June 2017 failed band 9 - registered for June 2018

I started revision late in February this year and took 1 .5 weeks leave before the exam. Though it was a painful experience, I decided to swallow all these and plan ahead for next year. So, I sincerely would like to seek for advice from all of you on the coming strategy. ( I have ordered the print cirriculum from CFAI and will start reading them soon)

My advice on Level II: Buy the Kaplan books – read them and then do the CFAI BB / EOC questions and topic tests and mock exam. No need to waste time on the Kaplan end of chapter questions – no one makes questions as close to what the CFAI is looking for as the CFAI – I passed this year after walking out of a mock exam a few weeks before the actual exam from another prep provider (not Kaplan) that was so out of the realm of what I was expecting that I just left because I knew it was a waste of time and not in the style of CFAI questions.

Passing Level II is as much about learning the material as it is about looking for what the CFAI likes to test – you have to know the concepts, but you also have to know the key points that the CFAI uses to differentiate who understands the concepts and who just memorized formulas. When I first started doing practice problems, for example, i would forget that you have to amortize the step up in fair value of inventory after an acquisition on the future income statement, and I missed that a couple times. after seeing it several times on CFAI practice problems, I remembered to look for it and then I was getting that concept right on practice problems. You never know which of those types of tricks is actually going to show up on the exam, but each Topic Area has certain ways of testing who actually REALLY REALLY understands what’s going on, and the more you do the CFAI questions, the more you can figure out what is important to the CFAI, the writers of the exam. Getting through Level I, they know everyone knows how to block and tackle and plug and chug formulas. Level II is about really understanding why things are the way they are, and it seems like the way they do that is by adding little twists to questions that only savvy consumers of the material are able to recognize. that seems to be what determines whether you’re in the <50, 51-70, or 70+ range. Some questions are more straightforward, and some have tricks.

Best of luck! You can do this!

+1… I was Band 9 last year and this year did 6 Kaplan + 3 CFA mocks and passed… Kaplan explanations to questions were a good learning tool. Did EOC’s 2x as well to reinforce concepts. Basically this is all about building a base of knowledge so that no matter what the exam throws at you, you can average 4/6 correct…

I keep seeing everyone recommend the same thing of doing more and more questions. That’s just passive learning. Go through the answers and write down how it was solved, why it’s right, why it’s wrong, reference the actual material, and actively understand the material. EOC, BB (not as much I found), mocks, and TT were great to review answers with because it links everything together. I’d see TT questions which reminded me of an EOC question which I understood well when I referenced the material when I wrote out the answer and then I’d solve the TT question. They ask the same questions in different ways so once you really understand the topic through and through you’ll likely be able to get the right answer or know enough that you can eliminate answers with certainty.

I have a notebook full of paragraphs and paragraphs of EOC explanations for questions, TT, pages of mock exam explanations. It takes a long time but I personally found that it was my best strategy and after doing those I felt I had a very good handle on the material and my TT scores supported that.

The only thing I would say in addition to what others have said above, is make sure you’re putting in enough time. Starting late Feb doesn’t sound like the best plan to me to be honest. It is doable but that seems too short for me and I was never for cramming. I like to spread things out so I usually start studying in on Dec 1st.

Good luck!

I read through examples in CFAI textbooks and did all questions in CFAI textbooks.

KS material enhanced my understanding

Lastly, do mocks as many as possible.

Thanks, mglasses5! This is well written. Will follow the above for the coming year.

Yup, the experience was quite painful but anyway congratulations! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing, MikeHams!

Failed band 7 this year and band 5 last year. I’m done with Kaplan. They’ll never see another penny from me. I’ll probably read the CFAI curriculum this go around and use videos from another provider.

What did you not like about it? What was your study plan last year? Used IFT this year which helped a lot, but still failed Band 8… would like the six Schweser mocks and the Qbank, essentially just more practice…