Practice Exams

@vijay – you can do it in June! You’d gain more confidence with more practice papers over time, plus you have us here if you run into any difficulties 🙂

Hey @firefly. Yes that’s normal. Me and a friend are experiencing the same, you have to keep practicing and doing more mocks.

Here’s a torrent file with many past years oficial mocks for level 1: https://thepiratebay.sx/torrent/9243699

Good luck!

@abellochs @ferrarigosofast I plan on doing 6 Schweser exams (yes, full 6 hours).

We recommend at least 7 exams (half day). @googs1484 is an animal, doing 36 hours of exams is awesome. 

On our Adapt exam system, we regularly see people who take 15+ exams (the 3 hour kind) for Level I. 

With Level 2, you really need to get exposure to the variety of of types item sets (the set of 6 questions plus case), which is why more is always better. You can get really thrown off if its a type of question you’re not confident you’re answering correctly. 

Here’s a review of our Level 2 question bank from a 300 Hours test user who sat last June:

…there were three questions in particular (on the same subject) that I never encountered over 6 schweser mock exams (plus the end of chapter mock exams) that you did test. I originally shrugged it off as a mistake on your end to include it. I was wrong. It appeared on the test and I’m very grateful to have studied how to solve those problems based on your test.

https://www.adaptprep.com/CFA/Level-2/Practice

Our practice product has over 100 item sets (10 half day or 5 full day worth). All are newly written. Subscriptions start at $41.

@vijay

Should I try to simulate the final exam day when I am taking the practice exams? Sit 3 hours sessions straight and complete all possible questions?

I wouldn’t recommend you do this at the start. I’d recommend you do it without referring to books, but if you get stuck then go ‘open book’ for that question. Then check all the questions again and review the concepts with study notes.

The reason why I think you should open this way is that at first, you should try and get a feel of how the questions are like. Once you’ve done your first paper, you can then start thinking about testing other aspects of the exam (e.g. timing, exam pressure and so on).

Your scores on average would start low from your first exam and increase as you practice and review more. If you switch on everything at once for your first exam it may be too much, and you may get unnecessarily demotivated from your performance. Ease into it.

@Vijay Goodluck :-bd Just think of it as you have just one attempt in the year (June). Maybe it’ll help you divert all your focus onto the June exam.

hey @Dan thanks a lot for the advice, buddy 🙂

where do people find old exams? (I mean free)

brilliant. Thanks much @christine. technically I have 235 days for the exam, but I am going to try my LUCK in 46 days. ;))

I’m planning on taking 6 practice exams, 5 Schweser and 1 CFAI official. It’s what I did for Level I and I think it’s a good strategy.

@daharmattan1 Can you share old CFAI LII (mock) exams?

I will be most likely purchasing Adaptprep’s question bank and videos as well. I used their question bank minimally, but still used it, and their videos for level I. Their price point is unbeatable. I treat their material as reinforcement rather than primary. For example, I use Schweser Notes, Qbank and what not first but I tend to be done with it by April/May. Rather than watching all my Schweser videos again, too time consuming, I watch Adaptprep videos because they are much shorter and to the point. Never hurts to diversify as much as possible (insert portfolio management joke here). Everyone presents material differently, so answering questions from multiple providers and watching their videos is beneficial to me.

@RoyD‌ generally, more CFAI practice questions are really hard to get. The reason is that CFAI doesn’t actually focus on pushing out practice questions – the concentration is on the actual exam itself.

3rd party practice question and mocks are the next ones to try – have you given them a go?

When you say practice exams, do you mean the whole 6 hours ones?

I find it useful to circle questions that were difficult / or tested key concepts and repeat those over and over as well. When you sort of semi remember seeing a question but can’t really remember it, the concepts start to get sticky…at least for me. I did about 8 practice exams for L2. Used the schweser ones which were ok, and had a few older CFAI ones.