Today I finished reviewing Reading 2 and I got my first taste of the types of questions I will face in the exam.
The level 2 exam consists of two 3 hour sessions (like level 1). Each session is made up of 10 item sets. An item set has ‘vignettes,’ which are mini-cases around 1 1/2 pages long. Each vignette is followed by 6 multiple-choice questions, which the information required for the answers are found in the vignette. This gives a total of 60 questions for each 3 hour session. It is easy to see that you should spend around 18 minutes on each vignette.
The questions for Reading 2, level 2 did not seem any more difficult than the questions for it on level 1. I got an average of 71% for the 4 vignettes (4/6, 5/6, 4/6 & 4/6). The first vignette took me about 20 minutes to complete, but the rest only took around 10 minutes each.
It is worth thinking about a strategy to tackle the item-sets. Do you read the vignette first and then read and answer the questions? Or do you read the questions first, and then go back and read the vignette and answer the questions? For these mini-cases, I read the vignette first and then answered the questions. It may be worth looking at the questions first though so you know what you are looking for. What do you think?
117 days until the level 2 exam.
2 comments:
I can't say what's best for you but I'll tell you what I usually do. I read the vignette first with a focus on the concept. If the vignette says "John Doe is an analyst for ABC company. The financial data for ABC is listed below..." I don't even look at the numbers. They will provide an entire balance sheet and income statement for 3 questions. I read the vignette trying to get the general concept and when possible figure out what they are going to ask. Most vignettes will have 3 statements made by a boss or coworker and you must know which are true or false and usually why. Without focusing on the numbers at first you should be able to read the entire thing in under 2 minutes. Then I look at the questions for the low hanging fruit. I like calculations on equity analysis so I go straight to those. On econ, I prefer conceptual questions so I do those first. For me the timing isn't really a big problem as long as I don't get bogged down on one question for too long. If you spend 6 minutes on a question then you are probably not answering using the method they want.
Thanks Ali. That's a good way of doing it. I really like the idea of ignoring the numbers until after you've gone through the vignette and need to look at the numbers to answer a question..
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