Since level 2 is a unique beast I’d like to ask for any input from experienced candidates and charterholders given my unique, time-crunched situation.
74 days to exam:
I am single and only working 15 hours/week which leaves the rest of my life to dedicate to CFA prep.
I have the cfa curriculum + schweser notes + wiley video set (videos seem to be very long and hard to watch)
I have a charterholder mentor who is willing to help with discussions and reviews of material.
I have completed a first reading for FRA, Corp Fin, Equity, have not done any EOCs yet.
My plan is to complete a first pass of the curriculum without doing EOCs as quickly as possible as to leave the most time for the following phases which will include going through every blue box and EOC with the finest of combs and making notes which will be used as discussion points with my CFA mentor.
Having read FRA CF and Equity I can already tell I’m in for a hell of a ride here, and so I ask you, AF, What can I do to better prepare myself for the challenge ahead?
Whether your advice is general in nature or tied to something specific in the curriculum, I sincerely thank you in advance for your consideration, and best of luck to all my fellow candidates.
get yourself two dozen pens, 1000 blank flashcards, 5 or 6 A4 blotters and a couple of calculators. oh an a big table.
then you are all set!
i’m roughly in same spot, but i’m not working at all, and have finished stats/econ first read as well. so the difference here is fairly negligible (I realize I have a bit of an advantage…).
My plan, is to try and finish the last volumes (alternative/FI, and Port M/deriv) in next 2 weeks. That takes me down to 60 days until exam. I then want to go through all the material taking notes on the most important concepts/formula’s in the next 40 days or so, maybe 35. This will be my 2nd revision. That leaves about 25 days or so to start the retention/mock/question phase. I feel like 3 weeks is enough for this stage trying to HAMMER in the important concepts in each volume and taking a few mock exams to discover weaker areas.
The bottom line here though, is that we have no excuses here. What’s 2 months of our time in the grand scheme of things?? It’s like 0.2% of our life. What I’m getting at here is, personally, I will go “balls to the wall” for these 2 months…girls, leisure, basically everything else that’s not necessary to my survival and well-functioning brain, can be sacrificed for 0.2% of my life. 74 days, even with 15 hours of work a week, you can easily put in 400-500+ hours from this point forward. I will be doing that myself, 8+ hours a day on this stuff. That should raise your chances of passing exponentially. The question is less about what you need to do, and more about are you prepared to do it?
People underestiamte the weights of Quant and Econ so dont ignore them. They’re both 5-10% each on the exam which means there’s most likely going to be 3 questions on the exam for them combined.
Econ reading is tough and people get discouraged. Depending on your background quant is either hard or easy. Know those sections because combined they will be 15% of the exam.
OP relax, you are working 15h/week. Just put in 5h every day from now on, you’ll be all set. I honestly do not think L2 is challenging if one does not have a full time job.
Only a CFA candidate knows what its like to watch the ink run dry in your entire supply of pens
And thanks for the other encouraging comments, gents.
start practicing … even if u practice for half an hour and even if u start with ethics… just start practicing …