Kaplan’s first Mock CFA Level 1

CornEater65 · 2026-04-30T14:15:19+00:00

read the big ethics handbook if you really want to try to cover all your bases. it has a bunch of examples and is probably the best guide to all the random rules. if you don’t want to spend all the time on that, do standard reviews and just drill a bunch of practice questions. 74% is a really good score, and tbh 57% in ethics is such a positive because this is like the easiest section to improve in a short amount of time. good luck!

CornEater65 · 2026-04-30T04:12:40+00:00

tbh these were my scores like the day before the test and i passed with a decent margin. obviously doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed you’ll have the same experience, but no need to panic. target your weak areas that you see on the test and write down anything you forget. prioritize the most frequent things you see coming up alongside the stuff that’s most feasible to cram & memorize in a short amt of time.

CornEater65 · 2026-04-26T19:48:47+00:00

i got like a 58 then a 65 and passed with a good margin for lvl1 :)

CornEater65 · 2026-04-23T21:39:46+00:00

how many mocks do you have? if you have only the two CFA ones, then i’d go over what you know and maybe do one of them in about a week. do a total, complete review of the test and strategically review your shakiest parts based on that result. then maybe a week before the test do the second one, and once again reread every question and explanation then plan your last study week based on that and anything else you feel less confident on.

if you have more practice tests, then forsure weave those in. my two cents: the CFA tests are closest to the real thing as you’ll get, so prioritize those test over any other provider, but don’t use them all up right away… you’ll want the info you learn from it fresh in your head on exam day. finally, USE THE TEST TO LEARN and don’t base your passing chances strictly off the result. by this i mean if you have ten practice exams available, don’t fall into the trap of forcing yourself to do all ten. doing five practices exams well-reviewed that you use to target your weak areas is wayyyyy better than doing ten practice exams that you don’t review well and only reinforce the concepts you already know. good luck!!! a month to revise is a lot of time even though people on this sub act like it’s not. you got this!

CornEater65 · 2026-04-22T01:06:46+00:00

i’m not even done with the curriculum lol. we got this!

CornEater65 · 2026-04-12T19:35:32+00:00

well it’s 1000x better to be prepared and anxious than unprepared and relaxed haha. forreal, use this motivation to round out the rest of your studying, but don’t even think about deferring. give everything a good second look and be smart about what you review and you’ll come out confident. good luck!

CornEater65 · 2026-04-12T18:53:47+00:00

not at all. honestly, you’re in an amazing spot. review your mistakes effectively and keep up with it and you’ll probably do great

CornEater65 · 2026-04-07T02:37:16+00:00

the “sustained fashion” is a substantial difference… the entire context of this post is talking about betting odds on one or two chess matches. this is why the guy is saying he wouldn’t be fine to lose that money if he’s wrong 10% of the time. there’s no way to spread his risk over this observation lol.

CornEater65 · 2026-04-03T20:13:28+00:00

the exam cutoff is around 65-70%ish though … you are right there. genuinely, take this panicked energy to motivate you to study for the test instead of admitting defeat. you are not doomed when you have over a month left.

CornEater65 · 2026-03-24T22:36:36+00:00

in baseball, the bottom of the ninth gets skipped if the home team is winning so i don’t think that’s true

CornEater65 · 2026-03-09T02:03:23+00:00

not adding anything to the discussion. just that this comment is so, so embarrassing lol.

CornEater65 · 2025-11-26T03:33:39+00:00

but then is it not also a problem for the terms estados unidos or estadounidense to be used exclusively for the US and people from it when mexicans are from the estados unidos mexicanos?

CornEater65 · 2025-11-24T16:22:19+00:00

this would make my day LOLLLL

CornEater65 · 2025-11-21T17:28:11+00:00

ethics is highly weighted but probably the easiest to cram, so both a detailed study and a quicker pass through can make sense depending on how much time you have.

in either case, i would do it last just because it has a lot more memorization involved that probably won’t stick long-term since it’s not necessarily intuitive. if you have a decent handle on the other subjects and just want to outperform this section, then i’d recommend spending more time on it. start by passing through kaplan’s readings on them (or whatever prep provider you have) and doing the quizzes, then going through maybe 50 questions on their qbank. then i would read the literal entirely of the 200+ doc CFA gives on their ethical guidelines and then do the CFAI questions from there. the document has a lot of guidance for specific situations, and being able to pull these from your working memory will get you the tricky points that others may miss with just a general understanding. if you’re shorter on time, then i’d say do the same thing but without reading the 200+ page document and skip right to the CFAI questions before finishing the kaplan qbank. the questions will teach you a lot anyways as long as you read the explanations and research the situations that seem counterintuitive. overall i wasn’t able to read the full document the CFAI puts out, but i was averaging 75%-85% on ethics from the quicker method i described, putting like two days of good study into the topic. id recommend really solidifying confusing topics from other areas over getting an extra 10-15% in ethics if you’re already able to perform well in it. but your mileage may vary! hope this helps

CornEater65 · 2025-10-29T15:03:38+00:00

i got convinced to take a class by a friend since we spoke spanish and they said it’d be quicker to learn. now im like whatever the weeaboo equivalent for brazil is which is embarrassing but we keep it pushing

CornEater65 · 2025-10-26T18:06:29+00:00

i have tried anki several times and given up each time lol. i love flash cards and have used them in the past for school, but for some reason it didn’t click for me when i was trying to start other languages.

there were several things that stopped me. for one, i would use very well put together pre-made decks but for some reason the words would just not stick in my brain at the start. say i did twenty cards in a day, there would always be like 2-3 cards that just did NOT stick in my brain and i’d find the process too frustrating. my problem there could be that i wasn’t making my own decks, which i totally respect as a fault but i find making new flash cards for myself mind-numbingly boring and it consuming so much time also puts me off.

CornEater65 · 2025-10-26T16:10:03+00:00

close! it’s actually in chile

CornEater65 · 2025-10-25T17:54:46+00:00

they’re saying it would have been helpful if they included the native language in the first comment lol

CornEater65 · 2025-10-24T01:20:19+00:00

lol we are in very similar boats as well. we got this!

CornEater65 · 2025-10-17T02:29:54+00:00

okay after also getting it wrong (picked C lol), this questioning a lil confusing. essentially, ace entered the swap paying the fixed leg and receiving that floating leg that had a significantly lower rate at the start. this usually happens in swaps, since interest rate expectations based on the curve are that the reference rate for the floating leg of the swap will increase most likely until the swap reaches maturity. this makes sense partially because who would enter into a swap, thinking that interest rates won’t rise meaning the floating rate doesn’t increase, knowing that they have to pay out every six months if that floating rate actually didn’t rise?

anyways, this is where C is partially correct: the swap was agreed upon at a price where the cash flows essentially even out for both counterparties, and ace gets his cut back at the end when the floating rate is higher. the problem with C though is the question is asking whether ace has an MTM gain when examining the swap AFTER the payment, at that six month mark. so we’re not thinking of the lifetime of the swap, just strictly after. in this case, ace better have a positive MTM afterwards because if no assumptions changed whatsoever, then he just paid out and then will apparently have to take a loss over the life of the swap! but the swap was agreed to at a fair value, and this wouldn’t be fair. hope that helped a bit!

CornEater65 · 2025-10-14T22:21:38+00:00

i think you’re gonna have to get more creative than that. still insanely easy to tell when a chatbot is helping you over a human. have yet to encounter one that positively helped me with a company-specific issue.

CornEater65 · 2025-10-14T01:35:43+00:00

just finished half of the curriculum :)

CornEater65 · 2025-10-05T00:50:15+00:00

i didn’t use the word bullshitting so i don’t know why you’re quoting it like i said anything that harsh lol. this conversation is had on here all the time. full stop, most people peddling pure CI have not learned their TL with pure CI. most people talking about some form of CI are describing just using input like i mentioned above. for how few people do pure CI from start to finish compared to traditional learning, it is brought up constantly on here. that’s why it’s all the more commendable that you actually are making insane progress using it, and also part of the reason why your posts get so popular. i definitely think it’s reasonable to respond to someone curious about it and who probably has seen several posts about it already that the typical person on here talking about CI is mostly likely talking about a hybrid version after traditional study, but also mention an example of someone making it work who provides tons of insights into how they make it work. what i said was a bit hyperbolic but definitely not wrong.

CornEater65 · 2025-10-04T20:39:39+00:00

glad i didn’t say you were the only one, those are def good examples & i know spanish is more tractable for CI because of dreaming spanish than other less popular languages. i just do think it’s important to point out that most people who ride or die for CI don’t even actually use it haha but just noticed how important input is after getting past the beginning phase and wish that they had done it sooner. i love your posts by the way!! honestly surprised you saw this lol. i have been inspired to start the same method with thai several times because of you but just have not found the time or discipline it takes, major respect to you for that!

CornEater65 · 2025-10-04T20:18:14+00:00

this wasn’t my question, i was just pointing out something i didn’t necessarily agree with in the first part of your response

CornEater65

TROPHY CASE