CFA CFA Level 1 June Exam Stress

June Exam Stress

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      I think I’m having a mental break, I’ve completed 5 papers and my score are all over the place the highest being 70% to the lowest being 53% but on average around the 62.5% which obviously isn’t good enough to be confident on passing. I’ve been reviewing the topics I’m weakest in (Equity & Fixed Income) as well as the exams once I complete them but I feel like the reviewing process isn’t helping up my grade, I plan on taking another 3 full exams this week and I have taken the Thursday and Friday before the exam off work to allow me to spend another two days before the exam revising. Any suggestion on what I can do to increase my marks? I’m also fishing each 120 question exam in 2 hours, so timing isn’t an issue at all. I’ve tried to slow down and read each question carefully but it doesn’t seem to make a difference to my final score if anything it makes me second guess and change correct answers to incorrect ones.  

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      by fishing I mean finishing ha!

    • Avatar of googs1484googs1484
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        • CFA Level 3
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        What study material are you using? 

      • Avatar of RoyDRoyD
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          Don’t stress too much. The practice exams are usually tougher than the actual exam in my opinion although I’ve only used KS and the CFAI practice exams. My range was between 68-83% in 4 complete KS exams and I scored above 70 in all except FRA (which was my weak point) in the actual exam.

          That being said you do need to improve and one week is good time to increase your average and one week can buy you maybe 2 or 3 marks which can be crucial. If you can get your average above 60 you have a good fighting chance and if it goes above 65 it’s very good.

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          Thanks guys, I’m feeling a little better after the weekend, scoring slightly better in 3 of the Kaplan tests. @googs1484 I used CFAI materials to study mostly and Kaplan for revision. I’m going to do some more exams over the next few days and then hopefully I’m going into the exam with as much covered as possible. I can’t wait for Saturday to be over.  @RoyD you’ve made me feels a lot better, do you think there is any point repeating exams I’ve already done? I’m tempted to redo them to see have I improved my score but I don’t want to waste time if it’s not helpful. 

        • Avatar of googs1484googs1484
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            • CFA Level 3
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            It’s helpful but only if you are realistic with yourself. When taking a duplicate test, as I’ve doNE already, there’s going to be a “oh I remember this question” curve. Be honest with yourself and try to remember the rationales and not just the answers

          • Avatar of Cdelane1Cdelane1
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              • CFA Level 1
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              @Lollypolly @RoyD I would focus the last couple of days on re-reading the Ethics portion, either the notes from the CFAI or kaplans, Due to the fact that if you miss a formula on one of the later sections that only hurts your score for one question. But with ethics the questions are extremely repetitive and not remembering a specific violation could mess up more then one question. I would either do this Thursday or Friday depending on if you want to not think about anything on Friday or you want to casually review. Just slowly read the ethics section over again. I would not focus on any questions after reading ethics again due to the fact that it could have a harmful effect if you do not score as high as you would have liked.  

            • Avatar of RoyDRoyD
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                In contrast I’m actually not focusing on Ethics primarily because I remember half the stuff quite well from Level 1 and also Ethics is a very subjective matter. I remember studying so hard in Level 1 but still not being able to master Ethics because there always seems to be more than one answer and it’s quite confusing. At least with calculations you can be sure about your answer. Either you are right or wrong.

                Right now I’m planning to focus on Fixed Income and Derivatives which seems to be weak for me and maybe a few points here and there in FRA and Equity coz they are heavy weights.

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