Green360, thx for clarifying front office finance roles are filled with smart people. That explains billions of dollars of losses in investment banks in recent years.
jrozario Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Green360, thx for clarifying front office finance > roles are filled with smart people. That explains > billions of dollars of losses in investment banks > in recent years. Your ignorance is astounding. Do you think the economy would have trillions of dollars to lose in the first place if there were not very smart people raising capital and promoting liquidity in the capital markets?
Thanks again for educating me. Learning so much already today.
(If you are one of those smart people who can compose an opera at age 5, redefine physics at age 27, invent quantum mechanics over a 3 days road trip, or work in front office who feel L2 should take no longer than 4-5 months to prepare, what I am going to say does not apply to you. I enjoy being a layman as some of you put it and what I am going to say is intended for normal joe like myself.) I think the guide is mostly good. I do suggest starting in Oct. the latest though if you plan to learn the materials. Reasons being that, sh*t happens in life and it’s always better to allocate buffer in case of unusual events. The other comment I would like to offer is that Schweser Books 1 and 2 don’t seem relevant to the recent exam. So I would still do selective problems from these books and use them as opportunities to learn your mistakes. I won’t use them as any sort of benchmark to determine when to stop studying. In fact, I would encourage you to keep studying until 2 PM on the day before D-Day. The remaining time on that day should be spent on relaxing your mind and conserve energy. I have little experience with the Schweser instruction video. So I am not sure how good they are. I believe each of us has different way to absorb materials. In my case, it’s all pencil and paper.
“4-5 months is MORE than enough time to study for the exam. if you’re not smart enough to be able to get it done in 4-5 months, then you’re not really gonna cut it in a front office finance role anyway, so might as well quit while you’re ahead.” Basically hit the nail on the head right there.
no offence to SuperStar. but it seems u just made it through level 2. You were pretty much on the borderline with that score. So i dont think how ur study plan can be generalized. i know you are only trying to help other people , but i doubt if this plan will work for everyone. i also did just schweser for level 2, started in feb, and i have absolutely no finance experience.and i made it through to level 3. but i wont say that my study plan should be followed by every1, bcoz i also passed marginally. i would only say 1 thing…if you want to pass the exam with just schweser, then make sure u either remember or understand each and every line of it.there is no other way.you cant afford to miss any line , as questions can be piked up from any line and thrown. tc
and yes…dont get over excited if you get good scores in the mock exams of schweser or the cfa, they are very misleading as many people who got in 80’s in CFA mock exams , failed the real exams.
SuperStar, I feel sorry for you man. This is what happens when you try and help strangers… they bite your hand… Guys, really, I see some sick people here. I feel sorry for your wives/ husbands/ significant f$%#ers. Here this guy comes and try to share his experience with you for sheer purpose that it might help him end up in heaven, and the replys come from all directions and at the end they start to marginalize his pass. I mean WHAT THE F%$K is wrong with you. Some of you really need to grow up and learn something called “constructive criticism”…
it would have been much better if superstar started the thread with the title…“my successfull study plan for level 2.”
green360 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > 4-5 months is MORE than enough time to study for > the exam. if you’re not smart enough to be able to > get it done in 4-5 months, then you’re not really > gonna cut it in a front office finance role > anyway, so might as well quit while you’re ahead. If you think its that simple to be in front office and to be successful in FO, best of luck to you. Its not kindergarten, dear.
might wanna work on your reading comprehension skills…never said working in FO is “simple”, in fact I pretty much said the opposite.
when you go to that exam and see the sheer difficulty of it,the very weird questions that will come up for sure,and you start having the feeling that this is ‘not fair’,‘very hard’,‘i cant pass this’,no fucking way this is happening today’, ‘after 5 months of studying this is what i get’ you will understand why you too will prey to whatever god you believe in to marginally pass the exam in order not to repeat that horrible process of retaking Level2-thoughts about ‘learning the material’ will be joke to you-and after all a marginal passer like me does not know the material (what happened to ‘a pass is a pass,its above 65% after all!!’)??? any guy who took level 2 at least one time definately understands my words above,(retakers and passers) the people who did not take the exam are those who always try to be smarter…be grateful that am sharing my experience with you and dont try to criticise me just learn from me and ask anything else that you might want to know…i might be able to help you very very much with my experience,you takers ever think about that? and always remember this when your criticism is negative… am a passer.
green360 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > might wanna work on your reading comprehension > skills…never said working in FO is “simple”, in > fact I pretty much said the opposite. I wonder how you scored on GMAT Verbal. You said if one can’t crack CFA L2 in 4-5 months then one is definately not a FO material. This is a very narrow description of qualities required in FO. I know several people who flunked in CFA L1,never gave CFA again, got a Top 5 MBA and are in FO. Cracking exams and being successful in business are two different things. I guess this is an obvious thing.However I need to spell it out.
Thanks for the advice, though as a fellow econ grad (MA), econ must really be a b**** if you got under 50% unless you ignored it because of its lower rating.
AbhiJ Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > green360 Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > might wanna work on your reading comprehension > > skills…never said working in FO is “simple”, > in > > fact I pretty much said the opposite. > > > I wonder how you scored on GMAT Verbal. > You said if one can’t crack CFA L2 in 4-5 months > then one is definately not a FO material. This is > a very narrow description of qualities required in > FO. I know several people who flunked in CFA > L1,never gave CFA again, got a Top 5 MBA and are > in FO. > > Cracking exams and being successful in business > are two different things. I guess this is an > obvious thing.However I need to spell it out. Your logic is skewed - citing someone who flunked the exam and yet works in FO doesn’t prove anything - who knows why they failed. To be clear, I never said failing in and of itself was indicative of anything, only that needing to spend an excessive amount of time studying is. I’ll make my point another way: There’s 2 things that will result in success on the exam: time/effort studying and intelligence, where the smarter you are, the less time you’ll need (up to a certain point). So my point was, if you’re studying for a crazy amount of time (and yes, more than 4-5 months is ridiculous) then you probably don’t have a strong aptitude for this stuff.
What do you know another one of these posts… **One person passed the exam with less than 100 hours and then another person swears to all that is sacred that no one could do it without 8000 hours*** Who cares. This only confuses people. Everyone studies different. Everyone learns different. Unfortunately you will never be able to prove If someone KNOWS they learn best with flashcards and strictly uses flashcards, who’s to say they can’t pass with 150 hours of solid flashcard memorization? If someone is a slow reader and decides to read the entire CFAI curriculum, highlight it and do every last practice problem…it will probably take you 4x longer. Learn how you learn. Use that method. Have 1-2 backup method for when this method gets boring and your eyes get tired. Here’s some things I do: -Set an alarm to get up and run around to get your heart rate pumping for 5 minutes every hour so you don’t get sucked into a 2 hour day-dream where you’re mindlessly reading but learning nothing… -Avoid distractions at all cost. it might be cheaper for you to go home and eat dinner after work, but you might go home, eat dinner then sit on the couch for 3 hours. You may have been better off to grab a quick dinner close to your office and stay there for 3 hours. Pick 2-3 shows you really are interested in watching on TV and only watch those shows. Personally I cancelled my cable, as every show I want to watch are available for free online the next day. You would not believe how much more stuff you can do without a TV, I’ll never regret doing this, and having an extra 80$ every month is nice too. -I learn best from being wrong, so I scan through the book to find 20-30 of the problems I will for sure get wrong every day, proceed to get them wrong and then force myself to break the problem into simple steps that I will hopefully be able to apply the next time. -If you go over enough practice problems you will see that some concepts are hit 3-4x more than others. LEARN THOSE CONCEPTS. This is the key reason I passed level 1. No one can reasonably calculate how much time they ACTUALLY studied. Some nights I will “study” for 4 hours but day-dream for 2, other nights I will study for 2 hours but the intensity was worth 6. Furthermore, this is a random anonymous message board. Who doesn’t want to be the “guy who studied 50 hours and passed CFA, CAIA and FRM in 3 years”. When you start studying also proves nothing. Most of my studying for CFA level 1 was done in May. I barely opened a book until Mid-April. However I was studying 4-6 hours a day, and then 8-10 a week before. This is just as much studying as someone who started in january with 2 hours a day. anddddddddd bring on the criticism.
Hey people, not easy for superstar to volunteer so please give him a break ! All of us comes from places with different culture, different upbringing, work experiences and educational levels so just tweak his advices accordingly !!!
I think the point is that by making assertion like “you shouldn’t need more than 4-5 months to crack L2”, you are neglecting a whole spectrum of candidates who come from different background, as well as factors such as exam day condition, how much study aids candidates actually have used, how candidates handle pressure (some people can perform very well under pressure while others could panic) and their study habits (e.g. are you persistent enough). But I agree that there are genius and very luck people in this world. When I was in graduate school, I knew some very smart people (one guy I knew got his Ph.D. in computer science at age 19). But some of them, you don’t necessarily want to be their friends (not to mention to work with them). I agree with OP. People who wrote L2 2009 would agree that exam was strange. It’s full of tricky questions and you got to know your materials inside out to disarm the traps. If you were not careful, you would be repeating “this is not happening” inside. Anyhow. For people who are repeating, don’t give up yet. You are almost there. The good news is that the CFAI L3 2010 books are only about 60% of the thickness of the CFAI L2 2009 books. Less materials to read for sure. I don’t think it’s any easier than L2 though.
green360 Wrote: > > I’ll make my point another way: There’s 2 things > that will result in success on the exam: > time/effort studying and intelligence, where the > smarter you are, the less time you’ll need (up to > a certain point). So my point was, if you’re > studying for a crazy amount of time (and yes, more > than 4-5 months is ridiculous) then you probably > don’t have a strong aptitude for this stuff. Again this is a generalisation, 4-5 months may be enough for some with a business background and/or work experience. However for someone not having either it will be tough to crack it in 4-5 months.And yes I don’t mean to say 16 months are needed for CFA L2, rather than 8-9 months for a first timer to make sure that he passes and knows that he passed after giving the exam. Again if someone cleared CFA L2 in 5 months doesn’t prove that they have a better aptitude for finance in the long term. Just that they can understand the basics in a shorter amount of time ( background etc) and can remember it well enough till the exam. CFA is unlike actuarial exams where your true understanding is tested its more a fact retention exam with overall decent understanding. Someone might be a genius when it comes to pure logic but he forgets the stuff because he is used to learn the fundamentals and not the formulas/facts.This type of person can flunk CFA L2 in 4-5 months.
CFAI has adopted this policy that they do not show which band you are in if you PASS the exam. The reason is that they consider all candidates who have passed equally accomplished. i.e. as far as CFAI is concerned, if you pass, it’s a pass. It means you have reached a certain level. The band rating is given to FAIL candidates to help them decide if they want to continue with the program or not. So I think all this argument about “X months should be more than enough to crack L2 or otherwise you are not smart enough for Y” is moot. I do not think it is consistent with CFAI’s policy and the spirit of the CFA exams. You are subject to your own opinion, of course.