I think that many people grossly underestimate their own abilities, and you especially find this in the group that always seeks an answer externally the moment a problem challenges them. In my experience, the absolute best thing to do when faced with a complexing problem/concept that your conscious mind simply can't seem to comprehend, is to let go, forget about it completely, maybe move on to something else, and in time the solution comes automatically. The mind works 24 hours a day, even during sleep.
Hi Mark. Finally passed level 2 on the third attempt your EOC videos really helped a lot. Always struggled with fixed income but scored in the 90th percentile this time because of your videos. Thanks!
Thank you very much Dr. Meldrum, I have the result for L1 and it's almost at the 90th percentile. Without you, I don't think I can achieve it at all not to mention in such a short amount of time. Stay healthy Dr. Meldrum and all the best in the world to you!!!!! Thank you !!!!!
Actually I’m so thankful Mark, i started categorizing my scores based on remembering/ understanding/ applying and it does really help. This is how it helped me; When i see that i got wrong answer in remembering ( i look for the answer from Schweser notes or the reading ) , if understanding ( ask myself the question again- it appears that I didn’t internalized the whole picture , sometimes i go to your review vids) Applying same as understanding .. not yet got any analyzing question.
Thank you Dr. Mark for the video. As always helpful and thoughtful. For me, personally, mock exams were a great way to review the whole material. I was amazed at how efficient were your mock exams, and also exams of CFAI. I agree that the score improvement was quite decelerating after the third exam, but I would prefer to take more mock exams and review my answers to be more confident before the exam day.
I go through the comment sections for every reading, seminar, & EOCQ video, & also the Qbank. Still to this day, I genuinely can’t believe some of the questions candidates are posting. “Doctor Mark, how many questions will the exam have? I didn’t buy a BAII+, it’s ok if I use the calculator app on my phone, right???”, “Do u think I’ll pass if I skip the questions and just memorize ur notes? Thx.”, “Professor, I have watched all ur videos & completed ur Qbank, currently averaging 43%. If I wear a suit, tie, & my grandfathers best pocket watch to the exam do u think I’ll pass???”. I’m not even exaggerating, & Dr. M I know you’ve seen this. Pull up your pants & roll up your sleeves guys.. your CFAI candidates, not pre-schoolers.
6:00 Mark jumping straight to statistics, had to think back to level 1 stats a bit. Just a reminder for those who might be a bit off. If the stat < 0.05 then the change is significant at the 5% level. 5% level is generally accepted as a good level to use ✌️
@Mark Meldrum - I believe the group that asks > 15 questions (58% of all questions asked) can also be attributed to as you rightly said - lazy question asking. I have seen in many of the videos wherein you have mentioned "Look one comment up/down". Would be interesting to know how much of these lazy question asking contributes to that 58%.
I did one mock on your website and it was by far the hardest for me. I scored 69% and I'm a bit worried. The topic repartition was a bit weird too. Lots of reading were not tested
I highly agree with explaining it to someone else, I have used it since undergrad, I would chose complex topics and explain them to my law student friends. They would get annoyed because everything in finance to them is jargon but I would do it anyway just to wind them up, in the process made me master those topics.
@@ArjunKapurr studied it not for long then I switched to financial Management and completed undergraduate degree with that. I found law not interesting for me.
Not going to lie Mark, but the 18min “reveal” made me wonder if I should still be on the CFA track at all, given how interesting and rewarding the pure data analytics portion of this video seemed to be
Thanks for the insights! I am trying to complete roughly 50% of questions in each section to find my weak points, head back to the reading/videos etc and review those spots after which I plan to return to the Q bank to finish off the rest. Do you feel this is an effective strategy? I have already watched all the material videos, way back before the delays.
Yes. As long as your performance provides feedback on which you act. I think those that don't improve in score over time are probably not doing that and thinking more questions instead are what is needed.
@@MarkMeldrum thank you! I do plan to target specific sections that are weak by reading, taking notes, re watching or focusing on EOC depending on the section type.
It's really good that you collect and analyze data to improve your service, If you also consider giving your candidates a survey, I think you will get good amount of data from it as well, I personally would do an hour long survey for you Mr. Mark. If it helps.
I'm studying level II for the third time. I had the June 2020 exam canceled and the December exam cancel just 10 days to go. I've already made all MM QB, all mock exams, and all questions from the CFA books/platform. I really don't know what to do to be prepared for my may exam. What strategy do you suggest for me? Thanks for the wonderful work you've been doing.
Hi Dr. Probably I’m one of the subscribers for l3 that didn’t actually asked any questions.. haha! Definitely targeting weak spots on first mock exam and try to bank on it is the way to go. Can you please tell us what are your thoughts on the passing rate this December? For l2 I can see a 25% difference increase from 2019..
Well - there was some self-selection going on here. Candidates did have the ability to select a 2021 exam date even before they knew if there center was cancelled -so I am guessing that those less ready deferred. I would not read too much into those pass rates.
Hi Dr. Mark, I am a subscribed user of your platform and I study Reading Vid, EOCQ and 30 Q Banks per reading. Would you recommend an alternative approach this? Currently struggling with Derivatives and Alternative Investments.
Regarding your Q-Bank - can I draw conclusions about my readiness for the exam based on my average scores? I know these are not the exam questions, but just as a reference. I'm scoring between 75-80% steadily across all sections. Thank you.
It's a great video. Following the distributed learning tip, is there something as: "Too much hours of studying per day"? I understand that it's better if you take a break every 45 minutes to, kind of, recharge, but, is there something like a more effective number of sessions each day? Thanks!
I think we need to reconsider this theory for Level 2. Here's why... Each exam has 88 questions (44 AM and 44 PM) and Each exam has 9 sections. Lets use Corporate Finance as an example to explain my logic. Corporate Finance consists of the following chapters Capital budgeting, Capital Structure, Share repurchases, Corporate Governance, M&A. Lets say Mock exam #1 has 8 Questions total. Their could be 4 questions on Capital budgeting, and 4 on M&A. So you review the exam and touch up on those chapters/ subjects. You attempt mock exam #2 now. Only this time in the corporate finance section you face Capital structure and Share repurchases. With that being said, everything you learned in mock exam #1 has NOT translated into mock exam #2.... AT BEST you aren't going to get some overlap until mock exam #3 for these sections. I respectfully believe that you should be doing as many as possible.
What is the answer to 30:12 ? Is it A)? typically reits do well when economy is growing(inflation). But during down turns why would companies utilise leverage and take risk?
Thanks, Professor Mark. What does it say about my learning that after I had completed my Level 1 I walked around decompressing, not looking at answers, that I immediately began to realize I had made mistakes on questions? Isn't this a test anxiety issue?
I think the problem with bulimic questioning is that candidates have in mind that the challenge is to keep studying within the 300 hour limit. So, looking up the question makes them lose time. So, typing a question in the comments section is a time-saving process. As simple as that!
I am one of those candidates that ask many questions in your channel, but I bought your content after completing all topics (except for FI) so i want to ask the “significance lower pass rates” means on mocks or the actual exam?
What is cancelled is cancelled by Prometrix. CFAI will be sending out instructions on Feb 2 for all those that wish or need to move from Feb to May or later.
Hey, just a small suggestion regarding the classification of the type of questions. It would be better if there was an option of choosing the type of questions we want to answer. Eg. I only want to attempt the analysis type questions, in that case if I could filter only those types and ignore the other ones, it would be helpful.
Hey dr Mark, i'm part of MM L1 of your services. I have a question, my plan for here to 24 Feb is doing daily CFAI and MM Qbank for like 5 hours daily + each day reviewing one topic with your pdf materials and doing 2 mocks, what is ur opinion of my plan. Thank you for doing our studying the most scientific posible.
What is more important us to use the feedback from those exercises to work on weak areas. Knowing where you are weak is valuable. Continually pushing forward with questions without interventions does not seem to be beneficial based on what our data suggest.
Hi Mark, I'm preparing CFA I and I'm wondering do you suggest us to do the Q-Bank questions for practice or the 2690 of practice questions from CFA Institute? Thanks for answering!
Mr. Mark , thank you for every thing , just I need your advice I worked as auditor at many banks in Libya so cfa good choice for me , is it easy for me to study . thanks
Not too surprising that we see an overlap between the group asking many many questions and the group with a lower pass rate. 1. As you mentioned, most of the content that CFAI asks students to learn is found all over the internet so the ones asking the questions are the ones that don't want to do the heavy lifting searching it out or worse - don't know how to search it out. 2. I suspect that the groups taking the CFA exam can be those that are completely new to finance and those that are practitioners. The practitioners are not going to be asking to many simple questions, just a few good ones. 3. It could just be related to time. Many people can have the same questions, but after the first person asks and is answered, everyone benefits. Once all the complicated good questions have been asked by the people who started studying early and will likely pass, only googleable questions will be posted, mostly by those who are not likely to pass
I am not sure what the true reason is. I suspect it is what I said - without actually thinking it through, and just getting an answer, there is a vital piece of learning that goes missing. It fits with the data. But like any true academic will say - it requires more research.
Out of curiosity how do you know which candidates of your subscribers that pass/fail? Is it simply those who sign up for your content for the same level again vs those who sign up for your content for the next level?
Do you think there’s value in doing mocks from other providers i.e. Kaplan, CFAi? You’re the only provider that’s actually changed to the CBT exam format but have also highlighted some of the issues with your L1 Qbank (algorithm). Have also heard very poor reviews on CFAi’s mock on r/CFA. Interested in your thoughts
The L1 mock exam algorithm has been fixed. I am on the fence about mock exams really. Many are written by people that are not trained in assessment. It is not just a matter of writing questions - they have to be written with a specific goal in mind. And they have to be correct, and clearly explain why the answer is what it is and why the other two are not. That is not as easy as most people think. I am not sure that the mock exams in this industry actually are a fair representation of the knowledge you have. Ours were written by a combination of two writers, one Ok and the other not good. Unfortunately I have not had the time to re-write them as I have been doing this at L3 and L2 first. This is why we won't sell out L1 mock exams separately - I know they are not of the level of quality I would expect to see.
@@MarkMeldrum Really appreciate the response and honesty here. Based on the quality of Qs for L1 as it is today, do you feel the questions will provide a suitable indication of overall preparedness? I think most agree your questions for L2 & 3 do but L1 is entirely different since they aren’t coming from you.
Guys, how many hours does Mark's preparation takes in total? Is it the same 300 hours or less? I am looking for means to reduce this figure as I don't have a time.
Level 1 does need work - the algorithm is not working properly, and the questions were not written by me. That is one reason we would not sell Level1 exams separately. I am redoing most of the q-bank for L1 myself along with the mock exams over the next 6-8 months.
@@MarkMeldrum Thanks Mark. Questions are definitely being repeated among the mocks for CFAI. I don't know how this may be biasing the analysis you're presenting here.
Thanks Mark! I just wanted to ask you "what to do when you are done with sufficient amount of questions? What is the best revision style that you would recommend?"
Hello Mark. It's great analysis. I have a question. Would it be possible to get some distribution from your end based on scores in your q bank or mock exams and pass/not pass result on CFA exam? Like: qbank scores from 40-50% - had 83% not pass and 17% pass on real exam, 50-60% - had 64% not pass and 36% pass and so on. Also, how information on pass/not pass on real exam was obtained?
Well, I am not sure how useful it would be. We have an almost 94% pass rate overall. Within that 94% are quite a few patterns. Within the 6% are just a few patterns. So while we can’t identify what a successful pattern looks like, we can most definitely identify an unsuccessful one.
Yes. We have a very high matriculation rate. We have gone from 0 to over 31,000 subscribers in 6 years, all without advertising. You don’t get that unless users are talking.
I also like to answer why the other two questions are wrong when doing practice questions or EOC. Do you think it's a good strategy, or I am wasting my time doing this?
Sir, Im having my level 1 exam on March 23, So far Im done with first read of 7 topics, and need to have another read before heading to review and mock phase....Should I change my strategy or stay with this.... P.S. I'm doing my MBA along with CFA. And thanks for your planner on your website sir.
Dr. Meldrum, Since the cut off seems to be less than 15 questions before it becomes ineffective and a waste of your time, why not letting people ask only a certain amount of questions per package purchased? And if someone really needs to ask an extra 50 questions they can buy a "questions package". That way students would only ask relevant questions or would have to pay extra.
I didn't say it was a waste of my time, I said it did not appear to be effective. However, I don't think that a limit is an effective solution. The new comment feature we are rolling out shorty allows any user to ask as many questions as they want but with notifications to me being slowed down. So the first 20 questions i will get notifications right away, then they will be delayed with increasing delay for each one after that. It is my hope that during the delay the user will have solved the problem or thought it through. So if you are on question 51, I would not get the notification for 96 hours. That gives the user 4 days to try to think it through. After all, if someone is at that point, I have already answered 50 questions.
hi sir, my exam is on feb 25 and i have just started with question banks and will approach mocks after that, do you suggest that i should defer my exam or not? I am kinda lost with the option coming up so it would be of great help. if you suggest something.
@@MarkMeldrum sir on my kaplan qbank, overal average of 3 subjects is coming out to be 53%, i feel its pretty low! (Ethics, potfolio mgt. and alternative investment.)
@@MarkMeldrum Thank you prof., I failed miserably, 🥺 I've focused more on contents but put less weight on EOCs and Mock exams. Most of sections were at 50% range except Quant & Eco. I should have studied text books thoroughly... :(
Hi Prof. I really hope you see this. Do you have videos for learning objectives A- i uploaded from this reading "BASICS OF DERIVATIVE PRICING AND VALUATION" ? Thanks.
Sir, could you please suggest revision strategy for last 20 days ? I'm yet to finish FIS and do a good revision of a few other topics. Currently I'm focusing on finishing the question bank. Should I focus on the question bank or switch to giving mocks ?
I think that many people grossly underestimate their own abilities, and you especially find this in the group that always seeks an answer externally the moment a problem challenges them. In my experience, the absolute best thing to do when faced with a complexing problem/concept that your conscious mind simply can't seem to comprehend, is to let go, forget about it completely, maybe move on to something else, and in time the solution comes automatically. The mind works 24 hours a day, even during sleep.
Hi Mark. Finally passed level 2 on the third attempt your EOC videos really helped a lot. Always struggled with fixed income but scored in the 90th percentile this time because of your videos. Thanks!
Congrats and welcome to Level 3!
Impressive, keep it up
How's it going, how'd your level 3 go?
Thank you very much Dr. Meldrum, I have the result for L1 and it's almost at the 90th percentile.
Without you, I don't think I can achieve it at all not to mention in such a short amount of time.
Stay healthy Dr. Meldrum and all the best in the world to you!!!!!
Thank you !!!!!
Congrats and welcome to Level 2!
@@MarkMeldrum Thank you Dr. Meldrum!
I already had your Lv 2 materials, I’m sure I’ll enjoy them as much as I did in Lv 1 :D
Actually I’m so thankful Mark, i started categorizing my scores based on remembering/ understanding/ applying and it does really help. This is how it helped me; When i see that i got wrong answer in remembering ( i look for the answer from Schweser notes or the reading ) , if understanding ( ask myself the question again- it appears that I didn’t internalized the whole picture , sometimes i go to your review vids)
Applying same as understanding .. not yet got any analyzing question.
Love the gym analogy Dr. Mark!...
Thank you Dr. Mark for the video. As always helpful and thoughtful. For me, personally, mock exams were a great way to review the whole material. I was amazed at how efficient were your mock exams, and also exams of CFAI. I agree that the score improvement was quite decelerating after the third exam, but I would prefer to take more mock exams and review my answers to be more confident before the exam day.
Another video worth Gold. .. Thanks Dr. Mark!
"You don't own the knowledge, you're just renting it", very true words.
That single line made me rethink my entire life
This is amazing, what a great program. Can't wait to start my level 1 here soon
Mark. Thanks for sharing your data and hypothesis of different ways to improve our learning process. Kind regards.
Thanks a lot. Your works are always truly amazing and helpful.
I go through the comment sections for every reading, seminar, & EOCQ video, & also the Qbank. Still to this day, I genuinely can’t believe some of the questions candidates are posting. “Doctor Mark, how many questions will the exam have? I didn’t buy a BAII+, it’s ok if I use the calculator app on my phone, right???”, “Do u think I’ll pass if I skip the questions and just memorize ur notes? Thx.”, “Professor, I have watched all ur videos & completed ur Qbank, currently averaging 43%. If I wear a suit, tie, & my grandfathers best pocket watch to the exam do u think I’ll pass???”. I’m not even exaggerating, & Dr. M I know you’ve seen this. Pull up your pants & roll up your sleeves guys.. your CFAI candidates, not pre-schoolers.
You are supposed to be an academic. It is a loser mentaliy.
not all heroes wear capes. Thanks so much Mark !
i love that he said "thats a stupid questions" love it!
Very interesting video, I like to see more from you about learning theory.
So all those times my professors said there's no such thing as a stupid question, they lied. Darn!
6:00 Mark jumping straight to statistics, had to think back to level 1 stats a bit.
Just a reminder for those who might be a bit off.
If the stat < 0.05 then the change is significant at the 5% level. 5% level is generally accepted as a good level to use ✌️
Sir, I love watching your videos! They are of great help.Thank you so much. Could you please tell me which software you use to teach this?
Thx Mark...I am sure this will save me time with my studies...
@Mark Meldrum - I believe the group that asks > 15 questions (58% of all questions asked) can also be attributed to as you rightly said - lazy question asking. I have seen in many of the videos wherein you have mentioned "Look one comment up/down". Would be interesting to know how much of these lazy question asking contributes to that 58%.
Very informative.
I did one mock on your website and it was by far the hardest for me. I scored 69% and I'm a bit worried. The topic repartition was a bit weird too. Lots of reading were not tested
I highly agree with explaining it to someone else, I have used it since undergrad, I would chose complex topics and explain them to my law student friends. They would get annoyed because everything in finance to them is jargon but I would do it anyway just to wind them up, in the process made me master those topics.
Hey, are you a law student yourself? And doing a CFA?
@@ArjunKapurr studied it not for long then I switched to financial Management and completed undergraduate degree with that. I found law not interesting for me.
Not going to lie Mark, but the 18min “reveal” made me wonder if I should still be on the CFA track at all, given how interesting and rewarding the pure data analytics portion of this video seemed to be
Too good Mark sir you have explained it so well.
Thanks for the insights! I am trying to complete roughly 50% of questions in each section to find my weak points, head back to the reading/videos etc and review those spots after which I plan to return to the Q bank to finish off the rest. Do you feel this is an effective strategy? I have already watched all the material videos, way back before the delays.
Yes. As long as your performance provides feedback on which you act. I think those that don't improve in score over time are probably not doing that and thinking more questions instead are what is needed.
@@MarkMeldrum thank you! I do plan to target specific sections that are weak by reading, taking notes, re watching or focusing on EOC depending on the section type.
😂😂 am i the only who laughed at the change of tone whrn Mark read the "stupid question"?
30:35 Please put an option to hide Blooms tags, I get distracted if I see it before doing the question, I like to see it after answering.
That’s an idea I think we can do.
It's really good that you collect and analyze data to improve your service, If you also consider giving your candidates a survey, I think you will get good amount of data from it as well, I personally would do an hour long survey for you Mr. Mark. If it helps.
I'm studying level II for the third time. I had the June 2020 exam canceled and the December exam cancel just 10 days to go. I've already made all MM QB, all mock exams, and all questions from the CFA books/platform. I really don't know what to do to be prepared for my may exam. What strategy do you suggest for me? Thanks for the wonderful work you've been doing.
Answer questions online - narrate the review pdfs and make your own review audio files.
Hi Dr. Probably I’m one of the subscribers for l3 that didn’t actually asked any questions.. haha!
Definitely targeting weak spots on first mock exam and try to bank on it is the way to go.
Can you please tell us what are your thoughts on the passing rate this December? For l2 I can see a 25% difference increase from 2019..
Well - there was some self-selection going on here. Candidates did have the ability to select a 2021 exam date even before they knew if there center was cancelled -so I am guessing that those less ready deferred. I would not read too much into those pass rates.
Out of curiosity, which pen tab do you use?
I asked in total 25 questions but always had 90%+ on Q banks so I don't know whether to feel bad or good! Haha
This man is a god.
Wow Sir, I loved the question tagging feature and post results analysis.
just curious, what is your style of learning Mark?
Hi Dr. Mark, I am a subscribed user of your platform and I study Reading Vid, EOCQ and 30 Q Banks per reading. Would you recommend an alternative approach this? Currently struggling with Derivatives and Alternative Investments.
Regarding your Q-Bank - can I draw conclusions about my readiness for the exam based on my average scores? I know these are not the exam questions, but just as a reference. I'm scoring between 75-80% steadily across all sections. Thank you.
The average score is still a good indicator - we are hoping to enhance that indicator with the different tags we are using.
It's a great video.
Following the distributed learning tip, is there something as: "Too much hours of studying per day"?
I understand that it's better if you take a break every 45 minutes to, kind of, recharge, but, is there something like a more effective number of sessions each day?
Thanks!
This all depends on the person. I can do 6-8 hours a day in 90-120 minutes sessions. But I have been a lifelong academic, so I am not representative.
I think we need to reconsider this theory for Level 2. Here's why... Each exam has 88 questions (44 AM and 44 PM) and Each exam has 9 sections. Lets use Corporate Finance as an example to explain my logic. Corporate Finance consists of the following chapters Capital budgeting, Capital Structure, Share repurchases, Corporate Governance, M&A. Lets say Mock exam #1 has 8 Questions total. Their could be 4 questions on Capital budgeting, and 4 on M&A. So you review the exam and touch up on those chapters/ subjects. You attempt mock exam #2 now. Only this time in the corporate finance section you face Capital structure and Share repurchases. With that being said, everything you learned in mock exam #1 has NOT translated into mock exam #2.... AT BEST you aren't going to get some overlap until mock exam #3 for these sections. I respectfully believe that you should be doing as many as possible.
What is the answer to 30:12 ? Is it A)? typically reits do well when economy is growing(inflation).
But during down turns why would companies utilise leverage and take risk?
Thanks, Professor Mark. What does it say about my learning that after I had completed my Level 1 I walked around decompressing, not looking at answers, that I immediately began to realize I had made mistakes on questions? Isn't this a test anxiety issue?
Well, did you pass?
@@MarkMeldrum Barely, and not to my satisfaction. Cheap mistakes is something that certainly will kill me going forward. (
Well then, I would not call it test anxiety, your suspicion about incorrect answers may have been right if you feel you were capable of much better.
I think the problem with bulimic questioning is that candidates have in mind that the challenge is to keep studying within the 300 hour limit. So, looking up the question makes them lose time. So, typing a question in the comments section is a time-saving process. As simple as that!
Possible. Still leaves the issue of explaining the lower pass rates. There is still a very good pass rate, it is just lower.
I am one of those candidates that ask many questions in your channel, but I bought your content after completing all topics (except for FI) so i want to ask the “significance lower pass rates” means on mocks or the actual exam?
Over the years it has meant actual pass rates. Keep in mind, statistics is about groups, not individuals.
Dr. Mark pls tell how to schedule test location, is there any deadline for it ?
Hi Mark. What are your thoughts on the liklihood of cancellation for CBT Level I in February (Downtown Toronto test centers)?
Its cancelled where?
@@jirensama1622 Edited: probability of it being cancelled.
What is cancelled is cancelled by Prometrix. CFAI will be sending out instructions on Feb 2 for all those that wish or need to move from Feb to May or later.
Hey, just a small suggestion regarding the classification of the type of questions.
It would be better if there was an option of choosing the type of questions we want to answer. Eg. I only want to attempt the analysis type questions, in that case if I could filter only those types and ignore the other ones, it would be helpful.
On e a level is completely tagged, that option will be available.
Hey dr Mark, i'm part of MM L1 of your services. I have a question, my plan for here to 24 Feb is doing daily CFAI and MM Qbank for like 5 hours daily + each day reviewing one topic with your pdf materials and doing 2 mocks, what is ur opinion of my plan. Thank you for doing our studying the most scientific posible.
What is more important us to use the feedback from those exercises to work on weak areas. Knowing where you are weak is valuable. Continually pushing forward with questions without interventions does not seem to be beneficial based on what our data suggest.
@@MarkMeldrum so, each day review the mistakes from my previous day's of exercises ?
what is Qbank? Does Qbank mean Practice questions in the CFA candidate resource page?
Hi Mark, I'm preparing CFA I and I'm wondering do you suggest us to do the Q-Bank questions for practice or the 2690 of practice questions from CFA Institute? Thanks for answering!
I would begin with what CFAI has to offer - you get that free anyways.
Mr. Mark , thank you for every thing , just I need your advice I worked as auditor at many banks in Libya so cfa good choice for me , is it easy for me to study . thanks
yes it is for sure, having a good financial statement understanding will help a lot
Can you please do a similar video since now you have more than one year of data.
Not too surprising that we see an overlap between the group asking many many questions and the group with a lower pass rate.
1. As you mentioned, most of the content that CFAI asks students to learn is found all over the internet so the ones asking the questions are the ones that don't want to do the heavy lifting searching it out or worse - don't know how to search it out.
2. I suspect that the groups taking the CFA exam can be those that are completely new to finance and those that are practitioners. The practitioners are not going to be asking to many simple questions, just a few good ones.
3. It could just be related to time. Many people can have the same questions, but after the first person asks and is answered, everyone benefits. Once all the complicated good questions have been asked by the people who started studying early and will likely pass, only googleable questions will be posted, mostly by those who are not likely to pass
I am not sure what the true reason is. I suspect it is what I said - without actually thinking it through, and just getting an answer, there is a vital piece of learning that goes missing. It fits with the data. But like any true academic will say - it requires more research.
Hey Mark, I took and failed Level 2 in December. If I upload my receipt do I get access to your content for Level 2 again or do I have to pay?
E-mail us through the site using Contact us.
Out of curiosity how do you know which candidates of your subscribers that pass/fail? Is it simply those who sign up for your content for the same level again vs those who sign up for your content for the next level?
For the most part yes - plus what gets posted to LinkedIn, plus e-mails we receive.
@@MarkMeldrum So wouldn't this be a case of selection bias? Many who fail might not be open about it.
Do you think there’s value in doing mocks from other providers i.e. Kaplan, CFAi? You’re the only provider that’s actually changed to the CBT exam format but have also highlighted some of the issues with your L1 Qbank (algorithm). Have also heard very poor reviews on CFAi’s mock on r/CFA. Interested in your thoughts
The L1 mock exam algorithm has been fixed. I am on the fence about mock exams really. Many are written by people that are not trained in assessment. It is not just a matter of writing questions - they have to be written with a specific goal in mind. And they have to be correct, and clearly explain why the answer is what it is and why the other two are not. That is not as easy as most people think. I am not sure that the mock exams in this industry actually are a fair representation of the knowledge you have. Ours were written by a combination of two writers, one Ok and the other not good. Unfortunately I have not had the time to re-write them as I have been doing this at L3 and L2 first. This is why we won't sell out L1 mock exams separately - I know they are not of the level of quality I would expect to see.
@@MarkMeldrum Really appreciate the response and honesty here. Based on the quality of Qs for L1 as it is today, do you feel the questions will provide a suitable indication of overall preparedness? I think most agree your questions for L2 & 3 do but L1 is entirely different since they aren’t coming from you.
Well, even if they are of average quality, it is still a question with an answer. If you know the content, you should be able to answer the questions.
Guys, how many hours does Mark's preparation takes in total? Is it the same 300 hours or less? I am looking for means to reduce this figure as I don't have a time.
I feel the mocks are repeated, I see many questions in the second mock; is there a way to expand the parameters to add more questions
Thanks
Level 1 does need work - the algorithm is not working properly, and the questions were not written by me. That is one reason we would not sell Level1 exams separately. I am redoing most of the q-bank for L1 myself along with the mock exams over the next 6-8 months.
@@MarkMeldrum Thanks Mark. Questions are definitely being repeated among the mocks for CFAI. I don't know how this may be biasing the analysis you're presenting here.
At what % do mocks seem to lose their effectiveness?
Thanks Mark! I just wanted to ask you "what to do when you are done with sufficient amount of questions? What is the best revision style that you would recommend?"
Answer questions online - narrate the review pdfs and make your own review audio files.
Hello Mark. It's great analysis. I have a question. Would it be possible to get some distribution from your end based on scores in your q bank or mock exams and pass/not pass result on CFA exam? Like: qbank scores from 40-50% - had 83% not pass and 17% pass on real exam, 50-60% - had 64% not pass and 36% pass and so on. Also, how information on pass/not pass on real exam was obtained?
Well, I am not sure how useful it would be. We have an almost 94% pass rate overall. Within that 94% are quite a few patterns. Within the 6% are just a few patterns. So while we can’t identify what a successful pattern looks like, we can most definitely identify an unsuccessful one.
@@MarkMeldrum thank you for your prompt answer! Did I understand correctly from your reply that 94% of your subscribers on MM website passed the exam?
Yes. We have a very high matriculation rate. We have gone from 0 to over 31,000 subscribers in 6 years, all without advertising. You don’t get that unless users are talking.
Thats outstading numbers! Thank you once again for your hard work and teaching style.
Hey Mark, Do you have any input or thoughts on the recent Level 2 pass rates? It has gone up to 55% from 42% in the previous years.
Has it, hehe?
I also like to answer why the other two questions are wrong when doing practice questions or EOC. Do you think it's a good strategy, or I am wasting my time doing this?
Yes, that is just as valuable.
@@MarkMeldrum Thanks
Sir, Im having my level 1 exam on March 23, So far Im done with first read of 7 topics, and need to have another read before heading to review and mock phase....Should I change my strategy or stay with this....
P.S. I'm doing my MBA along with CFA.
And thanks for your planner on your website sir.
You still have 3 topics to go - I would not change mid-stream - if what you are doing has worked for you - keep at it.
@@MarkMeldrum Hope it works Sir, Will give my first mock after completing all topics initial read by Feb 1st week
Sir, where do i find mocks on your page? I am not able to find them :(
Left menu - mock exams - they will be live March 15 for the May exam. For level 1 scheduled for Feb, they have been live since Dec 15.
Dr. Meldrum,
Since the cut off seems to be less than 15 questions before it becomes ineffective and a waste of your time, why not letting people ask only a certain amount of questions per package purchased? And if someone really needs to ask an extra 50 questions they can buy a "questions package". That way students would only ask relevant questions or would have to pay extra.
I didn't say it was a waste of my time, I said it did not appear to be effective. However, I don't think that a limit is an effective solution. The new comment feature we are rolling out shorty allows any user to ask as many questions as they want but with notifications to me being slowed down. So the first 20 questions i will get notifications right away, then they will be delayed with increasing delay for each one after that. It is my hope that during the delay the user will have solved the problem or thought it through. So if you are on question 51, I would not get the notification for 96 hours. That gives the user 4 days to try to think it through. After all, if someone is at that point, I have already answered 50 questions.
hi sir, my exam is on feb 25 and i have just started with question banks and will approach mocks after that, do you suggest that i should defer my exam or not? I am kinda lost with the option coming up so it would be of great help. if you suggest something.
This is nowhere near enough information. You should do what you feel is best for you.
@@MarkMeldrum sir on my kaplan qbank, overal average of 3 subjects is coming out to be 53%, i feel its pretty low! (Ethics, potfolio mgt. and alternative investment.)
What do you feel you should do?
@@MarkMeldrum defer. But there's this 'but' in my mind.
Dear professor, do you think an academician should pursue CFA?
Sure - its gives you a practical foot.
@@MarkMeldrum Thank you prof., I failed miserably, 🥺 I've focused more on contents but put less weight on EOCs and Mock exams. Most of sections were at 50% range except Quant & Eco. I should have studied text books thoroughly... :(
Hello Dr. Mark
Its 2nd feb i haven't recieved any mails from CFAI regarding level 1 FEB 2021 defferal
you should have received it by now, if not send an email to the institute
@@financewithmike8512 yes i did thanks
this is why ill only be asking a maximum of 15 questions 😎
Hi Prof. I really hope you see this. Do you have videos for learning objectives A- i uploaded from this reading "BASICS OF DERIVATIVE PRICING AND VALUATION" ?
Thanks.
CFA is easy whereas soa is the more challenging one...
Anyone using anki flash cards?
Sir, could you please suggest revision strategy for last 20 days ?
I'm yet to finish FIS and do a good revision of a few other topics. Currently I'm focusing on finishing the question bank.
Should I focus on the question bank or switch to giving mocks ?
My final review will be: watch marks review videos on each reading (except economics and ethics) and then do eocq, and final a re read on ethics.
@@sebastianmoreno7637 why economics no pls? You have any other suggestions for it pls?
Hi Mr. Mark, try to get in touch via web/email for 4 days but unfortunately no reply.
Www.markmeldrum.com, then use Contact Us
Rather than review every question, Why not just vlookup your tagged LOSes (or their keywords) against Bloom’s T?
That would not work very well. An assessment has to be made of each question.
yellow tie and a blue shirt.. You should pay higher taxes