- This topic has 14 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated May-189:27 pm by
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Up0
Well I guess by now everyone in the world is done with their exam so I can give my review about it (nothing specific though).
The morning session was alright and I felt it was pretty much the same for me as Level 1. I did a few mistake here and there and realized I forgot a few stuff but I wasn’t feeling too bad as I finished it. I was looking forward more to lunch more than anything coz I was hungry.Anyways the afternoon session came and I was glad one subject topic wasn’t there because I had it bad with that in the morning session. Basically I spent the first 5 hours of the exam quite well until the end. I turn to the second last vignette and received the shock of my life. ONE WHOLE VIGNETTE on the same damn topic and I had no clue nor ever even read about how to do it in my KS notes. I’m really confused here because I was really blank about what to do in that whole vignette because as far as I can remember I either didn’t come across the topic or the notes said not to worry about the calculations and just ‘understand’ the way it’s done.
I’m not sure if I can even mention which subject it was from so I’m going to leave it at that. If this really was a problem then you guys will know what I’m talking about. I had around 6 educated guesses in the morning and around 6 in the afternoon but because of that one vignette I had 6 more random guesses which I think will ultimately take me down. So many months of effort and I just get stumped like that, it’s just so pissing off and frustrating. Once again I’ve had a huge let down by the KS notes. This time it’s much bigger than in Level 1.
P.S. As usual there were people discussing the exam after it and no one gave a shit.
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Up5
I thought there was a huge differences between morning and afternoon. Morning was kind of easy? None of the stuff I was worried about was there. But the in the afternoon, it all made a showing.
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Up5
@RoyD and @Stuj79 hilarious. I know that Vignette. My strategy was to totally ignore it in the PM exam till I had answered all the other 56 questions satisfactorily. By the time I returned, I seemed to have a hang of what the qeustion stems expected. With results outs, had a 50 – 70 score so I definitely confirm it did not turn out badly at all.
I don’t think KS deserves all the butt it typically gets, maybe cos I know I would never be able to wade through the CFAI material. But I am very satisfied with KS. Does not matter that I had to take L2 twice to pass, same strategy. KS 90% and the 10% I refer to CFAI for concepts I don’ understand from KS.
Excited about L3!
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Up4
Hey Roy…I know EXACTLY which vignette you are talking about and I won’t mention the topic or anything specific eIther. But yeah, to have a whole vignette on that one topic was pretty off….especially as the overall subject that that topic was taken from was definitely one of my top 3 strong points…..I was hoping they would have tested something else. But they chose to do it the way they chose to do it. C’est last vie.
I had read many posts from resisters leading up to the exam that the was always a few curveballs thrown in at level 2 and I guess this was one of those.
Overall the exam was much, much easier than I was expecting…I finished the AM section in about 2 hours and the PM section in about 2hrs 20mins so wasn’t really pushed for time at all either. I know these are “famous last words” and until I get the results I can’t be sure that I didn’t just fall into lots of traps on the questions…but I’m quite confident of a pass. and they could have made it so much more difficult than they did. It was a breeze compared to those mocks!!
Just super happy it’s done with and we can all relax for a while. Hope it went well for everyone!!
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Up4
I feel the same. Been there done that. 😀
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Up4
I scored 50-70 in the Fixed Income part so I assume it wasn’t that bad.
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Up3
I completely agree that some stuff was not on the Kaplan books at all. Overall I feel Kaplan did a poor job preparing me for the exam this year compared to level 1. Is there anyone else who used it and feel the same way? I don’t feel either exam was harder than the other. I’d say about 33% of the questions in either exam I was half guessing…. 🙁
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Up2
Yeah time wasn’t really an issue for me either. I knew that I’d have time if the questions were straightforward, which they were. I completed the morning session with around 15 mins remaining but then struggled with the afternoon session because of that one vignette and for few other questions.
I’ve read that when grading the exam they check to see if any question was unfair and I hope a lot of people messed up that vignette so that they can know that it was an unfair question. Usually in a vignette for example FRA, they mix it up with different topics within FRA like Multinational Operations, Intercorporate Investments, Long Lived Assets etc and not just concentrate on one chapter or one topic like Long Lived Assets only, so that you don’t lose a bunch of marks just for not knowing one topic. But in that vignette, all the questions were from one particular chapter and one topic which I thought was unfair.
Also way to go by KS notes saying that calculations regarding that is highly unlikely to be tested. Sadly I feel the guesswork which I did in that vignette will decide ultimately if I pass or fail.
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Up2
Not quite sure how but I managed to score >70% in Fixed Income so I obviously nailed it, or got some damn lucky guesses haha
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Up2
Guys, had to say I was fortunate to score less 70% in only two sections – Corporate Finance (lolwut?) and Portfolio management. I totally bombed Portfolio management.
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Up1
Resitters* not resisters
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Up1
I was caught out on a few questions in Level 1 as well because of Kaplan. But it was maybe 2 or 3 questions at the most. This time it was one whole item set. That can completely dent your scores.
I don’t care if Kaplan is meant to be a shortcut or not. If they’re selling it as complete notes for preparation for the CFA exams then it should cover every topic that can be tested. No where does it say that these notes have some material missing so please refer to the CFAI notes as well. Besides w.r.t. this vignette I quite clearly remember the KS notes having a small example on it but at the end of it it said that you don’t need to learn the calculations and just understand the concept.
I’m surely not using KS for Level 3 if I pass this exam.
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Up1
I used KS + CFAI end of topic questions… managed to secure a pass! KS was good enough for exam preparation in my case.
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Up0
I feel the same. I’m not sure it’s Kaplan’s fault, completely anyways. Level 2 seemed to really require you understand the concepts where level one you could get away with a fair bit of memorization. It’s not the kind of thing you can short cut and Kaplan notes are designed to be a short cut.
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