Do i stand a chance?

Hi everyone,

Very basic question but it would be nice to get some truthful, honest answers. Ive started late and have two months until the exam. No work, just pure studying time and using solely the schweser books. Im a chartered accountant and have just finished reading FR section - no big problems there, naturally. With the rest of the time left ie. 2 months - can I realistically pass this exam or am i going to struggle/use this as a harsh learning exercise? Was in the same position for level 1 in dec and did pretty alright, econ, fi and pm i was >50<70 but i know from a lot of people what worked at level 1,dont count your chickens for level 2…

Thank you all for this forum, inspirational.

If you can get through all of the material in the next month so you have plenty of time to review, you might make it… At least I hope so for my own sake! Good luck.

no work? there is 71 days until the exam. i don’t understand why you wouldn’t think there’s enough time if you’re not working? if you spent 8 hours a day studying for these 70 days that’s over 500 hrs…

Yes, with strict study efficiency and a lot of practice questions, it’s definitely possible. Especially with FRA done (15-20% and my least favourite).

This is from 2014 but still useful: https://konvexity.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/cfa-level-ii-in-2-months/

PM starts with a lot of overlap with level 1. Econ an FI are totally new.

thats an excellent article. thanks oktavian

You might like to consider covering the material in the order suggested in this article:

http://www.300hours.com/blog/what-is-the-most-effective-level-ii-cfa-exam-study-session-order#.VRbeGlw5lWI

I’d cover Reading 12 of Economics before starting Derivatives because it has a nice review of foreign currency transactions. Econ reading 13 & 14 can be read later.

You already cleared FRA. Equity should be even easier with a strong, intuitive understanding of statement flows and Corp Fin is easy even before that understanding. Thats 50% already. I think you have a real shot as long as you can motivate yourself to study for enough hours a day. Make sure to eat right, sleep well, and work out a bit. You have the time to control these variables. Someone mentioned to save a month for review - I think thats a silly idea when youre studying for two months. The month of review is nice if you covered topics 4+ months out but everything will be in your short term anyway. Also, hes likely measuring the month in his time. In your (unemployed) time, a month is a comfortable 200 hours of study time.

Id recommend using the CFAI books. I know time is a factor but schweser does a poor job of explanation. L2 is about understanding and manipulating the concepts, not regurgitating. Do a section that youre weak in from schweser and take the associated CFAI EoCs to see for yourself. You can probably get away with schweser for equity/corp fin without any issues though.

Remember, everyone with a full time job is working 400 hours minimum between now and the exam.

Thanks hock, sounds like some good advice there. Going to have to completely ignore your comment though about using the CFAI books as time is of the essence now and they are far too wordy to go with in only the two months I have left. Does everyone else agree that I should stick with schweser or are they that bad that it still makes sense to make my life harder with CFAI at this point?

never say die!

I feel as though I’ve gotten along fine with just Schweser

not calling it quits itera, just want to get some perspective as to how much i need to push myself :slight_smile: youre a veteran of this forum… any tips on level 2 in two months? what to study first/last

like others have said, if you are indeed studying full time, you are actually in a fine spot. definitely don’t need to panic. finish reading, and hit practice questions hard