CFA CFA Level 1 Schweser Practice Exams – Increasingly More Difficult

Schweser Practice Exams – Increasingly More Difficult

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      Hi –

      I wanted to see if anyone else shares the same “theory” re: the Schweser practice exams. Thus far, I’ve taken their first three practice exams (i.e. Volume 1) – and I have gotten the following scores:

      Exam 1 Morning: 82.5%
      Exam 1 Afternoon: 72.5%
      Exam 2 Morning: 78.33%
      Exam 2 Afternoon: 79.17%
      Exam 3 Morning: 74.17% (…I genuinely felt that this exam was much harder than the previous ones)
      Exam 3 Afternoon: 72.5% (ditto)

      Is it just me? Or did Kaplan organize practice exams in the order of difficulty (i.e. practice exams get increasingly more difficult)

      Otherwise, am I getting worse?….I take one full exam per weekend, and I’m looking to drive hard over the Thanksgiving weekend and the week after leading up to December 7th…

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      So I am getting ~76-77% on average on Schweser practice exams…

      I have no idea what I need to pass the Level 1 exam – what score should I be getting at this point? I just got about a week to go until the exam date…

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      You can enter your answers at Schweser (online) and get the averages there. For me (I just took exam 3 Morning) it is the other way around. I had problems with ethics in Mock 3, but I aced the other parts and my average is moving up (71 on the first exam, 75 on the second one and now 77 on the morning session).

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      I asked a similar question in another thread. Ppl said (and I quote :D) try to get 80% at your last practice exam and you will “breeze through the real deal”. Also, the benchmark on Exams I get from Schweser are around 69-71.

      For passing: the CFA Institue indicates that you will pass for sure if you have at least 70%. In the range below 70 (high 60s) Ethics seems to matter more.

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      What do you mean by Ethics seems to matter more? As in, they are somehow weighted more?…

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      There are many theories about this, and as a candidate I also shared your suspicions (i.e. that the exams get more difficult). I don’t think that would be the case to be honest, and as @chevalier says you can check yourself against the average online.

      I do think that the second Schweser exam tends to be harder / more calculations…

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      Finished evening session of Mock 3 and got 79… so definitely not getting worse for me.

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      From CFA FAQ:

      What is the “ethics adjustment”?

      The Board of Governors instituted a policy to place particular emphasis on ethics. Starting with the 1996 exams, the performance on the ethics section became a factor in the pass/fail decision for candidates whose total scores bordered the minimum passing score. The ethics adjustment can have a positive or negative impact on these candidates’ final results.

      CFA Institute has a policy of not releasing either the minimum passing score or individual candidate scores. Consequently, CFA Institute does not release specific information about the ethics adjustment or the candidates who were affected. The adjustment has had a net positive effect on candidate scores (and thus pass rates) in most exam sessions. The published pass rates always take into account the ethics adjustment for borderline candidates.

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      FML, ethics is my weakest oh no!

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