This may differ depending on the individual, but what is the hardest concept/formula(s) in the level 2 curriculum to learn.
My logic is that if I (and other candidates who see this) identify and learn this early then it should be pretty easy to deal with come the exam.
Time management.
Pensions, growth theories, mortage backed securities and swaps.
Nothing is easy in L2 because the way CFAI asks the questions has many sublties which require you to master it. No plug and chug here. If something seems plug and chuck you probably missed something in the vignette which requries an intermediate step / calc before you plug a formula that you thought you had memorized.
Best of luck
Swaps,pensions, Tranches,QT
Difficult/Complex: Pensions (FRA), International Operations (FRA), QUANT (unless you’ve learned econometrics before). Schweser study notes make an excellent job on those readings, don’t bother studying them from CFAI.
Simple yet hard: Derivatives. While not terribly complex, derivatives do require rote memorization of lots of nasty formulas. In this case, Schweser was wrong (they said not to bother memorizing, just know intuition behind the parameters). Also, the questions are computation intensive, so you will also need to crunch numbers VERY VERY fast. Took me loads of time to finish deriv vignettes.
On the good side: The rest of the topics are on par to L1’s difficulty. IMO L1’s reading on “Defferred Tax Items” was hardest than any single L2 reading (by far). If you were able to handle that reading, then you can definitely tackle L2.
Good luck 
Valuation of swaptions. Although I crushed derivatives…probably because I spent so much time with that ish.
F.R.A.
FRA and Derivatives
The implications on BS and IS of switching between HTM and HFS, intercorporate investments, Econ, are by far the hardest.
Seems hard but is really simple, derivs, pension accounting, and multinational ops.
What might be simple to me might be difficult for you
What might be difficult to me might be a piece of cake for you
It depends on individual
The questions that really made my brain hurt were in FRA. not so much the memorisation required but all the ratio impacts, like trying to think through a question where you made X,Y & Z adjustments to certain accounts which made A go up and B go down and the ratio of B/A go down in the short term but in the long term B would gradually go up relative to A making B/A go up.
Also, swap valuation took a bit of time to master. Conceptually it isn’t too difficult to grasp but it takes practice to nail all the stages of the calculation. there’s nothing more frustrating than that final hump you have to cross before you nail swaps and you’re sitting plugging into the calculator for about 15 minutes only to come to the answer which looks nothing like any of the 3 options and trying to dissect every bloody stage to see where you went wrong. I recall that there were lots of rounding issues in the EOCs as well.
I found on exam day that there were rounding issues in the derivative section and i ended up selecting the nearest answer to mine, it made me nervous walking out of the exam but is ended up >70% in derives.
My advice would be to go back and read the topics in the forum from April and May and you’ll see a lot of questions candidates were asking in the build up.
accounting has several hard subjects that you MUST learn—pensions, multinational operations, leasing (cap vs exp), plus others i cant remember…with time you can learn these, however for me the part i couldnt get down was swap calculations, particularlly pricing or valuable them during the term of the swap
for me its always accounting…need to memorize
For me it was the fact that even if I passed I had to write annother exam next year
Seriously?
If taught well, MBS and swaps are a piece of cake.
Seriously.
(If taught poorly, however, they’re murder.)
^ they were a total murder for me when I had to study them on my own
Blame the teacher.
haahaha no doubt! 