I’m reviewing my study plan and have a question for the group. If you’ve got say, 18 weeks to cover the curriculum including the EOC questions, how are you setting your pace? For instance, do you give the same amount of time to each SS (1 SS per week). Or, do you allocate time based on topic weights given by CFAI? For example, if FRA makes up 15-25% of exam scoring, do you give 15-25% of your time to FRA? Also, how much extra time do you set aside for topics that simply break your mind (like quant does for me), knowing that that additional effort will take away from other subject areas?
I would usually allocate more time to the longer topics. Sort of a “small, medium, large” allocation. I wouldn’t waste too much time on a small but difficult topic - I would try to learn or memorize the key concepts so you can answer half the questions and if learning the other half will take 4x as long, it’s probably not worth it. Unless it’s ethics of course! In 18 weeks, starting fresh, I’d give yourself 8 weeks for a first pass through, 6 weeks for second pass + EOC questions, 4 weeks for final review, practice exams and memorization. Something like that, anyway. That sort of approach has worked for me in the past. Good luck!
Initially, I thought I’d allocate each section on the average scoring weightings. Thus, if FRA is expected to weigh from 15-25%, I’d estimate 20% of the total time for this section. But I came back to dividing the SS’s equally based on CFAI’s recommendation in the front of the textbooks. Don’t get me wrong – some sections are faster, while some take more time. For instance, I’m strong in FRA but weak in Quant. For this reason, I gave Quant some extra time last month so I could cover some of the bases that I overlooked in L1.
Hey Robert. I had your dilema last year and since im sitting for L2 again I guess I did the wrong choice. My mistake was that I was over confident of FRA and Equities. They are way way harder then L1. Ensure that you know them inside out. If you score well on these two and ethics you are 3/4 of the way there. Ethics is the hardest one of these to really nail it down. Do not underestimate it. If I was restricted for time I would definatly revise these than trying to learn Quant. Just be careful because some quant material is needed for PM.
quant, econ and Portfolio Mgmt sections in level 2 have a bit of an iffy feel about them. You need to go thro’ them multiple times in order to wrap arms around them. and it makes sense to go thro’ them at different points in your study. Level 2 was one place I never felt comfortable that I knew the topics inside out… every read thro’ the material did bring something new to the forefront… (and this I believe contributes to the toughness of the level in general).
Working on FRA now, although it isn’t quite as tough for me since I’m a CPA. Still, I allocated three weeks to the material since it has three SS’s. But, Equity also has three SS’s, yet it is likely to count for a slightly higher amount of the overall score than FRA (20-30% vs. 15-25%). So, do I allocate a bit more time to Equity than to FRA? Or, do you divide time based on the relative number of readings? Or, something else? It’s a tough call… max81 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hey Robert. I had your dilema last year and since > im sitting for L2 again I guess I did the wrong > choice. > > My mistake was that I was over confident of FRA > and Equities. They are way way harder then L1. > Ensure that you know them inside out. If you score > well on these two and ethics you are 3/4 of the > way there. Ethics is the hardest one of these to > really nail it down. Do not underestimate it. > > If I was restricted for time I would definatly > revise these than trying to learn Quant. Just be > careful because some quant material is needed for > PM.
Max81: Since you’ve seen the live beast in the flesh, what lessons have you learned about the mock/practice exams? Did you find that certain ones do, or do not, adequately prepare one for the test? For instance, with L1, I found that the Schweser practice exams (the volume one book), did a pretty good job of getting me ready after I had finished reading all the curriculum. The questions were not as nuanced as the actual exam, but they provided the needed practice to get me ready for the big day. max81 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hey Robert. I had your dilema last year and since > im sitting for L2 again I guess I did the wrong > choice. > >
Well qbank is very good for l1 for l2 less so. I used to score between 85-90 on everything except quant and i failed the exam. Coming exam i am going to use the eoc questions. Do not get me wrong qbank is usefull for certain subjects such as ai, fi, dir econ but for ethics, equities and fra CFa expect more. Re Spending most time on Fra or equities. They usually both have the same amount of marks however equities is longer and there are so many formulas which you need to know all of them by heart. Esp you being a CPA should devote more time to Equities
Any thoughts about the Schweser practice exam books? Did you find those exams helpful when it came to the real exam? max81 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Well qbank is very good for l1 > > for l2 less so. > > I used to score between 85-90 on everything except > quant and i failed the exam. > > Coming exam i am going to use the eoc questions. > Do not get me wrong qbank is usefull for certain > subjects such as ai, fi, dir econ but for ethics, > equities and fra CFa expect more. > > Re Spending most time on Fra or equities. They > usually both have the same amount of marks however > equities is longer and there are so many formulas > which you need to know all of them by heart. > > Esp you being a CPA should devote more time to > Equities
Well depends on your available time. Do not get me wrong they are helpful but the questions are somewhat different from what you will find in the exam. Basically they are not written in the CFA language. For exam type questions have a look at the CFA mock/sample & EOC questions. In order to keep things fresh in your mind do Q-bank. If you have extra time do the practice book.
I took this test twice with two different approaches. One worked and one didn’t. The first time I tried the allocating my time per topic as a similar percentage of that topics weighting on the test. ie your original idea of allocating 15-25% of the time to FRA since FRA is 15-25% of the exam. Now I don’t know if I just didn’t have enough time to study or if it was the method, but either way I didn’t pass using this method. What worked well for me last year was: #1 giving myself enough time to study the material (started beg of Dec) #2 allocating my time using a combined %-age of test, how much I knew of the topic already, and a topic difficulty measure. I used an approximation of this number to allocate my time. Obviously some areas were more difficult to master than others, so even if it was a small portion of the test I may have given more time to it b/c it was difficult to master. The key point here is that for level II you need to know everything b/c the test will use theories and formulas from one section to find the answer from another section. As Max81 noted before, you’ll need some Quant for the PM section, you’ll also need some econ for the derivatives section as well (ass odd as that may seem). If you know Econ and Quant well, some of the things in Derivatives and PM will make sense more quickly. This test is full of questions that combine formulas/theories, and you don’t get half credit for knowing one thing and not the other.
good comments, thanks. I did start in earnest right before Thanksgiving. My study plan is somewhat a blend of topic weightings and study session counts. I track my progress, knowing full well that some material will take longer, and some less so. Either way, I have enough “padding” in the schedule with ample review time at the end.