would basically reiterate what has been said many times on this forum… i was crunched for time in the multiple choice section and spent the last few minutes just guessing on about 10 questions that i had skipped… there were many “quick” calculation questions that also involved knowing a concept (to inlcude/not-included, before/after, + or minus) which made it hard. there were no freebies on the exam, simple things were tested in a complicated way.
the 2nd part which is a essay response was very awkward and poorly written… i really hope i got partial credit for my answers… the questions appear to be multiple choice questions reworded for a written response version and the exam would be “better/fairer” with a full 200 MCQs
Same with me, rushed on the multi choice section and had far too many calculations. My study was directed towards theory etc but maybe I should have concentrated more towards the calcs. The calc questions were also very difficult, it’s not just about knowing the formula and being able to key them. Many calcs were worked backwards etc, a bit like jeopardy !!!
However, I found the essays quite fair to be honest, the written language wasn’t the best though !!
One thing to note is that I found the ethics essay harder than expected.
I am most likely going to write level 2 in March (as well as for level 3 CFA). Did you use Uppermark or Schweser? Did you feel the need to read the CAIA books?
Schweser books were sufficient for me to pass L1 last year, although there were a few questions that I wasn’t prepared for because I don’t think the material was in Schwesr. For L2 today almost all was in the Schweser books; I didn’t use the CAIA books - although I do plan to read them over the bext few months, out of interest.
I was a Schweser guy through the CFA exams, but I used only the CAIA materials for L1 and L2. I passed L1 in March and I’ll let you know how L2 goes - I’m 60% sure I passed. Even though it’s pretty thin and it didn’t give me a lot of confidence in my preparation leading up to test day, I thought the L2 study guide really helped me on the exam. Ditto with L1. I think if you use the study guides very literally and put in ~200 hours, you will pass. I’m not sure if Schweser is better, but it’s definitely doable with just CAIA materials.
For the past few exam seasons, our faculty has been advising clients to expect more difficult calculation questions (e.g., reverse engineering-type questions) on the CAIA exam, stressing the importance of practicing with these types of questions. Such practice questions are available in our TestBank software and in our Final Prep Exam. After practicing with TestBank, clients find that our Final Prep Exam particularly helps them focus on key calculation questions that are similar to those that appear on the exam.
We hope that you are all successful on your CAIA exams.
I agree completely. The Uppermark final exam was harder than I expected but it got me to focus on things that came up on my exam and especially got me to work some of the calculations that I hadn’t spent enough time on… and showed up on my exam. Even working all the test bank questions, I found their final exam made a difference on how I did.