I passed CFA Level 1 this year and have registered for level 2. By that time I was still working as financial analyst and had some thought about my future carreer. For now I have switched to another job. Industry itself, where my company operates is far from financial world. My position is up level management, don’t have time at all and I have to push myslelf hard to do this 400 plus hours study in order pass level 2 and attain the skills which I guess I am not gonna use at all.
So, problem is - lack of time and motivation.
Anyways, I still have something inside which makes me to keep up studying and give a shot.
Please share your experience, if there is slight chance that someone who has good background pass level 2 without reading notes and just doing lots of mocks. If you advice, I might purchase Schweser 6 mocks and review the answers. It will probably take 100-150 hours max. Will it be enough?
I cant speak with too much credibility but I’ve started reading through l2 notes for first time, and it’s a different ball game. Big step up. Would find it very hard to believe anyone could pass this exam without reading the curriculum.
I just cracked into level 2 and just finished the first reading in quant and I can tell you it is already a whole new ballgame. All new stuff and well advanced from the first round. And this is in the first reading covering Single variable Linear regression. Looks like I am headed into multi-variable linear regression next!! Whoohoo
Level 2 is substantially harder, more forumla, more difficult questions, worse readings. They actually dropped some readings, which gave me a little hope, but now that I’m back reading the CFAI material to see what is new, my motivation is low. I made the decision to spend a lot of time making notes and study materials the first time I took Level 2, so I had hoped to spend most of my time reviewing those and working on my weak spots and then a whole month on or so on practice exams.
With all the published pass rates which ignores the “no shows” completley expecting Level 2 to be easier when everyone says it isn’t is naive. Level 3 pass rates sometimes improve because Level 2 weeds out so many people.
There is no short cut to success. You need to have a good grasp of the topics, especially the ones with higher weightages. Strategies adopted during Level I exam need not necessarily work for Level II exam. Level II is more into analytical framework as compared to Level I. Reading the curriculum, revision, practice, review and mock tests are pretty much the secret to success. Level II requires twice the efforts & dedication.
In case you are running really short on time, I would suggest that you watch lesson videos (preferably wiley because they are more detailed), and top it off with practicing EOC questions and lots of mocks ( atleast 10 to get a hang of the vignette format and address any knowledge gaps). Maybe you could also memorize formulae from quicksheets that many third-party companies provide. This level is more conceptual, and a basic understanding and logic is critical for passing. So, if you do the above things you might be able to finish within 150-200 hours.
I feel like level one can be passed with fewer than 200 hours for Finance majors. Level 2 is a step up in difficulty. That being said in my first attempt at level 2 I logged around 200 hours over 7 weeks. I finished with a band 9 score. So that was close enough that I feel like it is possible for people with more experience or talent than I possess to pull out a W.
Might want to ask in the L3 forum for people who have actually passed L2. Id think your best gamble would be to review the LOSs asked by the official mock for full understanding of each one then pull the LOSes asked by the schweser mocks and hit them in order from most asked. Aim for a 100% in ethics.
The other side of the spectrum would be to aim for perfect scores in FRA/Equity/Corp Finance/Ethics and pick up scraps from the other sections. (FRA/Equity for 40% of the exam, corp is the easiest 5-10, ethics is the best bang for your buck). 90% score on those will put you at 54, and guessing rate on the remainder of the test puts you at 67.
Since you have registered just forget everything and start studying. I too have registered for it and have figured out that no matter what we need to go with the CFAI books. I have downloaded the the CFA App for android phone and i find it amazingly better than the E book format by vital source . When ever you get time just skim through the reading you want to go with when ur actually studying its helping me . Not too much of a tip but its helping me. Maybe it helps you !!!
I’m in the same boat, aiming for 100 hours due to work commitments. I was a math major and I studied 30-50 hours for L1 doing all the EoC and memorizing formulas. I passed L1 with a comfortable margin. Good luck to the two of us.