Then start studying early, if you would be unable to get much time off work. L2 is a very strange animal.
2 weeks and it paid off!
Took 3 days and needed every bit of them to creep past L2. As others have mentioned, you can get away with none if you’re ahead of the game and feeling comfortable. Even if I were feeling comfortable, I wouldn’t want to even chance having to go through it again. 3 days of PTO is well worth avoiding several months of studying for a retake. I’d have taken a full 5, but with my role that’s not easy to do.
I took off the week prior plus the two days before the weekend. It helped that Monday was a work holiday. I am pretty confident that I would have failed without this time. I hit the topic tests hard.
Last week of May I took 3 days off and it really helped. Started studying in November - March at a leisurely pace. End of March - June 4th went hard. Was well prepared and was doing mocks/EOCs/TT’s all May and those extra few days were nice to grind some more material.
1 week. Use wisely and try to crank out 80-100 hours in that time though. I think there is 80 + topic tests which are taken from old CFAI mocks. Do each of those 2 -3 times and EOCs in Jan - May. Do Kaplan and Wiley mocks mid April/ early May. Do the 2017 CFAI mock 2-3 weeks out. Then late April onward focus exclusively on CFAI material. Redo all the topic tests another 2-3 times each again. CFAI topic tests are a little harder than the real thing IMO. Where as Kaplan is easier and Wiley only has two mocks so hard to tell. I would write out each problem in a composition book and filled up 2 books with problems.
2 months of heavily reduced hours (self employed)
1 week - 100% worth it
No day off. Just kidding, one week and then get back to work.
Took four days and worked from home the 5th.
2 weeks off.
Probably won’t do that again because I book it in Jan, and all winter/spring I knew I had a Hail Mary at the end.
Got 4.5 week’s vacay so will take maybe 1 week next year. Half of it is just so you’re not distracted at work – cannot imagine doing good work 3 days before writing L2 or L3.
work allows me to have 3 paid “education” days a year. so I’ve used that the past two years.
IE wednesday, thurs, and friday off.
Im sure more time would be beneficial; I was doing my mocks right til the end basically, and I find thats when stuff really feels like its coming together for me.
For level 1 - 1 Week
For level 2 - 2 weeks and totally worth it. Couldn’t imagine actually being able to focus at work not having a least a week off for studying.
Zero time off. The weekend before the exam I was on the other side of the country for a conference. I knew this well ahead of time and planned my study schedule knowing that I would do zero studying in the last week.
All I did in the last week was re-read notes and definitions. No actual problems. Maybe an hour or two tops per day (if that). I really think this helped though, there were a lot of definition questions.
I’ve never taken any time off for level 1 or 2. I’m a firm believer that if you start early enough (October) you can be through the curriculum by the end of March and have April/May for review and practice exams. I just take the Friday off immediately before the exam and it’s more for relaxation than anything.
If you don’t know the material by 2 weeks before, chances are you aren’t going to master it in those two weeks. Focus on what you know.
Took 2 of my 3 weeks vacation to study and I passed and regret nothing.
1 week in April, 1 week right before the exam
I started in January so the week off in April gave me a chance to catch up because I was a bit behind my schedule. The week off right before the exam was key too but I wouldn’t take 2 weeks right before the exam. Splitting them up was helpful.
I took off the entire week of the exam (4 days plus the holiday). with the previous weekend, that gave me seven solid days to study full time.
I have a full time job and a wife and child so studying was always late nights or weekend afternoons. The huge blocks of time the last seven days before the exam were massively helpful. My mind was clear of all other worries, and I felt rested and excited to hit the books every day. I was able to really solidify areas that had given me trouble. I would never have passed without that time. I barely passed as it was.
Also I started early Jan and put in about 12-15 hours per week
5 working days. In the last week is more about resting and having enough time to do a couple of mocks. What I found is that I am usually shattered after a mock, and the day after I feel like doing nothing.
I wouldn’t really count on fixing things in those days though. The exam is so wide that you need a slow and religious process to learning, and 5 days at the end are only good in making you realize what you don’t know.
I get limited vacation days and no education days, but I do have some “sick” leave that I can take. My strategy for L1 was to take a random sick day here and there to supplement study time and then the final Wednesday through Friday as vacation days before the exam.
My strategy for L2 was similar but I added a couple of planned vacation days throughout April and May. However, I did not take them as a block of time. I basically had a couple of 3- and 4-day weekends leading up to the exam.
This comes down to personal preference and knowledge of your own study habits. For me, even when I know the material well, the last two weeks can feel like a bit of a panic; and even if I had two full weeks off, I’d probably suffer from some paralysis just because of the volume of the material. I felt like spreading my days off in April and May gave me some extra time to do practice exams - I always underestimated how much of my day would be used for one mock (doing it, grading, and reviewing).
I used Wednesday through Friday before exam to get some sleep, rest up the brain, drive my route to test center, and review formulas and my personal flashcards.
already finish the behavioral finance section. Funny that I already forgot half of the things I read.