leadcfa

got about 50 for CFAI mock on day before exam.. didn't manage to try any of Schweser's although I bought the books already.. managed to pass the exam with only 6 parts >70. so i am borderline case

eagles_dare13

My scores ranged between 60 - 80 on the Schweser Mocks and I passed. I felt the written Schweser mocks were the most representative of the actual exam if not a touch more difficult. The Qbank was significantly easier than the real exam, I think it's useful for brushing up on topics but your time is better spent banging out the mocks.

suyash1989

I used Stalla. On the CFAI sample exams, I think I scored 61, 72, and 70. The sample exams were by far the hardest questions for me because they really did try to fool in you in my opinion. That was not the case on the real exam (except for a few ethics questions). On the CFAI mock (the first exam I took in full format), I scored 78. On Stalla Mock 1, I scored 85, and on Stalla Mock 2, I scored 83. On real CFA, I passed with >70 in all sections. For me, the Stalla mocks were the most like the real exam. I highly encourage you to work all Passmaster questions at least once if not multiple times. A lot of the Passmaster questions are more advanced than what you'll see on the exam, so if you can do well on those, you'll do fine on the exam.

manasib

I got 62% in the Mock AM, and 70% in the PM.

Passed with 70+ in all sections except Corp Finanace and PM

The mocks were extremely useful as I used their results (weaknesses in FRA and Deriv/AI) to hone up on them

sdada

wow, i had to leave town for a few days after i made this post but thanks for all the great and helpful comments! Did any of you do the practice exams that are in stalla passmaster where you just select how far you are in your study schedule and then if gives you the amount of questions you will be tested on each subject and the correct amount of time you will have for those on the real exam? If so, how did those compare? Are they just as good as mocks or are they kind of just there to get you used to answering questions?

For example I just took one that covered Ethics, Quantitative methods, and econ. I scored an A on ethics, A on quant 1, B on quant 2, and a B on all of econ. I just wanted to know if that is sufficiently showing me how i am learning the material or if i should be scoring 100s on these things. Thanks again guys!

Matori

The progress tests on Passmaster are NOT representative of the real test in my opinion. By all means you should do the progress tests where you select the sections you'd like to be quizzed on as you study, but in my opinion they didn't feel like the real exam in the end. Stalla's book exams and the CFAI mock were much more indicative of the real exam as far as difficulty and subject matter.

Your scores are fine, but really don't worry if you're not getting high marks in the interim on the first go around. Retake the questions until you understand why you missed it. Remember that it's still very early. If you hit it hard for the next 4 months then spend the last month reviewing CFAI texts and questions (critical towards you passing) and banging out full 120 question exams, you'll be fine.

kd26gioi

Thanks help and advice jcaseyjones, I will definitely ll make sure and get done with plenty of time to do plenty of practice questions and exams.

Daniel1985

I used Schweser guides and was averaging 75% on Volume 1 of the Practise exams.

On the CFAI Mock, managed 85% on the am and 68% on the pm, but did not really put the samre effort into the pm mock.

I passed, managed 8/10 in the >70% and 50-70% in 2/10, but obviously there is no way that you can actually calc ur aggregate for the exam, and thus it may be the case that i actually scored better overall than candidates who had 10/10 in >70% range.

I felt confident going into the exam but had started to get sick a couple days before, so wasn't as focused and comfortable as I would like to have been on the exam, so be healthy and avoid any sickness as much as possible.

I was also seated next to this guy who snorted throughout the first paper, and Im not talking little sniffs here, this guy was snorting so loudly and so frequently that it really distracted me. This guy received so many complaints that he was sent to write at the back of the venue for the second paper.

And so, in my opinion there are these additional challenges that can pop up which you actually have no control over, and thus I fell that you need to be hitting over 70% consistently on all mocks. ideally to go in knowing that you have been getting a few 80%'s before hand will do so much fro your confidence levels.

bluejazzy

thank u all for this wonderfull coments

smartpants

ph00bb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> mona_porsche_targa4s Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > 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
>
>
> Totally agree with you
>
> I only used CFAI textbooks for my preparation.
> Just reading the text and taking notes but it took
> me a lot of time and I finished all the text about
> 3 days before the exam
>
> I did CFA sample exam on 2 days before the exam,
> got 55%
>
> I did CFA mock exam the day just before the exam,
> got 59% for AM and 62% for PM
>
> But I passed , as the real exam was way straight
> forward


Be careful with this. Just because the exam was more straightforward in 2009 doesn't mean it will be in 2010. I took L1 in 2008 and the exam was just as, if not less straightforward then the mock exams. I thought the ambiguity of the 2008 exam was somewhat extreme until I took L2 in 2009. It's extremely difficult to determine what you're going to get with the CFAI.

The best advice I can give you is just to know the information. That's it. Just know it and you'll be fine.