Congratulations to all those who cracked Level 2 exam and Persistence is the word for those who did not make it this time, would you guys like to share any lessons learned !! Could you please share what worked for you and what you could have done for better.
Well i have failed band 10… was quite sure of clearing it… I guess my approach was correct… I put in about 350 hours… But i should have paid a little more attention to the text in the curriculum, which could have enabled me to see the traps in the paper!! … *Sigh*
Next time I’m gonna nail it for sure !!
When reporting your results, would you please include your profession? I figure it would help to understand whether those who work as Financial Analysts (equity or fixed income analysts) are ahead of the pack in terms of pass rates. Actually I think it would help to provide:
- which attempt this was 2. how many hones hours you spent studying 3. your profession, i.e. which topic areas you use the most on a daily basis.
Thanks
study hard and do the mocks… they are immensely important
This year was a retake for me…
Due to different circumstances last year I really didn’t have as much time as I wanted to in studying which… resulting in me failing.
This year, I had a bit more time… and spent the first 4.5 months reading the CFA book, and also Schweser books. In total, I read both books twice. It may be a bit different for others, but I’m a bit slow in memorizing the details, so I spent a lot of time reading the CFAI book the first time around, then read the Scheweser books twice while commuting. The last CFAI reading was more of a skim over to see if I missed anything.
Now once I was done reading, I focused the last month and a half doing problems. The first month, I did EOC questions roughly 3 times from beginning to the end. This took A LOT more time than expected, but I think in the end it was key to me passing. I also took a bootcamp class from NYSSA which is a 9-5 class for 5 days. I believe this helped also as it allowed me to focus more on the “important” topics.
Finally, as I was winding down my EOC and Schweser problems, I spent roughly every weekend Saturday/Sunday doing a full mock on each day. So I would complete 2 a week. I did a total of 8. Although I wished I had more time to do more, I think this was sufficient…
Please note though… I didn’t do well on the mocks. Schweser mocks I averaged roughly 60%, and the same goes for the official CFAI mocks. If you’re on the same boat, don’t let that discourage you, but use the problems that you got wrong to focus on which areas to improve.
I think… That’s about it! to sum it up, just read and re-read… and do A LOT of questions…
You have clearly worked harder than me. I look up to you now. Thanks for the post !!
Yeah for me I read the CFA text and used Schweser and did about 10 mock exams. I think the mocks helped immensely.
I would think that financial analysts have lower pass rates, because they have such a demanding work schedule and therefore, less time to study… This is coming from a financial analyst who passed this year after failing three times.
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My only advice is: Throw out any ego or confidence that you may have gotten after finishing level 1. You get a good reality check after doing your 1st practice/mock exam and then will realize that level 2 is on a completely different difficulty level. Not trying to scare you, but that’s what happened to me. The earlier you realize how difficult this exam can be, the better you will do I think.
Hope this helps!
So relieved to be done with level II. Starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel! Here was my strategy.
Start: End of December
Finished material: End of April
Review: all of May with five mock exams
Material: CFA + Schweser ($350 package that includes notes plus 3 exams)
Hours: 350
passed first attempt. profession is commerical banking.
My advice to 2013 candidates - go all in on equity and financial reporting and analyis. This will be 35%-55% of the exam. Plan to get 70%+ in these categories. Sacrifice in other areas to dominate these two sections. Do lots of mocks since each mock only covers a small % of the curriculum. Get a good grasp of foreign exchange as this will show up in econ, derivatives, and portfolio management.
Here was my strategy. Start: End of August Finished material: End of March Review: April - May with all mock exams from 2009 - 2012 Material: CFA OEC + Schweser Hours: 450 - 500 passed first attempt. profession is ph.d student in econometrics Crucial point : Strat practising OEC and Mocks veryyyyyyyyyyyyy early!
I think for most people it comes down to time, ultimately. I found that I need a lot of time to prepare, to read the curriculum, work all the EOC problems, reread sections I felt were going to be important, do mock exams, and review those. My two pieces of advice would be 1) start early and 2) focus on the curriculum not the third party notes. Then pound out practice exam after practice exam so by the time test day comes it won’t be a big deal because you’ve been passing mock exams for the past month or so.
This was my first time sitting the exam, I got above 70 on every section. This is what worked for me:
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For each chapter, read and take notes from study material (schweser). Once you have an understanding of the material, read the CFA textbook. I found it too hard to start with the CFA books straight away but once I had a rough idea of the ‘important parts’ of the chapter the CFA books definitely help to round out knowledge, so you can get the ‘tricky’ questions they like to throw in to screw over the people who only use Schweser
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Do all the EOC questions at least once, preferably 2-3 times. (Once as you go through the material the first time, again in review, maybe again right at the end for your weakest topics)
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Finish with at least a month to review. Work out a study schedule that you can keep to – if you’re busy with work/family then you’re going to need to start earlier.
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Review time: flash cards and as many mocks as possible. Hard Q-bank questions are ok, don’t bother with the easy ones.
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For all mocks/questions, READ ALL THE ANSWERS even if you got it right. If I got the question wrong (or fluked the right answer) because I didn’t understand the concept it was testing, I’d go back to the book and go over that section again until it made sense.
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I kept a bullet point list of things I didn’t know, that were written in the answer explanations (especially for CFA mocks). Going back through this list was my single most useful review tool in the last couple days of study.
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Be honest with yourself about how well you’re understanding what you’re studying. Don’t waste time studying/revising stuff you know and avoiding the bits you find hard. For me this meant tackling quant first and reading the notes about 10 times…it sunk in eventually.
Good luck.
You are a trooper, thanks for the insight.
I managed to scrap through in my second attempt this time. Actually, I now realise that my results could have gone either way even though I was confident of cracking it. The biggest mistakes i made were that I started late (end of december) and that I did not give even a single mock test! With a very demanding work schedule, I simply did not have the time to even revise properly. Though I have a good grasp on concepts mock tests would have definitely helped me clear the level with lot more dignity.
I have only just crossed the line… And here are what I found very good about what I did and not so good.
I have worked a good 3 hours a day for the last 7 months. Sometimes upto 7-8 hours on weekend and last 3 weeks I was on leave. Yes, I am old and a slow learner and have a full time job with a kid at home!
- Understand if you are slow learner and invest time accordingly. There could be friends who are super fast & super brainy - but important for us to understand this. I actually fell into this trap trying to match guys around.
- Video watching or being in a class is NOT studying. You watch a video/attend a class, then read the book immediately to clear the concepts.
- Re-read what you learnt 3 days back - just read dont think too much. This helps in easy retention.
- Discuss amongst group and learn. Be wise in choosing a study partner as you can easily get distracted by them as well. The learning and sharing has to be always two ways as well. I was very very fortunate to have two very good study partners.
- When you are studying, be sure to switch off the gadgets and internet. Make this a habit, believe me it really helps.
- Dont try to just confirm your understanding by testing a strong topic again and again. Skip it, man up and test your most weaker area. I postponed me testing my derivatives chapters and I could clearly see I got a less than 50 there.
- There would be people who say I cleared this test in 100 hours and so on. I dont mean to say somebody cant do it, I am very sincere and honest in understanding my Brain doesnt have that kind of capacity. So prepared early and was extremely diligent.
If I dont sound too boring (really sorry If I do), my brother told me few things after the exam :
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Nothing has changed since you cleared Level 2, you are going to write a more difficult Level 3 next year. So good you cleared, but dont pat yourself too much.
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Never let success go to your head, nor failure to the heart.
I think both these apply for all of us here irrespective of the results. Chin up mates and prepare well!
Someone told me level 3 was easier than level 2. Maybe they didn’t take CFA.
The best advise is that you can never study too much. At the very least you know a bit more.
It was until a years back, I spoke to couple of L3 candidates and they felt it was actually a myth. Either way you said it, you can never study too much (probably what I was trying in 3 paragraphs in a sentence, phew)!
first time taker and passed … I read CFA books twice, did EOCs twice, took 3 CFA mocks + 4 Schweser mocks. I revised my notes like 5 times. Looking back, I think revising is important than doing a bunch of mocks. I saw a handful of exam questions that did not appear on any mock.
I bought Schweser also. Spending 2 hours reading its Pension section pretty much convinced me to switch back to the CFA materials.