I hate this exam. I am miserable studying. I obviously enjoy finance since I work in the field but this exam is just ridiculous. My brain is in overload. This is so mentally straigning. Also, the Schweser Qbank annoys the heck out of me. They ask questions that aren’t even covered in the CFAI books! I would like my money back. Yes, I know, I’m just a whiny little girl but somebody out there knows how I feel 
Good luck guys. Feel free to use this post to vent to the CFA gods
lolz i ws v tempted to create an ‘official venting thread’ past days. So let’s use this thread for this purpose.
I sooooo agree!!! There is just to much material and even though I feel that I have put in the hours and covered the material I am terrified that come exam day I will open that book and find that they are asking a bunch of nit-picky trick questions! And no matter how much I study, I still feel that there are huge gapping holes…ever time I fill one, I discover a new one…how on earth are we expected to remember EVERYTHING??? I have to say taht I was considerably more relaxed two weeks before L1 last December.
I feel ya king. I finish one topic and forget another. Bottom line is we don’t have to know everything, just 70%. Stay positive and keep pushing. It’s almost over
The thing that really pisses me of is: TEST ME TO PROVE THAT I UNDERSTAND THIS SHIT, NOT THAT YOU CAN TRICK ME. Don’t hide tiny details in the middle of a paragraph. This bullshit proves nothing but the fact that you can jerk thousands or people around. Every section should look the same, give me an abridged Balance Sheet, IS and CF statement and let me go at it. Don’t hide in the middle that you want the ratio based on “average” and not prior year Assets. Don’t change Income Statements that read right to left then the next set of questions reads left to right that it total bullshit. If you want me to run a 5 part Dupont great give me Financial Statements that look like the ones I see on my desk every day. Black out NI and Equity and make me do the rest. Don’t make me search all around to find something. All of this material SHOULD TRANSLATE directly to what we do day to day. It pathetic when you are more afraid of finding the answer they are looking for rather than the answer that is correct. Am I being unreasonable to say: All Financial statements should look the same, the story should be the story and the numbers should alway be in a table, all discount factors and rates for derivatives should look the same, ALL CURRENCY NOTATIONS SHOULD LOOK THE SAME don’t give me this: a dollar cost 3 euro’s, 1=3 euros, euros 3/1, euro: $ 3. All notations in the books should translate straight to the Exam. The institute has done some great things if they keep all of their notations in a standard format this may once again help them lead the way to the industry going to uniform standards. Test hard test deep but tricking someone out of a year of their life or a Charter is pointless.
Yeah it’s too overwhelming and I find, mentally, I’m just not into it as much as Level I. Definitely thinking I’ll be seeing this thing next June. But will work my butt off the next two weeks.
I agree with all. I feel once I knock out a few equations and concepts in one section, I realize there are 5 more that I haven’t reviewed and another 5 that I’ve already forgotten. When it comes to attacking the questions, as soon as I start seeing the numbers/notations, etc; I IMMEDIATELY freak and start thinking…ok, where’s the trick to this one? What’s the “catch”…whether it’s using EOY assets instead of avg. or whatever it may be. Point is, when I start looking out for the curve ball I forget about simply reading/understanding the general vignette. It’s so hard not to think about the little, nit picky things though!
yah… this process is grueling and the test are hard. But in another perspective, b/c of it being hard you’ll have less ppl passing/and sticking through all three lvls. Hence less people getting the charter = CFA charters being more “valuable” The rate of CFA charterholders are increasing … increasingly fast and it won’t be as “prestigious” as before. This will be my second time around so… although I wish I did pass it first time around but I feel I grasp the knowledge that much more this time and feel much more solid for lvl 3 and applications in the “real” world.
anyone else out there feel like they’re about to get fired from their jobs because of this exam? I am not mentally at work even I’m physically there meaning I’m making so many stupid mistakes its ridiculous. On top of that, I’m taking a top of days off. They will probably realize this group runs just as good without me so they don’t really need me. Thanks CFA
tmishin, I hear ya on that one. I am just doing the bare minimum to stay afloat for another 2 weeks and piling up a mountain of work for later…
Thank god I’m not the only one - I’m really struggling with retention for L2 - same boat, I review one topic and forget the other. I’m not anywhere close to confident, but am planning to hammer through as many practice exams and questions as possible the next two weeks and see how it goes. I’m so overwhelmed :S
from someone who has taken this test before here’s some advice: break each topic down by section and break each section into its fundamentals. for example: FSA can be broken into Intercorporate Investments, Pensions, Multinational Ops, and L1Review/Earnings Quality. break these down into formulas and notes that you can use for practice questions and tests. there is a lot of material, but you can manage it and how you manage it will determine if you pass/fail. remember - if what you’re reading/studying is worth knowing - it will be on the test. (I agree on the Q-bank being terrible for L2 - use the questions and mock exams on the CFAI site. The text is your #1 asset.)
mar350 - your comment about the Qbank being terrible - just made my day better because I hate that thing. How do you feel about the Schweser mocks?
Yeah I think this test is ridiculous also, I mean, I luv finance, but I dont think this really tests how smart I am, its just a bunch of ridiculous cramming. Sometimes I dont know how or why I got into this, there are easier ways to continue my education and still live a balanced life
a7m002 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Yeah I think this test is ridiculous also, I mean, > I luv finance, but I dont think this really tests > how smart I am, its just a bunch of ridiculous > cramming. Sometimes I dont know how or why I got > into this, there are easier ways to continue my > education and still live a balanced life there are a lot of smart people out there, but how committed are they to the profession? how committed are they to producing quality work? tmishin - i used the q-bank for L1 and also for L2. i think it helped in L1 purely from the repetition of questions, but L2 is a different beast where you really need to understand the relationships between the financials, external/international effects, and calculations. Schweser doesn’t write the quality questions that CFAI does that force you to use the relationships. I think their mocks are ok, but don’t follow the CFAI methods. Use the mocks from the CFAI site (I think you get one freem, but have to pay for more. The texts/EOC are great sources).
apple85 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Thank god I’m not the only one - I’m really > struggling with retention for L2 - same boat, I > review one topic and forget the other. I’m not > anywhere close to confident, but am planning to > hammer through as many practice exams and > questions as possible the next two weeks and see > how it goes. I’m so overwhelmed :S I can’t even emphasize how much I relate to this. It’s like when I do the stuff individually, it’s not that bad but when I finish a book and move on to the next one, the previous stuff I learnt is a blur. 
I have 2 weeks leave so I’m also just gonna go through EOCs one more time before taking the CFAI mock and Schweser practice exams. My head is constantly throbbing.
CFAtime Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > My head is constantly throbbing. Same here! I thought it is because of sleep deprivation. But even after proper sleep for past 3 days it is still not gone.