As a level 2 re-taker I want to avoid the pitfalls that befell me the last time round. Last year I clearly did not cover the material and I did not deserve to pass. This time I am nine weeks/nine study sessions/34 readings away from completing my first reading. In this time I have been reading and highlighting the most important sections. I then intend to go read what I have highlighted with support of Schweser summaries of CFA level 2010 and do EOC questions and sample papers. I hope with all this I shall make the cut this time. What will you do differently?
i’ve failed twice now and i think what has been the biggest problem has been not being consistent with my review. last year i read and took notes using the 2010 stalla notes, did all of the end or chapter questions, then did the cfai eoc questions and followed up with the cfai practice tests. i did the material, but was off and on with it and wasn’t able to pull all the material i needed in the exam, though i did get 70%+ in four gategories. this year i’m just going to get the passmaster cd and pound the material for 6 months. my goal is to be done before labor day so that i can relax with my friends and use that week to do light review and possibly hang out at the beach.
I failed once, passed 2nd try. It was Brutal. The last month of continual beating of the material, trying to squeeze everything in. Hardest exam I ever had in my life. 1 more level to go… gah
To those who’ve taken L2, which practice (mock) exams prepared you the best/worst? Some have stated the actual exam was harder than expected. In hindsight, what could you have done in the final 4 - 6 weeks to be better prepared?
Yes the actual was definitely harder. Usually, one session of the exam will be easier. When I took L2 first time, the afternoon was much harder, but the 2nd time, the morning was much harder. And when I left, I overheard many people saying the same thing. Final 4-6 weeks, don’t let panic set in… it kills memory retention
any thoughts as to which practice exams helped?
Schweser brother
- Schweser’s live mock last year was pretty close to the real deal. 2. Mock exam CFA + samples definitely provide some questions and the wording of the questions and answers helps prepare you for the real exam. In general the Schweser Exams Book 1 was too wordy, lengthy. Also questions tended to be a little more calculator intensive. Exam Book 2 - was even more lengthy, wordy. Stalla - also suffers from the same problems - lengthy, wordy questions, and very unlike the final exam.
But did it help with your performance on the exam? cpk123 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > In general the Schweser Exams Book 1 was too > wordy, lengthy. Also questions tended to be a > little more calculator intensive. > > Exam Book 2 - was even more lengthy, wordy. >
I used the Schweser Practice exams as extra questions. I did not solve them in an exam setting. (like use 3 hours exactly, solve them all, first). I used them like Qbank questions - more like individual vignettes - to get concepts. I also found that Schweser had not updated all the topics from past years, they just tended to use the same questions from past years, even though the material had changed.
Thanks all. I can see most prefer Shweser to Stalla. I will also stick to that too. My only fear is that too much reading in a very short space of time may lead to burn out before the D-day.
I used Schweser last year. Tried to cram too much in too little time. I put too much emphasis on the areas I knew well and not enough on my weak areas i.e. FSA. L2 is all about FSA and Equities. You MUST know those sections frontwards and backwards if you expect to pass. I was very shaky on FSA and it showed on the exam. Had I gotten above a 70 in it I probably would have undoubtedly passed the exam. - Master FSA - Use only CFAI Texts - Complete all EOC Qs - Finish every mock/practice exam I can get my hands on
I used Schweser last year and also found the mocks too wordy - this year I am only going to use the CFA books as found many of the questions in the real exam hadn’t been covered in Schweser. Anyone else taking this approach?
The lesson I have learned from my failure - don’t forget watch 
i think the lesson i learned is that you gotta know your materials INSIDE out. don’t pick and choose the topics that you’re good at, and don’t even try to second guess what’s gonna be on the exams based on your experience in practice exams and whatnot. just make sure you do all the EOC questions as well as going through the chapter examples (if you have time). the biggest mistake for me was to go through all the material once then doing all the questions after, chapter by chapter. that really doesn’t help. because i wasn’t able to pull everything together, even though i covered most (if not all) the material/ questions. on the exam day, your head needs to switch from 1 topic to another, within split seconds. in order to do that, you probably need to do every single practice exam you can ever find. make sure you start those practice exams sometime in april, so you have more than a month to master the technique. there really aren’t any short-cuts. this is it, my friends. if you want it bad enough, you’ll do what it takes, including making all the unwanted sacrifices. good luck fellas!
As you guys know, he CFAI text includes information outside the scope of the LOS’s (learning outcome statements). Will some of this extra information be asked on the exam or will the exam questions only strictly ask based on the LOS’s? Thanks very much
Short answer, everything is fair play… When I took it last time I had 1.5 full item sets on one LOS Accruals Ratio on FSA… if you missed those two pages you were done…
rockstar Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > As you guys know, he CFAI text includes > information outside the scope of the LOS’s > (learning outcome statements). Will some of this > extra information be asked on the exam or will the > exam questions only strictly ask based on the > LOS’s? > > Thanks very much I’d like to know the answer to Rockstar’s question as well. I am not far enough in my reading to notice this myself. Rockstar, are there questions not in LOSs but tested in EOCs? Thanks
I concur with Ice 6006 on his strategy, although mine is slightly different. I am first doing an intial read through highlighting the main points in the material guided by the LOS and doing the examples. I skip (this may sound risky) the EOC questions and move to the next reading and do the same. I do this in order not to get too bogged down trying to answer all the question. After I am through with my intially reading (which should be no later than the 3rd week of March) I will go through all the material again reading what I highlighted guided by the examples and answering all the EOC question for each reading. I do this because last time I did not complete the readings fully and lacked time for consolidation of material & preparation. With the second reading done and EOC question completed. With consolidation of all the material I will start on sample exams & MOCKS. I hope this fits!?!?!!
ice6006 Wrote: > the biggest mistake for me was to go through all > the material once then doing all the questions > after, chapter by chapter. that really doesn’t > help. because i wasn’t able to pull everything > together, even though i covered most (if not all) > the material/ questions. on the exam day, your > head needs to switch from 1 topic to another, > within split seconds. in order to do that, you > probably need to do every single practice exam you > can ever find. make sure you start those practice > exams sometime in april, so you have more than a > month to master the technique. > My plan is to read each section in the Schweser books as many times as necessary, do EOC questions in the CFAI texts, Q-bank questions, and watch the videos for any weak points. Then every week or so go back for a quick refresher quiz (in Q-bank) of all previously studied material. I also started taking the bus to work in the morning which allows me another 30-45 minutes of going over homemade flash cards each day. That helps keep the topics fresh. Thoughts?