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- Topic: Level 1 Exam June 06 Thoughts!
| Author | Topic: Level 1 Exam June 06 Thoughts! |
|---|---|
| anricus @2006-06-04 09:44:11 |
I sat the level 1 exam this year for the second time and thought it was much easier for me than the previous sitting. I guess I was more prepared! I still may not pass but I felt that the questions were of a much lesser standard than the mock exams I'd done! Any other comments |
| armanaziz @2006-06-04 12:08:14 |
This is my first time, but I had the same feeling. The exam seemed easier. |
| JZino @2006-06-04 12:16:29 |
I had been scoring 50% on the relative rankings on the mock exams (between 60-65% questions correct) and I found the exam challenging. Does anyone have any idea what the minimum passing score (i.e. amount correct) is normally for these exams? I know 70% guarantees passage but I doubt I hit 70%. Hope everyone did well |
| sergei @2006-06-04 17:01:48 |
no chance! if, say, the pass is 36%, that means you MUST get at least 70% people after you(!, yes, per cent of people and not 70% of questions). I was ranked 50% too. we are graved. |
| jam99003 @2006-06-04 17:32:20 |
Actually, you don't have to beat out a percentile of people to pass. From my understanding, the CFA institute will take the mean score from the top 1 or 2% of testtakers, and then apply a passing rate to their mean score (ie. 70% of their mean score). The CFA institute also explicity states that the pass rate is a result of the grading, and not a determiner of the score. |
| sergei @2006-06-04 18:43:11 |
perhaps you are right... but if only 36% of people pass... you must be better then the other 64%... and you must beat at least 64% in mock exam in order to enter the 36% pass. |
| JZino @2006-06-04 22:31:34 |
Sergei, you're improperly assuming that the relative ranking on the mock exam is similar to the relative ranking on the real exam. In the mock exam you're only being ranked against other people who have used the analyst notes service. I.e., people who are more likely to study, know their stuff, and pass. The "average" test taker did not spend $70 to take 6 mock exams on top of whatever other study mechanisms they were using. Out of the 8 people I talked to on exam day, for instance, I was definitely the most prepared. That being said, I estimate I got about 60-65% of the questions correct. Not sure if that will be enough. Scoring 50% relative to the other (advanced) analyst notes students, I'd bet, puts us right on the edge of passing. |
| Casetap @2006-06-05 01:21:43 |
From my standpoint the morning was easier than afternoon. I actually finished with 30 minutes to go. The afternoon was more difficult, I did not like how some of the questions were worded. Especially the lack of detail given in the ethics, I actually wrote questions on the test about the situation. I know I did make a lot of stupid mistakes with quant. Econ was toss up, I knew that was going to be a wild card. FSA was very fair imo, a lot of two sided questions where definitley knew one part. Asset Val was fair to, I hope I used the right calc's I always matched up my calc with as answer, but then again it could be the dummy answer that is meant to screw you up. Port Mgmt was ok, I am still borderline on that. In general, the wording of some of the two part questions was really tough to interpret. I hope I understood them as they should have been. The test was passable, I think I had the thought in my mind that is was going to be ungodly, but it was passable. I fall somewhere in that grey area, I am really not confident to say I passed or failed. It is all in the hands of the CFAI now. Good Luck everyone, hopefully we can wait another year to take Level 2. |
| sourav @2006-06-05 04:02:29 |
I think there should be more quant questions. With such an extensive quant section in the Study materials, I expected tougher quant questions. And, maybe they should introduce negative marking. That way the candidates would be wary of testing their guessing skills and the passing score would come down considerably. Negative marking is more apt in deciding real life situations becoz in real life, when you make a mistake the outcome is seldom neutral the outcome is negative...What do you guys think?? |
| analyst26 @2006-06-05 04:25:16 |
Knock on wood, but I didn't think it was too bad at all. Much different feeling than I got leaving the room in December. As with December, it boiled down to knowing several key concepts that were worth a ton of points. This time if you knew LIFO/FIFO/reserve well, you scored a lot of easy points in FSA. If you knew DDM, you scored a lot of easy points in FSA. No convexity calcs. Only one or two foreign currency questions and they were much easier than they could have been. No hypothesis testing. And I forget who it was that predicted heavy on corp. governance but it turned out to be right on. Not a ton of GIPS but they really focused on corp. gov. Of course, this is the kind of test you could score a 90 or a 40 because all of your most likely mistaken calculations are also answers. What did everyone else think? |
| kgl6kgl6 @2006-06-05 04:41:13 |
I am with you Casetap. Damn the wording of the queations especailly FSA. The basics of questions were straightforward but the wording screwed my thinking.... many double negatives. Asset valuation and derivative were straighforward... Port. Mgn. was tricky I think. I am giving myself a 50:50 so need to pray till mid july. Good luck to all of us. |
| ys2060 @2006-06-05 13:48:02 |
I thought morning FSA was a bit tougher because it took up a lot more time for me. A lot of the afternoon bond questions were tough too because it took up time (and I was cramming a bit towards the last half hr). However, suprisingly, quants was a breeze (compared to my expectations of course). Econ was def a toss up (hopefully I am a good guesser :-)) Port mgmt wasnt too bad and surprisingly the calculations were really not tooo bad than expected - you just needed to know only a handful or calculations and it was over and over again. Ethics was a bit worse than many practice questions - especially with how the structured the questions. I sat through Jun 05 and I knew I wasn't very prepared so def more confident this time around but still they do make it trickier every time with how they ask. I think like half the questions were the yes/no questions regarding two sentences and which are correct/incorrect. I guess from the practice questions, I expected the I, II, III, IV - type questions but none at all. Hopefully everyone else did poorly (except for you guys!!) so we'll see how the results come out. |
| mtcfa @2006-06-05 21:58:43 |
I thought ethics and quantitative were the to hardest; the rest I breezed through. I thought I was well-prepared for ethics, having drilled myself with notes, questions, and the actual text. I put a ton of time into quantitative, but was hung up on confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, test statistics, and levels of significance. I also studied and knew very well all the probability concepts, TVM, and the various rates of return. I was a bit deflated when these things were lightly weighted; it seems like the areas of emphasis were linear regression and correlation. I'm kicking myself now for not devoting more time to these areas. I feel I past all sections easily, with the exception of Ethics, which I will be close to passing; and Quantitative, where I will need to have my guesswork payoff. |
| eris @2006-06-12 16:15:32 |
I just want to thank you guys for your comments. I am planning to take it in December and every little comment helps. |
| sutton @2006-08-21 14:05:16 |
Do you think i have a chance of passing if i cram like ive never crammed before for level one in december? |
| SouravL2 @2006-08-21 15:48:12 |
Sutton, of course you can pass with all that cramming. Cram like there's no tomorrow and you're through. And, by the way, you've got a lot of time till Dec. Cram analystnotes notes, they are short and start answering all the questions from this site. They've done a great work and it's you who's gonna do the rest. You'll pass...Good luck |
| Bram @2006-09-06 15:50:51 |
Cramming will not help. The depth of CFA cannot allow you to memorise and pass. There are no shortcuts. You must grasp the concepts. |
| gizi @2006-10-24 13:24:59 |
Bram is absolutely right. Intimate understanding of the concepts is essential since the question may not be worded in a familiar way. Understanding the concepts will allow you to apply them in scenarios that you have not previously encountered. |
| Appu @2006-10-29 11:24:09 |
I also want to thank you guys for your comments. I am planning to take it in June'07 and as eris said it helps. |
| sigma13 @2006-11-13 21:46:03 |
JZino is sooo smart and handsome. |
| debee @2006-12-02 07:37:30 |
I'm jus going to start preparing for the CFA level 1 exam in June, Do I have enough time? |
