I have been off the forum for a bit. I came back on to see if anyone was talking about the meltdown out there, and I am surprised how many of you are studying already- Am I falling behind?
Depends. Last year I had several things come up that killed me for time. This year I plan to start early and if anything comes up then its all good.
In my opinion, earlier you start, better prepared you will be. But I find it very hard to motivate my self to start the studies now. Shame on me… I’m planning to start my L2 study after my trip to Hawaii (Oahu & Maui) in early Oct.
i have no finance background, i wish i could have started on june 7
It could be, if you do not regularly revisit the topics. Don’t make the mistake of putting aside something you master.
There was a lot of debate on the topic recently (here and in the L3 forum). When to start is a very personal matter. People bring different backgrounds to the table (some have good quant skills, some are accountants, etc…), they grasp stuff at different rates, and have very different constraints. L2 is significantly tougher than L1 (L1 is at the level of an Undergrad finance degree, and L2 is more like a masters). So, with the narrow escapes (and near misses) some had, they’re starting earlier. Burnout is a concern for those starting this early, for sure. But no one I know is going full-bore. For the most part, the approach seems to be to put in a few hours here and there (about half to 1/3 speed) until nearer the end of the year, and then ramp up. But Semper makes a great point. If you start this early, make sure to do periodic short reviews to reinforce it. If you don’t, you’ll lose much of what you covered early (it is almost 9 months until exam day). But periodic reviews (once a week for an hour or two) will help you to own the material. One of the biggest advantages of starting this early is that you’ll likely finish the material (at least your first pass) with plenty of time to spare. That leaves more time for deep review and testing. But the potential downside is the possibility of burnout. To avoid that, take regular breaks, get exercise, have some fun like a nattie or two (sorry - couldn’t resist) and so on. I personally am in favor of starting earlier - you have more time to internalize the material (i.e. actually learn it rather than binge and purge on exam day). It also allows you to get ahead in case of last minute occurrences of Murphy’s law (hey - stuff happens).
Very candidate-specific. I’m starting in November. Any earlier, I fear that I will burnout and possibly forget the material. Any later, I fear that I won’t have enough time to review the previously learned material. Good luck everyone.
I am taking the approach of reading through the CFAI books to get a good background on the material over the next few months. By doing this I am not trying to memorize formulas and concepts already, but just have a backbone of the material. Then around December of Janurary I will start going through a study program like Schweser. After reading through the material, it should make the study program easier and faster to go through which will leave me about a month to review and take mock exams. Last year I started in October for the level I exam and it worked out to be just right as far as time was for me. With level II going a little deeper I gave myself an extra month.
I started studying for L1 in march and pretty sure it was a border line pass. I am starting now and hope to be 80% to 100% finished by december… will take jan and feb off and come back march for the review
I personally think its a little early but its up to you. What you’re “studying” style like? I took the June Exam for Level I and feel like I’m STILL recovering. I can’t even think about hitting up those books again! I’ll personally be starting my intense studies in December. I wouldn’t start past January though…give yourself ample time.
I signed up for Level 2 last night (to save my company a few bucks). To me, that starts the process. I’m planning to start studying Oct 1. This is my second attempt at L2. I was band 8 this year. FSA and Ethics were the difference for me. If I scored >70 on those two topics I would have ordered my L3 books last night. So my plan is to focus on FSA and Ethics until I master those topics. Hoping that is somewhere around mid-late December. If I’m ahead of schedule I will review Equity as well. I nailed Equity this year, but it is such a large portion of the test that the extra reps can’t hurt. I’m actually planning to read the official cfa ethics wrtings this time. Last time relied too heavily on the Stalla notes for Ethics. The Stalla focus for FSA was off the mark and I relied too heavily on Stalla for that section as well. I’m hoping to leverage this forum to get me through FSA this time! I will then take a 2 week break for Christmas and then follow the Stalla schedule from there. Good luck to everyone. See you soon.
I signed up today! I forgot to sign up yesterday and had to pay $640, $90 more. Stupid mistake… I plan on staring November 1 - Going to read econ and FI first, since these topics are most relevant in the economy today.
flushdraw Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I started studying for L1 in march and pretty sure > it was a border line pass. I am starting now and > hope to be 80% to 100% finished by december… > will take jan and feb off and come back march for > the review That strategy would not work for me. I started on 2/15 for the 2008 exam and it took me into May before I finished reading all the material. And I had the motivation of the actual exam being at the end of that period - so I hit everything - and still forgot way too much. I really wish I’d had another 4-6 weeks for review. My point here is that I was going at a breakneck pace and all I have to show for it is a Band 9. You may want to allow more time for study and less of a break in the middle. I’d be paranoid at taking two months off. Then again, if you start back in March in earnest after having reviewed the material thoroughly, it could work. (I just don’t think it would work for me.)