Got 3 full days left of studying for 79. Still getting consistent 60-65% on knopman 85 Q’s quizzes. Read book & watched videos. 600 questions total done. About halfway through my first read of the key concepts.
Getting a bit anxious, any and all advice is appreciated, thanks in advance
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I have taken it twice and just passed a few days ago. My first go around I did nothing but practice exams for a few days, the 85Q, because that’s what people told me to do (?). I got a 67 on the exam and was fairly unprepared as I’m a few years removed from college and working in strictly M&A. All the capital markets stuff was very foreign to me.
My second go around, I read the book in 2 days and would take 4-5 20 question practice exams after every chapter. Switching from the 85 to 20 helped give more concerted, focused efforts as I found myself getting tired from the high volume of questions. I retained more as well.
I think if you’re scoring in the 60s on 85Q you have a decent chance of passing, but if you feel yourself just running through it like I did, maybe switch it up. I also found drilling into the “knopsman notes” really helped a lot. You’re doing everything you should be doing but I’d let your deal team know that you’re gonna grind this week on it and you should be good.
Never got above 70% on knopman with high variance in between full practice tests. If you get to 850 questions you are prepared as best you can. Don't burn the midnight oil before your exam trying to be 73 on knopman as sleep deprivation / anxiety is sure to kill your performance. Class summaries in the back are helpful especially for quick scanning
Thank you🙌🏼
Key concepts is gonna grab you an extra 5 or so questions on the real exam, so I’d definitely get through that 2-3x if you can
Alright then i’ll hit that next, I’m at 850 questions done now
I found that showing explanations to answers as you go helps. Taking a blank notebook and writing everything down helps solidify the content.
I also struggled through Knopman and didn't finally catch my footing until 2 days before the exam. The real exam was quite harder than Knopman but I still passed (or it felt that way because of how different the question style is compared to Knopman). Since you read the textbook, I think you will be okay because you have more context behind what you're studying instead of going off of Knopman's condensed slides and videos.
My advice for your last days of prep is to understand why your answers are right because on the real exam there will be tempting wrong answers. On the practice exams, there are fewer tricky questions so you can get by easily eliminating wrong answer choices. On my exam I didnt think that was the case for me.
Knopman tests are harder than actual. Your instructor will likely also give you a condensed list of "must knows" a day or two before you test -- I would definitely make sure to know these (maybe it's the key concepts you're referring to). In any case, the pass rate on that exam is consistently like 80%+ if I remember correctly (and even better for Knopman students), so I wouldn't stress too hard, and even if you do fail, your firm will let you test again in a few months. You just have to deal with your fellow analysts' jokes for a bit.
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