Hey guys, I recently just finished my undergrad in finance/business. It gave me decent knowledge in corporate finance, investments, statistics, economics, etc… In school we had more in-depth learning than level I; it felt like level I was just memorizing facts. My understanding is that level two is different in that you get scenarios and require doing more calculations. Everyone seems to be saying level II is beast compared to level I, but I have found that level I was hard for me because my memorization ability isn’t the best, but in school I’ve done well in terms of being able to solve harder, longer questions instead of just memorizing definitions facts. Would it be the case that the level of difficulty between the two wouldn’t be as pronounce as most people on this forum tend to say it is to me?
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hahahahahha With Level 2 you’ll be memorising twice as much as Level 1!
^ I went to the exam without memorising a single formula, and beyond that I dono many concepts that had to be memorised… I think memorising is a shorcut (a longer one ???) for understanding. You will see 100 formulas in derivatives. If you think about it they are all one silly time value for money formula and you can solve all questions without memorising a formula. Learn to understand a formula, see what it is doing, it may takeyou 15 mins. But you will never ever need to look at it in your life.
L1 is you checking out a hot girl wearing a very revealing top. L2 is you being violated with an ear of corn.
L1 is learning to live L2 is learning to die
I just passed level 3. I can affirm that level 2 is by far the most difficult of the three simply because of the depth of knowledge CFAI expects you to absorb. If you are having difficulty memorizing things, I suggest you buy several hundred 3x5 note cards, write out one formula or one term on each . Spend 30 mins in the morning going through one stack of cards, and again in the evening. This is how I drilled every Equity equation and every Alt.Assets term into my head.
My summary notes for L1 was 50 pages and L2 150.
i would try learning the matieral. it is easier to remember vs memorizing
Check out this thread: http://www.analystforum.com/phorums/read.php?12,1015512,page=1 My favourite one: Re: How difficult is L2 compared to L1 Posted by: ChickenTikka (IP Logged) Date: July 13, 2011 05:43AM Level 1 - Germany’s austerity plan for the eurozone 2011 Level 2 - Germany’s austerity plan for the eurozone 1939
bluejazzy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Everyone seems to be saying level II is beast > compared to level I, but I have found that level I > was hard for me because my memorization ability > isn’t the best, but in school I’ve done well in > terms of being able to solve harder, longer > questions instead of just memorizing definitions > facts. > > Would it be the case that the level of difficulty > between the two wouldn’t be as pronounce as most > people on this forum tend to say it is to me? - L2 is not as hard as many people make out. But if you found L1 hard, then you will have problems with L2 for sure. Personally I found L1 easy and L2 quite challenging.
L1: the playboy mansion and your the only guy L2: the playboy mansion and your the only girl my favourite
CFA Jay is right. If you simiply try to memorize the BOK you will be toast, it might work okay for some of the formulas but they will ask the same questions they do in EOC questions but in a completely different way, I noticed several of these this past year year, had I not studied my balls off to understand them I would have been toast. Best wishes for the retakers and newbies, i would seriously start studying now, it’s a whole new ball game.
I think that a lot of people here are missing bluejazzy’s point. It’s not hard for a person with a strong academic background in finance and economics to understand the material in level 1. The issue that he’s had and that I’ve had myself with level 1 is simply retention of the significant amount of material in the Body of Knowledge. So is there anyone out there with a background in finance that can shed more light on why level 2 was hard for them and what strategies they recommend to help overcome these difficulties?
thank you. Everyone is missing my point and jumping straight to conclusions about me asking about a direct comparison. After finishing level one, it felt nothing more than memorizing a bunch of stuff, none of the questions really required much ‘solving.’ My point is that during my undergrad, everything learned was tested with long questions that required solving/appilcation and or case analysis etc… My point is do most people say level 2 is way harder than level one because level 1 is just memorizing stuff and choosing in a 3 choice MC whereas level 2 requires more application, which some people have no prior background with, and hence say level 2 is infinitely harder than level 1.
bluejazzy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > thank you. Everyone is missing my point and > jumping straight to conclusions about me asking > about a direct comparison. After finishing level > one, it felt nothing more than memorizing a bunch > of stuff, none of the questions really required > much ‘solving.’ My point is that during my > undergrad, everything learned was tested with long > questions that required solving/appilcation and or > case analysis etc… My point is do most people > say level 2 is way harder than level one because > level 1 is just memorizing stuff and choosing in a > 3 choice MC whereas level 2 requires more > application, which some people have no prior > background with, and hence say level 2 is > infinitely harder than level 1. There is nothing to it really…read the books, learn the facts, know your formulas and kick ass.
L2 requires more memorization. Unlike L1 where it’s more like remembering definitions and keywords, You need to be able to recall the materials precisely in L2 because you will need to apply them to the problems.
"It gave me decent knowledge in corporate finance, investments, statistics, economics, etc… " Cute 
L2 is way more cute 
… thank god i passed from first attempt. Can’t imagine going over the material again; just thinkin about it gives me a headache.