Passed level 1 in December first attempt.Failed level 2 Band 2 in June 2011. couldn’t even complete reading the syllabus once.So results as expected. June 2012…Started early. Studied from Elan ( bad delivery schedule but good notes) and CFAI.Ethics only CFAI. read notes,CFAI summary and EOCs. Did all EOCs. did item set EOCs twice. did not do timed mocks but solved all item set format questions from Schweser practice exams and CFAI mock. no sample exams. solved many if not all blue box examples. Results : Failed Band 8. Ethics, FRA, FI ----- >70 AI, Equity, Econ ---- 51 to 70 Quant,Derivatives, PM,Corp---- <50. Quant is a problem area for me. i cant seem to grasp it but that’s not why i flunked.Corp fin and Derivatives led to my downfall.Some of the derivatives questions were beyond me.I thought i had a good grasp of topics and could solve most questions from CFAI EOC,mock and schweser practice exams.come exam day i couldn’t even understand some of the questions. Corp fin---- I had prepared well, though not as well as i would have liked. fell short of practice i think.I haven’t registered for 2013 yet.I am 37.married with a 2.5yr old daughter who i miss the most when i am in the library.I do want to complete what i have started and i am motivated enough to crack this exam. There is some lack of clarity about how differently i should approach it this year.Should i start with my <50 topics or go in order like i did last year.what changes/improvements are required? My thoughts… Start early. finish early. start exam format practice early say April instead of May so as to be able to work on weak areas. finally that nagging doubt that topics that i did well this year could trip me next year.How do i prevent it i wonder.
Practise/mock exams are a must. I have a background in econ/finance, wrote L1 this June and still did 8 full practise exams. I plan on doing ~12 for L2 this upcoming June.
My study plan:
Start today with quant and move through CFAI books in order, then come back to Ethics when I’m done (hopefully by end the of March). Go through the same order with Schweser and finish by the end of April. Leave the last month for touch up and exam practise.
Since you have so much time a head, you could start with weak areas, then your strong areas, then at the end your weak areas once again —> EOC, BB, and mocks -->> focus on CFAI material as this is the best way to prepare.
Then budget enought time for practice tests (1 month)
Timing your answers is importante. You could even time every vignette you find on CFAI, 18min per vignette. Doing whole timed test will certainly help on time management and also on being able to handle all the different topics at once.
man, last year, i put in the time, band 3…this year, put in the time band 4…feel like the biggest loser. i didn’t take any practice exam at all…only tried to fight through the materials, and tried to do every single problem on Schweser Qbank, did all the questions, but still when i tried to review it at the end, i forgot everything, had to relearn most of the stuff, and tried to pick out questions to do from Qbank again…ran out of time…I thought i knew accounting, but failed it <50%. can someone shine some lights on me? what should I do? I know i’m gonna have to do the practice exams…what’s the best way to retain the information?
June 2012 was my first attampt on level II exam - got band 10, failed ethics.
For June 2013 my plan is - do more Qs from CFA books, including example questions. Read Ethics. Not get stuck on one topic or question. Dedicate entire month of May for doing mocks and re-enforcing the concept.
Man I hope I will pass next yr…god help me
two of the last four in less than 50 might be a difference. anyways good luck this time and i have a feeling too that you should start with weak areas. QT is also killing me and not getting anything at all. Can you plz email me Elan short summaries/ notes. at _ akhunsafder@gmail.com _
Took me four tries to pass Level 2. The last time I made notecards as I read about EVERYTHING. Helped me focus as I read, and gave me something to review on the subway every day. As I knew each notecard by heart, I set it aside until I knew them all.
I used Schweser and CFAI books… depended on the topic.
Took all the CFAI practice tests (you can find old years with a simple google search). and a few Schweser tests.
use CFAi
Dont give up and you will slay the beast
drink lots this weekend and start studying from monday
I don’t understand why people study everything and then fail to do mocks exams. That’s when you hit multiple topics and keep everything fresh. If you just keep focusing in on one area, you are going to keep forgetting the material. I would suggest doing as many CFAI tests you can get your hands on. Do all the CFAI mocks/sample exams etc. Go thru the exam and questions you got wrong, reread those sections if you don’t get it then take another exam. After awhile, you can only be asked the same question with different numbers so many times before you get it right.
I agree. Reading through this post, and also several others that have been posted over the last few weeks, there seems to be a common theme of people questioning why they failed whilst also saying they took no practice/mock exams. Whilst the EOC are good, they are designed to walk you through the process and embed the understanding.
I studied through 7city, and we were told that for every 3 hour mock exam we did, it should take a further 6 hours to go through it and breakdown the questions. While I think this is somewhat overkill, the approach definitely has merit. Personally I went through 6 full Schweser mocks, 2 full CFA mocks, and a formal timed mock that 7city put on. Most of these were timed in order to provide an understanding of what it feels like under pressure, and I found each one hard right up until the end. Specifically I can remember the weekend before the exam, I took one of the CFA mocks, and still only hit around the 60% mark…it made me so angry that I screamed and threw my pen across the meeting room i was in so it smashed against the wall (a whole month of being in the office revising until 11 at night does strange things to a man!). But the practice paid off and I passed.
Here’s a tip if your doing L1 or L2…you can download the CFA mocks for all levels no matter what exam you are registered for. When I was doing level 1, I saved the L2 and L3 mocks as well, and this year I also saved the L3 mock. That way I had 2 mock exams this year, and will have 3 mock exams next year.
Hope that helps!
Derivatives was dirty last year on the real test. But that should be a good lesson, CFA loves to make things hard for the sake of hard, and to not even bother to test what they write. I’d suggest reading the real CFA text beofre using preps/
I did every practice question available in preparation for the test. CFAI, Schweser, Elan, and even found some Stalla questions. I failed band 10. You can study all you want and do mocks forever but CFA throws curve balls, that’s what they do. And they never ask the same question twice.
I would agree with JP. I would add that I normally started mocks on April 15th for the June exams and Oct 15th the one time I took Lvl 1.
The first time I took Lvl 2, I studied my butt off. Library every day starting on Oct 1st. Took 6 mocks and got Band 9. The second time I took it (June 2011), I studied just as hard (starting on Nov 1st this time). I had notecards, handwritten notes and took 10 or 11 mocks. Passed, but the test was still tough. I remember looking at some of the questions and thinking, “How have I studied for this thing twice and not come across this concept?”
Anyway, long story shorter…I used Schweser mostly, but for the more involved topics like Currency Swaps and what have you, I went to the CFAI texts. The texts, while wordy, will give you a step by step walkthrough. With all that being said, it’s still a really tough exam (I’ll qualify: for many people) and sometimes the dice don’t roll the way we want them, even with a lot of preparation.
And fyi mocks aren’t representative I was 65+ on CFAI Mocks and 70+ on Schweser last year but failed band 6.
You’ll nail it the next time guys/ladies
I agree with MissCleo here…
I was 70+ on all mocks including CFA mocks… I was getting 70+ on derivatives as well and most of us know how the derivatives stumped us in June 2012. I got less than 50, I know it must be around high 30s…
Luckily for me, my strong areas got me through Level 2 - FI, FRA, Corp Fin… On any other day, I could have failed the exam as well… I think my wife’s and my kids prayers did help me a bit here 
The most important thing about the mocks is that, we got to spend atleast 4-5 hours analysing why we went Right or Wrong. This is extremely important, believe me in Ethics you could have got the answer right where as your logical reasoning for the choice could be wrong. You only gain from the mocks if you do this analysis properly and gain from writing the mocks. Thats why the experienced folks here say, have time to take mocks atleast a month before the exam…
All the very best guys/gals. Kill this exam.
i have also flunked in level 2 june this year… so scared now to give exam again… dont knw what is enough and what is not…
somebody help