For all those who passed L2 now

Congrats on your achievement and success. Request you to please share the study strategy and practices you followed that in hindsight you feel have been the key factor/s for your success . Thanks.

Last year failed band 6.

This year passed with 8/10 sections 70% and above, except derivatives and portfolio management.

What i did differently:

Study 1.5 hours per day, every day, starting in november.

Studied with Bloomberg exam prep, which I strongly believe is the reason for the pass. They ask you questions constantly and interactively as you go through the curriculum.

Read cfa curriculum once. Did CFA mock exam. Did several CFA topic tests. 1 Month/ 5 weeks before exam, did only mock exams. Nothing else. Did morning session one day, next day afternoon session. 3rd day review answers to both parts. 4th day did morning session, 5th day afternoon session etc. etc. Rinse and repeat.

Did a total of 9 mock exams, and I believe in the last few weeks, mocks can easily make or break your performance. With enough mocks, you can do this!!

Thanks whyisitsodifficult for your valuable comments

Read the notes thoroughly. First pass should be more high level to understand how to do everything, as you won’t remember everything. Subsequent passes should be sued to drill down on more “fringe/outlier” material that WILL show up and could be very easy points.

Prioritize CFA topic tests and mock exams. Do as MANY as you can as they are the best proxy for the acual exam. If you can do all of the topic test/mocks comfortably, you are almost guaranteed a pass.

But, if you want to do well, you need to read the notes and know as much “fringe” material as you can. Because, those little one-liners in the text will show up on a multiple choice exam and could be the difference between getting a 65% on the exam, or a 75%.

TLDR: Put in the time and effort, do as many exams/topic tests as you can, and you should be fine! =)

Which were these mock exams - CFAI, Scheweser etc?

Thanks WeekndLearner for your valuable feedback

Went from band 5 last year to pass with almost everything above 70.

All CFA EOC, all CFA topic tests multiple times over and about 10 mock exams. I Cant stress the importance of mocks. as many as you can afford/get your hands on. People will tell you quality over quantity, I disagree. You only pass this with blunt force repetition. I think I did about 10 mocks this year.

No problem if they can help other people that’s what I want.

The 9 mocks I did consisted of

1 CFAI mock

1 Schweser (online) mock

6 Bloomberg mocks

1 Wiley mock

Thanks rexthedog for sharing your strategy to us.

Also failed band 6 last year.

Started studying at October this year. Primarily went with schweser but I referred to the CFAI material whenever I wanted more clarifications. Each time I finish a study session I would do the EOC and the questions in the CFAI. I am a slow reader so it took me from oct till almost end of Apr just to go through all the readings once.

Did maybe 20% of the topic tests and did some extra schweser questions from their review package.

That left we with around 5 weeks to review. Big topics get one week, others get a few days. Did mocks on weekends and would read my noted when I commute to work.

To me this is a marathon more so than a sprint. I mean, of course the last month matters to tie loose ends, but you really need to contribute bit by bit every week.

Thanks keroppi3785 for sharing your feedback. Thanks again to whyisitsodifficult

Band 9 repeater… 6am study sessions starting in January, rolled out of bed, coffee and a cigarette, then two problem sets before breakfast… Rocky Balboa style.

First-time taker. Started studying in December. Logged about 500 hours of prep. Used the Schweser notes primarily and used CFAI text for the heavily weighted sections (FRA, Equity, Ethics, FI, Quant) where I ended up scoring over 70% in each.

8 mock exams: 6 w/ Schweser, 1 CFAI, 1 live mock. Last two months were dedicated to practices questions using the Qbank and mock exams. Reviewed the mock exams over and over.

In my opinion “drill down” is one of the most important things to focus on, that being said I thought level 2 was like a hail mary when I took it. But for level 2 it’s crucial to understand why you are doing something a particular way. Level 2 was more than just muscle memory because there are so many different variations to testing a subject. Level 2 is really a great transition into level 3 where you have to pick up on key words and how it’ll impact your answers.

I thought the best learning method was do as many mocks as possible and dissect each and every question by understanding the rationale behind every step you take.

Cheers

1-month intensive full-time revision.

6 Kaplan mock EXAMS

1 CFAI mock exam

All topic tests of CFAI at least twice

Making a document of all the questions where I made a mistake + topics/formula which I was likely to forget (70 pages document in the end )

Thanks MrNoFear, AlmostDonelll , Exam_Taker_Unprepared and calvol for the valuable feedback

I stayed off of all forums as they’re a huge distraction.

Used IFT videos for curriculum & completed BB/EOC after each reading (I didn’t read the curriculum). Finished study 4 weeks before exam & went into revision mode. Did topic tests several times, CFAI mock exam & used the IFT review package . Reviewed all BB/EOC again - didn’t necessarily redo them all, just reviewed them to ensure I still understood them.

In hindsight: I wish finished the curriculum (IFT videos & BB/EOC) & started to revise around 6-8 weeks before the exam rather than 4 weeks as this for me is when it all comes together in my head.

Either way I passed & now seek to fuck up level 3.

Kept on reading scheweser notes. Practised their exam once. Did all institute questions 1-3 times considering what i felt was more difficult. Institute topic area questions are must practise… most relevant for exam. Attempted one mock a week before exam and other about 2-3 week before exam.

Most important thing is still _ reading the notes again and again. _ If you can manage reading notes 4-5 times and another 4-5 times during last 2 weeks, u r done to master the exams. I got band 1 in everything except Ethics where i got band 2.

was along similar lines in level 1 , band 1 in everything except alt investment and portfolio

Thanks Coastie for your feedback

Thanks Rishav for sharing with us your study strategy