I know people hate this question and always say that it all depends on your background, but is there any consensus on the hardest study sessions or even particular readings? I saw this question on the Level I board before I started studying for that exam and that helped me mentally prepare for those topics when they came up. From what I gathered from doing a search in the Level II forums, I’ve seen Equity, Portfolio Management, and Quant as the big ones that people have trouble with? Any others that people always complain about, such as SS9 in Level I?
Quant sucks
reading 18 kind of sucks. I understand it now, but it took some time to wrap my head around it.
reading 13 sux
Quant… and the exchange rate stuff…
Quant was just painful.
Foreign Currency Translations. Too many things to remember.
Forex was (and still is) the hardest for me. My problem is remembering everything on the same day. I could probably teach a class on anything right after reading it, but a few months later I forget it.
PM is tough on the possible ways they can test it. Tons and tons of material and over the last 2 years the CFA institute has picked random, detailed, PM stuff to test. I thought I had a strong handle on it and blew it on the exam.
How would you rate Fixed Income and/or Derivatives? Theres not too much buzz and I reckon that lack of buzz means they are either less important or relatively easier! Any suggestions please?
For me the hardest parts in Level II are derivative valuations. Also Portfolio Management is much harder than you would think based on your Level I experience! So don’t ignore those areas. That being said, I think the main part where Quant is difficult is time series-- if you go over the materials a few times and try to get the concepts behind it, you should be fine. But then again, that idea applies to all the materials! Best wishes!
Quant and FX are not too bad. I’m going to approach Quant the same way I did last time… repitition of problems. I understand it while reading the chapter and did decently well on the problems. FX, same thing repitition I think will solve your troubles here. I just started FSA. I have no idea what the other sections are like.
I’ve actually just finished reading the fixed income stuff, and found it to be surprisingly tough. There was a ton of equity material, but it was all pretty straight-forward. FI seems to have a lot of messy formulas for option adjusted spreads and such. Pension accounting (FRA) and intercorp. investments was difficult because of all the different treatments between IAS and GAAP. I also completely agree that the FX stuff in econ was brutal. Overall, I’m mainly worried about overall retention. I can’t remember anything from the econ and quant stuff I studied in Nov, which probably means that by June I won’t remember anything that I’m studying now.
To Jankynoname That’s why you need to include a 5 week revision period to your study plan. It’s totally normal to forget stuff that you studied more than a month ago. I’ll spend a week to review my notes and do some concept checkers and then I’ll start writing exams. I usually spend three hours to do the exam and then spend another 2-3 hours to mark it. That’s when I start to retain everything.
dla35 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I usually spend three hours to do the exam and > then spend another 2-3 hours to mark it. That’s exactly how I work - If the exam is timed for 3hrs I book a timeslot of 2*3 hrs (double) for taking the test, reviewing, referring back and soldering the stuff I got wrong or guess marked my way as right. This all happens in mid May.
swaptiongamma Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > dla35 Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I usually spend three hours to do the exam and > > then spend another 2-3 hours to mark it. > > That’s exactly how I work - If the exam is timed > for 3hrs I book a timeslot of 2*3 hrs (double) for > taking the test, reviewing, referring back and > soldering the stuff I got wrong or guess marked my > way as right. > > This all happens in mid May. How do you go about reviewing? I already understand most of the concepts, but I’ve been going through the CFAI book, allen resource notes, as well as my 08 Secret Sauce book and making my own notes. I also have been doing lots of problems.
Bradleyz - I just go question by question. If the test was for 60 questions, I start with Q1 till Q60, hitting the respective SS/Reading’s from Schweser where the questions was based out of. I hardly use/open CFAI as they add to the confusion and prefer precision over volume. But then again - I failed L2 last year, so not in a good position to advice. Just do whatever works bud.
wrong thread
Bradleyz- I do exactly the same process as swaptiongamma. Also when I write the test, I usually put little symbols beside the question number. * means “I’m 75% sure of my answer, but should still review the material” + means " I’m 100% sure, don;t waist any time on this" - means “I guessed it, must review” For level I, when I wrote my first practice exam, it was a combination of mostly - and *. By the time I finished the second schweser practice exam book, they were mostly all + and *. Am I the only one to use this method? I find SS6 (pension…)long, boring and somewhat confusing. Read quant, econ, and almost finished FSA. So far I find SS6 the hardest.
dla35 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Bradleyz- I do exactly the same process as > swaptiongamma. > > Also when I write the test, I usually put little > symbols beside the question number. > > * means “I’m 75% sure of my answer, but should > still review the material” > + means " I’m 100% sure, don;t waist any time on > this" > - means “I guessed it, must review” > > For level I, when I wrote my first practice exam, > it was a combination of mostly - and *. By the > time I finished the second schweser practice exam > book, they were mostly all + and *. > > Am I the only one to use this method? > > I find SS6 (pension…)long, boring and somewhat > confusing. Read quant, econ, and almost finished > FSA. So far I find SS6 the hardest. dla- I think the only bad thing about this is that you might psyche yourself out. Sometimes your mind knows more than you think.