What score should a candidate get in Level 1 mock exams to be closer to passing the actual exam

@sonali_kaushal05‌ it really depends on what practice exam are you attempting. Schweser ones (back in my day) I’d be averaging around 80% by exam day. I’d say with a month to go you’re looking pretty good if you keep practicing.

Greetings to all,
I did my first mock just after I finished the first reading of the curriculum. I got 66% , I am reviewing now , chapter by chapter. I hope next mock goes a lot better.
After every session I finish I hit about 100 questions in qbank. I have 2000+ questions answered already and score 79%. (This is clearly overstated cause I answer just after reading the material).

just gave my first (official) mock after going through curriculum once, got 65%. how much improvement do you think can be achieved in terms of percentage points after going through 3 more mocks and associated revision cycles?

@christine‌ so weird as it may sound I was wondering are we supposed to score in the 70-80% range on the first attempt of the Schweser practise exam?

@khanmmua – 65% isn’t actually that bad. It’s about 6 questions per exam (AM & PM session) away from a 70% score…and 12 questions per exam away from a 75% score (which leaves enough of a buffer for exam day).

Each to their own, but what I did (to save time and energy) is to put together a basic matrix on which areas (broken down to the CFAI Readings) I had incorrect answers in. I found that there were several areas that were responsible for a disproportionate number of mistakes. Since then I’ve been systematically revising those areas and revisiting the questions I got wrong so I know, without doubt, where I went wrong….of course keeping in mind that “a point is a point”, so I’m making sure that I completely nail the “easier” areas….

My plan on exam day is to leave lengthy or formula-intensive questions for the end: this way I don’t lose momentum and don’t have to worry about running out of time.

Good luck on the exams! Not long to go now…. 🙂

@mitch895‌ I try to do questions in order because I realise whenever I do a paper I tend to get really drained towards the end. So I am not sure about leaving the formula based questions for later cos I think they are the ones that actually require more brain power and I am basically a zombie at the end.

I’m with @mitch895‌ , I do the most time-intensive questions last. I’ve always started with FRA on all of my mocks so far, and I do quants last. If you run out of time, you don’t want to be guessing on an area that you could have done well at if only you got to it; you want to do your guessing on an area that you might have already been weak in.

My ranking of the difficulty of the Practice Exams:
Hardest: Elan (I just took my first one, scored 65%)
Medium: CFA Mock (My scores, taken on Saturday with 1 hr break in between them: 75%, 77%)
My scores on other training providers were higher than the CFA Mocks (high 70s and 80s).
The reason the Elan are difficult is that they are more conceptual.
I am sure other Candidates have other experiences though!
best of luck everyone
David

@david_s ok, looking forward to Elan exam then! I am keeping it for this weekend.

@CFAcharterwannabe – and this is why having a well-structured program for a coffee-induced-uplift is going to be vital for me (especially in the PM session)!!

Quite annoyingly, for questions that I guess my success rate is consistently at around the 25% mark!! The upside is that my strike rate in full-on-zombie-mode should probably be closer to the 33% mark 🙂

@mitch895‌ I don’t know. I am thinking of mixing it up. I am thinking of going for areas I am stronger in first (still don’t know what those are atm) and leaving the others for the end. Mixing it up rather than going in order. I feel there are marks to be scored in the last few sections but I lose them because I am so tired that by the time I get to them I just want to be over with the exam so I answer very haphazardly. My coffee consumption is breaking records lol

Hi there, I’m trying really hard to develop a proper study approach to learning the material. However, a week into it I ended up making just notes and completed only one study session. I have not done any practice questions. When I asked people around me how they tackled level 1, some advised that I prepare notes while others suggested that I memorize directly from the textbook; most posts I’ve read mention “reading” the material two to three times. So now I’m somewhat lost though I prepared a study plan and aiming to start my practice tests by mid October for the December exam. Please advise urgently. THANKS.

@Sh90‌ depends on your study style…if you are someone that can retain the material after 2 to 3 reads, then do that…note however that the material is abundant and diverse…
i tried that and it didn’t really work out for me, so had to go ahead with the notes…that however takes some time and hence needs to be accounted for in your study plan…making notes on a topic like Ethics and GIPS will take less time than making notes for Economics or FRA or most of the other topics you will come across in the forthcoming study sessions…
as i said, depends on your study style…good luck!

I prepared a study plan and aiming to start my practice tests by mid October for the December exam. Please advise urgently. THANKS.

1.5 months to do practice exams should work. But you have to make sure you prioritize practice exams as the exam approaches, so make sure you complete the syllabus by then.

Pacing and knowing when to move on is key during the early stages of prep, otherwise you’ll be chasing for time closer to the exam.