I saw a similar topic on the level 1 forums and figured this would give good guidance for the people thats preparing for level 2 1. What is your education background? 2. Is this your first time taking level 2? If not, what try is it 3. How many hours did you study, and how long before the exam did you start to study? 4. What did you use to study? (ie. curriculum, qbank, stallas) 5. Is there anything you would like to have done differently to prepare? 6. Any other comments or advice. THANK YOU
- What is your education background? A: I am CA( charatered accountancy) final student …cleared leve1 in dec 08…failed level 2 in june 09 2. Is this your first time taking level 2? If not, what try is it A: No mine second time 3. How many hours did you study, and how long before the exam did you start to study? A More than 600 hrs 4. What did you use to study? (ie. curriculum, qbank, stallas) A: Schweser, Qb-23% and Schweser practise exam 5. Is there anything you would like to have done differently to prepare? A: Yes…i failed mainly bcoz of derivative 2/12(i thnk)…so i will concentrate on it 6. Any other comments or advice. I was very overconfident till start of may…i thought it was much easier than level 1…but i was wrong …when i started QB …i realised i was completly wrong…it was much difficult…application part is much difficult So my advice …Solve more and more questions…
- What is your education background? I am an MBA student from India. 2. Is this your first time taking level 2? If not, what try is it Yes, this is my first shot ( and mostly last) for Level-2. 3. How many hours did you study, and how long before the exam did you start to study? I started off very early for L-1. October to be more precise. This is because, I can’t put in continous hours, and I lost over 1.5 months with my college exams. I think I would’ve studed about 350 hours. 4. What did you use to study? (ie. curriculum, qbank, stallas) Referred Schweser. But I think reading the material is more important for the Big Picture overview. 5. Is there anything you would like to have done differently to prepare? Would’ve liked to do more of Quant. That’s the only section in the 50-70 range. But not for the sake of marks, but to understand the topics better. 6. Any other comments or advice. I strongly fee this program demands a lot of Passion & Dedication. Lots of people ( esp in India ) follow this exam just for the sake of it without understanding what it’s to be a CFA charterholder. I hope people don’t pursue this charter just because the guy next door is doing it and do it because They want to do it.
- What is your education background? Engineering undergrad with 3 years of experience in finance 2. Is this your first time taking level 2? If not, what try is it 1st try 3. How many hours did you study, and how long before the exam did you start to study? Approx. 230 hrs starting in December 4. What did you use to study? (ie. curriculum, qbank, stallas) 80% Schweser, 20% CFAI 5. Is there anything you would like to have done differently to prepare? Maxed out on every section, so no. 6. Any other comments or advice People who rely on Schweser and fail have a tendency to make the notes a scapegoat, but they do an excellent job on around 80-90% of the topics.
- Finance undergrad with six year’s experience 2. First try 3. 150-200 hours (not quite sure), and sometime late Feb. or early March, but didn’t start for real until about the start of April. 4. 100% Schweser (Qbank, etc.) 5. Not really, honestly. 6. Study partners are vital at this level - I got through Level I rolling dolo, but I feel as though having a competent study partner(s) for Level II keeps you on pace and gives you someone to bounce ideas/thoughts off of.
- Economics undergrad 2. 1st time 3. Approx 200 hours 4. All Schweser - didn’t crack open the CFAI texts 5. Am satisfied with the pass but probably could have taken some of the anxiety out if I had done the EOC questions in CFAI texts. 6. Using the schweser material saved me a ton of time and it covered almost everything on the exam. It’s worth the investment…
- Engineering undergrad, 2 yrs experience 2. First try. 3. About 250-300, started skimming in December, ramped up around February - March. 4. 100% Schweser notes (no QBank), CFA free sample and Mock exam. 5. CFA EOC questions. 6. For any topics you have trouble on, start taking your own notes on it, and do many examples. It will help you in retaining the info better as opposed to just reading the SS one more time from the text. Best of luck to all re-takers and new L2’ers.
- Mathematics and Business undergrad, 2.5 years experience. 2. Second try 3. About 6-8 weeks, little each day, a lot on weekends. 4. All Schweser 5. No, i thought this time around my preparation was spot on. 6. It is important to think of Level 2 differently than Level 1. There is a lot of material and you can count on 20% of the test covering the most random minutiae. Do lots of problems, and understand how to arrive at the answer for every one, don’t guess in practice. Exam day advice would be to USE LUNCH TO BRUSH UP. Level 2 is all item sets. They can’t test every topic in the morning. If you come out of the morning and there was NOTHING on Portfolio Management or Economics, you can be sure there will be an item set on it in the afternoon and you would be surprised what looking over some notes and formulas will do for you.
- What is your education background? actuarial 2. Is this your first time taking level 2? If not, what try is it cleared it the second time 3. How many hours did you study, and how long before the exam did you start to study? the first time i knew everything but bombed accounting. Don’t neglect ANY SUBJECT. 4. What did you use to study? (ie. curriculum, qbank, stallas) exclusively CFA text and my untrusty HP 12C- covered under warranty so had it replaced becuase the [ENTER] key was sticky!!! 5. Is there anything you would like to have done differently to prepare? I passed. It was good. 6. Any other comments or advice. MASTER each LoS. End of chapter Qs test and review your knowledge. Be displined and HUNGRY TO PASS. You will succeed. Good luck :)))) THANK YOU
This is how I passed – on top of working an average of a 70-hour week at work (that doesn’t have much to do with the exam). I began right after New Years. I devoted 10 hours per week to reading the CFA material and doing the problems at the end of each chapter. I also bought the Schweser notecards. Every morning on my way to work I spent 10 minutes reading the notecards and quizzing myself. I studied on the weekends and evenings when I could. The month before the exam I devoted pretty much every free hour I had to studying. For Memorial Day my wife went to go hang out with her family while I went to a local university and spent 12 hours each day there. I didn’t nail the exam by any means, but I did well enough to pass. I answered anywhere from 62% to 79% correctly. One thing I tried to do was eliminate the notecards from my pile that I knew cold and only review them once/twice before the exam. The ones each morning I focused on were the ones that required the most memorization that I didn’t know. I had also highlighted the questions I missed at the end of each chapter in the CFA books and made notecards for each of these. I found that to be very helpful on the Ethics section, which I got a 70%+ on. I didn’t read anything other than CFA books and I used the Schweser notecards for the basics. Where needed, I made my own notecards to study. The only piece of advice I can give you is to be honest with yourself and go after the things you don’t know. If you can answer a question easily, it’s time to move on. And if you can’t answer it, it’s time to move on. There is really no other way to do this than to jump in. Find something that drives you. For me, it was the look on my wife’s face if I had to tell her that we’d have to do all this again for nine months… so I made the best of the time that I had.
Thanks Friends !!! These are great advice from your side…I would request more candidates who passed level 2 to put in there experiance…as been explained by wonnderful people.
- What is your education background? BBA - University of Michigan 2. Is this your first time taking level 2? If not, what try is it No - Second try 3. How many hours did you study, and how long before the exam did you start to study? About 20-25 hours, 15 of which came in the final 2 days before the exam. I also studied 20-25 hours the previous year, when I failed. 4. What did you use to study? (ie. curriculum, qbank, stallas) Schweser study notes and Schweser secret sauce. No practice exams. 5. Is there anything you would like to have done differently to prepare? Yeah–I wish I had studied derivatives and fixed income more. 6. Any other comments or advice. If you find yourself spending a lot of time trying to understand something that seems really unique or isn’t a large component of the finance field, move on. I know people who spent countless hours trying to understand quant in detail, even though it’s an insignificant portion of the test.
- What is your education background? Accounting and finance undergrad. 2. Is this your first time taking level 2? If not, what try is it First time 3. How many hours did you study, and how long before the exam did you start to study? 4. What did you use to study? (ie. curriculum, qbank, stallas) Used only CFAI text. Started reading a few hours a week way back in september 2008. Finished readings April. Did end of chapter questions May for over an hour a day. Got a week off from work before the exam and studied 10 hours a day. 5. Is there anything you would like to have done differently to prepare? I passed so I guess not. 6. Any other comments or advice. Since you’ve already passed L1, a big difference in L2 I guess would be how CFAI can make a set of questions from sections you’d think be unimportant. So be sure to have a decent understanding on almost all of the topics esp. LOS lest you find yourself guessing on a whole section. The CFAI end of chapter questions are a good guide on how in-depth the real exam can be.
I believe that how much you study and what you use to study is really a no brainer. Yes, you need to use the curriculum in some form and you need to put in your time - how many different ways are there to communicate that point? Below is the advice you are looking for: I would have made sure I covered everything with equal weight. Making bets on perceived “hot topics” is a bad idea. The biggest trick at L2 is the surprise overweightings (e.g., PM 2008, and Earnings Quality 2009). I would totally disagree with GoBlue’s Advice. You cannot shortcut this exam or afford to skip topics. I would stay away from this forum during study season and especially the weeks leading up to the exam. Nothing good can come from it - It sounds as if some people may have had a false sense of preparedness based on feedback they were getting from others on the forum. This is not a team effort! Why would you risk trusting other candidates as a source of knowledge - In some ways, it is bad enough to be relying on professional 3rd parties for material. My recommendation is to rely exclusively on the curriculum and avoid all other discussions - they can only lead to doubt and confusion. If it does not show up in the curriculum and is not well explained then it is probably not testable. Finally, sleep well and take it easy the days leading up to the exam.
cfagoal2 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- >> 1. What is your education background? MA Econ > 2. Is this your first time taking level 2? If not, > what try is it 1st time > > 3. How many hours did you study, and how long > before the exam did you start to study? Planned starting in Oct, really started mid-Jan. Didn’t count hours. > > 4. What did you use to study? (ie. curriculum, > qbank, stallas) Curriculum, Schweser, Qbank. Spent a LOT of time on specific sections of the curriculum which were harder to understand. Certain pages of FSA and Quant have 3 different types of pen markings and 5 different color markings on them. > 5. Is there anything you would like to have done > differently to prepare? More time. Only did 2 practice Schweser exams (plus all mocks + samples - these are a must). Even though I passed with all but one sections >70% I still can’t say I completely understand derivatives or parts of fixed income and PM. > > 6. Any other comments or advice. There are a few really difficult sections in the text. For example, there are a lot of sections in FSA which you have to memorize completely (ie. classification of investments/currency translation etc.). You should spend way more time on these sections. For L1 a single read-through was necessary for nearly 100% of material. For L2 I kept going back to certain sections MANY times. > > THANK YOU You’re welcome.
goblue06 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- I know people who spent countless hours > trying to understand quant in detail, even though > it’s an insignificant portion of the test. This is a shame, because quant (regression + time series analysis) is actually one of the more applicable sections of the L2 curriculum for many lines of work. While it probably doesn’t make sense to remember the qualities of the Durbin-Watson test, understanding what heteroskedasticity and serial correlation are and being able to spot them is actually relatively useful.
Billy Collins Jr. Wrote: > This is a shame, because quant (regression + time > series analysis) is actually one of the more > applicable sections of the L2 curriculum for many > lines of work. While it probably doesn’t make > sense to remember the qualities of the > Durbin-Watson test, understanding what > heteroskedasticity and serial correlation are and > being able to spot them is actually relatively > useful. I agree that quant can be applicable. But you had to have known that they weren’t going to test you on all the different formulas and tests. I mean, they had what…6 questions devoted to quant? At most, I figured they would ask 1-2 questions related to actual calculations and the rest would be more theoretical.
- What is your education background? Software Engineering 2. Is this your first time taking level 2? If not, what try is it First time 3. How many hours did you study, and how long before the exam did you start to study? 350 to 400 4. What did you use to study? (ie. curriculum, qbank, stallas) CFAI + schweser practice exams… (no qbank or schweser) 5. Is there anything you would like to have done differently to prepare? I ran out of time so I did 2 less exams than i had wanted… 6. Any other comments or advice. Study from CFAI, it covers everything… Schweser doesn’t cover everything, so the missed material could mean a pass or fail…
- What is your education background? Bachelor of Commerce/Arts 2. Is this your first time taking level 2? If not, what try is it It was my first time, I passed L1 in December last year and L2 this year 3. How many hours did you study, and how long before the exam did you start to study? I started study in February this year. I would probably spend an average of 15 hours a week, although this gradually built up towards the exam. 4. What did you use to study? (ie. curriculum, qbank, stallas) I hate to admit it, but I relied almost exclusively on Shweser notes, barely opened a CFA book. Shweser gives you notes based around the learning statements and I progressively condensed these to pull together some structure to the large amount of content studied in the lead up to the exam. I already studied finance as part of my Commerce undergraduate so I didn’t really need the detail the CFA books offered in many instances. If you haven’t studied finance previously you may need to read the whole CFA books. In the lead up to the exam I did a lot of mock Shweser exams, in fact I did almost all of them. 5. Is there anything you would like to have done differently to prepare? No, I passed and I am very happy. 6. Any other comments or advice. For L1 I exam trained using a full 6 hour session. For LII I just focused on 3 hour sessions (i.e. morning or afternoon) as they did not dominate my day as much (allowing for better revision). Personally I found 3 hour practice exams a better exam technique.
“I would stay away from this forum during study season and especially the weeks leading up to the exam. Nothing good can come from it - It sounds as if some people may have had a false sense of preparedness based on feedback they were getting from others on the forum. This is not a team effort! Why would you risk trusting other candidates as a source of knowledge” Huh? This forum is invaluable leading up the exam, and although I probably still would’ve passed, I don’t believe I would’ve done nearly as well without it. Especially for someone like me who uses only Schweser, the opportunity to see CFAI and Stalla and who knows what else questions posted and then analyzed by the many smart people here is unbelieveably useful. I couldn’t diagree more with the above statement.