Our Level I Platform
1. More Than a QBank
We attribute our success to a singular focus on quality during a diligent content development process. Unlike standard ‘question banks’ (QBanks), we offer a comprehensive learning platform that provides students with everything you need to pass the CFA exams the first time — nothing more, nothing less. Our CFA QBank is built from the ground up by a dedicated team of full-time content developers, many of whom are CFA charterholders.
Each QBank has undergone a meticulous review process to ensure that the content goes beyond the basic concepts, covering every concept in its associated exam content blueprint. Every single question goes through extensive vetting before it can be approved for inclusion in the QBank. Plus, we continuously gather user feedback to improve and update our QBank so the concepts tested remain accurate and relevant year over year.
Content Blueprint
Each Learning Outcome Statement (LOS) is broken down into modular concepts. Roadmap developed to ensure all elements covered.
Peer Review Process
Questions are reviewed multiple times, first individually, then as a team, finally by Dr. Pemmasani
Copywriting & Illustration
Questions and answer explanations are professionally copyedited with illustrations
Final Edit & Review
Final author review and UI/UX design considerations
Candidate Feedback
Feedback is continuously incorporated into question development
2. Customizable Tests
At UWorld, we recognize the importance of taking mock exams best to prepare you for the exam day. So, we let you take as many as you want to make you for exam day best. It’s not just about knowing the content; it’s also about being conditioned to take it. Like an athlete preparing for a marathon, you have to learn to make yourself for your race day. Our advice for preparing is to focus on taking online practice assessments, over and over and over again. You have to grow accustomed to the design of the exam.
As you move forward with your studying, online tests allow you to focus on your weaker subject areas because tracking your progress is a great way to identify which study strategies work for you and which you should abandon. With each practice test you complete, you’ll get more data points and gain more subject matter expertise. With UWorld, you can either pick the questions for you or select from the topics you need the most focus on. Finally, when you get close to the exam date, set aside a few days to directly simulate the actual exam per the number of questions and the allotted time. This exercise will gauge your test-taking stamina and time management skills for getting through all the questions. The platform puts practice front-and-center. Once you’re signed in, you’re brought directly to the ‘Create Test’ page to start practicing.
Creating a test is quite straightforward – you have a choice of ‘Tutor’ mode, which walks you through the explanations and theory as you go through each question, or ‘Timed,’ which more resembles a timed CFA test. You can also choose the question difficulty you’d like to include in your test, the topic areas you want to test, and the number of questions in your analysis. The question difficulties came in three categories: Fundamental, Advanced, and Challenging. Fundamental questions most closely reflect the exam-level of complexity, whereas Advanced and Challenging (about 13% of the total available items) go beyond exam-level difficulty.
You can also filter by topic area and set the number of questions for your test – perhaps topic-by-topic when you’re learning the curriculum, then mix-and-match when you want to get exam-ready. Our platform shows a total of 1,300+ questions, which is already a pretty good number and equivalent to more than six Level 1 exams. Furthermore, we intend to double the number of questions by the end of 2020. There might be other providers out there that may offer more questions, but, as far as we are concerned, it’s quality, not quantity that makes our platform useful.
Other features include:
- Shows how others answered. Upon checking your answer, we also reveal the percentage of other users that chose each answer option – a nice touch that gives you an idea of how challenging or confusing the question was.
- Cross out answer options. Clicking on the answer text crosses them out, which is handy when you’re thinking about the question and eliminating one answer option.
- Notes. You can write and assign notes to each question as you go along. All your notes will then be accessible for review from the dashboard.
- Flashcards. Just like notes, you can create flashcards as you go along. You can also one-click text or even formulae from answer explanations to your flashcards, which is a nifty feature to have. All flashcards are also accessible for review and practice from the dashboard.
3. In-Depth Explanations
Being at the forefront of education gives us an obligation to provide students with only the best practice questions and explanations. Our goal is not only to prepare you for the CFA exam but to help you become a better finance professional. At UWorld, we are renowned for our unparalleled explanations of both correct and incorrect answer choices. Students often describe these detailed explanations as a primary reason for their success on the exams because they help them understand the why behind each question. Knowing the right answer is imperative, but there is also value in knowing what corresponding answers are incorrect because oftentimes, the concepts are closely related.
See below for an example of a question and answer with detailed explanations.
4. Vivid Illustrations
In addition to our top-quality, in-depth explanations, our QBank also features vivid illustrations. These are practical, professionally-produced images, graphs, charts, tables, and other visuals designed to help students master the concepts. Our illustrations are straightforward and highly intuitive, adding value to students who prefer a more visual learning style.
5. Performance Trackers
The ‘Reports’ section shows you four main reports, which are sensible, to-the-point, and critical to informing and improving your exam performance:
- Answer summary. A split of your correct, incorrect, and omitted answers so far.
- Answer changes. This shows you the number of times you changed your solution, and whether it helped your test score. Studies generally show that when you change your answer, your chance of getting it correct goes up – but with this report, you’ll know your real opportunities based on your performance.
- Average spent time on each question. Managing a good time per question is crucial to passing the CFA exams. Knowing how fast (or slow) you’ve been in your practice tests is an excellent way to find out if you need to improve on answering speed.
- Performance by topic. Crucial to understanding what you need to focus on to improve your score.
The ‘Performance Graphs’ section shows you two graphs – performance by tests taken, and performance by date. In each graph, there are three metrics:
- Your Score: Your scores for your tests taken so far.
- Cumulative Score: This seems to be a calculated average score based on your test scores, which will hopefully trend towards 70% and above by exam day.
- Average Score: The equivalent average test scores taken from other UWorld candidates’ performance.
5. Digital Flashcards
Flashcards really work! And they are even easier to use when digital! Flashcards can be one of the most versatile and effective ways for students to study and retain knowledge for the CFA content. And not just for simple facts, but complex concepts and formulas too. Flashcards engage active recall, improve information retention, create repetition, and are quick and easy to produce on our platform. All you need to do is highlight the information you want to capture and select the flashcard feature.
6. Calculator Keystrokes
As a finance professional, your calculator becomes one of your most-used tools of the trade. In mastering the CFA exam, you have approximately 90 seconds to answer each question. Whether it’s simple interest, compound interest, cash flow, amortization, or conversions, you need to know how to get the correct answer as efficiently as possible from this trusted partner. For all of our questions that would require a calculator, we show you the correct calculator keystrokes for both approved calculators. That way, you are able to quickly grasp the concept and muscle memory to get to the correct answer.
CFA Institute does not endorse, promote, or warrant the accuracy or quality of the products or services offered by UWorld Finance. CFA® and Chartered Financial Analyst® are registered trademarks owned by CFA Institute.