To close to tell. It's going to be a borderline pass/fail. It was a stretch to take Level 1 in December in the first place. I just landed a new job a few weeks after I decided to schedule it. It's a relatively demanding job with increasing responsibilities. I had roughly 2 1/2 months of study time and the last week before the test I must have clocked about 40 hours of study time (3 hours of sleep each night).
I got to the test center, didn't bother reviewing. The turnout was huge, hundreds of people. All freaking out getting in their last minute review in. I pretty came in with the attitude that I did what I could with all the time I allotted. I was very relaxed during the test, took multiple bathroom breaks. The test itself is broken out into 2 sessions. A morning and afternoon session with about a hour break in between. The morning session went well, I nailed the accounting portion of course. Afternoon session was a little tough. It just came down to whether I knew the material or not. If I didn't know I just blindly guessed. There was definitely sufficient time.
In comparison to the CPA, I'd say definitely harder since there is a lot more information. The material itself is about the same, maybe a little more difficult since I haven't had much exposure to fixed income. I would say, think about it as taking 3 parts of the CPA all in 1 sitting. I can only hope for the best. I'm getting a little tired cramming 4 months straight for the CPA/CFA. Just scheduled GMAT in February. |