I sat level 2 last year and failed with a band 8. I am determined to pass this time and will finish studying my final topic tomorrow (portfolio management).
Its been a few few months since I studied the earlier topics (Quant, Econ etc) and I didn’t exactly do many practice questions for the past few topics because I wanted to get all the Fitch Learning videos done before the final month to do questions.
I’m aiming to do 15x120 question mock exams over the next 5 weeks (3 a week with study days off work ocassionally and the whole week before the exam off). I aim to review all my exams after and go over the questions I got wrong or was unsure of after. The first 5 I will do “open book” so I don’t beat myself up about not remembering the concepts I studied a while ago.
Do do the veterans on this forum think this is enough to pass this time? 12 months since I sat level 2 last year is a long time so it’s like I’m learning it all over again. I think this could be enough to get me a pass but I’m not sure. Any advice would be appreciated.
Oh, also- I plan to do the official CFA mocks 2 weeks before the exam just so I am doing vignette rather than Fitch Qbank mocks (which btw are more comparable to Elan than Schweser in terms of difficulty - I had access to both last time so I know the difference).
I am gonna sit for the first time but my plan is jus about the same. Wiley/Elan has 750+ questions which i started yesterday with a target of about 75 a day of topics i finished clubbed with last years Schweser EOC (which as you mentioned are not comparable to Wiley/Elan) and CFAI EOC would be about 1500+ and not to forget CFAI online practice questions plus of course - Mocks ie 8 mocks (6 schweser, 1 Wiley, 1 CFAI) This should be enough. But i only wanted one more CFAI past years mock so that i can drop one schweser mock. Where can i get that?
Would anyone say that the Schweser or Wiley qbanks are good for repetitive use of formulas to help w/ memorization? Or are they just too “simple.” I learn better by doing than straight memorization. Understood that the EOC questions better reflect exam complexity and practice with the vignette style.
Question for capaldji and parth993. Have you guys already gone through the CFAI EOC? Capaldji this is your 2nd time so I’m sure you have. The reason I ask is because this late in the game I doubt you have any time to do 3rd practice questions. The CFAI EOC take huge amount of time to go through. I had to completly skip the wiley questions. Unless you’re not working maybe that would change things. Or maybe its just taking me forever to grind through them which means I’m in trouble. best of luck
Bachatero2014, i am not working. And i did most of the topics from the CFAI text books since i had the time. Especially FI, FRA, AI, PM and Equity. So now i can do a mix of CFAI EOC and Wiley Qbank. BTW i have a little left in PM, ECO and AI. i’ll probably start my mocks in 3 - 4 days.
Bachatero, I am working (in the industry in a front office position - which helps my understanding, but is also a hinderence as it means I work longer hours than those who don’t) and having already sat level II before I am well aware of what my limitations were last time relative to this attempt.
I have been through the majority of the CFA EOC (although not all topics). While they are the best learning tool for covering all essential concepts, I simply do not have time to go through them all of these again before the exam without leaving a significant amount of time between covering each of the 10 topics. This is why I have chosen to do several mock exams so as to cover each of the topics in their weightings of importance, while keeping them all fresh in my mind.
I would recommend that everyone does the CFA EOC if possible, but for those of us who do not have the time for this, Qbanks will have to do. And I know plenty of people who have passed all 3 levels in years gone by using ONLY the Qbanks.
Elan’s questions are solid. I did all of them for the main topics (Equity, FRA…) a few days before the exam and it really helped prepare me. I found them pretty similar to the exam format and it just helped drill the concepts. I also redid a bunch of CFA EOC questions in the final week or so. Without these things I’m 90% sure I wouldn’t have passed.
Wiley/Elan… I used them for Level 1 and they were pretty good. So i would recommend them. Till now, when i have compared them with Schweser EOC, Wiley/Elan questions were more complex.