How did you crack Level II ?

Hello Folks, I am new L2 Candidate, would mind sharing how did you crack L2 ? How did you study ? Just from CFAI? Schwsner ? Any suggestion will be appericiated. Whcih topic should be considered difficult one ? -Thanks

I did seven schweser tests

Read all CFAI Material Did 80% of Q-BANK questions Did CFAI questions Read Schweser’s Secret Sauce 25x Did CFAI sample exams Did 2 Schweser exams

used schweser for 90% of the studying. read ethics from the texts. did every vignette and multiple choice questions from the texts, all of them. probably did about 25% of the open ended text questions as well. did as many practice tests as i could get my hands on. and got through probably 75% of the schweser qbank. flashcards and schweser secret sauce for the last month. all of the cfai mocks and samples. and used the sh*t out of this forum. there are a lot of smart people on this forum that helped me pass. don’t know why but i did crappy on fixed income on the actual test though i did well on the practice tests. ethics was much harder for me at level 2, while at level 1 it was probably the biggest layup for me. but in the end, level 2 is about doing well in fsa and equity… if you can, take john harris’s accounting workshop… good luck.

I referenced CFAI but used Schweser for most of the studying because didn’t get Level 1 results until Jan 23. I made pretty detailed notecards along with the reading so went slower than if I’d just read straight through. Made sure to do all the practice exams that were given, as well as some QBank questions to refresh topics that I thought I needed a better grasp of the fundamentals. Didn’t study Ethics until two weeks before the exam. Everyone has their own style…but this is what I did. Best of Luck!

I used CFAI all the way for Level 1. I never lookd at the LOS etc, I just read the stuff. I passed with >70 except for economics. Level 2, I used the CFAI books 98% of the time. Again, I nver read about the LOS etc. I just read the book. I bought Schweser book 6. Passed, with >70 but failed economics and portoflio management. Try to do what works for you. My last two weeks to exam was torture. But I have an MSc in Finance and Investment from an African School ( am in RSA).

I signed up for the weekly Schweser online class and used Schweser notes for all of my reading (except for Ethics I used CFAI) with a bunch of Q-bank along the way. I probably did 6 full practice tests in the last month (combo of both Stalla and Schweser) and took notes on any questions I got wrong or didn’t understand and reviewed these notes and the Secret Sauce repeatedly over the last month.

Did all schweser twice + most of qbank + all cfa sample and mock exams+ 3 schweser exams+ secret seauce to brush up 2 days before exam day…

by Q-BANK questions u mean the questions in CFAI book at the end of each chapter or is it something else??

how can i find out more about john harris’s accounting class? thanks cfasf1 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > used schweser for 90% of the studying. read ethics > from the texts. did every vignette and multiple > choice questions from the texts, all of them. > probably did about 25% of the open ended text > questions as well. did as many practice tests as i > could get my hands on. and got through probably > 75% of the schweser qbank. flashcards and schweser > secret sauce for the last month. all of the cfai > mocks and samples. and used the sh*t out of this > forum. there are a lot of smart people on this > forum that helped me pass. > > don’t know why but i did crappy on fixed income on > the actual test though i did well on the practice > tests. ethics was much harder for me at level 2, > while at level 1 it was probably the biggest layup > for me. but in the end, level 2 is about doing > well in fsa and equity… if you can, take john > harris’s accounting workshop… good luck.

  1. Read schweser study notes once. 2) Did all the concept checkers. 3) Used QBank to do refreshers once a week or so. Don’t restrict to advanced only - the simple ones are just as important for exam day. This helped keep track of what I remembered from earlier stuff 4) Did a couple of past papers from schweser, used them to target my reviews towards weak areas. Secret sauce could be useful here. I also used CFAI materials for some of the finicky bits that I didn’t quite get. 5) Did CFAI mocks to get into swing of their type of questions. This isn’t so much use for reviewing because they screw you on the ability to download questions, but is good for gauging where you are for exam day. 6) Closed all my books for that last few days, didn’t post here, had a few beers and chilled out to be in optimum mental state for exam day. Obviously posted here through out as well. People tend to post the trickier questions here and some of the resulting discussions were really useful. Often concepts I thought I understood, when I came to explain them to someone else I realised I didn’t understand it well enough. That was good as well. I started working in early-mid february, after doing my level 1 in december.

My approach was: Study Schweser till you can recite the content; Any part you dont fully understand, reference the CFAI text for it; Do all the Schweser Practive Exams; You may or may not finish the Schweser Qbank because its not refective of the actual exam; GET CFAI PRACTICE AND SAMPLE EXAMS to know how the exam is set. Best of Luck!

ryanwtyler Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > how can i find out more about john harris’s > accounting class? thanks > > accountingworkshops dot com

  • I passed on first try - I studied a LOT - maybe 500 hours! - I read Schweser at least twice - depending on the subject - I used the CFAI materials for ethics and fixed income - I did all exercices TWICE in CFAI books and Schweser 1-5 - I did book 6 and 500 questions in qbank (qbank was too easy - be careful!) - I had classes 10*4 hours (Only bacause I shouldn’t pay it. It was expensive!) There is no easy way. No tricks. Go study, study, study!

-Read/Studied the stalla books -Did every passmaster question -Took index cards from Stalla books -Used CFA books for Ethics (> 70), Quant (< 50), some of FSA (> 70)and Econ (b/t 51 and 70) -Took additional notes from passmaster questions

i can finally answer this question. i passed on the 2nd attempt. on the 1st attempt i was ready but i screwed up on exam day. -1st time read schweser only (book 1-7). things i changed: -2nd time read schweser then supplemented with CFAI textbooks with key areas. schweser is NOT complete in many areas especially PM, derivatives, ethics, corporate finance. did ALL schweser end of chapter questions and CFAI textbook questions. this is very important for derivatives. i found that schweser’s FSA and equity valuation was very sufficient. it’s a big waste of time to read the CFAI FSA and equity valuation book front to back. -did CFAI mock exams -did q-bank questions but i thought 80% of them were garbage. the item set questions are good though. the garbage questions may be useful to hammer in the fundamentals but i guess i thought they were especially crappy because it was my 2nd time around. -did schweser book 6 and 7 but timed my performance. timed each item set. very helpful to time each item set as it became apparent as to which ones i wasted time on. -the biggest change was making my own flashcards of anything i had an ounce of trouble remembering in a detailed manner. this helped me tremendously. -lastly, take it from everyone here: expect ANYTHING to be tested. expected to be shocked when certain “sure things” are not present on the exam. it will piss you off but the sooner you accept this fact, the sooner you’ll be on your way

January through April : Read everything, learn all the material. Do practice questions at the end of each chapter, and Qbank on sections if available to reinforce what you read. At the very end of April : Take a practice test. This will show you that you know none of the material because you have forgotten it all. Your score is irrelevant, but expect it to be bad. For May: Review everything and learn it all again (it will be easier this time). Do more practice exams to learn your weak areas, and hit them hard. Take the 2 CFAI mock exams last of your practice exams. This will be both a confidence booster (since you have prepped on the other practice exams) and give you the best feel for how the test day will actually be. The idea is that you can’t possibly retain the complete curriculum of information all at any one point in time. There just is too much. But you have to try, just keep reviewing and keep as much as possible fresh on your mind so that exam day you feel like anything you are asked you have a basic understanding of. For the last month, your brain should feel like a sieve that you are constantly trying to keep filled to the brim. If you slack off on reviewing, things will just keep leaking out and you will forget it all. Throughout all of this, discuss on AF and/or with a study buddy. Feedback in the process is INVALUABLE. Good luck.

from what i am reading. it sounds like you need to crack open those CFAI books. i have heard some people going 100% schweser and while this may have worked in past years, it seems like the CFAI material is becoming more pertinent. is that fair to say or was that obvious to everyone already?

I cant really say that i cracked it ( role-reversal might be appropriate) but here is my two cents. As a background I failed ethics, scored 50-70 in eco ( those 2bop questions), PMGT and Alt Inv, with the rest above 70. I passed overall.I started study in late January and used CFAI books throughout. I took a three weeks (forced!) break as I was in process of buying a house and many problems cropped up. Against this backgroung I just concentrated on the heavyweights , save for ethics ( which i kept telling myself that the fact that i bombed it at level 1 would make it sure that I do ok. Dont make this mistake!). i did every questions in CFAI curriculm for heavyweights. I did not even read econ ( looking back this could have cost me very dearly). Port Mgt is tough and is definitively not a breeze. One advice learn all the assumptions for all various models. You would be surprised how capm or APt just appear to be totally foreign to you whan the questions come…especially if it is in the pm session when you are tired. My general advice is to leard the heavy weights first. When I look at posts after exams Im pretty sure that I scored 100% in FSA and equity. SO these turned out to be my lifeline. The CFAI mocks and samples that I took was totally useless. I recommend to use that time to study instead of doing those. Hope that helps

I read through and highlighted all the schweser books. I did some but not even close to all the Q-bank questions. Starting in May and up to the test date I did several full length Schweser test, and the CFA mock/sample tests. Pretty much every weekend I did a full test, and often did 3 hour test during the week. I used Secret Sauce and the CFAI text in the last month to go over things I wasn’t great on. CFAI text especially for the surprises in the Mock exams. My biggest piece of advice is to start doing the vignette style questions early. I didn’t do this and wished I had when I started doing them in May. You can answer all the Q-bank questions, but the vignette style are much harder, IMO.