I have a finance background in both experience and studies and I would make the comparison this way. Level I is like an university introductory course in a broad range of subjects which deals with facts and the memorization of those facts. I didn’t really find it had a great deal of application and if your first run through meant that you got most EOC’s right, you probably had enough to pass and probably pass well. While some of these topic areas will be, at least in part, foreign to all (Accounting was the big one in my case) you could pretty easily get your head around the concepts. In Level II you are learning material that would be more akin to either final year or in some parts professional year/post-grad studies in a number of areas (especially the big ones). Using the Accounting example again, I had a general understanding of how accounting rules worked and once I had read the specifics from the Level I CFA material it made some sense. By Level II they are asking you to understand the effects that translation and reconciliation of international subsidiaries along with the effects from pension plans to balance sheets and associated ratios on these balance sheets. This naturally moved a fair way from just understanding the facts and you really needed to internalised the material. I don’t really think I could have just memorised the rules for even this one section let alone the other 17 SS’s at this level and your understanding really needed to move to internalising the concepts and being able to apply them and not just memorise them. Now while I give Accounting as my example here, all people come to this course with some high level learning in some areas, but very little learning in others and during your study for Level II you will probably find (with having a Finance background) that Fixed Income, Derivatives, Economics, Quant and Port Mgmt comes pretty easily but this will depend on where and to what level you studies these previously (I list these as they were my strong points) but other areas will require much greater attention and at times you will feel like you are going out of your mind trying to internalise the other stuff. I didn’t list Equity as I feel that this is actually more like accounting that finance related at Level II. Your final challenge at Level II (which is really just an extension of the internalisation discussion above) is coming to terms with the case study type questions. These are a bit harder to navigate than single MCQ and I would recommend getting a fair bit of practice at this style of questions. On exam day you will not only need to deal with this new style but will be confronted with the biggest challenge being that despite having read 3,500 pages of material you will get effectively on 20q which may only cover less than 1,000 pages of the material. This factor introduces a bit of luck but also introduces the fact that you really need to understand all LOS becuase only missing 1 of the 300 or so may mean you lose 5% on exam day. Hope this helps, but in conclusion, ignore the hype posted on these forums about Level II. It’s not material that can’t be mastered with a bit of focus but I would be surprised if you didn’t find it harder with the need to put in more work to master.
herrgrunta Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I have a finance background in both experience and > studies and I would make the comparison this way. > > Level I is like an university introductory course > in a broad range of subjects which deals with > facts and the memorization of those facts. I > didn’t really find it had a great deal of > application and if your first run through meant > that you got most EOC’s right, you probably had > enough to pass and probably pass well. While some > of these topic areas will be, at least in part, > foreign to all (Accounting was the big one in my > case) you could pretty easily get your head around > the concepts. > > In Level II you are learning material that would > be more akin to either final year or in some parts > professional year/post-grad studies in a number of > areas (especially the big ones). Using the > Accounting example again, I had a general > understanding of how accounting rules worked and > once I had read the specifics from the Level I CFA > material it made some sense. By Level II they are > asking you to understand the effects that > translation and reconciliation of international > subsidiaries along with the effects from pension > plans to balance sheets and associated ratios on > these balance sheets. This naturally moved a fair > way from just understanding the facts and you > really needed to internalised the material. I > don’t really think I could have just memorised the > rules for even this one section let alone the > other 17 SS’s at this level and your understanding > really needed to move to internalising the > concepts and being able to apply them and not just > memorise them. > > Now while I give Accounting as my example here, > all people come to this course with some high > level learning in some areas, but very little > learning in others and during your study for Level > II you will probably find (with having a Finance > background) that Fixed Income, Derivatives, > Economics, Quant and Port Mgmt comes pretty easily > but this will depend on where and to what level > you studies these previously (I list these as they > were my strong points) but other areas will > require much greater attention and at times you > will feel like you are going out of your mind > trying to internalise the other stuff. I didn’t > list Equity as I feel that this is actually more > like accounting that finance related at Level II. > > Your final challenge at Level II (which is really > just an extension of the internalisation > discussion above) is coming to terms with the case > study type questions. These are a bit harder to > navigate than single MCQ and I would recommend > getting a fair bit of practice at this style of > questions. On exam day you will not only need to > deal with this new style but will be confronted > with the biggest challenge being that despite > having read 3,500 pages of material you will get > effectively on 20q which may only cover less than > 1,000 pages of the material. This factor > introduces a bit of luck but also introduces the > fact that you really need to understand all LOS > becuase only missing 1 of the 300 or so may mean > you lose 5% on exam day. > > Hope this helps, but in conclusion, ignore the > hype posted on these forums about Level II. It’s > not material that can’t be mastered with a bit of > focus but I would be surprised if you didn’t find > it harder with the need to put in more work to > master. +1k
Me: Lvl 1 - Fail, Fail, Pass Lvl 2 - Pass Read into that what you will…
mpreskett Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Me: > > Lvl 1 - Fail, Fail, Pass > Lvl 2 - Pass > > Read into that what you will… …interesting.
^ and definitely not the norm.
Yeah, I went 3/3 and I personally found LII the hardest, but also the most interesting. I have pretty solid memory skills, but usually rely on understanding the concept. That being said, even if you intuitively understand all the material, there will still be a sh*t ton of memorizing. To the point where I was really questioning if I had what it took. Just plan a lot of time, start early and study hard. Basically you just have to try, trying to figure out how hard it will be in advance won’t help.