Don’t listen to anyone - master CFAI EOC questions and you’re set. Same type and difficulty.
Okay guys, I guess everything everyone thought was wrong. Everyone knows no things. Only lilxandy knows a thing.
Took level 2 for the third time, this year, and am feeling kinda confident about passing. however, not TOO much!! 
some pretty good advice here but the idea i liked best and one which i will definetly second is dont take the strategy of just focusing on the heavy weights too seriously. I say this because I took this strategy last year and failed at the 10th band.
last year i scored above 70% in Equity, FRA, Derivatives and Economics. between 50 and 70 for Fixed income and CF. below 50% for ethics, Quant, PM and Alternative investments. a pretty good start with the heavy weights but still got “we regret to inform you…” in the email…life sUCKS!!! lol
honestly, i think i got what i deserved because now looking back at what happened last year, i think i would have been better off if i had focused on lighter weights such as quant and pm (which i frankly did not even touch till this year)and went into the paper totally blind!
This year i focused more on maintaining balance. I spent more time on the heavier weights but also focused on the ligher weights, not taking the ligher weights lightly. This strategy really paid off as last year when i would do pretty well in Equity and FRA and some other topics however due to my lack of practice on the lighter weights, my score did not exceed 65%. No matter how hard i tried!
This year when i focused on all 10 topics i would score above 65% even if i messed up, on the mocks that i took. my score would go beyond 70% a lot fo the time, even if i didnt do as well in equity and FRA as i did last year. but not by too much. id usually score in the early 70s. Not showing off here. just trying to make a point.
finally, do a lot of practice. At level 1 practice was important but at level 2 its critical. it wont matter if you read the curriculum multiple times (if thats even possible) but its the practice that would make a difference in your results. I’d recomend doing the chapter end questions atleast 3 times before goinginto the paper. another strategy is to do the chapter end questions twice but then spending a lot of time on the online assessments given by CFAI. ofcourse, you will need to do a lot of mocks. atleast thats what i did. i did somewhere around 7 mocks this year. i know its excessive but I didnt want to leavy anything to chance considering that i gave the exam a third time.
Thats about it. all the best to you guys for next years exam! cheers! 
strongly agree with muhammadrahim900
do not focus only on heavy weight topics.
i got > 70% for FRA,Equity, Derivatives,Quant and 51-70% for CF but ending with band 7 results.
Get after Dervis early and use the CFAI BBs/EOCs to ensure you know how to do them. Some of the material is brutal but if you can nail it they are free points once you have it down cold since it’s generally all calculation based.
I made the mistake of using Schweser only for derivs, and then a few weeks away from the exam I did the CFAI EOCs and I was completely and utterly lost. Spent a few full days trying to catch up and it still wasn’t enough. Maybe Schweser enhanced their offering in this topic since I took the L2 exam (or I just didn’t study it hard enough… totally possible), but that was definitely one topic where I needed the CFAI material to feel OK going into the test.
sorry, but u said u got >70% in FRA Equity Derivatives and Quant but end up with band 7?
those topics combined like around 70% of the exam and >70% means at least 70% I dont think it is possible to fail. Did you skipped the whole ethics section?? i have never heard anything like this and im scared as shxt now
FRA/Equity/Deriv/Quant is actually only 55% (in 2015 at least). It’s also possible to do a 4/6, 4/6, 4/6, 5/6 in FRA/Equity and be >70, but just barely. Deriv you could pull a 4/6 and a 5/6 and be at 75%. Those are obviously good scores but if you’re bombing the small topics and Ethics… yeah it’s totally possible.
How did you determine that these topics combined constitute 70% of the exam? In order for these topics to have 70% weight it means that 14 item sets on the exam were FRA, Equity, Derivatives and Quants. Which is possible but i believe is rarely the case, because each topic would be at it’s maximum allcoated weight leaving very little weight to the other 6 topics.
I just told you exactly how much it was worth based on 2015 exam. He’s wrong, as it was only 55%. Of course with the L2 variable corridors it can change every year.
i started writing my post before you posted yours, and actually, i’m wrong too, these particular four cannot constitute 70% as if all four were weighted on the high end, other topics won’t have enough remaining weight for their minimum weight. Anyway, a moo point since we got the actual weights now.
The competition is very tough for L2…even though i came out from the exam room more confident this year…but i always ready for any outcome…
- All the rules from Level 1 apply.
- Studying hard doesn’t necessarily mean success
- 1 year advantage is always better than 4 months study unlike Level 1.
- You may fail many times in your schedule. Don’t lose hope or give up.
- Take breaks and be efficient. Unlike Level 1, the topics that you study will be complicated, there is a efficiency-productivity tradeoff. More hours when you are worn out doesn’t help u in understanding the topic in depth.
- Dont be afraid to fail.
- Focus on quality and be willing to take risks in areas.
- Dont waste too much time on third party materials/sources.
- Dont plan the weightings that will be tested. You might end up being really surprised in the actual exam.
Great points here. Can’t disagree with anything here! buckle up boys and girls! we are all in for a fun ride this year! hopefully ill be having my fun with Level 3!! god pleaseee … prettyyy pleaseeee! 