So studying for level II at the moment and using qbank now for my first time going through the entire material.
For level I, all I did was do every single Qbank question multiple times and tried to understand why an answer was right as well as understand why the other two answers were incorrect. This strategy worked, as I passed, and it was a very efficient method of study that I want to try for Level II.
Do you guys think this is a bad idea? I’ve read that some people say that Qbank is useless for level II…why is this so? I feel that it’s a great way to learn concepts/equations (not very good at reading alone and retaining, problems are best).
From what I hear, it doesn’t work as well because Qbank is not structured in the same 6 question vignette style as the exam. Thus, it doesn’t develop the same comfort and doesn’t correlate as well with the exam material. That being said, I’m still going to aim for 120 questions per topic area in Qbank to get more problems in. Maybe not the full 4000+ questions in this case though.
lionheart, I can say from experience that practicing solely using the Schweser is a terrible idea. This is because the questions they give are in one question-one answer type format, which works well for level 1, but level 2 tests in case study/vignette format. When you get to the exam, you’re going to want to be comfortable answering 6 different types of questions from a single data set, which Qbank doesn’t prepare you for. Qbank is also a little too qualitative IMO. Do your self a favor and practice the EOC questions in the CFAI curriculum.
What I found is doing QBank is very useful way of understanding and revising and no harm in taking random quiz. But isn’t good alone. Practising item set format question is a must.
Qbank was great for Level 1. I got it with about 40 days to spare and no doubt it saved me from failing. I’m having a much different experience with it for Level 2. I’ve found it really only helps a little when reviewing notes, before attempting EOCs. Several LOS’s don’t even have a single question in Qbank, just a 2-3 sentence summary. The ones that do have questions barely scratch the surface, and often times it’s the same question over and over, with numbers changed. DO NOT RELY ON QBANK FOR L2!!!
Doing Practice Item Set Questions > Doing L1 Style Practice Questions > Only Reading the Material.
It’s fine and probably a better way to drill down the material than reading Schweser/CFAI over and over again for hours.
That’s what I’m doing with Finquz’s Qbank at the moment… and saving the Items Sets and CFAI EOCs for the last 2 months to familiarize myself with the exam.
Blackomen, so are you doing Finquiz QBank now and saving the Item Set Finquiz questions for later (and when is later)? I just printed out a heap of Schweser QBank questions for Equities and all the Finquiz Item sets for Equities. I’m looking at all the paper I’ve just printed and panicking a bit not knowing where to start. What do you recommend doing, hitting questions and covering all topics, then going back and doing item sets for all sections, or doing Qbank then item sets one section at a time. There is almost too much practice material to know what to do with in the time left.
So much work ahead, it’s starting to get painful… I’ve been dreading getting to this stage and now we’re here.
Also, anybody have any insight as to quality of questions when comparing Schweser QBank to Finquiz (excluding Item sets provided by Finquiz). I have both but am using Schweser now because printable format is better, but don’t know about quality of questions.
Right now, I dedicate every Saturday to watching Schweser videos all day (and taking notes while watching them).
Sunday is dedicated to working Finquiz problems related to Saturdays’ videos from dawn to dusk.
M - F, I try to get 1 hour in if I’m tired after work, 2-3 hours if I’m not so tired. These are all to do Finquiz problems and/or to read the text corresponding to problems that I frequently get wrong.
The pace that I watch the videos at determines how fast I progress…
Right now, I’m finished with:
Quant
PM
Fixed income
FRA
Alt
Equities (except the final reading).
And I still need to cover:
Ethics
Corporate Finance
Economics
Derivatives
I plan to finish my overview of the material by early to mid April when I’ll be working on Mocks on the weekends and CFAI EOC’s and blueboxes on the weekdays (and weekends in the beginning.)
I purposely leave the EOCs to the end since they’ll be fresher in my mind… that’s the strategy I used for L1 (except I used qBank instead of Finquiz…)
^interesting approach - so by the time you finish your initial read in April, you’ve already covered the material w/videos, text (assuming Schweser notes) and regular q-bank questions, establishing a pretty good base for mocks/item sets! And even though leaving CFAI EOCs until later in your prep sounds risky, I guess you’ve still got a good foundation b/c you’re atleast doing q-bank ?'s.
I thought I’d have more time (according to my original schedule), so I scheduled my study in “phases” - 1.) read 2.) videos, 3.) q-bank and now I’m finding that I’m going to be pretty pressed for time and would’ve been better to incorporate questions (q-bank or EOCs) as I went to help retain better and not be so rushed closer to May.
I am taking Level II for the second time. Based on my own experience (and of other candidates that I have studied with) I feel that it is very important to UNDERSTAND the Level II material.
Bottom line: If you don’t know your stuff, doing 5,000 questions won’t get you over the line. Besides, CFAI’s questioning style is way different to what I’ve seen from third party providers.
