My first impression after the last year's (2013) CFA Level II exam was an anger and disappointment. The exam had two very different parts for me that could be described as a morning hope and an afternoon disaster.
During the morning section, I was a bit lack of time but often certain how calculate the most of tasks. I felt fine, focused and quite certain about the results. Maybe, it was connected with the fact that the exam topics in the morning section were more favourable ones for me. Afterwards, I have read on blogs that some participants considered this variant of the exam as one of the most easiest in recent years. However, I would not agree. I think that the difficulty was proper, but the topics tested were more favourable for the most of the participants (generally more popular topics). So, I spent the break with confidence and hope for the good result.
The afternoon section was a very different story. I found the most of tasks very difficult and was not really sure how to calculate them. It was like a nightmare. From the very beginning, after each very difficult uncertain task that I finally, somehow with a lot of effort, concentration and thinking, managed to finish and hoped that the next task will be more comfortable for me, the next one was even more uncertain. In the middle of the afternoon section, I was totally out of confidence and wanted to throw away a pen and leave.
In the both sections, I went through the exam topics from the most important (Equity Investments, Financial Reporting & Analysis) at the beginning to be fresh on it, over the easier topics for me (Corporate Finance, Alternative Investments, Economics, Quantitative Methods) at the middle, to the most difficult for me (Derivatives, Fixed Income Investments, Portfolio Management). I left the Ethical & Professional Standards to the end because I always hated this topic.
But back to the story. After this run of the exam, I was very uncertain about my possible score. Based on my preparatory exams (from Schweser and Mock), I expected the result between 75-85% from the morning section and I have no idea about the afternoon. My overall estimate was 60-70% of correct answers which at a certain constellation could be enough, so I was waiting impatiently for August. The final result did not please me, but it was mostly in line with my expectation. I scored >70% in all three key topics (the most weighted ones), however <50% in three my unfavourable topics and even through these three with the bad result were significantly lower weighted in overall exam, the final result was only in 9th score band.
After the results I talked with two of my friends who passed and the first one said that he had been perfectly prepared, so even if he had found the exam difficult he had managed to handle it. The second one said that he had guessed quickly every uncertain tasks and had not tried to find the solution which saved him time for the tasks which he had been more familiar with.
I would say that my preparation for the exam was quite proper. I started study during January. I attended the study group in Prague created in cooperation with CFA Society and was using mainly Schweser materials. I found a question bank as quite useful. However, it is important to mention that the Schweser materials are slightly different from the original CFA and especially tests and its difficulty are different. Although, I think that the Schweser preparatory tests are much more accurate in questioning (questions are mostly not ambiguous), the real exam (and also the Mock exam) is unfortunately different. I have never scored less than 70% of correct answers in Schweser tests and even 85% in the last a week before the exam (with an average about 76% in all), but I scored only 66% in the Mock and probably something similar or less in the real exam.
I found three things about the exam as very unpleasant. I think that the difficulty of the afternoon section was out of standards, the CFA' questioning is from time to time ambiguous and misleading and the difficulty of morning and afternoon sections was very different. I think that these things should be changed to make the exam more fair.
To sum up, I believe that on the basis on the morning section, I would pass. The afternoon section devastated the entire six-month effort. Definitely, I should have been prepared better and also choose a different tactic (not try to solve all tasks, but guess unfamiliar and have more time for more favourable).
After this disappointment, I was thinking that I will try it once more next year. I have even applied for the CFA Scholarship in September which I was awarded later in December. However, two things led me to the decision not to continue with CFA even if the costs would be significantly lower for me because of the Scholarship. The first was that the result is always very uncertain. I have seen many my friends very well prepared and despite it not pass. If I should invest significant amount of time to something, I want at least some guarantee of the result which I haven't found here. The second is that I do not agree with the way or style of testing. The six hours long exam once a year without the possibility of recurrence (earlier than the next year when you do not remember almost nothing and you have to learn the most of it once more) is not a relevant way of testing skills, knowledge and overall intelligence. It is much more a gamble than test of skills. A very small things even out of your control like a poor sleep the night before the exam, nervousness, workload a week before the exam or traffic jam can easily completely destroy your six-months effort which is much more risk than I am willing to bear.
Few conclusions:
=> preparation tests are not 100% reliable indicators of the final result
=> morning and afternoon sections can be very different in its difficulty and selection of topics
=> it is probably better to quickly guess that try to find the solution for the tasks that you are not certain with
=> do not loose your confidence and concentration because difficult tasks are difficult for everybody.
Good luck to all in the next exam!
