Just passed L1 on the retake. I ordered the curriculum, and will start studying ASAP!! Which topics do you think you should definitely ace to pass? In L1 the focus was on FSA/Ethics/Equity analysis… The topics for L2 are Derivatives - Economics - Equity Analysis - Ethical & Professional Stnds. - Financial Statement Analysis - Fixed Income Analysis - General Portfolio Management - Asset Classes - Quantitative Analysis What is you view on this? There is not much time left. So I am looking for a good strategy. Any suggestions? Joey?
Whichever section has the most points.
I’d probably do a search for the percentage that each topic contributes to your final score. I would then put the most emphasis on the topics that are weighted the most heavily and less of an emphasis on the topics that are weighted less heavily.
Just keep in mind that merely scoring >70% in Economics, FSA, Equity Analysis and Fixed Income Analysis is in no way a garantee to pass
There was a guy, I think Kant (sorry to single you out kant) who scored >70 on both ethics and FSA and still failed L1
haa… I know a guy who score 70%+ on all , except ETHICS and i think PM (which was < 50), and he failed. There is no one SS, section, reading, LOS which is less important. what if you have a vinette full of trivial items, you screwed the 6 questions… that is 5% of score gone right there. Think…size is no more 240, its only 120, probability of getting one wrong will not affect you by 1/240 anymore but by 1/120. or put other ways, answering 119 /120 will get you a score of 99.1666 against 239/240 which was 99.58333, yet you answered only 1 wrong.
Go to the CFAI website, it has a breakdown of percentages for each topic category. It looks like FSA and Equity are big areas for Level II. I would start with those two.
I think FSA and Equity Analysis is about 50% of the Exam at Level 2.
FSA, Equity, and Ethics is 60%. So I would assume nailing those would put you in good shape if you can turn in some decent scores on the other sections.
FSA + CF - 30% Equity - 20% Ethics - 10% Fixed I- 10% Derivatives - 10% Port Mgmt - 10% Quant - 5% Econ - 5%
FWIW, I took and failed Level II last summer. I aced FSA, equity analysis and Ethics, the three largest sections and did not pass. So while you obviously want to put the weight on the largest sections, please dont overlook the smaller ones as it cost me a pass. The problem with Level II is not complexity but quantity.
same here as Caspian, did really well on FSA, Equity and Ethics and still managed to fail last year. I know it sounds obvious but you have to try and ace all topcs, becasue no matter how much you study there can be an item set based off a seemingly obscure topic (see Traynor-Black Model last year) and you’ll already be down a whole item set.
Also given the way the institute throws in the scores, anyone with >70% lies in that spread of scores. So even though someone aces a section that is relative. Because there is a whole heap of 30 points in which your score could lie. That too contributes to queering the pitch. CP
I think I would have failed L1 again if it hadn’t been for a stellar ethics score. I only scored > 70% in two areas (and the other was not FSA). Everything else was <50 or <70. I must have been on the fence though because I was scoring right at 70 on sample exams just before the test … so I think ethics pushed me over. And I’d bet a paycheck that my ethics was >95, although I’ll never know. This is not an argument for picking and choosing areas to score well in; nailing everything should be the goal.