Frustrating failure.....what now? sat, anybody, problems, practice

vagabond

I was curious to see if anybody else has a similar story with taking the exam.
I sat in December 08, felt good about my performance, then found I failed with a band 10.
Then I sat in June 09, I didn’t have any real problems taking the exam, I thought I passed for sure. Then I found out I failed with a band 10 again.

Looking back, I probably don’t do nearly enough practice exams/questions in my studies. I’ve got a lot (I thought all) of the theory down, but that doesn’t always translate to question solving.

Did anybody else feel confident in passing and was floored when they failed? How are you managing?

Any lessons learned from people who have finally passed after coming close but failing before and how did you overcome that? What changes did you make?

dece2011

buddham Wrote:
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> valiant_effort, post your results for better
> analysis/help.

+1

Are the areas you failed in CFA L1 in Dec and June, the same or different.

1.) For same areas - read CFA curriculum and make notes, practise CFAI and Scheweser EOC problems.

2.) If areas are different in Dec and June - This implies you didn't review the material just before exam.Next time take 1 or 2 week off before the exam.Also keep last one month for just reviewing the material.

FVPV

That's very tough and frustrating. I would just focus on weaknesses, but also do a lot of questions. Also, are you really stressed when taking the exam? or do you think it was more knowledge based, as in, you didn't know the material well enough? Focus on doing this a litlte different. It sounds like you just need a little push in one area, and you can pass. BEST of Luck to you!

Bluetick1010

valiant_effort, post your results for better analysis/help.

disiz64

You've actually provided the answer yourself: do more practice exams and solve more problems. The exam consists of two parts: 1) theory, 2) the technique in how to answer multiple-choice questions quickly

Siddimaula

Do as many questions as possible. I failed band 10 in December also and then passed this time. The only questions I used the first time around were the end of chapter questions. I also just answered them once and moved on. I didn't review much at all. This time around I purchased Schweser and used the Qbank. I did probably about 3,000 questions out of the 4,XXX that were available. The cool thing about the program though is that it shows you how you score in each individual section, letting you easily review where it's needed. Some sections I did not need to review much and others (FSA) I reviewed extensively. I know that it's expensive on top of the exam registration, but it's well worth the money and time that you'll put into it.

kmf229

valiant effort Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Looking back, I probably don’t do nearly enough
> practice exams/questions in my studies. I’ve got a
> lot (I thought all) of the theory down, but that
> doesn’t always translate to question solving.


Do more questions. You're not going to know your weak areas unless you know how you're scoring. Then review your weak areas from the text/guides.