CFA mock exam aims to provide an overview as close as possible to the real CFA exam, even though the CFA mock exam would be slightly different. Furthermore, the CFA mock exams are actually designed to assess your mastery of everything when you sit for the real CFA exam.
If you have a plan to take the CFA Level II exam, it would be better for you to take the CFA mock exam Level II first. Beforehand, you may wonder what the differences are between mock exam vs real exam and what the similarities are between both. Of course, you can dive into our post to find out real information about it. Check it out!
CFA Mock Exam Vs CFA Real Exam Level II, Which Are the Differences?
Keep in mind, CFA mock exams are not a substitute for practice questions or tests, otherwise, practice tests and questions are not a substitute for mock exams. Well, each has its own purpose and uniquely prescribed usage.
Basically, CFA mock exams are designed to value your mastery of everything related to the CFA’s tests that you will be expected to know and do as you sit for the real CFA exam. In fact, almost all CFA exam review providers integrate practice questions and tests into their curriculum.
For example, Kaplan Schweser provides the SchweserPro QBank® as question practice. Their study packages cover practice exams which imitate the types of order of questions on the exam. Well, those tools are meant to be used throughout your presentation to make sure that you have an understanding of what you have already studied and are ready to move to the next topic.
Additionally, their CFA mock exam also offers a ‘Sim Mode’ that simulates the format, interface, difficulty and length of the actual CFA exam from Prometric. This mode is set using the same time limits and built-in breaks of the CFA exam which serve as guidelines, so you will be able to replicate exam day as closely as possible.
However, after the timer hits zero, they do not need to stop the exam. They can really continue to complete the mock exam including skipping, flagging, and filtering questions just like they do at the official testing center.
CFA Mock Exam Vs CFA Real Exam Level II, Which One Is Harder?
According to people’s experience who have taken both CFA mock exam and real exam Level II, it’s found that the CFA mock exam is harder than CFA real exam. We found what people said about the comparison between CFA mock exam and real exam Level II on some forums.
Those who have taken both the mock exam and real exam revealed that they earned a higher score of CFA real exam Level II than CFA mock exam Level II. Some people even said that the CFA mock exam seemed to throw a decent amount of questions at them that were a bit obscure. However, the exam questions were a lot more on the nose and the material which was front and center in the readings.
Well, the CFA mock exams are meant to have similar difficulty, but most readers agree that CFA mock exam Level II at least is harder than the CFA real exam. If the CFA mock exam is harder than the real exam, of course, you don’t lose your hope, since it can be expected that you can pass the CFA real exam Level II. Hopefully!
What Does the CFA Level II Exam Look Like?
According to the 2016 CFA Institute Exam Preparation Survey, Level II candidates on average studied around 315 hours to prepare for the test and exam. Then, most of them utilize third-party preparation material that includes level II CFA questions banks and/or mock exams that are offered by different prep providers.
It is known that the hardest chapters were Derivatives, Fixed Income and Alternative Investments. The good thing here is that the chapters are actually the same as in the Level I exam. However, the weights of those chapters in the Level II exam are extremely different.
The equity valuation is currently the most tested chapter, while Economics, Quantitative Methods, Alternative Investments and Portfolio Management each represent only 5-10% of the test.
- Structure
The CFA Level II exam consists of 22 item sets that are composed of vignettes with 88 accompanying multiple-choice questions.
- Duration
The CFA Level II exam lasts for 4 hours and 24 minutes split into two equal sessions of 2 hours and 12 minutes, with an optional break in-between.
During the normal course of the exam, you may find that they really need assistance from proctors. In this case, proctors will come to workstations as quickly as possible to help. If possible, CFA Institute will encourage candidates to continue working on their exam until a proctor has helped.
- Weight
The Portfolio Management weight range is the most recent change to CFA Level II weights that increases from 5-10% to 10-15%. This change simply means that all topic areas have the possibility to be tested equally at Level II.
It is known that the CFA level II exam curriculum remains the same that you can check on the official website. In this case, the CFA level II exam 2022 will cover the following 10 areas. Of course, the candidates need to go through the following topics and study accordingly.
Here’s a list of CFA Level II exam weights:
| 2022 Topic Areas (%) | Level II |
| Quantitative Methods | 5-10% |
| Economics | 5-10% |
| Financial Statement Analysis | 10-15% |
| Corporate Issuers | 5-10% |
| Equity Investments | 10-15% |
| Fixed Income | 10-15% |
| Derivatives | 5-10% |
| Alternative Investments | 5-10% |
| Portfolio Management & Wealth Planning | 10-15% |
| Ethical & Professional Standards | 10-15% |
- Question Format
The CFA Level II exam is standardized with 11 item sets for each session, for a total of 22 on the exam, 20 are scored and 2 are questions that they are trialling which will not be scored.
The multiple-choice questions in each item set should be answered based on the information in the vignette. Therefore, the items are not free-standing, as in the CFA Level I exam. Need to know, the CFA Program Curriculum topic areas for Level II will be placed on the exam randomly.
