will eat more points than lack of space. 3) don’t waste your time for some calculation questions if you are absolutely sure that you’ll get the right answer, i spent 15 min for FX question. High risk-low return. Result–>0 4) If you look at the past years’ AMs, CFAI has been asking harder and more detailed questions, this is a trend. Assuming they’ll ask simpler, clearer, shorter questions and studying accordingly means a first class ticket to fail. 5) now i understand why people were saying “See the big picture”. Try to understand the core of every single reading. I’d strongly recommend that you read LOS pages before every reading in CFAI books. You’ll see some LOSs evolve around core LOSs. Hope this helps, and good luck!
itstoohot, thanks for the response. very helpful. time management seems to be KEY. i plan to move on without getting stuck on any one question. its just seems more difficult to do in the AM session than the PM. how about the sequence of the spaces and template for questions? was there enough white space for each question before the template for the next question?
i understand your concern, but if you try to fill designated spaces you’ll probably run out of time, well certainly…i wrote a lot, needed more space for a couple questions. Could’ve done a better job. try to come up with a shorter answer, use smaller fonts. space is abundant, no worries there.
McLeod81 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I REALLY hope that CFAI learned from their > experience last year (after receiving thousands of > unfinished exams) I think they will just assume that those candidates were under prepared rather than time challenged.
ng30 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Did 08 saturday and it took maybe 2hours 15-20 > minutes. I haven’t had one take more than 2.5 > (out of 7 or 8 practices). Don’t know why I > finish so quickly. I hope my answers aren’t too > short. I just finished the 08 exam tonight and it also took me around 2 hours. It had a few tough questions but overall it was very reasonable. I was pleasantly surprised.
Same here maratikus. Took 07 today as well, and thought the same. Actually scored higher (high 70s) despite botching the first IPS…and only took 2 hours. Feeling pretty good at this point.
Wow, only 2 hours, that’s awesome! Any tips? Something in my approach must be wrong.
that’s impressive. i didn’t think the questions were bad, but i couldn’t finish in the time allotted.
Same boat, I wasn’t able to complete two 4 minute questions.
McLeod81 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I REALLY hope that CFAI learned from their > experience last year (after receiving thousands of > unfinished exams) and decides to make this a test > on the MATERIAL and not a fucking speed-writing > competition… Man…did you hit the nail on the head. I think I was in there the Monday after the exam whining about how that test was more of a speed writing competition than it was a test of knowledge. And I will continue to whine about it. If you are a fast reader and writer, you had a HUGE advantage in that exam last year. Personally, I don’t think that’s fair. But whatever. I’ll beat you yet CFAI mofo’s.