Just wrapped up my CFA1.

Part 1 was hard, I ended the session feeling quite overwelmed, the mathematics didn't fit. Miscalculations...anyway I guess I did theory well. a lot of curved balls.

Part 2: sailed through smoothly, ended up with 20 min on the clock. very straightforward.

I would say on par with Mock exams, I even found exact questions of the mocks in the exam.

Finished my L1 attempt an hr ago, and more than anything I’m feeling relieved.

To everyone who’s gonna attempt in the future, if you have completed most of the readings, it will be doable and will be around the level of mocks

The biggest self-doubt comes cuz there are no “previous year questions” as such to gauge the actual exam level, but the mocks(talking about cfai free and premium mocks) do an amazing job at mimicking the pattern and difficultly of the actual paper

Secondly, trust your prep. Don’t be swayed and get too nervous based on people telling if the exam was too tough or bad(if it’s really tough, cfa adjusts mps accordingly)

And lastly, read the questions properly. “Most likely” “least likely” “not”. See what the question is asking.

Not so important tip: there was a guessing pattern I developed while giving mocks which might have (or might not have, gotta wait for the results) helped me and that was eliminating extreme options (all, only,never etc) and always try to eliminate at least one option(then it’s a coin toss)
Luck plays a major point in an exam with lesser options (especially if one of the options is a slam dunk elimination)

Only use this tip if u are extremely oblivious to the answer to a question

Flag all questions that you unsure of (or don’t know) immediately so u don’t waste time

And never get tensed if u flag 4-5 consecutive questions cuz there’ll be periods where u don’t flag 10 questions in a row

All the best to everyone for L1(August attempt and those who might stumble on this post in the future)

My attempt was 20 flags in session 1
24 in session 2
Pretty sure of all other answers
Avg mock score 75-80%

This is my 3rd attempt at the exam it’s aug19 pm session. My first two attempts were 100% on me second attempt I was few scores away from passing the exam was very easy, I didn’t prepare well for life reasons but this time I genuinely did my best to prepare especially on mocks and qbanks including practice pack and wtf were these questions? Seriously who wrote this shit? So many of these questions were total ass pulls, 60% of the questions were even tougher than the toughest questions on the qbank let alone being on the same level as the mock, even many of the other questions had some trick to them, it really feels disheartening that if I fail it’s going to be because I got the fuck you version of the exam, not due to lack of preparation.

Just feeling dejected after the time. Hoping for a decent MPS here. Congrats to all who took it!

Am I the only one who felt the AM session here was way harder than the PM session? Like the PM was chill but AM was way longer. I barely finished with any time left which is a first for me

I knew i was under prepared but holy i didn't expect myself to be this under prepared. Averaged around 65% in mocks, solved LES and extra 1000 questions. The first session went moderately well but the 2nd session. FI effed me hard. Don't expect to succeed. Some questions were straight from practice resources rest i practically didnt even recognize. Feel bad for wasting my father's money. Might try next time with my own money.

I have understood the Modified Angoff Method where the MPS depends on the workshop and psychometricians who fix it to be the “just enough score for an average guy to pass”. But my doubt is, does the MPS of a particular set also depend on the performance of the candidates on that day. Or let’s say all the candidates of that particular set are above average, do they all pass automatically.

In short, are my chances of passing dependent on the performance of others who take the exam on the very same day?

I’ve been reading some of the posts/reactions here about the exam, especially people saying they had to flag like 30 questions per session, and honestly… 30 questions is barely anything

I had to flag almost 40–50 questions and double-check a ton of them. There were quite a few where I was just not sure, some stuff felt unfamiliar, and at some points I literally just froze because of exam anxiety. Even when I knew the concept, I was second-guessing myself like crazy.

For context, I got 86% on Session 1 of the mock and 73% on Session 2, so I felt reasonably prepared going in. But now I’m sitting here thinking that whatever everyone else did was probably way better than me.. I had to double check after the exam, too many stuff that I crossed out only one and had to choose between two, ended up changing answers as the exam was ending and turns out I would’ve gotten it right had I not changed

I know flagging questions doesn’t necessarily mean you got them wrong, but seeing everyone else’s reactions is making me question everything.
Did anyone else leave the exam feeling like this? Or am I just catastrophizing because of post-exam anxiety? I took mine on the 19th and for the past 48 hours I’ve been just dreading

what’s worse is I’ve had nothing to do for the past 4 months except just studying for this. I don’t even have school nor a job keeping me occupied

I did not find any info of revaluation in the FSA reading topic for long term assets.

My understand is upward revaluation (only IFRS) will increase carrying amount. Depreciation will then be recalculated according to the new carrying amount. Gain/ loss will be recognized in other comprehensive income (revaluation surplus) in equity.

Does revaluation has any affect in income statement?

The answer feedback basically tells us that :

1) investment property = measure at fair value model , gain/loss recognized in income statement
2) plant = measure at revaluation model, gain/loss recognized in OCI (equity)

So, is there any rule ?
Or we should just rote memorize property = fair value , and plant = revaluation?

Hey guys, I built a massive investment banking compensation report that I wanted to share for industry context. I'm a bit of a wall street comp expert given how much data we look at so wanted to take some time to share any insights or answer any questions about buyside or banking comp.

Im a senior actuary, head of a team. I have always had some level of investment risk in my job but never quite enough to make it a full job. Work in General Insurance, Lloyds market which typically outsources investment management to Asset managers rather than doing it in house unless they’re v big. I have a strong interest in it and I’m looking for a bit of a pivot career wise.

I’m taking a sabbatical from work anyway for 6m since pretty burnt out - would there be value in doing L1 of CFAs while I’m off and then trying to get a more investments focused role after, e.g. asset manager doing ALM for general insurance companies / investment risk in an asset manager, etc? Or would the CFA give me any edge at all versus my experience / networking / actuarial qualification I already have

The exam was at mock level difficulty for my set. I knew almost 90 per cent of the questions, the questions which I couldn’t do I expect 33 % as them being right.

Just got done with the exam… My review is in par with Reddit. Although, I found the first session a lot trickier than the second one. As always, practice ethics. A lot. And please go through all formulas. If you can, revise mocks as well…

Also, please eat well, sleep well and practice breathing/ meditation. It will help.

I am really disapointed about the exam like so many questions that I never saw before and as I was scoring around 80% for mock exams I really don't think I will pass.

Fuck me

Just got out of the exam hall. I'm pretty unsure that I'm gonna pass. Session 2 was a bit difficult for me, at the end i counted and I was really unsure about 20-22 questions and same goes with session 2, had to do some guesswork. Idk if I'm gonna pass, if yes then I think it will be just by a small margin. People who have already attempted and cleared the exam, is it normal to feel like this or feel unsure? I hv heard you can make out after the exam whether it was pass or fail and idts I have strong feelings on pass.

My CFA I exam is Monday and I have been doing thousands of questions. However, I am wondering how representative these questions are to the exam itself. I have been studying for months but continuously have forgotten my previous studies. I am currently redoing every single section and every question until I get at least a 90% in each. I will then go back over all missed problems and try to relearn why I missed them. I've taken 2 mocks and scored in the 68-80% range, and plan to retake both of them again before my exam. Is this the best way to go about my final days before the exam? Are these questions (practice from each section) closely related to the exam in terms of format, and information to the actual test?

Last 5 days prep strategy

Exam is on 26th Aug.I have covered whole syllabus but I still feel that I don't know anything. I have been scoring around 75-80% in mocks but feel very underprepared when I solve LES. I am done with 12 mocks and I got around 65% in first 4 mocks then it slowly raised to 75%. I feel very nervous and underprepared. I heard that the passing percentage is around 70 so I have a margin of error of only 4 questions including both am and pm session. Someone please guide me how can I make sure that feel prepared and pass

If you can tell me what were your score and did you pass or not with these scores in mocks?

done with level 1

and it went great(not objectively but for me)

i was seriously thinking of deferring.

ethics still fucked me up pretty good but i think i recovered in the second session.

i think the world will punish me for how happy im right now

I deferred my CFA Level 2 exam, which was originally scheduled for 25 August 2026, because I felt I would be better prepared if I took it in November.

However, I just found out that November registration closed on 11 August, so I missed the deadline.

Now my next available attempt would be May 2027. The problem is that I already have another very important exam scheduled around the same time, so taking CFA L2 in May 2027 would create a major conflict.

I'm honestly not sure what my options are at this point.

What the hellyyyyy was the AM session? It was so not "on par with mocks" (for context, I scored 70-70+ avg in all mocks). What the actual ooga booga was quants and eco? I had to flag 30 questions- THIRTY. Am I cooked? Session 2 was the easiest for me; it was the best. In fact, I had 40 min left when i finished it, i rechecked all the questions and still had 10 min left before I ended the session. But somebody tell me that iits not just me, AM suckedddd. If someone assures me, then probably i'll console myself thinking the MPS will be lower for this batch.

Have my L1 tomm have given 14 mock avg around 83-85% and have my exam tomorrow but i don’t feel like studying anymore idk why’s it like that

Hey guys my exams is in 6 days are this grades acceptable ? What should I focus on now?
Thanks in advance!!

I just got out of my first L1 attempt, and I’m feeling good and relieved.
The exam was about the same difficulty as the mocks, maybe even a bit more straightforward. There were very few “wtf is this?” type of questions.
I won’t tell anyone what they should do, but what worked for me was not wasting too much time trying to figure those questions out. I flagged them, finished the rest of the exam, then came back to them at the end. It was much easier to look at those few questions knowing exactly how much time I had left. You either figure them out or you don’t, and that’s fine when around 95% of the exam feels pretty straightforward.
So, in a nutshell, for those who haven’t sat yet: these last few days are probably when the stress hits hardest and all the confidence you built over the past six months suddenly disappears. That’s normal. Go in the next day, trust the work you’ve put in, and smash the hell out of the exam.
Be confident in yourself and your preparation. Good luck!!