Anybody from june 2017 cohort?

Hi all,

So the caravan moved ahead with my regular forum folks passing level 2 in june.

Did anyone get left behind like me? Attempting again in 2018?

Kanu

Hey, im a first time taker of level 2 next year. How different is level 2 compared to level 1? and what’s the hardest and easiest subjects?

thanks in advance

You’ll need to know the material deeper. They’ll ask you a simple question but in order to answer it you’ll need to know which steps to take which depends on the information in the question. An example would be what’s the value of something and they give you all the info but it mentions somewhere in there that they’re experiencing hyperinflation so you’ll need to know to adjust for that before solving, stuff like that.

Everyone’s easiest/hardest subjects will differ. Some people found FRA and Derivatives the toughest but I put more work into those and scored the best in those, while others think Quants is the easiest and I completely bombed it. Just depends on how you interpret the information and understand it come exam time.

Everybody is saying that level 2 is the hurdle. hate it. well, i have no choice. i need to get through and past it.

I truthfully found Level 2 easier than Level 1. My studying approach was terrible for L1 and felt it was just so broad I couldn’t retain all the little details. L2 is definitely a lot more focused which I liked. Compare it like a mile wide river waist deep to a half mile wide river with water well above your head. The concepts start linking together so you can solve questions or eliminate wrong answers pretty easily by just thinking logically about it so the worst you can get is a 50/50 shot for a good portion of the questions. I think on the L2 exam there were maybe 10-15 I had no idea about at all (Majority of them being Quant)

Nice analysis MikeHams.

I am glad to finally hear someone admit that L2 could be interpreted as easier than L1.

I agree with that analysis. Although I have yet to take L2, the questions are MUCH more focused; based on the CFAI material. L1 can kill you with definitions of obscure terms, but with L2 - like you pointed out - the topics can link together which gives the material purpose. For me, I can retain information easier that way. And also it looks like the L2 material rewards more of a “learning by doing” strategy. Again, for me, I benefit from that style.

I think I will have the reverse problem; bomb FRA and ace out quant. But I will put a lot more time into FRA and quant.

The nice thing about FRA and currency translations is that it is a “learning by doing” process.

Hope this is a breather haha. thanks mike! just a quick question, in the item set questions, are they interrelated? like i need to get the answer for question number 1 to proceed to the subsequent questions? if yes, are all the subjects in this format?

Going into the exam my FRA scores were consistently the lowest for TT. On the exam I scored >70. What changed was doing the EOC questions, reading the answer why it was right, then going into the text to find supporting evidence why it was right, why something was wrong, etc. After doing that I really felt I had a good grasp on FRA and really knew the ins/outs of it.

They’re not interrelated. One question may say calculate FCFF and the answers are 400, 500, 600. Then the next question says assume FCFF is 500. It won’t ask you to answer a question based off your last answer. Normally the paragraphs flow in terms of the questions but sometimes there’s a detail in the first paragraph that applies to the last question in the last paragraph where the rest of the info for the question is. Just be on the lookout for key things that will influence answers. A lot of the text in the item set is irrelevant.