I was wondering whether real exam question are more similar to CFA “Topic Tests” (online available through candidate resources - a not a timed version) or to Schweser Practice Exam questions?
The reason I am asking is that I see a certain difference in the way questions are formulated. Moreover some question from “topic tests” are not particular harder but require way too much time to calculate. So I was wondering what I should focus on within the last days before the exam.
Thanks in advance!
I totally agree with you on the excessive calculation part. I think those questions were meant for practice only.
I wish somebody who has taken exam already could comment on that
Based on another thread, they said that the majority will be qualitative material so therefore if your struggling with the calculations on the topic tests try not to think that it’ll be relfective in that sense. However, I’ve been told that the Schweser practie problems in the books are wayyyyy to easy. But I was also told that the Schweser Mock is harder then the actual. Lastly, I heard that the practice problems in the CFAI curriculum are a good source of practice
It’s been a couple years since I wrote level 1 but I still remember being surprised at the lack of quantitative questions. Even ones that seem like you need to calculate, you can disregard two options if you know understand the material vs. just memorizing the formula.
D**n. Computational problems are my strong point.
At this point, you shouldn’t be focused on the style of questions as so much the content of the question asked. Don’t worry about time. If you struggle with time with level I, then IMO you did not study enough or take enough practice tests. I consider myself a ‘slow test taker’ and had 30m+ to spare on both M and A if my memory serves me right.
Questions are phrased and laid out exactly like the topic tests. The schweser questions are not.
If you are sitting for the L1 exam in december and saying this, good luck, as I think you may be a bit behind. If you are sitting in June, you have a ton of time so dont worry about timing yet. I was worried I would be taking too long but was finishing most of my 1/2 mocks in under 2 hours.
For the real exam I finished with ~20 minutes left after a full review which i usually never do, and PM i finished with over an hour left. I also felt the AM was significantly harder. Timing doesnt seem to be an issue for most people.
My candidates have commented frequently at Levels I and II that they were surprised at how little they used their calculators on the exam.
Well I was referring explicitly to online topic practice tests - they generally seem to require longer calculations than CFAI online mock exams and schweser practice exams.
As of right now I require around 2:30-2:40 for a session of schweser practice and around 2:20 - 2:30 for CFAI online mock.
But If I start a topic test I sometimes require more than 90 seconds x Nr of questions to complete one. I am getting a feeling that in practice exam they try to cover as many different topics of one subject as possible. Whereas in the online topic tests I think it is not the case. Which is why I was wondering what real exam is closer to.
And yes, I will write the exam in December. On last schweser practice exam I had 75% which I thought was an indication that I am “OK” for the real exam, so I thought I would spend the remaining time to actually concentrate on the way questions are formulated in the real exam. Since for me personally there is a substantial difference in how questions are formulated. I don’t want to get too used to “the schweser way” and waste time during the real exam on getting used to the CFAI way or missing something in the question.
So I suppose the exam will be similar in difficulty with the offical CFAI EOC Questions? I feel like those questions are way easier than anything else I’ve done.
Just passing on second hand information of course. what i heard through the grape vine is that the topic tests/ CFAI mocks and the CFAI EOC will be similar when it comes to difficulty and formatting of questions.
I guess it is somewhat subjective and psychological at the same time. everyone will be different on what they find easier or harder. for example i find the CFAI EOC definitely more challenging then the Schweser notes questions. At the same time people tend to continuously redo do the topic tests and of course they will get better marks as they keep trying them ( we can all be realistic, some of the topic tests questions get repetitive and we know the anwser to them)
similar to CFAI mocks, is there an abundance of 10-20 second easy-to-answer questions? i don’t know if i’m lucky, but the question generator often gives me a ton of those easy conceptual ones.
Even for L2?!
Yes, even for Level II.
thx guys for the tips and the “rumors” 
I’m relieved most of you agree most of you agree the timing won’t be a big issue, that was freaking me out since I’m rather a slow test taker 
If I may, I’m still worried about one thing … I don’t exactly get the way they score the exam, what if you scored <50% on 1 topic ( derivatives for exp), it could more likely to happen with the topics with low exam weight, do you still have a chance to passe if you score well on overall ??
thx so much guys
Your overall score is ALL that matters, with one exception. If you’re right on the bubble (i.e. right at or below the Minimum Passing Score), they put a higher weight on Ethics.
But other than that one case, you could score ZERO on 2 or 3 sections and still pass (unlikely, but possible).
I love my calculator so I bought even 3.