It's difficult to break 70. difficult, finding, noticed, scores, guess

zbird2134

I'm finding it very tough to break 70, and my scoring has been quite odd. Although my scores are quite variable, I have noticed that I am tending to guess less as time goes by. This is in the order I took the tests.

Three weeks ago - Schweser vol. 1, exam 1. - 67%
Two weeks ago - Schweser vol. 1, exam 2. - 69%
Last week - CFAI sample 1. 77%
Last week - CFAI sample 2. 55%

I did notice that the vignettes are far less verbose on the CFAI sample tests then they are on the Schweser tests. Any repeat takers know if this is indicative of the actual exam?

Also, I was drilling with Qbank for the last three weeks and I don't find the questions very helpful at all. It was OK at the start but I seem to see the same types of questions over and over, and I'm not sure of coverage of the curriculum. After doing about a 1000 questions, there still seems to be a lot that hasn't come up at all. For that reason I've gone back to the EOC questions. I am reading the questions and making sure I understand how to answer them. Where I don't understand a question, I go over it in the text and then try and answer it.

Saturday should tell me if I've been successful. I'll give Schweser vol. 1, Exam 3 a go. Best of luck all.

sameeragarwal

hard to say really, but check out the 55% one carefully! those schweser exams, good for study, but there's still a great deal left out. seems to be an infinite exam this one

scarecrow

...your schedule is far beyond mine. I don even start for whole sets of exam yet.

I plan to end the review and 1st round learning by the end of Apr. and leave 1 month for exams.

if you continue to get over 70%, it is sure for you to pass...if CFAI uses 70% of the top 1%'s average score as a bottomline.

ryanlb

nicob Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> hard to say really, but check out the 55% one
> carefully! those schweser exams, good for study,
> but there's still a great deal left out. seems to
> be an infinite exam this one

I agree. I've been over the curriculum twice, and I still come across stuff I could swear I have never seen before. Although I acknowledge 55% was pants, it was very evident what I did not know after that exam. There were two very specific sections that I hadn't got a breeze on. I scored 1/6 on one of the vignettes and 3/6 on the other.

I also found the questions more focused on the CFAI sample exams than in Schweser. By that I mean, they take one section of the curriculum and examine it very specifically. Whereas the Qbank questions seem more broad. Just my .02

spreads

Sorry. I meant that the Schweser practice exam questions were more broad. Not Qbank.

firat

bpdulog Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> soddy1979 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > nicob Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > hard to say really, but check out the 55% one
> > > carefully! those schweser exams, good for
> > study,
> > > but there's still a great deal left out.
> seems
> > to
> > > be an infinite exam this one
> >
> > I agree. I've been over the curriculum twice,
> and
> > I still come across stuff I could swear I have
> > never seen before. Although I acknowledge 55%
> was
> > pants, it was very evident what I did not know
> > after that exam. There were two very specific
> > sections that I hadn't got a breeze on. I
> scored
> > 1/6 on one of the vignettes and 3/6 on the
> other.
> >
> > I also found the questions more focused on the
> > CFAI sample exams than in Schweser. By that I
> > mean, they take one section of the curriculum
> and
> > examine it very specifically. Whereas the Qbank
> > questions seem more broad. Just my .02
>
> That's how the actual exam will be setup. No
> matter how much you read and re-read, there is
> going to be that one tiny section they will test
> that will leave a lot of candidates scratching
> their heads.


i get it...but that just scares me. i've booked in for a therapist on the 7th. i'm sure i'll be suffering some 3 lettered disorder by then

zhaoyp

Look at it like this, you only really need to know 66 questions, and can blindly guess on the other 54 and you will have an expected value of a 70.0%. When you think of it like that, only having to be certain on 66 out of 120 questions doesn't seem so tough.

FinancialAnaly

I thought you were talking about golf

bbtomato

CPAbeatsCFA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> job71188 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Look at it like this, you only really need to
> know
> > 66 questions, and can blindly guess on the
> other
> > 54 and you will have an expected value of a
> 70.0%.
> > When you think of it like that, only having to
> be
> > certain on 66 out of 120 questions doesn't seem
> so
> > tough.
>
> 84/120 = .7. You need to know 84 questions for
> sure and you can blindly guess on the remaining 36
> to KNOW you will pass. I dont know where you got
> that 66 from...a 66/120 = 55% and is a definate
> fail.

Expected value of a question is 1/3.

Know 66 = 66 marks
Guess 54 = 18 marks

Total = 84/120 = 70%

brainsX

One thing that I did on all my mock exams for Level 1 is I would but a tiny dot next to a question if I wasn't almost certain I had the right answer. Then after the test, I would calculate the % I got right of "Was Sure" and "Wasn't Sure" questions.

I basically found that a question I was "Sure" of I got right 90-95% of the time. A Quesiton I was "Unsure" about, I got right 60-70% of the time.

So on exam day, after I finished the test and had extra time, I went back through and calculated my expected score. It was in the high 70's, so I left that thing pretty confident.