If CAIA II is only a little easier than CFA II, it is still very hard… >__<
Nana IMO CAIA 2 is no where near the difficulty of Level 2 CFA. I put maybe 150 hours into the caia 2 exam and felt pretty comfortable. I only finished the material once last week…
I have a feeling that the level 2 caia exam used to be much harder. Later cycles of the exam took away alot of the quant stuff from what ive heard. The extended response part is pretty soft in CAIA2
The big focus in CAIA is PE, Real estate and HF. It does cover assets like commodities, structured investments and portfolio management for alts. Level 2 caia has a big focus on fund of fund structures.
Thanks man & congrats to you too! I just had to get away - this forum was stressing me out! I have anxiety issues, and while it’s encouraging to see others making progress, it was also freaking me out. So had to go into my little cave…
I’ll start around December. Level III appears to be a lot less (quantity-wise) compared to Level II
Thanks for sharing your experience!
I am not considering doing it, but i just want to know about other designations so i appreciate mroe when people have them.
well iam planning to start real soon…studied 4 months for L2 n on the day of the results nearly has a nervous breakdown…dont wanna leave anything on chances this time.
After a December/June double whammy, I’m hoping to start much earlier so I can actually have a life in the meantime. I spent practically my entire 26th year in my one bedroom apartment with my nose in the books. Not how I planned to spend my late twenties!
I did same thing as you did, back to back test on Dec and June for L1 and L2.
the only difference is that I live in a house with 4 bedrooms and 3 women (one wife+2 daughters).
Having said so, I have no plan to start earlier than Oct.
For what it’s worth I started studying for every level in January. It’s winter time and easier to focus - at least where I live. I put the most study hours in for L3 as it was the last level and you can practically taste the end. I didn’t want to redo it or have the excuse of “I didn’t try hard enough”.
I also did Windsor Week in early May and that recapped the entire curriculum - at least on the surface. My goal was to finish round 1 before I left for Windsor - the earliest ever for me out of all the levels. I wanted to have time to practice for the long answers. My cursive writing sucks, so I had to work on that too!
Good luck to all writing L3.
Your MID twenties…
but i know what you mean, i experienced that as well, i felt like i spent too much time on CFA and i missed so many things in spring time.
anyway, once you’re done you will have withdrawal symptoms and you don’t know what to do with your lfie. 
I started the week after I got the level 2 results…
There is no point in cramming the 300 hrs over 3 months when one can spread it over 9 months and have a flexible schedule. I only study 2-3 days a week and sometimes one day in the weekend
Not getting any time.
The new job and ms excel is already making it tuff
You will still study more (cram) in May… you are very unlikely to read 2-3 days a week then…
When you have the best of the best candidates fighting tooth to nail to get past the last stretch, the 50% pass rate seems abysmal…
It’s a catch 22 isn’t it? the reason you’re still in teh CFA program is because of your new job, but the new job keeps you from studying for the CFA…
In all three levels I started in January and ended up putting in about 50% of my hours in the last 6 weeks before the exam. I didn’t want to spend too much time learning things so far away only to just forget it by the time the exam date rolls around. Starting out early sounds good but I think you’ll end up reviewing it again as you get closer to exam date.
50% in the last month is a bit risky although I agree that a large chunk should be shifted to the end… I spent about 1/3 of my total study time in May alone for L2…
A better question for now is what areas did you require the most time to understand? I might want to start with those now so my mind can “sleep” on those…
And this is bad because . . . ?
I started a week ago. 10 pages by now. I really have no idea how to start again after level II. Motivation - approaching zero.