Mock exam scores vs Real exam scores? about, wanted, scores, compare

ShooterMcCFA

For those who just took the Level 1 exam, how did it compare to your mock exams? I am Mainly

talking about the Stalla and CFAI mock exams. I just wanted to get a good idea of what I need to

be scoring on my mock exams by November to feel confident about the real exam. Thanks for

any input and grats to those that passed!

smartpants

I got 67% on the CFAI mock exam 2 weeks before the actual exam. I got 71% on the Boston Society mock exam one week before the actual exam. I felt I did somewhat better on the real exam than on the Boston Society mock exam. Amazingly, I passed with >70% in everything, even the sections I felt most nervous about. I hadn't dreamed I'd clear 70% on everything - I felt certain I'd fall short of that in ethics and quantitative. Getting >70% on quantitative was a miracle, because I had trouble clearing 50% on the mock exams. This section gave me the most difficulty - there was SO MUCH stuff to know. (I was lucky that the exam didn't delve into the obscure stuff.)

In the last 2 weeks before the exam, I thoroughly went over the questions I got wrong or felt uncertain about in the mock exams and made sure I knew the right way to solve them. I made sure to take notes on things to remember for the ethics questions in the textbook, self exam, and mock exams that I had trouble with. (Ethics is a major part of the exam. Also, doing poorly on ethics would have looked bad.) I made sure to refamiliarize with the calculator problems. I made a final push to learn leases and taxes. (FRA is a big part of the exam, and I'm a value investor. I barely cleared 50% on the Boston mock exam. Doing poorly would have looked bad.) I really studied up on derivatives (only got 2/12 on the first mock exam).

kmf229

this is a great question, and I would personally love to know the answer.

a friend of mine said the practice exams are MUCH harder than the actual level one exam. Just one opinion though.

Siddimaula

The Boston SAS mock exam was really good IMO. Also, I realized while I was writing the exam that a lot of questions I had already seen on the Schweser QBank. Mind you, I did almost 2,500 practice questions from the QBank alone. Hence, I felt pretty comfortable in both AM and PM. I finished with 1 hr and 20 mins remaining in the AM and about an hour left in the PM.

Edit: to answer the original question - I scored 68% in the AM CFAI mock, 72% in PM. Scored 72% in BSAS AM and 73% in BSAS PM. And I passed with 7 sections >70, Econ 51-70 and AI & Der <50. (I did not pay attention to AI & Der at all). This is one good thing about L1 prep, that you can afford to ignore the smaller weighted topics and still pass, which will be a suicide on L2.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 09:47PM by Iginla2010.

btcapital

for me cfai Mock and Real exam were equal, several questions were exactly the same. If you can score above 80 pct (mock), you can be 99.9 pct sure you will pass the real one.

good luck!

ramzes

I scored only 64% in the CFAI mock a week before and was pretty worried. On the real exam I scored above 70% in all areas except quants and AI. Either the real exam was easier or I improved a hell of a lot in that last week.

Siddimaula

Agreed CFAI mock exams were a very good representation of what the real exam would be. I scored high 70s I think on the mocks.

I used Schweser not Stalla, and their mock exams were retarded and much longer, more numbery questions than the actual exam. Though still if you score over 75, on the mocks you will understand most of the material to pass.

farrukhsadiq

CFAI mock 54%
And schweser mocks ( book 1 only ) never exceeded 68%
And I passed
I felt the real exam was more straight forward plus no tricky questions

dece2011

I was averaging between 66% and 74% on the mocks. And I did about 6 of them.
However I failed band 10, so I was quite gutted cause I thought I was on the right track. Next time I won't be confident going into the exam unless I'm getting in the 80s on the mocks.

sgupta0827

I personally feel the CFA mock exam was tougher than the real one......scored about 68% in morning & 72% in the afternoon. CFA sample exams.......took all 3 scored 69 - 71%. Stalla mock exams, took 2.........68 & 72. Passed CFA exam with >70% in all except Quant........50 - 70 %.

Like someone mentioned earlier, the Stalla & Schweiser exams are kind of retarded. They are good for practicing questions but not for a simulated exam experience! Good luck!