Have questions about the Level II CFA exam? With just 10 days until the exam, Nathan Ronen of Chalk & Board will be answering your questions on AnalystForum throughout the day. Be sure to stop by to see what other Level II candidates are asking and to ask your own questions.
If you’ve never taken the Level II CFA exam or if you’ve been struggling to complete the second level of the CFA exam, Nathan is an expert on the Level II CFA exam curriculum with over 20 years experience in teaching the Level II curriculum. Join Nathan this Wednesday, June 5th.
Hi. In these last few days you should be doing the following as a Level II candidate: 1) reviewing any notes, flashcards, notecards you have made to jog your memory on concepts and/or formuale; 2) re-reading and reviewing Ethics especially the Standards of Professional Conduct in the CFA Curriculum books; 3) doing a mock exam and reviewing it – maybe 2 more before the exam depending on how many you have taken to date. Don’t overdo the mocks. Quality over quantity is key.
Gaming the CFA exam is something one should never do because there is no guarantee that any concept, topic or formulae will be on the exam – for example the exam could possibly have no pensions question in any one year or no foreign currency questions in another year. You need to study all the material evenly with the understanding that there is only 120 randomly drawn question and anything can be asked. If you ask me my 5 personal picks (but again no guarantee any of them will be asked as I have not seen the 2019 exam), I would make sure to know very well: 1) intercorporate investments 2) pensions; 3) free cash flows in the equity section; 4) standards of professional conduct; and 5) the use of swaps in a portfolio (valuing them too).
Gaming the CFA exam is something one should never do because there is no guarantee that any concept, topic or formulae will be on the exam – for example the exam could possibly have no pensions question in any one year or no foreign currency questions in another year. You need to study all the material evenly with the understanding that there is only 120 randomly drawn question and anything can be asked. If you ask me my 5 personal picks (but again no guarantee any of them will be asked as I have not seen the 2019 exam), I would make sure to know very well: 1) intercorporate investments 2) pensions; 3) free cash flows in the equity section; 4) standards of professional conduct; and 5) the use of swaps in a portfolio (valuing them too).
As the real/actual CFA Level II exam is not released to the public any response would be a guess. Every candidate finds difficulty on a different section of the exam based on their strengths, familiarity and knowledge. You may find FRA easy another candidate may find it an anathema. One candidate may find valuing swaps easy another candidate may not. Over the years I have heard many level II candidates say that they found my advice of doing multiple mock exams (especially my item set mock exam), EOC questions and the blue box examples in the CFA curriculum readings very helpful in their preparation to pass the exam.
I would like to have your opinion regarding low mock scores. I have done 4 full mocks so far and I am scoring between 48 pct and 64pct .I did all the EOC , 50pct of TT’s ,many blue boxes …overall I feel that I am learning more and more from my mistakes .but compared to level 1 my scores are so low…it makes me feel bad as I am studying since November . I am also feeling overwhelmed by all the critical concepts of this level.
Do you know candidates in this situation who still passed ?
Hello, first of all it is unwise to compare Level I to Level II (and even to Level III) because they have different structures, formats and focus. It’s comparing apples to oranges. Don’t do that. Level II requires you to apply concepts you learned in the Level II curriculum (and to a limited extent concepts at Level I) to specific case scenarios. Every case is different and that’s what makes creating an item set exam so time consuming and difficult. This is very different from the 240 random multiple choice questions you had at Level I. So, let’s focus on passing Level II and not compare it to Level I. Doing EOC questions, blue boxes, reading the CFA curriculum books is what is expected of any candidate preparing for the exam. You’re meeting expectations on that front. At this point I’d ratchet up the number of mock exams and make sure you’re not doing them from one or two sources only (they’re not writing the real exam for you). Doing my Chalk and Board mock exam can be very helpful in getting you to master the critical concepts in the Level II program; it does not test minutaie or focus on “gottcha” type questions. It is a very realistic mock exam and will enhance your knowledge and confidence and show you where you still need to focus. I would like to see you scoring more in the 60-65% range at this point; but you have not done enough mock exams to get there.
Being overwhelmed is a common feeling. However, maintaining your calm and confidence is more crucial so you can focus and have a laser type approach on exam day. I don’t think you’d find many candidates honestly say, “No worries, I got Level II all covered.” Quantity of study is not as important as quality. I hope you focused on the CFA curriculum readings as your main source of study and used prep materials to reinforce not replace the readings. I’ve seen it all – candidates who started in July or August and still failed but other candidates that passed. I’ve seen people start in February and passed and others fail. Starting in November does not guarantee you a pass. Again, quality of study not quantity.
My advice: keep doing mocks and see if your scores improve. If not email me offline and I’ll try to give you my assessment.
Thank you very much for your time and precious advice. I really appreciate. Indeed, I plan to do 4 more full mocks in the 10 upcoming days. Yes, I used different providers for my mocks included of course CFA mocks provided on the website.
So I’ve just finished the CFA portal - TT’s I think they’re referred to, and the mocks - averaged 64%. I’m thinking about just resetting the mocks/weak area Qs and hitting it up again. Rinse repeat. Sound like a sensible approach in the 10 day count down? (Bearing in mind I have booked 3x days off work and got the weekend).
Hi. Thanks for your question. That is not a good strategy. If you have done a mock exam and read the answer key and understood why you got something wrong then there is no need to repeat the mock exam again. The same exact question and case scenario will not be repeated on the real exam. That is a level I strategy and should not be done at level II.
Get your hands on other mock exams, including my Chalk and Board item set mock exam with digital recording of me going over each question, concept and case scenario to get you to apply your knowledge and learn. You’re not learning much by retaking exams. Your scores are admirable but don’t draw a straight line and assume you’ll get the same or similar score on the real exam. The people putting your mocks together are different from the people who put the real exam together. Don’t create correlations where they don’t exist. Plenty of people do well on mocks and fail the real exam and plenty pass the real exam. Similarly, plenty of people fail the mocks and pass the real exam and many still fail the real exam. There are many variables that come to play on exam day that do not occur when you take mock exams.
SO far i have done a bunch of mock exams from different prep providers and scored 70% or more on most of them. However when i tried the actual CFAI mock for 2019 i got crushed which shattered my confidence completely. This was about a week ago , since then i have been reviewing the material all over again but there isnt much time to go over everything again. What strategy would you recommend , redo the CFAI mock again or focus more on CFAI EOC/ CFAI TT. Also what is the comparable level of difficulty between the CFAI mock exam and the actual CFAI exam
Hi. I believe that all aspects of your question have been answered in the previous questions asked that I addressed (see the thread of Q&A). Please go over them and if you feel you still need more direct advice reach out to me offline.
Hi Nathan, do you have a steer on the likelihood of CFAI wanting to test the new readings on L2 in 2019 - Fintech & machine learning in Quant, Credit Model Analysis in FI (specially about calculating CVA) to name a couple? My strategy between now and the 15th is generally revising every area, including those new readings, reading notes and redoing flash cards. I’ve done 10+ mocks so I think I’m match fit in that respect. I’ll tackle specific questions where I need to drum in a weak area. Cheers.