Ah and dont forget, if you buy a new calculator, to configurate it so that there are sufficient number of digits after the coma.
OTherwise you will panick on the exam day (*experience inside* 
)
Thanks Exam_Taker_Unprepared for the useful guidance.
Passed level I in Dec 2015 and decided to skip one year to give myself a greater chance of passing. I am very pleased that this has proven to be a good decision.
I started preparing at the end of October last year. Started off lightly (10-15 hours per week) and gradually increased my pace to 25 hours per week starting in April until the exam. As everyone else will tell you, I made a lot of sacrifices too to get here. Dedicating so much time to this exam for so long (almost 8 months) can be very challenging and can definitely exhaust you down the stretch.
In my opinion, there are 3 key ingredients needed to pass this exam:
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discipline
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sacrifice
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believe
Visualizing what it will be like to write this exam and what it will be like after the exam also helped me throughout my preparation.
I did not want to be in a situation where Iād blame myself and kick myself for not trying hard enough.
If I can do it, you can do it too!
Thanks Mr.RS for the feedback.Request you to further elaborate on what materials you used as well as revision and practice strategy.Thanks.
Congrats Rex! I knew youād nail it this year.
Although, FYI you posted your results in the Level I exam thread. 
No worries. Mainly Schweser and the official CFA curriculum (blue boxes, end of chapter questions and topic tests).
I completed the curriculum (incl. end of chapter questions from the official curriculum) by the end of March.
Then focused on topic tests in April and then started with Schweser Mocks at the beginning of May (did the first Mock exam approx. one month before the exam)
Hi Rex, happy to see you passed too!
Do as many mocks as you can under real exam conditions (I think I did 10).
Make your own note.
IMO, topic tests are the good source for learning new things besides Curriculum, but I donāt think you could improve yourself much by doing topic test many times.
To OP,
I did Topic Tests at least twice, and really chew the answers well. Tremendous amount of new information comes out from the topic test questions. I did cca. 60% of blue box examples (did not have time for all) but especially for FRA, Quant, Econ, FI these are very good.
At the end of my studies during the last week I redid the CFAI EOCs (could not finish all of them) but I think this was key.
I took more of a top down approach. Started with the Schweser Secret Sauce. Very condensed so itās a bit āintenseā to study, but I do better with concepts and then can figure out the details on most things. Where I couldnāt, I went to the āfullā Schweser material. Would have gone to the CFAI materials if needed, but never had to.
Did a fair amount of Schweser questions and took some time to learn how to do the item set format. Iām a slow reader, so that was a challenge until I figured it out. Focused on the questions topic by topic and in retrospect wished I had done more āintegratedā practice between topics earlier, but I didnāt have time. Only had time for 2.5 mocks; used Schweser for those.
If you have limited time, this is a reasonable approach. With more time, it would be better to do more and youād improve your results, but this one worked out for me. I would say I studied hardest on ethics and professional standards because I know itās important and more āarbitraryā in that itās based on the specific rules/customs of the CFAI and not anything āintrinsicā. Interestingly, even with the extra effort in this area, it is one of only two areas where I was in the 50-70% and with the rest 70+. I think they really are trying to trick you with some of the questions despite their protestations to the contrary (they do protest too much, I think).
Other areas I needed to spend extra time on were currency translation and some of the accounting stuff. These are actually tricky to learn, not just because of the way CFAI asks about them.
Congrats to all who passed. If you didnāt pass this time, stick with it and I hope you pass next time.
Passed level 1 in Dec 2014 and got Band 8 level 2 in 2015. I skipped 2016 due to work adjustment.
The study material has changed a lot since 2015. Inventory reporting was no longer tested. There were no more mortgage back securities questions and some of the alternative and derivative materials got condensed or simplified. I decided to make an attempt and registered on the last registration day. I crammed with only the CFA official material. I didnāt have time to use other study materials.
This time I studied more strategically. I focused more energy in equities and financial reporting. Not only do these topics had the biggest weights, but I got less than 50% in these topics in 2015. Staring in mid March, I studied 2-3 hours on workdays and 6-10 hours on weekends depending on family obligations. I took a week off from work prior the exam date and practiced only item sets and the mock exam on the CFA website. On the mock exam, I scored 78/120 (65%). I think this is bordering line passing. FRA was my biggest weakness in the mock exam, and I decided to spend my last energy to nail this topic (contrary to many peopleās recommendation to review Ethics on the last few days).
My strategy paid off and I passed. In hindsight, I got lucky and the strategy worked out. My min-max score is between 73 and 94 out of 120, and the average is 83.5 (69%).
- Less than 50% in Ethics
- More than 70% in Equities, Financial Reporting, Derivatives, Portfolio Management
- 50%-70% in the five remainder topics
Iām glad I made the choice to attempt the exam this year. Even if I failed, I have tried my best.
Congrats on the pass, Rex!
very similar experience to you, but thought BBG mocks were not up to standard at all, the interface was great, but thatās where it ended, quality wise
My main takeaway from the exam is focus on all types of questions. I mislead at the types of questions to expect by focusing so much on TT and official mock. There were far more basic questions that I missed solely because I didnāt think theyād show up when thereās so many more pages dedicated to more difficult content.
When deciding what to read where I did official CFAI material for heavy weight topics and those topics that had transferable knowledge like econ (even though itās only 5-10% it also is covered in FI and derivs too), topics like AI that basically only have knowledge applicable to their topic I read schweser. Make sure after every topic being completed go back and do EOC or review or something. Keep the knowledge fresh.
Like a 1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, and then start it over again. I didnāt do this in level 1 and found I forgot a lot of stuff quickly but forcing yourself to see it again every few weeks helps embed it into your mind. Do TT as soon as you finish all your reading to find the weak areas you need to focus on. Do EOC, make notes about why the EOC questions you got wrong are wrong (learned a lot by reading the answers and seeing why the answers were right). Blue book examples were also good. I made the mistake of focusing too heavily on them in the beginning by doing the questions, reading answers as to why, and then going over them again. This caused me to not make it through all EOC and TT which I found to be more useful.
Either way do all types of questions because some TT type of questions may appear while some simple EOC questions may appear. Shame to throw marks away on easy questions because they are worth the same as the most difficult questions. Be prepared for everything truly.
2016 Band 9: mid-high 50s mocks. highest outta 60 in one shot was a 36. i used to be known as high 50s mock guy.
this year I passed with 7/10 subjects 70+, (CorpFin, Fixed and Ethics were 50-70). I dont necessarily think i studied harder in 2017, i didnt even start studying in earnest until the second week of Jan, but i studied better. In my opinion, the key to level 2 is putting pen to paper. the material is so voluminous, and dense that you can read it cover to cover 10 times and fail. you need to keep doing practice problems. active studying vs passive studying.
the second time around, this year, I did every topic test and got an agg score of 304/450. 67.6%. again, active rather than passive studying. Topic tests are brutal, but you have to take your medicine. i seriously would suggest doing every single topic test, even if it means you do 5/6 schweser mocks and not all 6.
speaking of schweser, as ive said many a time on this forum, i swear by them. theyre the best for a reason. this past year i paid the premium package and had the weekly class with andrew holmes. i only attended the first, then stoppedā¦but since theyre all recorded i went back in may to listen front to back (roughly 2.5 hours) the ones i struggled with. I ended up watching two FRA classes and the derivatives one, and it really helped.
Another thing i feel very VERY strongly about is formulas. as much as people say its not all plug and chug, the fact is out of the 120 questions at least 15-20 of them WILL BE STRAIGHT UP plug and chug. those are easy points to bang home, gotta go 15/15. formula memorization also helps to internalize qualitative concepts. i went through the entire curriculum in january before even reading and wrote down 327ish (i think the number was) formulas that were in the Schweser text. out of the 320 or so, i think i knew like 270 of them cold. i think that really helped.
The cfa exams (even level 1) are so hard that you can ace it, like my matrix suggests i did, and yet STILL think you failed. i was sure i failed when i walked out, i really was. then as the weeks passed i was like wait, you just ripped a 47/60 on the last half mock you took the day before the examā¦why are you being crazy?
but thats what this exam does to us, it makes us crazy.
Worth noting: I did NOT take the official CFAI 2017 mock, and if you take every topic test (like I did, to get CFAI exposure), i suggest you steer clear as well. it can ruin your confidence. there is much AF folklore about ppl scoring mid 70s in schweser mocks and dropping a 75/120 on the CFAI and bugging themselves out.
if you are studying for level 2 buckle up because it is no joke.
2015: Band 1
2016: Band 9
2017: Passed
What helped me out the most this year was relying less on the Qbank. I probably completed, at most, 20% of the schweser Qbank and focused most of my time on EOC questions, topic tests and Mocks (did 7 total). The order of which to attempt matters a great deal. In my 2016 attempt, I finished only 2/3ās of the EOC questions, did about 6 mocks (5 kaplan + CFAI mock), and only half the topic tests. I realized my biggest mistake was doing too many Qbank questions, they do not help nearly as much due to the difference in style of the question (too calculation intensive for kaplan) and phrasing of answer choices.
This year, I did the following in exact order:
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Finish all the EOC questions
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take 1 practice mock, identify weak subjects
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Start topic tests and review them atleast twice. Started with my weakest subjects and reviewed those several times in comparison to my strong areas.
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Work on Mocks one after the other. I paced myself in this one. On weekdays, I did only a PM or AM session, and corrected it the next day, going into detail and made post-its and flashcards. On weekends, again, attempt only one PM or AM sesssion and correct it after a 1 hour break. I did this for about 1.5 months, leaving AT LEAST 2 weeks to go over everything else.
I find re-doing EOC questions (like actually redoing them with pencil and blank paper) quite useless. I reviewed my work quickly, paying attention to any errors I made before. Itās more important to be aware of your tendencies to make mistakes in certain areas, rather than redoing all these repetitive calculations which you already know you can do - but sometimes you doubt yourself, so you force yourself to redo the whole thing from scratch anyways. I hope this sort of makes sense, I just kind of brain dumped everything I recalled while I studied in my final 4 months.
Passed.
I had 4 months to study (registered right after Dec exam result).
Background: I work full-time, mon-fri.
I used CFAI materials mostly. For badly written texts (such as Derivatives & FI), I rely on Mark Meldrum videos & notes. I took the time to nail down for the higher weighted topics, yet still give enough attention to the lighter weighted topics.
I did all EOC Qs, and all topic tests multiple times. Even though i may already know the answers, I was emphasizing on the thought process. (1) CFAI mock exams and (1) Bloomberg exam. Purchased FinQuiz mocks - but they didnāt help. My mock exam results were 58%-64%. I made notes when I made mistakes, so i did not do it again.
I studied 2-3 hours each weekday, took breaks for gym and whatnot. 4-6 hours each day during weekend. I also did review classes at CFASF (not worth my $$). Definitely took commitment, dedication and sacrifice to pass L2.
I felt horrible leaving the exam center. So Iām glad I do not have to redo it.
What I would improve: really understand most concepts fundamentally, do not skip any points on the higher weighted topics, do not obsess over TT.
Passed on the first go around. Started reading early October, but no problems. After that watched Adapt Prep videos. Then started reading with BB/EOCās, and practice tests. Come March I started some serious preparation. Taking a mock exam or series of topic tests, reviewing it like crazy for a week, then repeat. I did everything at least twice to make sure that it stuck. Sat for the Boston Mock exam 4 weeks before the real thing and felt pretty good. Next three weeks I did absolutely nothing fun, just CFA. Last weeks was lighter review, exercise and sleep to avoid burnout.
My advice to myself for the next level: start early; no breaks, but pace myself; do as many practice questions and mock exams as possible;
Didnāt do great (3 topic areas in the lowest bracket) but still made it on the first try.
Except for the obvious advice to study hard and long, what I feel has really helped me to have a clear picture and a calm attitude on the exam day is my own āquick sheetā on all the material, which I methodically filled in as I went through the Schweser books. After I was done with the reading, I completely rewrote my quick sheet, dedicating two notebook pages for every topic area. And then again - cleaner, more logically and more efficient. Granted, this might not be the way for everyone, but on June 3rd I had a clear mental blueprint on all of the most important stuff. I felt like I have a system, like itās under control - and mood helps a lot.
That said, I found Schweser notes to not be completely adequate as a lot of questions were poised differently/a lot of tiny details were not covered. Before Iāve opened my exam results letter I decided to go with Wiley if I failed.
Good luck!
2016 - Band 8
2017 - Passed with >70 in Corp Fin, Equity, FRA, Fix Inc; <50 in Derv; Rest in the middle
I used the Schweser material for the most part. Personally my study method is repetition and lots of it. Donāt know that works from everyone so take that with a grain of salt. I canāt recall how many times I went through all the books. Obviously put in lots of time, start no later than December 1st.
I do recommend doing as many mock exams and end of chapter questions as you can whether itās from CFAI material or third party. Also I personally like to do the CFAI mock exam and online topic tests. I feel that they are more similar to the actual exam questions than what the other test providers come up with.