Last week before

CFA Level II
#1

Any input from someone who’s taken or passed level 2…

I finally scored a 75% in the last Schweser exam yesterday. It was a nice confidence booster, but by no means am I satisfied.

That being said, I still am very weak on Derivatives. It’s also a toss up for AI, Econ, and PM. Depending on the item set they give you, I can score really well on AI, Econ, and PM. However if I see a lot of quantitative questions on those subjects I tend to score really poorly.

My strengths are Equity, FI, FRA, Corp Finance, Quant, and Ethics.

So my question is… what do I focus on for this past week? I really don’t know how much I can improve on Derivatives or AI at this point. I feel like I could bump my score up in those sections by really focusing on them for a couple days but I feel like it’s not the smartest strategy. My experience from Level 1 was to just hit all topics (qbank and TT) at the same time to keep everything fresh.

My gameplan for the next week is to do flashcards everyday (I’ve made a ton of them) and maybe go over some of the mocks I completed to try and master some of the questions I missed. Also memorizing my formula sheet.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

#2

Also, without violating CFAI ethics… for anybody that has taken level 2 before… would you say Econ, PM, AI, Derivatives was more qualitative or quantitative?

I can handle most qualitative questions on those… However, the quantitative material really screws me over.

#3

Go over derivatives. You could potentially get 3 item sets for that part so if you are weak on in, then its going to bring your score down.

I found creating excel sheets for Swaps for the EOC questions was really helpful as it not only helps you visualize the techniques but you can go over the calculations extremely quickly for a good final review. Only a few days left though so don’t get bogged down in one area.

#4

That’s my biggest worry that I would see 3 item sets for Derivatives lol.

What do you mean by creating excel spreadsheets for Swaps?

Im pretty good at knowing the concepts and answering qualitative questions for Derivatives. However, Im really bad at the computational problems. At this point, do you think if I just memorized the formulas I could be ok?

#5

Focus on derivatives and AI. Print out the sample CFAI vignettes and make sure you can do them. Do them until you can get them right.

#6

Are sample CFAI vignettes the same thing as the Topic Tests or is this something else?

#7

In my opinion Derivatives is one of the easiest topics after you’ve spent enough time absorbing and understand the core concept and AI can be thoroughly worked out in 1 or 2 days. Keep reading the curriculum and do the EOCs and topic tests. I always struggle in Ethics and Econs no matter how much time I spend on them, sadly.

#8

if you are taking off this week and have 3 hours to spare, i highly suggest good old Andy Holmes schweser video for FRAs Swaps and Forwards

#9

Go over derivatives. I am not a big fan of smashing formulas, but for derivatives it really helps. Pricing and Valuation of Forwards and Swaps. In a couple of days you can get it into your head.

Also option concepts and strategies.

How do options react to changes in rf, vol, etc.

I think that will benefit you the most.

Also know some basic PM stuff like Information Ratio, Sharpe Ratio.