I PASSED AND HERE'S MY STUDY ADVICE!

CFA Level II
#1

Please share what made you successful in beating this beast.

All categories >70% except for AI 50%~70%.

  1. START EARLY - If you are a normal 9-5 like me, start early. I started in Nov and even if you just flip through the pages, you will be a step ahead than most ppl by the end of Dec.

  2. MAKE A STUDY PLAN - A good study plan helps you allocate your time more efficiently (subjects with heavier weights need more time) and allows you to gauge your progress along the way. (>300 hrs is a must if you really want to pass and 400+ hrs is highly recommended) Leave Ethics toward the end but spend quality time on it (at least 15+ hours).

  3. BE DISCIPLINED - Stick with your plan, do not fall behind as you will never be able to catch up. Send your wife to travel the world the walmart, your kids to grandpa’s, and your dog to the neighbors. Do whatever you need to keep up with your plan.

  4. BUY A GUIDE - If you are a slow reader like me, spend some $ on a guide (I used Elan’s) as it helps putting everything you need to know in a nicer format.

  5. LOS - Print a list of all LOS, and check off the boxes as you completely master them. (know/differentiate the keywords like “understand”, “explain”, “calculate”, “distinguish”, etc ). If you master this list, YOU WILL PASS.

  6. EOC Questions - Before moving on to the next LOS, do all CFAI EOC questions and understand your mistakes. (I did all EOC 3 times).

  7. MOCKS - Allocate 6 weeks before the exam to do at least 6 full mocks. Understand all answers and get famaliar with the format. I can say that practice problems and mocks contribute more than half to my pass.

  8. FORMULAS - You will probably know 70% of the formulas by heart after all the questions and mocks. Spend a few hours every week in May to write out every formulas (try to understand and apply formulas to actual problems as I find it the easiest way to memorize them)

  9. REVIEW FREQUENTLY - First time through the material, I felt I didnt learn anything and was completely lost. But I felt more and more confident as I reviewed the mateiral for the second and third time. In the mock weeks (last 6 weeks), review heavily test subjects like Equity/FRA/Derivatives and weak areas frequently.

  10. REMEMBER TO BREATH - If 46% of the ppl passed, you just have to know more than the person sitting next to you to pass. Relax, it’s not as difficult as it seems as long as you put in adequate efforts.

*STUDY GUIDE RECOMMENDATION

Elans: Half the price compared to Schweser, great videos (I can watch Peter Olinto ALL DAY), clear explainations on some of the more diffcult subjects (pension, swaps, etc.), 2 well written mocks, and the 11th hour guide is a MUST HAVE…

Schweser: Overall good stuff, but I feel that it’s a bit overpriced. 6 decent mocks but not as well written as Elan’s. I havent see the study guide myself but heard that it is decent. Qbank is a good tool but I dont think it’s essential. 3k questions can easily cost you more than 50 hours to complete and most of them are too easy and not in item set format.

CFAI text: Very long and sometimes poorly written and most of the detail you read will not appear on the exam. The only source to study Ethics. MUST DO ALL EOC QUESTIONS.

I personally would recommend Elan’s Guide if you can put up with their BS delivery delays (you have online access before you receive the hardcopy tho) and lastly, make sure you

DO ALL EOC QUESTIONS + AT LEAST 6 MOCKS!!! (CANT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH!!!)

#2

at the end of the day youre another day older, sitting on your bum doesnt buy any bread

#3

There is something about mocks………

In June 2001 I took CFA Level I. Having study with another friend, and doing a good chunk of exercises, we had an “easy test” and passed (1st try).

In 2002, feeling overconfident and without the same discipline I relaxed. Studied less and did even less exercises: failed. My friend passed.

In 2003, enrolled and just appeared at the exam for a sure fail.

In 2005, did a 3 month course. Payed attention in classes, but lacked the energy for practicing. Failed

Enough of CFA level II !!!

Arrives 2014, why not give another chance?

This time with a different strategy: mock till you drop (advice from this forum).

I have read the material in a light manner. Read the summaries. Did some (40% maybe) of EOCs. Bought the 11th hour guide from Elan (great) and Secret Sauce from Schweser (good).

The real difference: I did 7 mocks (CFAI and Schweser), score ranging from 59% to 74%. I advise you to start by mid April. One per weekend. After you finish, review thoroughly, even the ones you got it right. In the beginning we guess a lot.

You will start to see some pattern. Translations, Swap calculation, Residual Income. You have to master those exercises.

What is worse? Reading an exercise that you don`t have any clue on how to tackle it or doing 80% of it and in the end not knowing how to answer it correctly? Either way you get a zero. Only with practice you can get it right. Reading the answer DOES NOT work. It makes sense, it is logical, it is obvious but when you are alone with the test it just does not happen. I suspect you know the feeling. Practice!

I`ve used Analyst Forum as a great tool to clarify issues that I was not getting by. Do not arrive here to see question from others. There are zillions. You will get anxious and depressed for knowing so “little”.

What I have learnt:

-Ethics appear in every level, do not overlook it

-Item sets questions are not an issue (after a while is pretty natural)

-Level II is different from level I (give more commitment)

-Level II is doable (give more commitment…)

Again, do the mocks! Why do you think they exist? There are many exams that you dont have this tool. Only a Suggested Reading list and thats it.

I`ve seen some people one week before the exam saying they were “not ready for a mock”. No one will ever be. Everyone will always arrive at the exam wanting another 10 days, 2 months, 10 months……

There is no reason for not knowing where you stand. It is ridiculous!

Scenario analysis – Taking your first mock:

Scoring 45% - Take a final sprint, you need another 20 right questions. You can do it. Focus on important parts of the curriculum that you are struggling

Scoring 65% - You are above the presumed MSR (63%). Polish your knowledge. Do not screw it.

Scoring 85% - Get a life!

The earlier you start the better. I suggest mid-April.

Folks, take a deep breath and attack the beast. Ive met dozens of people who had passed level I and have never completed the CFA program. Ive have yet to meet anyone who had passed level II and have not become a CFA charterholder. This is the turning point.

—————————————————

How NOT to pass even though you study 300+ hours:

Read a lot and don`t do any exercise……

—————————————————-

The day after the exam, you will see people at this forum talking about all the “hidden traps” that they saw at the exam. It is a fetish since we cannot talk about the exam. Relax, the exam is pretty much the same as mocks. By that time, you should already know the traps, mines, jokes, whatever. I left the exam feeling awesome (guessing I`ve done around 75%). Got less confident when I saw the posts here. Final results: passed with 70+ in Equity and FRA and 4 others topics….

#4

How not to waste your time:

Don’t read CFAI cover to cover, read Schweser cover to cover however

Passing is pasing, it doesn’t matter if you pass by 1 pt or if you pass by 50 pts

How to pass exam:

Do as many mocks and practice questions as you possibly can and get good at educated guessing

#5

Mock exams I found by far the most helpful in tying everything together and turning the knowledge to practice.

I found old Schwesser exams from friends from 2011-2013 *(Warning: you must be aware of curriculum differences if studying from older materials as they change from year to year, some stuff gets eliminated and others added)

Including the 2014 exams and CFAi official mocks, I took around 10.

#6

when you are young work to learn not to earn

#7

yes

#8

Is the buttocks really real?

#9

For Level 2, I read the CFAI books cover to cover.

I did 10 mocks. 6 from Schweser, 2 from CFAI and 2 from ELAN.

That’s how I scored 70+ in everything but Alts, in which I was one question away from 70+.

PS. For level 1, I read CFAI cover to cover and wrote 8 mocks (6 from Schweser and 2 from CFAI). There I scored 70+ in everything.

To each her own. There is no one way to slay this beast.

#10

My advice is: if your schedule allows you the flexibility to use your more efficient time of the day for studying, use it.

Shift the work that does not require your 100% concentration into your less productive time zone, and read some complicated chapters during your more productive time.

I remember one CFA book cover woman telling about this strategy. If I remember correctly, she worked with US and due to the time lag was allowed to take conference calls from home at night, while she studied during the day. Her case is a rare luxury but the idea in general is very useful.

#11

I’ve always found that the best advice was to learn the material.

That worked for me.

#12

Adding what worked for me:

It’s not the amount of hours you put in but the quality of these hours. I tracked every single minute of study I put in and benched marked it against a really high mark. If i caught myself texting, watching tv, browing AF etc, I did not count that time as study. I took this peice of the journey very seriously… if you do the same you’ll find 300 quality hours is much different than just 300 hours of lazy studying. You mock exams do not count as study, that is ‘practice’.

Second point that i’ll make. When I took the level-1 exam, and failed, someone at lunch said commented to me after I was complaining about the exam a bit… He said “you really just need to know the material and you’ll be okay. It’s as simple as that”. The confidence he had when he said that to me is exactly how I wanted to feel when I stepped into the exam room. To feel like that, I needed 300+ quality hours of study and that’s exactly what I did.

#13

Read cfai curriculum doing all eocs. Read it again but skim this time once again doing all eocs. Buy a secret sauce. Do a couple mocks focusing most heavily on the cfai mock(s). Review with secret sauce. You’ll be money.

#14

My experience

Passed Level 1 and 2 with Schweser Notes only + EOC and only few practice exams, however all was thoroughly read and repeated 3 times…result 60%>70%; 40%=50-70%

Studied 5 times more for Level 2 than for Level 1. Took 3 months off work and studied min 7-8 hours every day like crazy + light studying before that for 2 months

For those who failed: take time off! FULLY devote 3-4 months minimum; this is not a joke, you have to memorize 1500 pages; no matter how intelligent you are, you still need to memorize concepts as time is too short on the exam to try to derive formulas. Having this said, try to learn how to derive most of the formulas because it is too much to learn all by heart

#15

First time taker/passer here after passing L1 in 2013. It looks like I just barely passed. (<50 in Econ/PM, 51-70 in Quant/Corp Fin and >70 in the rest)

I started hitting the books and studying in January. Pretty much used schweser until I finished reading all the material by mid April. Did the CFAI EOCs as I went along.

Did a quick second re-read and a few EOCs from each reading and finished that by early May.

After that I spent the next 7-10 days just doing practice problems…redoing EOCs etc. I didn’t even start my first mock until 2 weeks before the exam until I felt confident I knew a bit of everything. What really helped was that doing these questions really identified my weak areas in each section. I went back and read examples of stuff I didn’t understand from the CFAI.

Last 2 weeks I started doing mocks and reviewing basically. I would usually spend 1-2 days after each mock and work over my weak areas once again. I only did 3 mocks and I didn’t score >70 in any of them. All my scores were between 62-68%. Spent the last 2-3 days before the exam looking over formulas and general revision.

#16

I like this suggestion a lot. I didn’t do it but wish I had. You can get off track easily in your studies and this will keep you on course No matter how small or insignificant you may think the LOS is, it’s fair game for the exam!! I learned that lesson on June 7th but thankfully it turned out OK for me.

cgy5478, that was a good post. Very concise. I agree with all of it.

#17

Firstly, thank you to all for the help leading up to the exam.

Here is my advice:

USE ANALYST FORUM - There is just no better way that learning through critical analysis and debate

START EARLY

GET SCHWESER SECRET SAUCE - I found this more helpful than note cards

CHANGE YOUR LIFESTYLE AND DIET - This was my biggest factor. In my experience, I was able to get fit and clear my mind from all the toxins from alcohol. This is important to have a sharp mind.

WHEN YOU DO PRACTICE EXAMS, NO NEED TO FOCUS ON COMPLETING EXAMS - I found this to be very important. A lot of people said to focus on completing exams and grading them afterwards, but I found that answering and confirming your answers was just as effective. Also, when you go through answers not knowing whether you got them wrong or right, it can be harmful. It is better to go back and see where you got it wrong soon instead of waiting for after a 6 hour exam as you may have forgotten about it by then.

STUDY STUDY STUDY…

SCHWESER IS JUST AS EFFECTIVE AS CURRICULUM - a lot of people say to focus on the curriculum, but it can also be harmful if you spend to much time reading introductions and areas that dont go straight to the point. I found it useful to first study SCHWESER, then test yourself… Then start studying with curriculum for the areas you find yourself weak at since the curriculum as good explanations.

#18

SHHHHHHH! Don’t give away the secrets, we want to keep the pass rate down.

#19

I passed both L1/L2 with a couple months of studying the first go around:

L2: Started skimming the curriculum around end of March. After every week or two, gave a mock exam and identified topics that needed review. So until first of week of May I may have taken 2-3 mocks and progressively started to review the topics I was weak on.

Starting 2nd week of May, just did mock exams and every single end of chapter problems from the curriculum. Barely touched Schweser except for Practice exams.

Also reviewed Ethics only the last few days before the exam

#20

EOC questions are crucial, answered them 3 times i think and everytime i found out a new thing to learn. the ideas embedded are really interesting if you notice enough.

Mock exams: I only did 1, and scored about 50%.

so EOC question work for me.