I studied my ass off! WTF?
Nervous during the exam?
Didn’t sleep well the night before?
Didn’t use the right study strategy? (for me I think I spent too much time reading and not enough time on practice Qs and mocks)
Give it some time, Rasec, and concentrate on the topic areas you came in short. Nothing anyone will say will mollify you (and others who didn’t make it through).
Re-evaluate if you have what it takes to appear for the exam again, and if you think you do, then start early and concentrate on your weak areas.
thanks guys!
What is early??? when should I start reviewing?
I restarted in October last year. Passed on second go. Chin up mate
Thanks brother!!! and congrats on conquering L2 (the beast)
Yea, I concur with trogulj. Key is to start early using the official curriculum. Forget about taking shortcuts through Schweser/Elan/etc. Use the prep providers for mocks and practice questions.
next time will be a pass guys…next time
I got band 5 as well. I studied well over 300 hours, but I studied the wrong way I guess. My effort was not worthy of a pass, but I will say that I didnt even get 2 hours of sleep the night before and I was exhausted the day of the exam. Also, the kid sitting next to me was horribly distracting. He kept his calculator on the table, and was pounding furiously at it which distracted me to no end. It’s no excuse for failing, I failed because I didnt prepare properly, but having this kid jackhammer on his calculator didnt help. Some people have no manners or etiquette. But like I said, it’s only my fault that I failed.
Yes, I’m furious about the band 5 result. 6 months of studying for a laughable result that’s not even in the neighborhood of a pass. I’ll be at it again in september hitting practice problems and so on. We’ll get it next year!!
Dude
You will get it next year. I was band 5 last year and put the time in again on the areas i struggled and passed this year.
Dont be so sad Bro! I failed Band 1 but I knew I would fail not this badly though! we both of us will try harder and pass next time!! I always thought 3 month wont be enough and they weren’t atleast I got the ethics portion right 
at the end of the day! we can either whine or remain optimistic about the future!!
Failed band 3- right there with you guys! I don’t believe I did this bad, but I guess I definitetly hit a “study wall” somewhere along the road, did video classes, but I didnt focus on the blue boxes, or solving enough problems + burnt out heavily from Level 1 in December, so I kind of expected a failure.
But this is not the end- I will definitely take a step back, make sure I am ready for this again, and take the advice above and start early and strong with the CFA Curriculum.
God Speed everyone!
Also, did not start seiously studying until the end of February and felt like I was jumping between a lot of material providers, maybe that was part of my downfall…
I failed also. Band 5. First run at it.
<50% in equity (the dagger) and quant (my nemisis)
>70% in corporate finance, econ and FRA
A little surprised that this put me in band 5. Equity must have been bad.
Sitting here now it seems like a no brainer to re try, but the memories of long study hours are becoming more fresh in my mind.
I failed Band 6 first time around and ROCKED it the next year. Keep the faith.
Schweser and CFAI EOC/bluebox/LOS/summary.
Also - make your own flash cards for EVERY formula while you are going through the material. Know them like the back of your hand. This is what helped me nail it the 2nd time around.
Keep a good attitude. Take a month off. don’t do anything until September.
I didn’t know how to deal with the fail - after a week or two I got angry and said “I am going to f*cking own this exam next year”.
keep in mind that there are not that many questions seperating the bands. it wouldn’t shock me if there are only two or three questions seperating each band between 4 and 10.
most people (not me) on this forum likes the three answers to a question but this also makes the failing and passing grades much closer!
Looks like I’m in this same boat with you guys.
I studied hard consistently for the whole year 300+ hrs, did 4 mock exams scoring only 50-60% and really covered the weak areas. Went into the exam feeling well prepared. Looked for all the tricks and thought the exam was pretty straight forward.
And then Band 5! like WTF!!!
I’ll be giving a generous donation of $100 for the retab to CFAI.
It kills me to think what went really wrong…sigh…
I really feel for you CFA_shareholder.
its retarded how they making l2 so much harder than L1. Almost everyone in this forum passed L1.
I failed last year, relied solely on Schweser and Qbank. For me Qbank was useless. I re-started in early Jan this year, starting with <50% area and read textbook, did all blue boxes and EOC as I went along. This year all my <50% subjects ended up >70%. So you can do it. I know the feeling you have right now, take some time off and re-start in Dec or Jan should be enough.