I did Meldrum last year and band 9 failed. Signed up with Meldrum again because the video lectures are so useful. This year, I decided I wasn’t going to take any notes. Just listened closely (really listen) to the videos and after each video, I’d take 10-20 questions in CFAI Q bank on that section. Did this for all the material and sped through the videos. Then, within two months, I was “done” with all the material. The remaining 4 months (I started studying mid December last year) I pounded quizzes and mocks. The topics I did poor in I would go back and watch full Meldrum videos. Really helped me narrow down what I didn’t know and focus on those topics. I didn’t touch the actual CFA material aside from Q bank. Also, just making sure I was at least somewhat familiar with all sections. Last year focusing mostly on just Equity, FI, and FRA killed me. More well rounded knowledge helped me a lot this year. You’ll pass next year.
read kaplan notes and 7-8 mocks. the more the better
As someone who had finally passed after four (4) Level II fails (though in some years, irl and work got in the way of studying), having enough time to answer 100% of the EOCs in 100% of the CFA topics this year was the key difference.
This way, by the time you get to the mocks, revision is a lot easier. When I had to do a 2nd pass on some EOCs as part of revision, I will do it with a twist - trying to answer them again with all formulas memorized.
Though people say 300+ hours, I had to put up 400+ hours this year. Remember, though 300+ hours is the average, less than half clear level II.
I would also start in December with a lot of extra buffer time. This is so that if irl stuff did get in the way (yes, it WILL get in the way - e.g., this year, I launched my book on Bitcoins/Blockchains for beginners on Amazon), you can afford to skip a week or two.
Also, since the questions are a randomfest every year (with questions never before seen sometimes coming up), the EOCs are a must.
As for the emotional aspect, I had to hurdle my Band 10 failure two years ago (and I even paid the $100 for the retabulation).
Best of luck. Give yourself a break off, even in failure, and prepare to hit the books this December (even I will have to for the next level).
After I failed L2 I changed my strategy. My old strategy was going through the Wiley books & after finishing the book I would practice the EOC and any extra questions I had (Kaplan, CFAI EOC). When my results came out last year I was almost on the MPS so that really hurt.
This year I actually used a new prep provider Quartic-> straight to the point even more summarized than Kaplan I would say. The material was fresh in my head still so i felt like i needed just a quick review. What changed this year is that after every reading I would practice the questions (before I would finish the whole topic and then practice ie finished all Equity readings, do all equity EOC). I found this method more helpful because practicing after each reading can tell you if you comprehend the reading or if i would need to go over it again, make notes, what are my weak spots. Then after finishing all books I went back again and did the questions again and compared my score then vs the score now. 2 months before the exam i signed up for the intensive course with quartic, expensive but also i felt like it paid off.
I took a week off before my exam and just did all the Kaplan mocks & the CFA online mocks, at first i started scoring ~50% then gradually started scoring 60%, 67% and rare occasions 70%>…
The difference between my both methods other than the when to start practicing was that the first time i was so focused on just reading and making notes not going back to the weak topics I was scoring in vs actually seeing if there was improvement. My improvement came from practicing, didnt even make notes this time.
You have a year now to study and the material is fresh in your mind. Relax then whenever you feel ready start studying.
Hope this helped
You may have done this on your last attempt, but go through the entire curriculum at least once before you start with review providers. I know this seems daunting…and it is. But after I failed the first time the first thing I did when I registered again was to go through the curriculum books. I then supplemented with Schweser, and went back to the curriculum many many times for clarity and practice. Mocks and q banks are worthless if you don’t understand the material first.
It was as simple as giving myself more time. On a page by page basis, there is nothing difficult in any of these exams. The difficult part, is making time for the material after a busy day.
Wow, I guess some people require to put in more efforts to clear an exam 
FYI level 3 revolves around portfolio mgmt only so it would be prudent to spend more time on this
Another good habit is to write down a formula 5-10 times every time it comes up. It’s amazing how much more brain internalizes and logs stuff into long term memory when you write it down. H-model, Yardeni, Fed, FCFE, FCFF, all those will be really easy if you keep doing this.
I just passed level II on my 4th attempt. Mark Meldrum review videos helped me tremendously, he walks through each EOC question in the CFA curriculum. I also used IFT notes and the LevelUp slidedeck, both were great supplements to the curriculum. Then do as many mocks as you can, and start early.
This is a summary of how to study for this exam.
- Study the reading: Use a prep provider or go with the CFAI curriculum (I just used MM and I didn’t read any of the official curriculum).
- Attempt the EOC questions for every reading, and blue boxes if necessary.
- Every now and then, review the topics you covered from the last weeks/months.
- After you finish doing steps 1-3, start your review period by: (i) reviewing the material in 1-2 days for every topic and (ii) attempt doing the Topic Tests (CFAI Qbank) for that topic.
- At last, you should be doing mocks for the last weeks of review. Try to get at least 4 full mocks done. I did 3 and went ok.
Best.
Funny how many people tell you to keep banging your head on the wall with the same approach. Ditch the 3rd party companies as a primary (please, ditch Kra plan Sc h weser because they’re one of the most pathetic prep products known to man). Pick up the real curriculum, read it, go back and summarize it, answer EOCs without help or answer keys. Check your answers and take notes on why they’re correct or incorrect. Prep providers are summaries of the curriculum, so you’re relying on them to to summarize correctly and explain it well-- pretty risky if you ask me. I don’t know of anyone studying the CFAI curriculum and failing the exam given that they studied thoroughly and didn’t run out of time.
+1 !
My primary suggestion would be to score more points this time.
(Yes: I’m in one of those moods.)
Do more mocks… mocks mocks mocks… Here’s what I did:
https://www.analystforum.com/comment/91828720#comment-91828720
I wish someone had given me this advice early in my CFA studies!
Ok now here’s an advice I’d follow with caution. Ask pretty much anyone on this forum and they’ll say that Schweser is a bottom feeder. The fact that they need to advertise so much tells everything you need to know about them. The best providers don’t need to advertise, candidates flock to them by word of mouth.
See my sequence below that resulted in approximately 97th percentile when counting the pixels…
I started in the last week of January and logged 450 hours (way too many in hindsight).
The takeaway is that EOC, Blueboxes and Mocks were very helpful for the exam.
- Watch MM 1.5 speed
2 Watch MM EOC 1.5 speed
3 Review Bluebox
4 CFAI Qbank (did very poor the first time)
5 Review white text CFAI for problem areas
6 Review Blue box and MM EOC 1.5 speed [2nd time]
7 CFAI Qbank [2nd time]
8 MM Mocks x 4
9 CFAI Mocks x 2
Shucks!!! you were so close 
Following is a post I wrote a few years back, in response to a question asked by a CFA Level 2 candidate who had failed the exam on his second attempt and was thinking of quitting the program and was thinking of pursuing a different career altogether. To help him get his act together I decided to give him some “tough love” with the hope ………. he would listen.
To read the post on LinkedIn click the link below:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6574561223558352896
Hope it helps those who need it most at this difficult time.