Hands up, Class March 2009
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I just went on and the first screen was a congratulations & how to become a member! Yay!
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Passed.
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Passed as well
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Congratulation to all, Were you guys using Schweser or Uppermark alone and how much time in average you spent on level II? How’s your experience with Schweser or Uppermark? Do you feel the same gap, in term of level of difficulties and complexities, between CAIA I and CAIA II is similar or comparable to CFA I and CFA II? Thanks.
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Congrats to you all!!! How was the essay? I’ve heard L2 caught a lot of you by surprise.
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I use Schweser for both L1 and L2. As a real estate guy, hedge funds (in particular the Greeks, hedging tactics under convertible arbitrage) was the most challenging and Schweser didn’t clear all my roadblocks. But for other topics Schweser generally does a good job. I have spent about 100 hours from Dec to early March to read through all the materials once, with an intensive 1-week off to revise the whole pack again and did the 2 sample exams before D-day. Based on my experience years ago, the gap of difficulties and complexities between L1 and L2 for CFA concern about “general understanding of a heavy load of basics” versus “thorough understanding of the same plus application”, and that for CAIA is somewhat “general understanding” versus more in-depth (specialized and specific, should I say?) knowledge of each AI with lesser but definitely some application-type of questions to tackle in exams. More real-world case studies from the integrated topics, which are interesting to me. I would not say CAIA is easier but just a different focus and learning journey. Out of my expectiation, the essays are all qualitative in nature. A bit of reasoning but quite some amount recitation. 90 minutes for 3 essays, each consists of 4 sub-sections, not generous indeed.
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Wow, well I will be sure to prepare accordingly. I haven’t really brushed up on L2 format yet as I still have to polish off L1 in September. I get the feeling that the concepts aren’t really as drill down in nature, as you see in the CFA.
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For you guys who passed L2 (like me), what was your experience with the multiple choice and essay? I think I aced the multiple choice part (maybe 85% - 90%), but didn’t do too well on the essay part (maybe 50% - 60%).
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Kinda similar self-assessment of my performance. But I think the Association is going to release scores by topical areas instead?
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I got a flu right a day before the exam. I was so bad that i even left 1 box out of 12 essay boxes unanswered (it was smth like cppi).
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congrats all. I didnt take L2 in March. I passed L1 last september. How many hours you put in for l2?
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180-200 hours
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that is almost like L2. Do you think it is possible to do it in 40 days?
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How many hours can you realistically dedicate per day?
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4, sleep is for the weak
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40 days is possible, but definitely not recommended. CAIA L2 is probably 2x as hard as CAIA L1, IMHO.
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I got laid off the day before the D-day. The whole office was closed 
The essay part was a surprise. I had plenty of time left so I went over again and checked whether I had missed some questions somewhere. Used only assigned readings and Uppermark test bank.
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cfaboston28 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > that is almost like L2. Do you think it is > possible to do it in 40 days? Definitely doable if you spend 4 hours per day.
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I can do 4 hours after work and 8-10 on 5 weekends. I think I may have to postpone level II of CAIA till next march. Hopefully employer will pay for level II next year.
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