I wanted to give you guys a quick summary of what worked for me and what hopefully are useful pointers for next year’s Level 2 candidates. Study material: There is a lot of discussion about whether to use Schweser or the official CFAI materials. I tried to start with just the CFAI books but I quickly realized they were too wordy and time-consuming for me. I switched to Schweser and found it much easier to go over the material and retain it. Except for the Ethics section for which I used CFAI, I used Schweser as my base for all other sections. How to use the CFAI books: I would advise everyone to get a hard copy of the CFAI books. Either pay the 150$ for the hard-copy or print them out (you get a free soft copy) if that’s cheaper for you. After going through the Schweser text for each chapter, I would skim over the CFAI text and make notes (see below) of anything that I felt was important and not covered by Scheweser. This didn’t take too long as if I a topic was covered by Schweser, I just glossed over it in the CFAI text.
Notes: Making notes is a strategy that really helped me towards the tail end of the study session during the revision time. I made super condensed notes of things (across Schweser and CFAI) that I felt are important and that I would have trouble retaining. I would advise against making this too comprehensive, I condensed my notes to 12 pages (although I did write in really small font) but I felt good that most of the stuff that I needed to know was in 12 pages.
Practice Questions: I did no (0) questions from Schweser except for the practice tests. I did the EOC mainly the item set format ones from the CFAI text 2 sometimes 3 times until I understood most of them. (There were always a few that I just didn’t get). Mark down the ones that you didn’t get fully so that you re-attempt them. Also, this ensures you don’t do the ones you understood on the first go again and waste time on them.
Blue boxes: You have to be smart about the blue boxes. Some of them are really lengthy and aren’t really that valuable for your time. I would suggest reading through the length ones to just get the concept. It’s definitely fine to not cover all of them fully, especially the really long ones.
Analyst forum: If there is one thing I would have done differently, it would have been to be more involved on Analyst Forum. It provided me a good quick distraction from my study session, look at potential common questions/concerns candidates have and hopefully be able to provide input to other candidates. For example: I found the exam tracker that Mossastic (sorry if I misspelled) put up you very helpful to level set. Exams: I found the topic based practice tests on the CFAI website very useful after I covered a particular topic. I did these ~2 times. They basically contain questions from previous year mock tests so if you cover the topic based tests you don’t need to waste time hunting for previous year exams. Also this will save your time trying to figure out which of the questions are relevant and which are not. Obviously do the official CFAI practice exam - I would suggest a week before the actual test once your preparation is done leaving the last week for a final revision. I also did 5 Schweser practice based tests leading up to the exam, I found these useful mainly to improve and then build my confidence.
Hours: There is no substitute for hours put in. But equally important is how you spend those hours. Don’t spend an inordinate amount of time on practice exams. More than 6 IMO is overkill. Rather spend the time learning/revising the material. Prioritize you study-time based on the weighting and your comfort level with the subject material. I struggle with Financial statements so I spent 2x amount of time on that relative to equities. I roughly spent a total of 400 hours. Hope that is helpful and let me know if any questions.
Thanks for the info. I will be using CFAI only as I cant afford any study notes, and CFAI materials worked fine for L1. I know its more material but I plan on starting in September to allow for plenty of time.
I agree I do not see people taking advantage of the CFAI online practice tests, I feel they really helped me prepare and drill down on what needed work before taking mocks. AF helped me a lot as well, I didn’t join until late in the game but it still provided great assistance to me. Look forward to using it more this year for L2.
I started around November, yes starting too early may lead to burn out but I would suggest easing into it if you have free time between now and end of year. rk_ash you said you tend to forget after a couple of months and thats normal and thats why notes are critical. Even if you start now, make notes - will save a ton of time later on during the second and third run (if you get the time) of the material. For some of the material I struggled with, I made notes on the first read and condensed that even further on the second pass.
Those are the changes from 2015 to 2016. You are likely all set to use the 2015 Schweser notes for everything but Portfolio Management. Just use the CFAI text for that topic and the new Quant reading, and identify whatever the minor LOS changes are for the few readings in yellow.
I think burn out risk is overrated. If you start early but at a fairly mild pace AND keep disciplined, there is less risk of burning out. Especially if you have a demanding job and a family like I do, I highly recommend starting early. I started L2 in February and my spring was a nightmare.
Yes, I had a full time job so I used to put in 2 hours in the weekday and 12 hours on the weekend. Took the last week prior to the exam off and studied a little extra then, I am not great at retaining material so I like to spend a few extra hours cramming towards the final week. Level 1 was much easier IMO as you could glaze over the material and not know it indepth. Because of the item set format in Level 2 you have to have a good understanding of all topics or take a risk by leaving out a topic. Practice is always a good thing and will help - my strategy was to focus on the CFA EOC and the Topic based practice tests to increase my confidence and understanding. I didnt touch questions from anywhere else and felt comfortable with ~95% of the questions in the actual exam. I did do 6 Schweser full length exams to level set and make sure time would not be an issue.
I found that meditation really helped. I would sit in my garden for a few hours a day until I felt completely calm, which then allowed me to study with a clear mind for at least 30 minutes a day. I failed the exam, but I nonetheless thought it was a good learning experience.
In hindsight, yes, I can see how my nudist meditation in the garden might be controversial as a study aid. However, thats what they more or less said about Galileo’s theories too. By analogy then, it stands to reason that, in time, my methods will gain acceptance in large parts of the CFA community.