I consider myself a statistical outlier for passing this year, but share my prep nonetheless:
Signed up for Schweser Distant Learning package in December and started studying for a 2-3 weekends in January, but then had to stop due to crazy working hours for pretty much Jan-May. By end March I had already decided not to sit the exam, but then changed my mind in mid-May since I had paid for it and there is an option value in trying even if it’s mostly guessing.
Started reading the class workbooks (PPT slide summaries) and secret sauce from Schweser two weeks before exam and had a week off before the exam to go through the workbooks, do the CFA end of chapter questions and did 1 full Schweser mock (scored ~65%). As I felt I had nothing to lose (except for wasting 6 hours of my Saturday sitting in a convention center room), I was super relaxed during the exam.
Miraculously, I managed to pass with everything >70% except Ethics (<50%) and PM (51-70%).
Bottomline: Don’t get discouraged if you’re falling behind on your study plan, there is always the chance to pass with a bit of luck!
I was a first-time pass. I started in earnest in late January with a ~2.5 week break in March. I was in the process of switching jobs though and my job was not the most intense until I switched in mid-May.
I focused on a combination of Schweser, mock exams, and the Mark Meldrum videos. I varied in terms of how I used Schweser in conjunction with Meldrum - sometimes started with Schweser and then went to the videos, sometimes started with the videos for an overview, etc.
I went about the tests in various ways too – I took a few full ones to try to give myself a baseline on where I needed work, then did a few basically open-book style, and then more realistic, timed ones toward the end. The goal toward the end was to try to get myself in position to get higher scores, if only to build confidence.
For both L1 and L2, I also did a complete dry-run the Saturday before - wake up on time, go to the site, try to get into / as close to the room as possible, then find someplace nearby to do a mock exam.
Not just in hindsight, I think learning about attacking Survivorship bias helped a lot. I asked people who didn’t pass what they did wrong just as much as what OP is asking in this question.
Passed level 2 on first attempt. Schewser books are fine, know everything. Seriously, or attempt to. I have passed both levels without taking a practice exam, different style but works for me.
Failed Band 8 last year. Started Nov this year but cannot learn consistently as I was jammed on other stuff, so it didn’t work very well as I kept forgetting things.
Took 15-day annual leave, including those weekends and holidays to focus on study, let’s say, around 20 days, to study from 10AM to 4AM or 6AM next morning (~ 20 all-nighters) for every single day. Only leveraged Kaplan notes (reading for 3 times) and CAFI EOC (did for once, no review), did 2016/17 mock exam with avg score of 63%
>70%: Financial Reporting, Ethics, Equity, Quant, Fixed Income
50%-70%: Derivatives, Alternatives, PM, Eco and Corporate Finance
I think it’s a safe pass for sure as I basically recalled 90 questions out of 120 questions after the exam and I actually already knew the rough result immediately after the exam.
Now, let’s see if I’m lucky enough to get an IBD return offer: if I get one, will postpone the schedule to proceed to CFA L3 exam.
Passed all >70, first attempt at Level II. Have a background in finance and accounting.
After passing level I in December, got registered for Level II right after getting my results in January. From February to May I slowly read the CFA curriculum in order to get a feeling for the material. My company provides 5 days study leave, and I had to take an additional couple of weeks of paid leave to free up my May. After I had finished with the curriculum, I focused on actual studying the Schweser books, as they were more succinct. That actually started at some point late in April, and I was able to finish with Schweser in the second week of May. After that I did the curriculum end of lesson questions (which I tried before Schweser, but turned out just reading casually the curriculum is not enough) and went through some of the blue boxes again. I was pretty worried at that point, as I wanted at least 4 weeks of just test taking, as that worked well for me on Level I. I did what I could with the time remaining, which ended up being 6 Scheser practice exams and part of the mock on the website (skipping equity and FR, which I was very comfortable with at that point). Didn’t have time for prior year mocks. Last day I memorised some of the more arcane formulas, which weren’t as often used in questions.
Looking back, if I again had less than 6 months, I would probably skip the casual reading of the curriculum, rather I would go straight from studying it, along with the blue boxes and end of lesson questions. I would try to have a faster pace too, to allow for more time for practice exams and mocks, as most of the learning in my view is done during the practice exams, so I’d appreciate more time to learn the concepts and actually have some more exams to practice them after I have learned them.
Ultimately, turned out fine this time, but who knows with different questions on the exam whether it would have ended up the same. I’d rather be more prepared, but 6 months is not enough time. If I had a year, I’d start earlier with the reading of the curriculum.
IFT and Mark Meldrum videos are great resources. Use Mark’s videos to bring conceptual clarity on difficult topics, use Arif’s videos to organize topics/ subjects in your head.
Failed at Band 10 surprisingly (expected all >70 except ethics) last year with 6topics >70, corfin 50-70, ethics quant and equity <50.
This year started at march and read curriculum (except finrep, ethics, quant which I read from schweser) twice (once and then marked parts) while taking 6page notes per topic and reviewing this notes several times together with questions from curriculum. I have not done mock exam or other tests.
Result equity, derivatives, ethics 50-70, all else >70
My advice will be simple but relevant. The only indicator that 100% correlates with results of your exam is number of solved questions. Best sources for that are QBank and practice exams. Be prepare to complete at least 2000 questions in QBank and several 2-3 practice exams.
Passed with above 70 in 6 topics and 50-70 in rest. I used Schweser Notebooks and Arif’s videos. I strongly recommend Schweser Notebooks and Arif’s videos and CFAI topic tests and mocks (2013-2017)
You’re not a CFA Level III candidate until you actually register! Luck definitely has nothing to do with it monacoj; not a good idea to give false hope to people who haven’t sufficiently prepared…
Everyone needs to find their own strategy. But the test is designed, whether intentional or not, where you only need to pass a few sections and you are good. Focus on Equity and Financial Reporting and Analysis. These are the largest sections. If you can get 80% and above on those, you can sprinkle in a couple of other sections to focus your efforts. Try and get 70-80% on 4 sections. My core 4 were fixed income, equity, FRA, and derivatives. This doesn’t mean you can forget the other sections. You need to get the layup questions for those sections. Study something every day. Take as many mock tests as you can, just as the others have said.