I have just read your post last year. Finally you pass it.
I fail to pass this year and feel very dauting. The exam is costly, I will have to save money but it lasts long for several months, so I’m afraid I can not pay the fee in time. In addition, my work is not now related to CFA, it wont any difference between passing CFA 2 this year or not. Deep inside, I still want to complete it. I tried so hard to learn CFA 2 in 3 months, at the same time I still went to work. I know I made a unresonable, risky decision. But I really tried for it. Sleepless all last night and feel very bad.
What a relief to throw away the monkey crawling on your back and a joy to hold your new baby girl. She will be amazed by this story in the future. Congratulations.
Hey Greenman - I think I should clarify that statement! I aced it the following year after I failed it the first time around, haha! I tried the Dec-lvl1/June lvl 2 & all that crap was going on like you. Perseverance my friend!
Huyen - why the heck would you only study 2-3 months? Get a clue man & don’t waste your money on the exam & plan to pass it while working & only studying 2-3 months!!! VERY few people can get past level 2 with that short of prep time while working. My suggestion - start earlier!
I don’t mean to troll but here is how I prepared for L 2 2014 after getting failing badly last year (due to several reasons primarily related to work).
First2013
June 2013: Band 2 >70: Econ 51-70: FRA, Corp Fin <=50: Quant,PM, Ethics,FI,Equity,Der and AI
I started in October. I spent nearly 300 hours (altough inefficiently) and prepared using schweser (not recommended though) and Curr EOC questions. I did not attempt any mocks. One of the reasons I failed was that I used nearly 1/3 of the time creating notes (filling up 600 pages). I should have rather used that time revising from notebooks again and again and practice additional questions. I was usually scoring 50% in EOC questions. There were several work related issues that hindered my ability to focus properly on preparation. I also purchased access to BSAS test bank but I couldn’t use it properly due to lack of time.
I was not fully prepared and only had one hour sleep on the day before the exam (after a journey of 400 KM from another city) which caused me to lose focus during the exam.
2014
>70:FRA, Corp Fin,FI 51-70: Quant, Ethics,Equity,Der and AI <=50:Econ, PM
I started in February. I did not create any notes and used the previously created notes to prepare for the exam (except for those study sessions that were added/changed during the period.). I bookmarked important section using indexers. This helped me save a lot of time. I also attempted nearly all the EOC questions. I purchased Finquiz smart summaries in may for revision (should have bought earlier). I did not focus at all at Quant due to lack of time. I revised the rest of the content several times during the final 20 days (except for ethics which I only did once).
I revised important sections and formulas for the last time on the day before the exam and used red bull and other stimulants along with sugary food during the night (I did a cycle of one hour sleep and one hour study during the final leg of the night—not reccomended though).
I was lucky enough to pass barely.
Please note that the above stated method is not a recommended method but I had to make do as I had previously wasted a lot of time. The reccomended method is to start early and use curriculum and EOC question(which I plan to do for L 3 this year). A person can subsitute curriculum with 3rd party notes if he has basic understanding of the concepts covered in the study sessions.