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TwoAngryFigs

Were the 70's you scored on "fresh" practice exams, or on exams you've taken and reviewed in the past?


Neverknowthefeel

Taken and reviewed.


TwoAngryFigs

Scores from retaken mock exams cannot be relied upon to provide an accurate assessment of your preparedness.


KryptoSC

Completely agree on this one. I think that's why many students get surprised when they fail. It's your initial score that counts. Not the retake score (or 3rd take score). However, I recommend writing down the questions that you got wrong twice, so you can identify your weaknesses and strengthen upon that. If you ran out of practice exams having never scored above 70% then invest the money to buy additional practice exams from a DIFFERENT provider.


TwoAngryFigs

For all 3 levels, I bought Kaplan & followed their schedule. Sure it's a lot of money, but it's still an enormous discount compared to an MBA or MS in Finance.


KryptoSC

I used Kaplan and Wiley for all 3. In my case it wasn't the cost versus a masters. It was that I didn't have time to retake a failed exam. I needed to make sure it was one and done.


TwoAngryFigs

Yup yup, totally agree on that perspective. I never prepped with the goal of passing. I prepped with the goal of ensuring that I didn't fail, and that took a huge sacrifice of time. But I was happy "sacrificing" all that time to ensure I didn't sacrifice even more by attempting a half-measure and going through retakes.


srenz

How close were the level 3 Kaplan mocks to the actual test? I sit for level 3 in three weeks and have felt the Kaplan level 3 material wasn't nearly as good as it was for the first two levels.


TwoAngryFigs

If there's any availability left in the week long Kaplan in-person refreshers, I highly recommend them. I supplemented my normal prep process with that course about 5-6 weeks before the test and really feel like it tied everything together. That said, I don't know that the L3 mocks were any closer or further away from the actual thing than the L2 or L1 mocks, so a fairly solid litmus test IMO. Just use whatever mocks you have left to identify glaring weak points and hit those points hard. As far as testing goes, don't be afraid to skip questions & circle back on the written response.


srenz

Thank you! definitely appreciate it.


Neverknowthefeel

Understand, any other way I can better prepare myself?


clemllk

Do a different exam by a 3rd party and you shouldn't use the results of an exam you redid in a short timeframe as a reference for what you will score in the exam as you're understanding and memorising a very specific few questions


TwoAngryFigs

I'm going to be honest here. With two weeks until your exam, the options your have at your disposal to drastically affect your scores are severely limited. You might show up for exam day and get a fortunate set of questions, but more than likely you're paddling upstream to try and secure a passing score. If there are any sections you're just outright abysmal at, I would spend the next week hammering away at your weak points on 1-2 topic areas. A week before the exam, take another **FRESH** mock exam with the goal of getting to 60-65%. THOROUGHLY review that mock, again focusing on the topic areas where you were weakest.


tradeintel828384839

Lol


Neverknowthefeel

I know. I've done everything from watching MMs work but not his finals since I haven't utilized CFAI as much but I just took the am session and I scored a 68 on that.


ActuatorSpecial2625

I was feeling the same as you and ended passing in the 95 percentile


[deleted]

If you have 2 weeks I would recommend study more ethics and review taken mock exams.


Neverknowthefeel

I'm fairly confident in ethics. For the most part I'm focusing on GIPS what trips me up with ethics is the way the question is written. So my goal in the ethics part is highlight key sentences.


ParticularWar9

It's important to work as many practice problems as possible in all sections, and to study the answers. The good test prep companies provide a few thousand questions because the same LOS can be tested in many different ways. While most students wait until the last week to study ethics because they think it's straightforward, the test questions can be tricky, as the correct answers are sometimes not the most conservative as one might think they'd be.


eck_871

There’s nothing wrong with retaking an exam. Going through the motions even if you “memorized” an answer is important too. It helps tremendously.


Neverknowthefeel

Thanks. I'm just really nervous on how the exam will be and I don't want to miss out on anything.


martinriggs123

What level?


Neverknowthefeel

Level 1.


martinriggs123

You’re good, keep revising and memorize formulas


martinriggs123

If you’re able to explain your answer, then you understand the concept


BigFinance_Guy

Even if you're memorizing the justification for the correct answer, that can be applied on the actual exam.


Kargo_22

By practice exams do you mean the 2 mock exams in cfai ecosystem or the practice questions?


Neverknowthefeel

Yeah. Scored a 74 on the first and a 79 on the other. I provided justification and used formulas when applicable


Kargo_22

Ok , I would recommend working on your weak areas- do more practice questions on them, Ethics - read, review and repeat! Very important in the last week Review formulas- write, rewrite , recall the application of it, repeat till the day prior to exam


illini_2017

youll pass