It would be interesting to know, what minimum effort could lead to a pass. For me it was :- Start :- 25th January Total Hours including every thing :- 250-270 Background:- Electrical Engineering with absolutely no idea of how to read Financial Statements Schweser notes only + Ethics from CFA books. Only 1 mock exam from CFA. Result :- Pass + 70% + in all sections but economics. and you ?
I beat you by miles. A bachelors in Engineering Physics. No idea what so ever about Finance except a little about Derivatives I read years back from John Hull. Started sometime in April mid with Schweser notes and Schweser Videoes. Atleast a few study sessions done exclusively through Schweser Secret Sauce the day before the exam. Done most questions on QBank. No mock exams. The CFA books, except for the top two in the box, has not yet been take out of the box. More than 70% in all areas except for FRA (FRA sucks big time) AND Corporate Finance (I thought I understood this pretty well) Took a one week leave from work before the exam and studied 18 hours each day and was mugging until the minute I entered the exam room. ENGINEERS RULE!
I’m an engineer too. I think I spent closer to 300+ hours though. 10/10 > 70%
Economics in undergrad, no finance in college whatsoever. Signed up at the last minute of the final deadline. 3 months studying, probably less than 200 hours. 50-70 in Equity & Derivatives, >70 in everything else. So stoked.
Laid off March 13…registered for the exam that weekend. Ordered the Schweser study package and started studying by March 30th (approximately 2 months). Studied about 200 hours between then, and took 3 practice tests as I just ran out of time. Didn’t do any special sauce or Q-Bank, just read the Schweser books and worked questions/took notes. My background: double major in Finance & Accounting (helped big time) & English minor. Scored > 70% on every section except Economics and Quant I was below 50%. I knew they were my weak sections so I ended up taking them last on the morning/afternoon session. I ran out of time in the morning, and just randomly filled in 8 answers in economics…oops 
I have a bachelor’s degree in finance, but I still studied for probably 500+ hours. Overkill, I know, but I feel very well prepared for level two, and I (hope) to be as overprepared for that exam as I was for this one, if that is possible.
I have MS in Financial/Applied Maths dual degree, I started around last week of march. I think paper was easy, but that could also be because I was well prepared. No background econ/accounting, so I had to devote substantial time to FSA. But things were easy to grasp.
Bachelor’s degree in English Literature. Career in political journalism before making the switch to finance in February '08. I put in 450-500 hours and got 70%+ in all areas apart from AI and quants.
sbmarti2 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I have a bachelor’s degree in finance, but I still > studied for probably 500+ hours. Overkill, I > know, but I feel very well prepared for level two, > and I (hope) to be as overprepared for that exam > as I was for this one, if that is possible. Same as sbmarti2 though I know how to read financial statements and have commendable investment experience…, both professionally (4-5yrs) & personally (more than 5yrs).