Level 2 challenges

I’m through book 4 of the material and am a bit surprised at how straight forward everything has been so far - I was expecting L2 to be a stressful experience the entire way through. Is anyone else finding this as well? Are the topics in the last two books (altos, derivatives, FI, PM) more difficult than the rest?

What sections have you guys found difficult so far?

you found FRA straight forward?

FRA is (fairly) straightforward, but you have to keep straight the differences between IFRS and US GAAP (which, of course, you had to do at Level I). I wrote an article on currency exchange (temporal method vs. current rate method) that simplifies the thinking on that.

Derivatives seems daunting, but it’s not as bad as it seems. I’ve written several articles on pricing and valuing derivatives that make it a lot easier than the curriculum does.

Similarly, I wrote an article on the venture capital method that simplifies it from the discussion in the curriculum.

The long and short of it is that Level II, though it is unquestionably harder than Level I, is not a difficult as people think it is.

I work in public accounting and have audited public companies using both IFRS and USGAAP, so FRA is fortunately the easiest section for me.

S2000 - Checked out the derivatives material you have on your website, looks fantastic. Will absolutely be taking advantage once I get to that part of the curriculum, thanks for making it available.