First, congratulations to all the candidates who passed this year’s June Level II exam, I unfortunately was not one of them. I was hoping to get other’s advice on specific tactics that proved successful because right now, I’m pretty defeated. This was my second attempt on level II, so I knew what to expect going in. I participated in the Kaplan Early Start online class, read, took notes, did 60% of the questions in the Q Bank, all book questions, + CFA book questions, attended the 3 day review, and 4 mock exams and totally bombed the test ( band 5!). Worse than before! I thought for a minute when I got my results that they must’ve graded my test wrong, because after the test I didn’t feel that bad. Is it possible I just over thought ever question and completely blew it, or am I so far off the mark, that I don’t even know all that I don’t know. (insert huge sigh)
you probably scored something like a 50%… an extra few questions in AM+PM would have placed you in one of the higher bands… and your view of the exam would be different.
the point is that among 120 questions (108 excluding ethics) there’s a lot of variance… just unlucky… don’t look to much into the band
It happened to me too… I was getting 4/6 and sometimes 5/6 on all of the topic tests and I did most of them twice, did all of the BB, all of the EOCs.I knew FR&A, Equity, and Corporate Finance like the back of my hand and failed. I think I messed up my bubbles =\ There were 2 instances in the exam where the bubble I was filling in didn’t match the question in the book (e.g. I was on question 27 but was on bubble 26…)
Sorry to hear that my friend.
You only did 4 mocks which unfortunately is not enough to secure a comfortable pass. I was band 5 last year and went to a solid pass this year but did 11 mocks. You need to do as many mocks from as many different providers as possible to get the biggest exposure to every type of question you can see on the exam.
There may be some cases of people who did only few or none and passed but the law of averages would suggest there is a direct and strong correlation between mocks and succes on the exam.
I would not suggest any more classes or workshops for you. My advice would be to use a video package to get quick exposure to the curriculim again and then dive head first into mocks and questions.
I have a friend of mine who passed on his 3rd attempt with flying colours. Believe!
It’s ok Mere. My first take at L2 resulted in Band 2 and I thought I would never be able to pass given that I was band 2. I passed with flying colors this year. It’s doable.
I’m sure it feels very raw but try to shelve it… time to start working on next years battle plan.
“If at first you don’t succeed try, try and try again” - Robert the Bruce and the Spider
Thank you all for taking the time to respond and for the encouragement. I don’t know why, but I’m certain I’ll be signing up again to take another crack at it 
Sorry to hear that! You definitely put the work in – how did you do by section? Also, did you do any topic tests? The best advice I can give you is that maybe after you do all of the CFAI questions, read all of the solutions in the back to make sure you’re comfortable with how the CFA institute thinks. Sometimes by reading their answers you can get a sense of the things they like to test. Best of luck!
I was 51-70 in FRA, Equity & Quant, < 50 in everything else which blew my mind because my practice test scores in other sections were always 4 /6 or better. I completed Kaplan’s topic tests. Thanks for the tips around reading CFAI solutions, I read them but perhaps I need to focus on them more closely this time around…
Mock it up— do and redo your mocks. Maybe reading the solution isn’t enough. I remember solving my wrong answers side-by-side with the answer key. Active learning is very important.
You definitely can do it! It’s just that last push. You’re going to own the next one!
For Level II - and as a prep up for Level III - I would suggest reading the CFA material esp. for the sections you got lower scores this time.
Definitely FRA, Fixed Income, Corp Fin - merit a read from the CFA book.
Also - remember - to get a comfortable pass - given the 6 question item set - a 4/6 puts you at 66% -
you need to think in the 10 item set exam - 7 * 5/6 + 3 * 4/6 at the least => which gives you > 70%.
If you have a few 6/6 item sets - you are better for it…
It comes down to practice - a lot of it. getting used to the CFA questioning style and language really early.
I would suggest not to believe in Schweser so much … from now on.
And QBank is repetitive stuff which is good - at the beginning - to get familiar with the material - not so much for real exam style questions.
If EBITDA is a poor proxy for cash flow, then passing the level 2 exam is an even WORSE proxy for intelligence and academic potential.
Fu(K that defeatist attitude and let’s get it next year.
I went Bands 1, 2, 5, 9, Pass… in the end, had read both CFAI and Kaplan and done 10 mocks. Eventually it sinks in. Keep at it!
I found that making note cards of my reading notes really helped. That way you can hit topics repeatedly and still actively learn. I go through the readings and make notes and do the EOC questions. Then, going into the period where I’m taking mocks, I like going through my reading notes to make note-cards. After I go through each chapter of my notes, I do the EOC CFA questions.
I was a little bit behind in my studying, so I did not have the opportunity to do many mocks, I only ended up taking one full test prior to d-day, but I really thought making the notecards was key to me passing.
CFA exam is not your everything.
To pass the exam , what you need to do is knowing everything a little rather than studying everything deeply.
Most importantly, keep doing mock mock mock!!
I watched Mark Meldrum for small topics.
Did TT for Equity, FRA, FI and Derivatives and some CF. However, I realized there were way to many TT for Quant just before the test and just knew that there had to be 2 item sets. Therefore, one item set per Econ and Alts and adjusted last minute review accordingly.
Every topic adds up but you may want to maximize active return per topic (and my Portfolio was <50%). Or as everyone saying, mock mock mock.
Knowing accounting helped level 2.
Also had an Excel sheet to update expected score based on my topic weights assumption (with 50%-60% ethics x2 but ended up <50%).
My story is a touch different. Although I passed comfortably in the end. I did all 6 Shweser mocks for reference. I split the mocks per section, then did all in a sitting on a per topic basis. Corrections are important, but not critical as the coverage imho was quite specific on certain areas.
What I feel gave me the edge were the EOC questions in the official book. Very representing of structure and difficulty. People do too many questions sometimes, in the hope it triggers understanding. I did all Shweser Blue boxes to hammer home concepts, and understand exactly what knowledge basis was expected.
Free to pm if you need any help. I failed L1 twice so I know how you feel. Just keep going, the reward will be great
… i like it!
Sorry to hear that friend. I just passed my level II and it was my first attempt. Thought I might give some thoughts.
First, the amount of mocks you have done is more than enough to me. I did more or less than you, about 50% of Q bank (which I didn’t find it too useful, at least not as useful as level I, because the structure of the exam, I guess), I did the topic tests and all mock exams on Schweser and CFA institute website. To be honest with you, I wasn’t happy with any of my mock exam result. I was scoring a bit over 60% average, that wasn’t a comforting mark. However, something I found useful is that before my exam, I took some time off, went to Youtube and watched videos on all the 10 topics. Those videos only covered basic concepts, you would think that it was a waste of your time, maybe you already know all of them. But trust me, if you can do that, you will find that the surprising connection among all topics and it will adjust your exam logic to be more comprehensive. Another advice that I will give is that when you review the mock exams, try not to just focus on specific questions, try write on what areas of the topic is the questions about, go back to that area, read the notes on Schweser again, try to understand it for real. In addition, I’d like to think of the logic behind those questions. It is very important for ethics questions. If you hold the stand of point of the people who made the exam, of course you will rock it. Finally, during the exam, READ CAREFULLY. Many questions are tricky, just make sure you are not SCANNING but reading every single word. Therefore you won’t miss mark because you missed a word.
I hope it helps.