Hey guys. I am awaiting my result for Level 1 but nonetheless have started working towards L2 too. Fingers crossed for next week though! Quants was a nightmare for me back in L1 and I am perfectly sure I won’t be scrapping above 50 percent in that area. I couldn’t grasp hypothesis testing etc and more or less left it. Now that I am studying, I am getting confused constantly from Schweser. Any ideas on where I should look for more explanation? Should I study it in detail from the curriculum or will it confuse me more by going in too much detail?
If you’re waiting on L1 results, I suggest you switch gears and start with some other topic that you liked during L1. Like FRA, Corp. Fin., or Ethics.
Sorry if I sound crude, but there’s no point in sugar coating: if you skipped L1 Quant, you’re going to have a hard time with L2 Quant. Hypothesis testing is key, and so are confidence intervals.
If Schweser isn’t legible, then CFAI will help, but you have to practice blue box examples and EOC questions.
At the end of the day, like any other prep provider, Schweser is going to take shortcuts. If anything, all the prep providers have a higher probability of confusing than the core CFAI material. I’m a huge fan of the CFAI material, so take my input FWIW.
Good luck with L1 results!
I hate CFAI material but I do agree with Aether on his other points. Start with something easy to settle you in. I also started with Quant and just couldn’t move forward with it. I was just hitting a brick wall with it. Difficult material combined with low motivation are a show-stopper.
Start with Corp Finance, Alt Investments, or Equity. These are pretty straightforward and will ease you into the material and help you establish a pace.
I agree with you both and I did FRA before this as that was something I am very familiar with. L1 quants was such a mess. And I was getting upset that if I leave the area i hate the most for the end, I’m going to end up being short on time and freaking out all over the place lol. Hmm the curriculum is so detailed. I loved it back in L1 and I wished I could study it more thoroughly but then again the thought of not practicing enough use to scare me and I would stick with schweser and quickly move to the Qbank and EOCs. Won’t be doing the Qbank ever again though! It was such a waste of time with no reinforcement
CleverCFA, are you done with Quants now? I have been reading your posts and you’ve maintained such a good pace. Good luck with your prep 
I would actually go into Quant first. Since you didn’t grasp it properly at L1, you’ll probably need to take it slow at L2 and maybe learn/re-learn some L1 stuff to get things right.
Closer to the exam, you’ll be concerned about all 10 subjects and you may decide to skip quant alltogether (not many points, takes too much time, but still can make the difference in your test).
I think Quant is worth learning for all levels because every now and then some other topic refers to it.
I don’t like CFAI material for quant either. If you want a more intuitive approach, I’ve seen a couple videos from Khan Academy and they’re pretty good.
Oh I have heard a lot about Khan Academy, will surely look into it! Hmm, so where did you prepare from?
For Quant, I would suggest using Elan Guide. When you sign up with them, you get the L2 Quant lecture videos and notes for free. They follow CFAI material fairly closely and are pretty good at explaining the concepts.
Aghh so much to look through! Thanks a lot for your advice Oinksy!
For L1 I mixed CFAI and Elan. For L2 CFAI and Schweser. I think the books are a pretty good read if you have the time but, for every level, the material from providers seems very helpful to go straight to the point - this is especially handy when you are reviewing mocks and such.
So I would usually go with the books. When reviewing, I would lean more and more towards Elan or Schweser.
For instance: I get a mock question wrong. I realize I don’t properly know the subject. I check 11th hour/secret sauce. If that’s not enough, I check the prep provider material. If that’s not enough, I go back to the curriculum.
I watched just a few of Khan’s lectures, and I did it after studying CFAI quant but, from what I’ve gathered, they’re really good.
@Ayesha: Yeah you should definitely check out the the Khan’s academey. Their videos on probability and statistics are really helpful.
Thanks so much crazyman and an-alyst for your guidance! I hope this way of studying works for me too as I really want to clear my concepts
I think you better revise the last study session of Quants from level 1 notes, and then move on to level 2 stuff. I had some problems in hypothesis testing but there is really no big deal in level 2 quants, its all too easy and the weightage is also minimal in exam. Just go on reading whatever is in notes and you will find answers to your questions by yourself. Thats how I did, and still doing. I tested my score with Qbank and it was pretty good.
No need to go through bulky curriculum books, unless a concept is struck in your mind.
I’ve been having trouble with quants too but it’s fair to say I haven’t put in a good block of hours into it yet. Thanks guys for the advice. Good luck with the results Ayesha.
Quant really isn’t so bad. You can get done withit relatively quickly too… just three readings.
I would have to agree… Quant for level 2 is pretty much your typical university Econometrics.
here is my input, first 2 sessions of quant aren’t bad. simple regression and muliple regression. once it gets to time series, it’s rediculous. and the most quesitons on quant is coming from multiple regression. so if you nail it, and just pick up 1 or 2 questions on time series, you can still get over 70 percent on quant. i do have a question on coveriance stationary problem in schweiser Qbank(Question ID#: 86427), if anyone is scheiser student, please help me take a look. I’m confused with question B, there’s no levels of significance given in this problem, how am i supposed to test if b1=1 is significant:?
Anybody here an expert in the ethics section? Would be interesting to know if this is already a violation?
Well maybe xuebaoht01 meant most Schweser QBank questions are about the multiple regression
hahaha!!! nice one