Anyone here passed the L2 with <200 hrs.

Folks, Pls. tell me there are champs in here who have passed L2 without a finance background and with less than 200 hrs of input. I am feeling a bit discouraged by statements made in the L2 forum stating that <200 hrs is a sureshot fail… Thanks.

It’s never a sure shot, there is a probablity with MC you can guess your way to a pass. All the same, if you put less than 200 hrs in you deserve to fail as you haven’t put in enough time. I put in at least 350 and probably barely passed in the end. Sorry. Next

there are champs who passed with < 50 hours… I am just not one of those guys…

I passed L1 with less than 200. but i must have studied close to 250 for L2 + stalla videos (about 80 hrs)

I think I could have, but I dont like to take the risk of then having to look like an idiot to my peers plus having to take it again…for me I’m always prepared. Boyscout in me :slight_smile:

never tallied the hours but my sched for L2 was the following: Monday (starbucks for 3 hrs reading the study session for the week) Some other point in the week: watch Schweser class (always archived so i could speed tim smaby through the 3 hr class in 2 1/2 hrs) then final two weeks: skimmed each study session in week T-2 and reviewed end of chapter questions; made notecards; last week did all 3 Schweser tests had to be way under 200 hours and i would have told you coming out of the exam the only thing i missed was treynor-black; ended up missing more bc my ethics score wasn’t great Schweser rocked L2 - - Tim Smaby was awesome; didn’t even own the CFAI books or even realize there were tests online don’t feel quite so ready for L3 and i’ve done more than that this year by some fair measure; will say i’ve heard L2 is supposed to be tougher this year given all the quant moved out of L3 into L2 - - but schweser should have you covered regardless

Yes, I must have put in less than 200 hrs for L1 and L2. I started in November and April respectively. Must have put in 3 hrs on the avg + last week before exam. But then I think I was always a borderline candidate in scoring. I wont take credit here. on the contrary, I must have put in little bit more time on L3 last year(started little earlier) sometime mid march and then did not pass L3…I have already put in probably more than 250 hrs this year that the CFA institute says is enough but am still not comfortable. it all just boils down to how well you do that particular day. One piece of advise for everyone ’ Dont get panicky’ in the exam. it will just mess up everythhing. Looking back, I could have passed last year if only I had scored marginally better in the morning exam. Taking afternoon session alone, I may have passed (not sure though). But I started the morning very confidently, taking all the time to answer the first question thoroguhly and in the end getting hung up with some calculatiion and then after an hour I was just done with 2 questions. Panick kicked in and then it was all going down from there. After the break I did not even bother scanning few pages of ethics which is what I usually did in the prev exams… But I think I did well in the afternoon since in my mind it was a gone case already… My 2 cents here: if you are stuck on some return calculation, just ignore that and proceed. don’t waste your time. I am thinking of answering the individual investor question at the end. some of my friends who passed the exam last year told me that they did not attempt it till the end. I hope it works… read the questions carefully and try to look at the time allotted to each question and dont waste disproportionate time on something that would fetch you very little. defer it to the end if you have time…

cvillecfa, Thanks for the inspiration. I was completely green (did not know the basic accounting eqn) for L1 and passed with authority with less than 250 hrs. L2, I had studied initially from schweser video and audio (daily drive to and from work), but could not retain much, predominantly because I had not done the end of chapter questions. I have recently made study notes on most topics but FSA and Corp( I have studied most of FSA from the curriculum). I have just started with the exams last week. Am beginning to feel more confident… We’ll see how this pans out. Good luck on your exam.

I am thinking this order for the AM: -Non IPS questions (the circle questions are like multiple choice… i see it as a good way to get into the “zone”) -IPS questions (RTTLLU) excluding return… -Return requirement last… -as it does soak up so much time… other people I heard answered in the following order: 10,9, 8, 7, 6, and then 1,2,3,4,5 In the apst I always just went right through from question 1 to 60 or 120… but, folks, this ain’t ethics MC and it’s a different beast… right?

oops sorry, I did not read your question carefully… You are trying to take leve 2 and am giving advise for level3… Pls ignore. fellow L3 may want to read my earlier post though…

Krishna, Thanks for the advice… I learnt the lesson (dont get hung up on a particular qestions)from my GMAT experience. The math bought me to my knees. I had to swallow my pride and realize that some questions were “beyond me”… even then i pulled of a 770. All the best!

yeah me too… all the time I have always answered in the order. I never even bothered to see if it would be better doign it someotherway. failure makes one think a bit harder I think.

I’m just gonna go in order… As I have always done.

those planning to answer in a different order, be careful that you dont mix it up. if you are going to use extra paper(I never did), then be sure to mark the question number correctly. it is easier to get mixed up in the tense atmosphere. one thing for me. I am telling myself all the time that I am not going to get tensed. Hopefully I wont. If not this time, there is always next time…although it is hard to imagine failing second time, it can happen esp in this kind of exam. I have never ever failed in exam of any kind beore L3 struck me down… was a rank student all the time but it does not matter. if you dont study enough and master enough of the material you dont deserve to pass… life is not about success alone… you learn from every failure.

sarthak, I passed Level II without really delving into the topics worth 0-10%. I’m not sure how much time I spent studying (started end of March), but I didn’t seem to have enough time. Despite what they say, you can pass if you leave out the 0-10% topics. Warning: leave a bit more time for Level III. There’s nothing you can leave out. I’m hating life this year (started March 27). Good luck to you!

a glimmer of hope!

yeah i left out certian sections too livke derivatives …it can be done when each section is independent however make sure you learn it for lvl 3 as you cant afford to leave anything out . If you are running out of time focus on the big things like FSA , Equity , FI and ofcourse Ethics .

i passed with probably around 100, but i have a significant finance background.

At the very least, the effort here should make my time at b-school a bit easier when i matriculate next year… thanks for the encouragement folks.

About strategies for the morning session, I do agree that the return objective and required return doesn’t provide enough points for the time it takes. The 2006 exam’s return objective and required return was worth 13 points, and I spent a touch more time on it than I should have (and still screwed it up in spectacular fashion). This put me slightly behind my usual pace but I still finished the exam with 20 minutes left. So, I see some value in postponing the IPS so I can get rolling, but I’m also wary of spending my precious time flipping through pages trying to decide where I should spend my precious time…