How do the Kaplan mock exams compare to the real thing? I am a bit worried that they seem a bit easier than I expected. I feel like there are soooo many things that I don’t know, but I am scoring highly on the kaplan mocks (averaging approx. 85%). Worried that my mock scores are not going to be indicative of how I do come exam day.
I am running out of mock exams to use. Any thoughts on the quality of IFT mocks? I was considering getting 3 of these from Mark Meldrum.
What type of scores are everyone ele getting on the mocks? Also, if you are a re-taker/already passed, what scores were you hitting before you took the exam.
I think Kaplan is sound. If you’re doing well on that, I think you’ll do well on the exam. I have IFT, they seem okay but replication of CFAI material and content – just numbers changed around. I believe they are simply licensing the material and duplicating it.
I have the exact same questions / anxiety as 1 and 3 above, and also using Schweser (Kaplan). I think it boils down to the format of L2 vs. L1. The L1 exam was totally comprehensive so each time you took a mock you knew what you would see (I.e., all 10 sections and generally the core stuff). L2 is obviously completely different and you may not touch several sections in one half mock. That being said, if you’re taking overall average of how you’re doing across mocks / sections, you can see where there are weak areas. Doesn’t help the anxiety, but those scores seem rock solid and overall indicative of how well you know the material. Probably best to just keep grinding and convince yourself you’re not doing well, so you keep your edge until game time. A burning question I have from folks who’re retaking L2 is how many mocks did you take and how were you scoring on those mocks?
I’m not sure if this helps but Kaplan is CFA Society Chicago’s prep provider. My understanding is the mock exam offered by Kaplan tries be as close to the actual exam. I know for the in-person mock exam the Society also tries to match the exam day as close as it can (i.e. checking passports, limiting what you can bring in, format).
Just a quick question about Konvexity? What made you put them in the “enjoyable” category? I looked at a few sample sets on their website and they seemed pretty straight forward. Did two relating to equity, scored 83 average.
Enjoyable as in they seem to represent the exam, and I dont have to play treasure hunt through two page essay to find the inputs for the question. They’re challenging but not overly easy. Konvexity has a set of study topic tests that are actually quite challenging. I score 85ish on their mocks and 65-70% on their topic tests. According to Konvexity, their topic tests are harder than the exam and if you can score 70% on the topic tests, you will pass the exam comfortably!
I remember feeling that the Kaplan mocks were pretty solid, but that some topics felt easier on their mocks than during the real exam (I’m looking at you, Ethics).
That said, for what it’s worth: I didn’t score as high as you’re scoring on any of my mocks. I was between 67% and 72% across all four mocks I took, and I felt very comfortable during the actual exam. If you feel that you understand the material well enough to comfortably get a score that high on any random mock, then you’re probably in good shape.
One other suggestion, if you aren’t already doing so you should check out the topic tests on the CFA website. I really liked having the practice on subjects and the exposure to CFA exam-like vignettes (they’re from past mocks) in addition to having the mock exams. I’d probably focus there more than additional mocks from 3rd party providers. If you can score that high, then at this point I’d just try and make sure you can do it on CFA questions, if that makes sense.
Eh well, I didnt like what I just experienced in one of their free sample vignettes. For instance, they defined ROE as total earnings for a year divided by beg book value of equity when they provided both beg and ending value for the year. Best practice is to take average equity to calculate ROE. Also, it asked for value for Residual Income for the year. Which I calculated as Earnings per share-cost of equity x BVPS, and they defined it using ROE-r x BV of equity. Maybe their purchased material is better?
Hehe well, they’re not the only ones that arent consistent with some formulas… However, Residual Income is definitely (ROE-r) x BV which is the same as EPS - R x BVPS … however, sometimes the EPS and the ROE change depending on the vignette assumptions.
Yep those topic tests can get pretty hard lol… Thats why the site says if you do 70%+ you’ll pass comfortably. After taking their FRA topic tests, I have such a fluid understanding of pensions now – I have not missed a single pension question on any mocks since. So the test making you calculate all sorts of stuff helped a lot.