I’m just wondering if candidates who have successfully passed the Level II could give a little input on how much studying is required for level II. Would 4 months be enough? Is it possible to study for 4 months and work a full time job? or you need the full 4 months with no job, just strictly studying.
413.5 hours
4 months of full-time studying would probably be overkill. Most candidates find 300 hours to be about right. All of the following add up to 300 hours: 4 months x 18 hours/week = 300 hours 7.5 weeks x 40 hours/week = 300 hours 1 month x 10 hours/day = 300 hours I found 5 weeks x 50 hrs/wk to be a great recipe for me, but your own required study hours will depend on your background.
It took four months to get through Level I and six months with Level II. I studied every single day right up to the exam.
My point is that talking about weeks and months is useless; the only sensible way to talk about preparation time is study hours. Ok, so you spent six months preparing for Level II, studying every single day: Are you saying that you studied full-time; 40 hours a week for 6 months? That would add up to more than 1000 study hours, which might be a world record for CFA overpreparation. Or did you study 1 hour every day for 6 months? That would add up to much less than 200 study hours, and is insufficient preparation for the great majority of candidates.
I studied about 15 hours/week until the final month, and increased it to about 20 in the final month and about 25 in the final two weeks. I started right before Thanksgiving.
I should have mentioned this in hours. I studied approximately 6 hours a day for Level I for 3.5 months. Doing questions mainly. But I did spent another 1.5 months just reading CFA books prior to studying schweser which were very very exhaustive and I found it useless. I should have went straight to schweser. I’m not sure if I should skip CFA books for Level II and just study from schweser. Hearing that Level II is very hard, it might help to study from CFA books as well but time will be limited. Takes a good month to or two just to get through those books, page by page. If someone is working full time. Just wanted to see how people prepared and see what the average is.
lol I’m aware everyone studies at different pace and different methods. Some comprehend faster than others. So yea, it’ll be different for everyone. I just wanted to get an idea of the average.
I agree with Kim that everyone studies at their own pace, it all depends on how fast you comprehend the material. As far as studying from the Scheweser notes or curriculum is concerned, I know people who have passed the exam only reading Scheweser notes and some people only referring to curriculum and solving as many questions from Scheweser question bank. I personlly like to read the curriculum books and refer Scheweser notes to summarise the topic before moving on to solving the questions. It takes little longer time but it helps cover all bases. I hope this helps…
I read both the CFA books and Schweser for Level I. I really got the grasp on the information and understood everything but it was time consuming. I’m afraid that this time around if I am going to write Level II in June, I will be limited with time and won’t be able to read both CFA and Schweser page by page so I’m debating which one to read, either CFA or Schweser and use one or both for reference when solving questions in Qbank.
I’m aiming for about 450 hours. Started studying in Nov, and plan to study all the way up to the Friday before the exam. Taking a week off to go to Florida in Jan, though. I’m going through Schwesher, and using the CFA books to tighten my understanding, as Schwesher can be a bit brief. Doing QBank to train my brain to think about the material in different ways, and will start practice exams closer to the exam date, say in April… Aiming for about 2.25 hours a day, for now, but will ramp it up when I start practice exams.
That’s really good. That sounds like a decent amount of hours. That’s the amount of hours I put in for Level I, to be honest I probably put in more than that. Give or take a few. But still not sure about the results. Good luck in June and thanks for sharing your schedule.
I know people who’ve done level II in 2 months. granted they pick up material quickly, but they just did questions over and over. it’s effective if you’re that type of person who learns best by doing. But still, if you’re on level 2, taking that chance to wait and failing isn’t really worth it. A year is a really long time to wait…
I may win the award for most hours studied for level 2 but I think your question of minimum study time is the wrong way to approach level 2 or even level 3 when you get there. The question is what is the maximum amount of time you can dedicate without going crazy. You need to be consistent and live and breathe the material. I studied 650 hours for my first level 2 attempt, failed band 10 and although I thought I was prepared, the test knocked me out like a Mike Tyson upper cut. I studied close to 700 hours for my retake and cleared it with room for error. Do what you gotta do to pass the exam. If you want it that bad than make it happen.
I may win the award for most hours studied for level 2 but I think your question of minimum study time is the wrong way to approach level 2 or even level 3 when you get there. The question is what is the maximum amount of time you can dedicate without going crazy. You need to be consistent and live and breathe the material. I studied 650 hours for my first level 2 attempt, failed band 10 and although I thought I was prepared, the test knocked me out like a Mike Tyson upper cut. I studied close to 700 hours for my retake and cleared it with room for error. Do what you gotta do to pass the exam. If you want it that bad than make it happen.
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You are right, I should have reworded my question. I just wanted to know how hard it really is and since I spend roughly 500 hours on Level I and didn’t finish the exam on time and had to guess questions I actually knew the answers to (had one minute left and had to guess like 10-20 questions at the end) Then I’m trying to prepare mentally and try to figure out a schedule for Level II if I do pass Level I. I’m assuming 500 hours won’t be enough for Level II. Just not sure if I’ll be able to study it all in 4 months. Even if I study 10 hours a day. Wanted to know other’s approach and their approx study time. I’m aware everyone is different but just wanted an idea. Thanks for the info. P.S. Do you think reading Schweser notes is sufficient and doing of course all the questions in QBank, back of the chapters questions and examples plus referring back to CFA books for more depth of understanding when studying on Schweser notes. I am afraid I won’t be able to read the CFA books and Schweser and do Qbank Questions (all of them like i did for Level I) and etc. It took me about a month and a half just to read CFA books alone and that was daily reading of approx. 6 hours a day. Then schweser too some time too.
Most suggestions I’ve seen regarding level II indicates that relying soley on Schweser isn’t enough. I’m sure there are people who passed with this route, possibly referring to the CFAI books for reference on fuzzy areas, but far less than level 1. What I’ve read on the forums breaks down to: Level I: Primarily Schweser/Other, using CFAI books for reference and/or EOC questions Level II: Primarily CFAI books with Schweser/Other for reference/review/practice.
Thanks, that’s good to know. I’ll try make a study schedule and see if I can fit in within 4 months with everything.
I, and several other people, will be trying to do the exact same thing (once I get my pass result on Jan 24! 
For Level II, the Schweser/CFA discussion comes down to this: Look at the miserable passing stats. Roughly 55% - 60% fail the exam, and that includes folks that were already reduced by Level I. So realize that you have to think outside the box a bit. To my thinking, one has to devote the maximum number of hours to study and preparation time. Once you’ve committed those hours, then the question of technique comes into focus. Use Schweser to help you understand difficult concepts (like Quant or Derivatives), but read CFA whenever you can. It’s very long, and if you get bogged down (despite having committed all those hours), you do have to cut somewhere. From my own experience (I took and passed Level II in 2011), I think it’s best to do both, side by side. Schweser excels in numbers concepts (quant, FRA, derivatives), and is weaker in conceptual material (ethics and corp. governance). Some CFA authors are really good (Fabozzi and Chance), while others truly suck (certain FRA material in particular). Good luck. Give it your maximum effort, and take shortcuts only in the name of efficiency, not to reduce study hours.