标题: First 3 Morning questions ..... [打印本页] 作者: kd26gioi 时间: 2011-8-26 23:28 标题: First 3 Morning questions .....
Usually a combination of Portfolio Management: Individuals and/or Institutional. If I am not mistaken, getting these 3 questions correct would be the key to pass L3.
However, the CFAI material kept using old material (ie Peter and Hilda profile.....) to discuss the issue and seems to have a gap between the material and the actual exam.
What would you guys suggest to do? Other than:
- Doing past exams.
- Practice and time the questions.
- Understand Command (ie Define / Discuss / ...) words.
Any "solid" approach to tackle these 3 questions????作者: Chuckrox8 时间: 2011-8-26 23:33
EEYY Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Usually a combination of Portfolio Management:
> Individuals and/or Institutional. If I am not
> mistaken, getting these 3 questions correct would
> be the key to pass L3.
>
> However, the CFAI material kept using old material
> (ie Peter and Hilda profile.....) to discuss the
> issue and seems to have a gap between the material
> and the actual exam.
>
> What would you guys suggest to do? Other than:
>
> - Doing past exams.
> - Practice and time the questions.
> - Understand Command (ie Define / Discuss / ...)
> words.
>
>
> Any "solid" approach to tackle these 3
> questions????
Reading the book helps out a great deal. There was not a really good idea of what exactly CFAi wanted for the questions based on past questions there was some ambiguity.
I think you can get a lot wrong and still be on the right track and do well on the questions.
Just remember Return/Risk/Liquidity/Time/Tax/Legal/Unique and you can fare well.作者: dvilayphet 时间: 2011-8-26 23:39
Peter and Hilda....they are like my friends now...作者: John10 时间: 2011-8-26 23:45
Paraguay - gotta disagree with you on RRTTLLU. I knew these cold, broke out my answers in this format and still scored less than 50% on each of these 3 questions.
I truly believe the key to the essay section of the exam is luck. I read the CFAI curiculum and had all the behavioral finance terms memorized, but it was little to no help in taking the exam. The questions were so ambiguous to anyone who had a solid understanding of the material that ultimately our answers were guesses, and thus we were rewarded based on whether we guessed right or wrong, not whether we knew the material.
Having crushed level 1 Dec 09 and level 2 June 2010, i walked out of level 3 thinking i was done with the program for sure. Absolutely shocked to have not passed, and horrified to see that it was entirely due to my essays. I'm deeply concerned about next year's exam, as i don't see any way to adequately prepare myself for the type of ambigous BS that was thrown at us this year.作者: kickthatcfa 时间: 2011-8-26 23:57
focus on schweser book 6/7 and do absolutely everything from there.especially am exerises
in the am exam just answer what is asked,only what is asked (i know it sounds weird-but read the damn question - 90% of the time all they need for an answer is 2 sentences)作者: NakedPuts 时间: 2011-8-26 23:59
Again, I feel similar. I was really surprised I didnt pass (Band 8 Fail). I didnt I have any issues with the difficulty of the material. I feel like I need to have somebody teach me the test rather than teach me the material...作者: BC_MBA_student 时间: 2011-8-27 00:05
For Individual questions, Stalla suggested to do:
1) 5 (or less) constraints first (save time for doing return objective). then
For Return objective, here is what I have been doing.
1) Setup the calculation format first. (Cash Inflows / Cash Outflows / Net cash Inflows or Outflows / Net Worth)
2) Time period ( ie the year before retirement and the first year of retirement)
3) Then I wil go back to each paragraph and pick the information by paragraph (ie tax rate / inflation rate / amount of inheritance) and filling in the calculation format that I setup in the very beginning. ( ie Salary / Tax / Mortgage / college education / donation / etc....)
4) Adjust the inflation rate at the end(if necessary).
5) Normally, the final return objective answer would be less than 10%.
Good or Bad approach to deal with this type of question????作者: bchadwick 时间: 2011-8-27 00:11
All of my answers were straightforward, and one or two sentences, no fluff. I don't think I could have known any of the concepts better than I had. I also want to just remind people on here that those who did pass could have only passed by one or two questions. Do not think just because you have a pass on a test that can be partially based on luck you somehow have all of the answers on how to pass it.
I find it quite interesting that there are more than a few candidates who failed with a high band last year but this year it dropped down.作者: Dapper425 时间: 2011-8-27 00:16
+1 on the essay grading being a total mystery. I think the problem is that you have graders looking at literally thousands of essays at a clip and they are basically scanning for key words and trying to make a judgment as quickly as possible.
+1 on the morning behavioral finance questions being super ambiguous and could have been answered about 6 different ways (and all valid, per the curriculum)
I have failed this exam twice, low score bands, both driven by bad morning performance, and I am totally mystified about what these "essay responses" are supposed to achieve.
Another thing to remember...the entire curve of grading for this test is between 50-75% raw score on the exam. so it is *very tight* on the borderline (maybe even 1 question would make the difference). It sucks but that is the nature of the beast.
congrats to the passers - hope you all are taking some time to celebrate!作者: Zestt 时间: 2011-8-27 00:22
OMG ITS KEN LUCE. INTERNATIONAL CFA MODEL !作者: RoastBeef 时间: 2011-8-27 00:29
yea mr. ken is definitely the derrick zoolander of the cfa website...ha!作者: maratikus 时间: 2011-8-27 00:34
It would b gr8 to have someone who gunned the AM session point out a few tips.作者: segalm 时间: 2011-8-27 00:40
The other post mentioned about "Creighton University CFA Boot Camp".
Is it good?? Any 2011 notes available??
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 09:47PM by EEYY.作者: Analyze_This 时间: 2011-8-27 00:52
Do the 16-week Schweser online course. I'm no genius by any stretch but Bruce did a great job on coaching you how to answer these PM questions. VERY VERY helpful, its stuff that you don't get to read anywhere. I think thats the biggest thing that I took away from that course.
I probably had few words in each point for the first 3 questions, thats it. If they asked what was the risk tolerance, I'd said average willingness, below avg ability. Thats it.作者: Chuckrox8 时间: 2011-8-27 01:10
kenluce, Judge Smails, pandeter, mikecocos ... I'm in the same boat.
I failed L3 band 7. I was in complete shock. To qualify myself, I'm a pessimistic test taker. After exam day, I was convinced that I failed L1 and L2; in both cases I passed on my first attempt with relative ease - 13/20 sections >70 between the two tests and nothing below 50 on either L1 or 2. L1 represented 4 of the 7 sections that I didn't score >70 on between the first two levels; I took L1 without a minute of sleep the night before. The 7 sections that I didn't post scores of >70 were almost entirely the smaller sections (5% alternative assets variety). My background also includes a Masters degree in Finance where I earned a 4.0 GPA.
I did better on the PM section than many of the people that passed L3, but I had *5* sections below 50 in the AM. I went into the level 3 exam feeling better prepared than I was at L1 or L2 and I left the exam thinking that I nailed both sections. Again, I was completely shocked by my results.
I have no regrets with how I prepared for L3. If I studied 200 more hours for L3, my guess is that I would have ended up with a higher band fail, but a fail nonetheless. Whatever happened, it resulted in a systemic and epic collapse in the AM. I must have scored 0 points on some AM sections...why? Did I put my answers on the wrong pages? Were my answers too short? Was I unclear on command words? Did I not show enough work to earn partial credit?
I'm rambling (venting really). What's my point? I'm taking this thing again. I want to destroy it. I can solve a "content" problem. I can't readily solve a problem with HOW I am pre-programmed to answer an essay question. I'm just anxious at the thought that I can't learn may way out of my problem with the L3 morning section.
I'm not going to knock CFAI at all; it's their test, and I own my failure. I would say that the institute dedicates hundreds of pages to each study session and assigns a weighting to each of them. To me, the most heavily weighted aspect of the L3 AM section is the format itself. They should have a comprehensive guide on how to approach the AM section if the approach has a significant impact on your results. It's hard to find clear and concise instructions on how they're going to ask questions and then a sample of realistic exam day answers that would score points. Yes, they provide samples and mocks with explanations which are then prefaced by statements that they don't represent realistic exam day answers. The templates and formats that they offer aren't provided in their actual exam day format. The scoring key is a complete mystery.
My approach for 2012 will be to start really early, complete CFAI EOC's and blue-box questions, watch all Stalla videos, complete all Stalla homework, and re-read the 200+ pages of notes that I have...by January 1, 2012. The remaining 5 months will be dedicated to the old CFAI exams, CFAI mocks, CFAI samples; Schweser books 6/7; and mocks from BSAS, Schweser, and Stalla. Hopefully that does the trick....作者: Zestt 时间: 2011-8-27 01:21
I'm not sure if I am qualified to offer advice on the morning session. I passed this June, got 1 < 50%, 2 50-70% and the rest >70% for the morning (and all but 1 >70% in the pm).
My thought is manage your time, if you find yourself flustered by a question, move onto something that makes you feel more comfortable and confident, and go back to the question if you have time.
Get the most important facts down first. Keep it simple, try to imagine the test answer key and think of what they are looking for. Key words, short bullet points full of info and not all fluff. I wrote very little in the essay part. Obviously, write the answers in the correct places on the pages. Do loads of practice exams and grade yourself fairly or even a little bit harshly. Know the material, understand it, don't just memorize. However, memorization of the types of answers that get points also helps (especially in the IPS sections).
Hope this helps someone.作者: zbird2134 时间: 2011-8-27 01:27
picnic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm not sure if I am qualified to offer advice on
> the morning session. I passed this June, got 1 <
> 50%, 2 50-70% and the rest >70% for the morning
> (and all but 1 >70% in the pm).
>
> My thought is manage your time, if you find
> yourself flustered by a question, move onto
> something that makes you feel more comfortable and
> confident, and go back to the question if you have
> time.
>
> Get the most important facts down first. Keep it
> simple, try to imagine the test answer key and
> think of what they are looking for. Key words,
> short bullet points full of info and not all
> fluff. I wrote very little in the essay part.
> Obviously, write the answers in the correct places
> on the pages. Do loads of practice exams and grade
> yourself fairly or even a little bit harshly. Know
> the material, understand it, don't just memorize.
> However, memorization of the types of answers that
> get points also helps (especially in the IPS
> sections).
>
> Hope this helps someone.
What's your key material for 1) the overall exam and 2) for individual and institutional questions?
When you prepared for the exam, did you try to group several related readings together to study?
Ladies and Gentlemen, do study hard GIPS for next year!!!
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at Sunday, August 21, 2011 at 06:58PM by EEYY.作者: YAhmed 时间: 2011-8-27 01:33
I went through the material in Schweser first (reading only). Then I went through again doing Qbank and taking notes in a notebook (3-4 note pages per reading, this became my memorization guide). 3rd time through I did all Schweser problems and CFAI EOQ problems, and used my notebook to help with formulas and lists etc.
Then spent the last few weeks on practice exams and memorization. I did it all in order except saved Ethics for last. I also listened to the Schweser audio books on my commute, about 2x through the material. Multiple passes works for me because it means each time you get more and more familiar and by the time you get to the exam, you've seen it all 4 or 5 times, most recently within a few weeks.
Some people go through in great detail, doing practice questions from the get-go, but that wouldn't work for me because I would forget the practice questions I'd done 2 months ago.作者: profil 时间: 2011-8-27 01:39
I went through the material in Schweser first (reading only). Then I went through again doing Qbank and taking notes in a notebook (3-4 note pages per reading, this became my memorization guide). 3rd time through I did all Schweser problems and CFAI EOQ problems, and used my notebook to help with formulas and lists etc.
Then spent the last few weeks on practice exams and memorization. I did it all in order except saved Ethics for last. I also listened to the Schweser audio books on my commute, about 2x through the material. Multiple passes works for me because it means each time you get more and more familiar and by the time you get to the exam, you've seen it all 4 or 5 times, most recently within a few weeks.
Some people go through only once or twice in great detail, doing practice questions from the get-go, but that wouldn't work for me because I would forget the practice questions I'd done 2 months ago.作者: economicz 时间: 2011-8-27 01:45
The best thing you can do to prepare is to see as many practice exams from CFAI, Schweser, etc. as possible. The essay section is not luck. The morning is difficult b/c it requires to you put all the information together and none of the answers are "cookie-cutter." Understanding the information from the books is a great start, but you have to be able to think on your feet. There is a big difference between memorizing material and identifying answer on a multiple choice exam and being able to regurgitate data from memory and put it on paper. It is a different level of thinking.
I used Schweser books and took 14 notepads worth of notes. I also did all the IPS examples from CFAI books. I didn't get through all the Schweser practice exams, but did all the CFAI prior exams.
Good luck.作者: dvilayphet 时间: 2011-8-27 01:51
So it seems as if the key is to answer in short bullet points filled with key words.
Does this mean that those marking are better able to mark a shorter bullet point format than longer sentences with key words and explanation interspaced? The latter would take more time and would require the market to spend time integrating the points into a bullet point format: if markers have time constraints then this will favour the bullet point format. Markers may not have time to process the larger content of a longer answer while optimising their own marking objectives.
If this is the case the probability of failing with the correct responses is higher if you answer in a format which is not optimal for the marker. Two to 3 paragraphs with explanation and content versus 4 bullet points with the same differently organised content.
If correct, this would imply a bias towards certain presentation formats which is a strategic but non curriculum outcome.
In this case, the answers provided by the CFA in EOCs and their sample exams etc should also be in a buller point format to capture the outcomes required.
The marking process may therefore be an important determinant of the result, which will result in a skewed exam marking process.
I wonder if the CFA do a quality control on this issue? What is the % of passes with bullet points versus the % of passes with essay type written content? What is the distribution of the PM answer outcomes with the AM for essay written versus the AM/PM for bullet points? Do they select a sample of AM essay format answers with AM fails but high PM marks and remark the exams to check whether the markets are marking for content and not for format?
There is so little we know about the marking process and the quality control of that process.
