How comparable CFA mock with actual exam? wonder, actual, opinion, comparable, difficult

parott

In my opinion CFA actual exam is much more difficult than the mock. I wonder, why do CFAI want to give mock that is easier than actual exam?

kingstongal

That's just how it's always been. I thought the real exam was harder but not by a large amount.

SeanWest

Oh, I didn't have time to try the mock

wxs1986

it's not the level of difficulty that differs, it's the wrong direction they are point in the mock. the wordings are VERY DIFFERENT. and the way they ask questions diverges fundamentally.

Swanand

>it's not the level of difficulty that differs, it's the wrong direction they are point in the mock. the wordings are VERY DIFFERENT. and the way they ask questions diverges fundamentally.

Even I felt the same, mock question were straight forward i.e. not tricky, however actual questions were very tricky especially Economics.

llxx

This reflects very poorly on CFAI. In the actual mock or even in the past they were not using answer choices way off the actual no. I was so panicked in the first few straight forward calcualtions where I was not getting the answers that were on the list of options. I spent a hefty amount of time calculating easy calcuations time and again just to be sure, I have not made a mistake while number crunching. That took too much of time - which I could have used on tricky ones.

Every year CFAI tries new things to puzzle test takers. It is Ok to some extent to test a candidates capability to link all thre relevant issues and discard the rest, but in pursuit of that CFAI sometimes really overshoots. It seems like you need to prepare with a special foucs how not to be misguided (rather cheated!) in the exam. Instead of measuring candidates' knowledge the test is too concentrated on identifying the pitfalls.

MiniMe7

mock is much easier than the real test. this is kinda misleading to me, i went to the test venue with confidence but came back home like looser.

bbtomato

I agree with all you guys on the "closest to the correct answer" BS.... For all of those who got $99,626 and sat there for 10 mins trying to figure out if you were an idiot, you know what I mean.

ayaz_mahmud369

^Fuck that question. So @#$%& ridiculous!

Ya the mock has always been WAY easier than the actual test. Not in terms of actual material tested, but the mock has virtually no tricks in it. CFAI just went on a @#$%& spree with closest to the answer... not sure how that really tests my level of knowledge... just seems like it throws me off, which is what they wanted.

bolligerallstar

I don't think the mock was significantly different in difficulty from the actual exam. There is mental pressure for the real thing and fatigue from having to wake up early and do 6 hours of testing in one day.

I think the real thing had a couple extra "hard" questions and a couple extra "stupid, tricky, poorly rounded" ones...but it also had a couple more freebies as well. I guess I won't know definitively until I get my results, but right now I'm feeling that the exam was tough but fair...exactly how I would have guessed it would be.