biggest problem with level 2 is that its just too much information. its like your trying to fill a glass with too much water and its spilling everywhere. information actually leaks from your brain. if you study 6 months in the hope that you cover everything then that might not be so effective. you WILL forget alot. on the other hand, if you decide to just go through it once, close to the exam to keep it al fresh, that wont help too because repetition is key. so its a fine balance, you need to find that balance. and lets be frank here, you need to also get lucky, alot. you will be tested on stuff you know, you will be tested on stuff you know, but you just forgot, and you will be tested on stuff you have absolutely no idea they got from( even though you read the curriculum three or four times). what i would suggest is to get your fundamentals, nail down all the calculation stuff ( eg FCFF calculations etc). next, what i would suggest is to know ethics cold, thats 10% that will definitely help if you get struck by a couple of odd vignettes somewhere else. thats my two cents
My few advices: CFA EOCS are a must. Aim to do them thrice or at least twice. For reading, I am a slow reader so I chose Stalla. I can never read full CFAI textbooks especially for L2 since the material is huge. I wouldn’t say I regret it but yes there were a few things I had no clue about this time round. But I have heard the same from the ones who have used CFAI text. Master each and every calculation question through all the sources possible - EOCs, Qbank, Schweser tests, Stalla tests, Sample Exams and Mock Exams. Not asking you to go overboard if your budget is limited. But I would stress on this point because calculation calculations are solid points you can score on L2 exam, the quantitative questions might get tricky as it did this time round. Master all core concepts and pay attention to every obscure stuff because CFA is very unpredictable. About time needed, I would say starting in November is pretty safe, provided that you expect to be consistent till February (study 2-3 hours everyday). February onwards, hit the books hard and cut down on all other activities in your life (study about 4 hours everyday). April onwards your life should only revolve around CFA. Hope it helps.
The CFA Institute openly instructs us that they take questions specifically from the CFAI LOS’s. If you do not use these in your review you probably do not deserve to pass. I am a level II 2nd time taker. Both on level I and level II (1st time) I saw questions on the exam and thought “How do they expect me to know something that was in 1 paragraph on 1 page out of all that material?” only to go back later and see it was also a concept listed in the LOS. This year I made sure I was at least familiar with all LOS and I didn’t see anything on the exam I had not seen before. Not saying I knew everything, because I for sure did not. But it definitely feels good to not have to make one guess that was not “educated” Bottom line: If you don’t want to read the CFAI text that is fine, but reviewing the LOS’s is a must.
I was a band 9 fail in 2010 with basically putting in the same effort as I did with Lvl 1. This year I pretty much doubled my intensity. I made sure that I was in review/mock test mode at least a month ahead of the exam. I worked probably 90% of the Qbank questions and definitely feel like I knew the material better this go round. I wish I would have got the CFAI books instead of the e-books as I found it incredibly difficult to do EOC questions on my ipad, so I didn’t spend near as much time in the CFAI materials as a lot of people did. We’ll see. I know I know the material better this go round, but I would be hesitant to wager that I did better on the actual test… and that probably goes back to the anti Q-bank argument that most make. *IF* I fail and *IF* I decide to sit for Lvl 2 for a 3rd time, I will probably push all in with CFAI texts only. I hope that the increased effort on my part is enough to bump me from a lvl 9 fail to a pass…
After taking level 2 twice (currently awaiting results like everyone else) I’ve learned the following: - Make a schedule for yourself in Excel. I find starting from the back to be the more effective method, work to have the final 6 weeks boxed off for revision, mocks etc so work your schedule around completing all the readings by roughly T-40 from the big day. - CFA official cirriculum is far superior to Schweser Notes for exam prep. I’d use Schweser but only as a supplement to the official text. I used Schweser only for my first sitting, it failed me miserably. I say that as a Schweser convert from Level 1 studies. - Put the hours in! I severely underestimated the amount of time needed to prepare myself for exam day for my first try. I found out far too late how unprepared I was. The material itself isn’t THAT difficult to master, but when you’re forced to revise it all in the last few weeks you find yourself facing too much to prepare yourself for unless you dedicate your time to understanding the material rather than just reading it. - Take notes, make summaries of each reading (concise ones), and keep each LOS in mind. I see this as a much more productive thing to do, rather than reading something 3 or 4 times and trying to remember key points I think it’s more effective to go through it much slower and ensuring you understand the fundamentals of the readings and what the main points are. That makes it easier to recall later on and will ultimately save you a LOT of time and is a more efficient use of your time long term. Once you’ve done this then do the end of chapter questions for greater comprehension. If possible file your work for ease of access in the final few weeks before the exam. - Use Mnemonics liberally to remember key concepts. Make up your own if you have to, and make them up early on if you cover something you consider worthy of retaining. - In the final few weeks do mocks, sample papers and use the written summaries, completed EOC’s you’ve compiled as well as the Mnemonics you’ve prepared to drill home your efforts. If it’s your first effort at level 2 be sure to try your best but recall that it’s a long process which you may stumble across the way. I’d say a lot of first time level 2’s end up failing, that doesn’t have to be you but just be aware that if it’s your first time you have to be extra studious and be sure you try your best to fully understand the concepts presented as early as possible, you don’t want to be trying to understand too much too quickly towards the end of the process. All this should mean you can complete your study program effectively in a much shorter time. 250 hours of effective study is about as valuable as 450 hours of unorganised, hit and hope type study.
Hye guys found this thread to be very useful, i have given level 1 this june and came out confident but obviously not sure for nethng so fingers are crossed… Being from IT background myself was wondering how to approach for level 2… Thanks to all for sharing your methodologies. Level 1 Schweser helped me a lot, will hope it helps me in this level 2, if obvio i make it 
Thanks to all…
i went the dec - jun route so 4-5 month is plenty
For Level 1 (just took it) I started in mid Feb and just read the material cover-to-cover (did EOC questions too) and supplemented some Schweser mocks… I smoked level 1 (I’m preparing to jump off a bridge if I am wrong about this). Generally speaking- I kept telling friends as I was going through the material for L1 “I dont see what the big deal is”. Comparatively- how much more difficult is L2? Assuming I pass, I’m thinking about starting in December to give myself some time. Does that seem about right for just using the CFAI material?
I was >70% in all sections in Level I. Level 2 material is 2x as hard, 2x the amount of material, and the actual format of the test is 2x as difficult to get the information you need to answer the question.
> Comparatively- how much more difficult is L2? > Assuming I pass, I’m thinking about starting in > December to give myself some time. Does that seem > about right for just using the CFAI material? probably about 2.5-3x harder, based largely on volume and not complexity
i disagree with the above statement, complexity is definitely higher as compared to level 1.
I did my level-1 in dec…got rsults by i think feb…and started by march…so technically i had 3-3.5 months of prep…honestly i didnt touch cfai books…used only schweser ntoes and practice…in my case i didnt study consistently and the last 1 month was intense… what i recommend for u: there are loads of materials to learn and “memorize”…my biggest problem was remembering the material and the formuales…i didnt find the topic hard to understand…so make sure u read the materials atleast twice…go through all the problems throughly and practice exams…i think 3 months with 2 hours a day is more than enough (for some like me, i have been working in the industry for 3 years now…been on fixed income desk)…hope that helps…
My impression as a casual onlooker to this site is that the people are a little nuts when it comes to quantifying the absolute number of hours that are required to pass this test. Often you see people claiming well over 400 or 500 hours. This, frankly, is nuts. It leads me to believe that a) these people aren’t very productive with their time; b) they aren’t able to grasp the concepts quickly; or c) they don’t have a background in basic finance. Let’s be honest, the material on this test isn’t conceptually very difficult. The challenge is in the volume of ciriculum and the ability to recall any given topic on a single exam day. Frankly, it’s going to take everyone a different amount of time to learn the material and that preparation time is going to vary wildly based on your own habits and background. I personally felt firmly prepared with about 150-200 hours (a rough guess) of solid, productive study time. Personally, if I spent over 400 hours productively studying for this exam I would gaurentee one of two results - passing the test or losing my mind. That’s just my personal style. And to that effect, everyone is going to differ. It also concerns me when I see people saying “I studied for X hours and passed/did not pass”… rarely would you see something like “I understood the material and passed/did not pass.”
tmlfan4ever Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > My impression as a casual onlooker to this site is > that the people are a little nuts when it comes to > quantifying the absolute number of hours that are > required to pass this test. Often you see people > claiming well over 400 or 500 hours. This, > frankly, is nuts. Agreed. I never set an hours target for any of the three levels. I just set date deadlines for big milestones (finishing reading, making flashcards, taking a few mocks) and then just met them. The more granular my plan, the more likely I felt slippage so I kept everything high-level in terms of tasks. Life often interfered with my scheduled plans so usually I ended up being forced to be more efficient. This included my second kid being born one month before the L2 exam, which derailed me for the first two weeks of May. But, forced with having to study smarter, not longer, I still passed. I think I actually studied fewer hours for each successive level and compressed my studying more at the end of the period. I would agree that L2 is extremely broad and voluminous. You just need to spend enough time working through vignettes for each topical area and have a firm grasp of the core formulas.
Agree with previous posters - L2 is more material, harder concepts, and is complicated by the feeling that L1 wasn’t as hard as everyone says. Lulls you into a false sense of security. I initially found that the material was so broad that it was impossible to remember it all. Slowly, though, as I reviewed concepts for the 3rd and 4th time, they started to stick. So I think it’s important to give yourself enough time (and have the discipline) to touch everything several times, even the areas you think you know well. Reinforcement is key for L2. I tried to spend a week or two on each topic (2 for FSA, Equity, Derivatives), review it (Schweser questions, then CFAI if I had time) on Saturday, and then review a previously learned topic each Sunday. It helped a lot to see things multiple times before my first entire pass through the material. If you wait until the end, you’ve forgotten too much. Also, I should have relied less on Schweser questions, like all the other posters have said. They don’t even scratch the surface in terms of level of difficulty. In retrospect I wish I had done the Schweser questions the day I read the material, and hammered out the CFAI ones on the weekends. Best of luck.