I’m debating whether to do L2 again for the 3rd time next year. I must suck so bad because for my first 2 trials, I got Band 2. I was expecting at least an improvement, but no. Both Band 2. I dunno if it means I’m just a real idiot or unlucky. Some encouragement would help. It’s a choice between L2 (for the 3rd time) and GMAT in 2013 (I plan to do MBA in 2014).
HELP!!!
My CFA Level II ordeal: 2009: Fail! (Band 0) My reaction: F#%! CFA Institute! 2010: Fail! (Band 0) My reaction: F#%! CFA Institute! 2011: Fail! (Band 8) My reaction: F#%! CFA Institute! 2012: Pass! My reaction: Bring on Level III!
The material I relied on most:
I took a break in March to get married. Other notes about my experience, note that my overall strategy has not really changed materially;
If you’re taking Level II again, good luck. Don’t give up - I failed in Band 0 twice. If I could pass, you probably can too. Figure out what factors are interfering with your ability to focus on studying, and find ways to modify them in your favor.
omg… i think i just got lucky with EI, Derivatives, FRA and Ethics then… I find those reasonably okay…the other 6 categories are depressing for me…
i wonder how long i am gonna be depress for… wonder should i try again…(band 9)
My tryst with CFA would be one of an Epic Kind. Passed Level 1 on Dec 2009 in first attempt, gave up my job to prepare for June 2010 Level II but it was too late till then I guess. Failed with Band 7. Jobless and this failure was a crushing blow.
I applied like crazy to every job that would suite my profile but couldn’t even manage an interview and realized that clearing CFA Level 1 didnt even matter with most employers if you are not already on a job. Gave an interview for a Fixed Income back office kind of job which could pay okay but nervousness bought me down in this interview and couldnt answer even basic questions. By this time I had lost whatever information I had gained in Level 1 and was totally distraught.
I also started preparing for Banking Examinations in India and gave almost every banking exam during this period . I reappeared for the June 2011 examinations got caught in a Violation for exceeding the time limit. I was confident I would pass but a mistake cost be dearly and my dream of completion of CFA just went a step back due to this mistake.
Later I got a call from a big MNC in manufacturing, which is mostly the industry that I have back at my place barring the other IT ones which are plenty here. I just didnt want to get stuck in a company however big but operating in Non-finance domain. Fortunately I got a call from this Public sector Bank and now I am a Credit Analyst there.
This year was comparitively much better. Took some weeks off at the fag end of the examination month, though there was constant duress about taking a long leave , which is of course a big issue at a traditional Credit oriented Dinosaur Bank. Solved the whole Schweser CD and read all the CFAI curriculum in the Last month and this time it paid but still not with the matrix I expected.
Now I have faith that Justice has been done after a Big Opportunity and Actual Costs. My advice is dont be too adventurous and keep realistic hopes of passing only when you believe you can give your best and probably while you are still with a job. Best of Luck!
I got a Band 9 last year and passed this year. If you’re having trouble passing my best recommendation is to start early. By early I don’t mean Jan.2, I mean October. Also my main problem last year was trying to learn everything. This resulted in me knowing about 50% in each topic. My last year’s scores were literally straight down the middle 50-70% range and bombing in derivatives. Here’s my method which I think works but it may be a little hardcore for some.
Start in October and really focus on FRA. Do all CFAI EOC’s questions in FRA. Their multiple choice and very exam like, so you have no reason not to do them. I did schweser FRA readings and then CFAI EOC’s. When I came across EOC’s I didn’t understand, I read the actual CFAI reading section to better get the concept. Reading the entire full curriculum is too convoluted imo. My life was FRA from October through December. You will start to see you’ll acquire a more natural understanding of FRA which will help greatly during review time and exam day.
In January work through the curriculum in this order Finance, Equity, Fixed Income, Alts, Quant/Eco/Port, Deriv. For each topic I was reading the Schwesr readings then doing the CFAI EOC’s. The reason why it’s crucial you work Quant/Eco/Port concurrently is because their so interrelated you need to see the nuances between them. Even though each topic on its own tends to be weighted less on the exam, they are a lot of main cross-related topics that can hurt you if you’re not ready. You may have run through Equity 2 or 3 times before going on to the next topics.
Before May 1st you should have gone through the curriculum at least 2-3 times. By May 1st you need to attempt your first Mock. I did 5 mocks from the Schwesr volume 1&2. This is the most important advice. I’ll say again, this is REALLY REALLY important. You MUST do mock exams. These Mock exams take time to complete and the final 2 weeks is short enough. I felt that the Schweser Mock volumes prep me well for the exam. People will like to say otherwise, but these mocks felt exam like to me and were not easy. Additionally please do the CFAI mock because it had tricks in it that were identically re-tested on the real exam. I did 5 mock exams from Schweser and CFAI’s 2012 mock.
There will be times were you will get discouraged. The below links are 2 vids that help motivate me throughout the endeavor. Good Luck
I feel something like you!
After a big disappointment yesterday, I am stil unsure which path to take.
I failed level 2 (Band 10! Argh!) but I felt pretty good after the test.
For me, this is very hard. I finish school 1st, applied to grad school with perfect GRE score, graduated grad school with honors (PhD, Ivy League School), had never failed before CFA-L2. Level 2, this was the second time. In 2011, I was band 4 but did not study much as I was involved in a pretty demanding personal project.
For this exam, I have studied since Nov-2011, read all chapters of CFAI material, did all questions in the end of the chapters, and did above 80% in all mock exams I took from both CFAI and Schweser. So, for me, it is tough figuring this out.
It is kind of an internal duality facing failure in this exam as I have never faced this – academically – before.
I’m not sure I will do it again. If so, which material to use? When to start preparing?
Anyway, struggling with weird feelings. Hard to find motivation… Maybe, need more time to figure this out…
Your comment was great to me! I really liked the way you put it. Congratulations for passing the exam and thank you for sharing such a great advice!
I failed in band 10 last year and this year barely passed. I didn’t really do anything different this time around, other than being more familiar with the material already. Studying felt more like reviewing, so just doing the EOC questions and mock exams helped. I can’t really say anything else but keep doing those practice questions. With persistence you will make it.
post email i will forward to you
I’m a retaker who finally passed level 2 this year with 3 subjects between 50-70% and the remaining above 70%.
For the past 2 years where i attempted level 2, i managed to fail each time band 9. What did i do differently this time ?
2)I did NOT do any Schweser problems. They are too short and the wording is not what you’ll find in the actual exam. So i did every end of chapter problem in the CFA books.
I started doing mocks early May, in addition to Sample exams. For every mock / sample exam, i simulated exam conditions (3 hours in the morning, 3 hours in the afternoon) and managed to do 2 full exam every weekend. You’ll be suprised how many questions / concepts actually came up in the actual exam.
When doing mocks / samples, be knowledgefull of the tiny details that you don’t understnad when correcting yourself. These details will come up in the actual exam, i can guarantee this.
For ethics, retype the notes and study them when you can in the last 2 weeks. I did this and read them in the subway and i truely think it helped me achieve above 70% in ethics.
I would suggest not purchasing the Schweser books if you already have them.
I disagree with the statement “Do not waste too much time on ethics”. First of all, the ethics questions can be very difficult. Secondly, don’t underestimate the weight ethics plays in passing. I have seen a few Band 10 result breakdowns with a mixture of >70% & 50%-70% on all topic areas except for ethics and <50% on ethics. I recommend you read the ethics section at least twice.
2009 Level II Fail Band 6
2012 Level II Pass
I disagree with the statement “Do not waste too much time on ethics”. First of all, the ethics questions can be very difficult. Secondly, don’t underestimate the weight ethics plays in passing. I have seen a few Band 10 result breakdowns with a mixture of >70% & 50%-70% on all topic areas except for ethics and <50% on ethics. I recommend you read the ethics section at least twice.
2009 Level II Fail Band 6
2012 Level II Pass
Thanks everyone for all the advice, it’s good to hear what worked for those who failed and came back for a 2nd try. I failed band 9 having started in late february after L1 in december '11
I’m planning to spend more time on the CFAI cirriculum 2nd time round, I only used the CFAI books for the EOCs 1st time as I simply didn’t have the time to read through them so I chose to use Schweser instead.
Do you think it’s worth getting the 2013 Schweser package? So the books, practice exams volumes1&2 and Qbank? Did any of you successful retakers do this and did you find it useful? Do the practice exams change much year on year? I heard the Live Schweser Mock was virtually identical for '11 and '12. How about the CFAI EOCs, do they stay the same?
I heard that the institute are rewriting the whole economics section for 2013.
Passed Level I in June 2009
Registered but did not take Level II in 2010
Failed Band 6 Level II in 2011
Passed in 2012
The main thing I did differently for the 2012 exam was to make my own notes, mostly from the Schweser material but refering to CFAI when I wanted more detail. I wish I could post a photo of the bound yellow notes I have - its as thick as a textbook. The other thing I did was start early and schedule time for review after every 3 or 4 sections. Easily spent over 400 hours last year.
I would read the CFAI and make summary notes if you have time. I find schwesers to be too simple and compact, whereas CFAI gives examples in book that they may test later on. For me, it’s easier to read the book than to read compact notes as I have no sense of context. This helps me retain details and manipulate information stored to answer questions on the exam. The Schweser questions are also too basic and straight forward and not really worth the time unless you need a confidence booster or are in preliminary study phases. There are no better replicas of CFA exam level questions than EOC and Mock exams.
Heres what I did.
Wave1": You should start early and give yourself a quick readthrough/highlight of the CFAI books. Start early around Sept, OCT, and do a quick once over. Don’t get bogged down and highlight important details, examples. make summary notes at the end of each chapter, it helps you retain information. Don’t bother with questions except example questions. Do this at not so quick a pace, make sure you have EXCELLENT notes. Plan to be done by beginning January. Take a break.
Wave2: February, start going over notes every night, reread passages that you’re not familiar with, and start attemping EOC questions. Schedule it so that you will be done reviewing Wave 2 by early April. Highlight the questions that are the hardest for you and make sure you make notes on problem solving strategies. There are only so many types of questions they can ask in terms of calulations, so figuring them all out early is key. I ranked the EOC questions by difficulty and marked REVIEW to label a select number of questions to do from each chapter right before the exam. This will help you focus on using your final days effectively with bread-and-butter warm ups. If you come across an EOC with theory questions you can’t answer, mark them and mark the answer in your summary notes. This is a life saver. FOCUS on FRA/EQUITY first, and everything else is secondary by weighting.
If you ace the FRA/EQUITY you give yourself a better than average chance of passing. I set out this year with the sole goal of destroying Equity and FRA. I murdered Equity but limited my losses on FRA. These two are so heavily weighted that you cannot afford to fail or do “medium band” on either of them. Nothing worse than a Band 9/10.
Wave 3: Once you’re done it should be April-ish. Go over a set number of your summary notes every night, memorize relationships until you can recite them, skim EOC questions, work on questions you don’t know how to do off the bat. After this is done, do ONE mock exam. Mark it and see where you are. I did one mock exam only, and I got 60%. I didn’t let that get me down though, since it’s anyone’s game on exam day. Review your answers, go through more mock exams if you want. Some people find this really effective. I prefer to do EOCs over and over. I have pretty poor memory but the strategy is to layer the information until it all makes sense and you recall things quickly like a hard drive.
Wave 4: 2 weeks before: Look at what you don’t know, strengthen as much as you can. Make sure you nailed down the bread and butter. Study ethics and do those you find in the mocks. Ethics is important, especially if you on the brink. Read summary notes and do the questions marked review in the days before the test. In this period I only focused on bread-and-butter questions, EOC review questions and my summary notes. I am trying to get 70+ and not 102% through the bonus tough questions. Be positive and confident, upbeat, and get rid of distractions.I told myself there was no way I was writing this level again and I did what it took to accomplish that goal.
Good luck and hope this helps. You have to give up time today to save future time. I don’t think CFA only tests knowledge, but time management and tactical thinking. You’ve got to fire yourself up, come up with a plan early and study effectively. Don’t take shortcuts, and play your strengths. If I can pass this beast, so can you.
Many thanks mk17. I appreciate the advice.
I’ll definitely be starting early this time and will focus on the CFAI books and really mastering the material using blue box examples and taking my own notes.
I did the EOCs once last time and quite a few mocks but I really didn’t spend enough time reviewing my incorrect answers which is a schoolboy error.
I aim to have the FRA and Equity content imprinted on my brain come June next year. thank god the valuation in emerging markets reading has been dropped.
Tylenol, I have included my address below I appreciate any items you are able to send that will help me in my preparation.
navyboy2385@yahoo.com Thanks so much for your help!
I passed after failing three times.
This last time I did a lot of notecards. I created them as I read the material, and then used them the last few weeks to study. As I felt that I had a concept down, I would set the notecard aside and keep studying what I didn’t know. I think it worked well.
Didn’t pass with flying colors… my 40/60/80 score was 68%… but I think it was enough to put me over the edge.
omg this means in L2 there are heavy % of retakers. Tough road ahead
Failed Band 6 then passed on second try. Here’s what you do to pass:
MAKE YOUR OWN NOTES.
DO LOTS OF PRACTICE QUESTIONS.
REREAD YOU NOTES BASED ON QUESTIONS YOU GOT WRONG.
That’s it. The act of writing your own notes forces you to explaing each concept to yourself in a way that you understand. In the end, if you understand the material, you will pass.