CFAI books - know the material in and out. The questions in exam will come from the material so studying the curriculum thoroughly is the key. Blue Boxes plus EOC questions - revised 2 times.
Didnt waste time/money on Schweser although you may consider buying Practice Tests - Vol 1 & 2.
Schweser notes, mocks, and CFAI mock only, less text and goes straight to the point, did about 250 hours. I did Level 1 in Dec2012 and actually read all the CFAI books and that took a great amount of time. None of the content is actually difficult, its just the amount of material that is difficult to remember.
CFAI books - read, did BBs EOCs; concurrently with FinQuiz Qbank (some errors in FinQuiz stuff)
Review + rr-read BBs and re-did EOCs
FinQuiz Mocks + and CFA Mocks + review of all answers + using Elan 11th Hour as base, built up my exam file
Good luck!
[quote=“Pharma_guy”]
Read CFA from start to finish
Read Schweser from start to finish
Did Schweser and CFA end of chapter questions
Read Schweser from start to finish
Read Schweser from start to finish
Videos Schweser from start to finish
CFA end of chapter questions and schweser
Mock tests and review weak sections
Spent majority of time on Equity, FRA, Corp, AI, Derivatives, PM (little did that help) and FI
review ethics last week
paid lip service to econ and quant. Hated quant, liked econ so did better on that. When you have people who have masters
How many hours did you put in?
I will use CFAI notes this time around as well. How many hours did you put in on your second attempt versus your first?
CFA Curriculum EOC and Blue Boxes are the key to success. Use Schweser for the smaller topics (quant, PM, Econ, Alts, etc.), but be sure to look at those EOCs and Blue Boxes in particular!!
nothing but Schweser books. didn’t even downloan CFA books, never laid eyes in the famed EOC.
took really good notes and, as i said on the other thread, really understood why things are the way they are. As in, don’t just memorize, but understand, be able to explain in plain English why, why, why.
Hi Hanna,
As a retaker I am considering to buy videos from Elan. Do you know whether or not I can purchase only the videos?
Thanks
I passed the LII exam now in June 2013. My strategy was:
Feb-March:
Read Schweser notes + do EOC and challenge problems ~100 hours in total
April:
Schweser Qbank 2000 questions ~100 hours
May
Schweser Qbank and repeating difficult parts of the text ~75 hours
Read summaries in CFAI books. Did EOC questions in CFAI for 2 study sessions ~ 15 hours
Schweser mock exams (6x), CFAI mock (1x), Schweser live mock ~50 hours
Memorize formulas ~10 hours
Total: 350 hours (100 hours more then I put on L1)
The important thing is that you learn the way that fits you. The goal must be to really understand the material, and be able to apply it under strong time pressure. Personally I prefer problem solving to reading, but have friends that passed all exams with way less problem solving practice, but instead focused more on making good notes and reading more carefully.
Cheers
Hanna - How late were the Elan materials delivered (weeks, months)? I viewed one of their videos and thought it was great - and am thinking of purchasing their whole package.
Studied the material from the CFAI books (read the whole thing, took notes, did every EOC, bla bla), got over it as fast as i could so i can focus on review (i’m quite smart but my memory sucks). I spent the last 1.5 months taking mock exams which i believe to be the best way to review and recall long forgotten material. I worked with official CFA mock and sample exams, and with Schweser mocks.
Schweser exams’ format is quite different from the CFA exams, so don’t depend on them to get exam-like experience. They do, however, provide an invaluable reviewing source. You take 3 of their mock exams, and you’re almost guaranteed to covered 99% of the curriculum material.
Failed Level II 3 times, then tried Elan Videos. Got a huge discount as a re-taker, even though I hadn’t purchased Elan before. I’d relied on Schweser prior to this and clearly it wasn’t working. I passed this time, well worth the small price of the videos. The main sacrifice to the videos is that they can be lengthly, so you must be disciplined and stick to it.
Schweser+NYSSA review class. I did the CFAI material questions for the areas with more points
Any European soul willing to sell a poor student his or her Elan notes and possibly the curriculum? Would like to start earlier this year in view of the increased difficulty of level 2. Anyways not interested in Schweser in case you might wonder. Please make a fair offer on nickjagger@gmx.net Thanks to all the passers and congrats! Ps: dont think it makes sense for US shipments as the shipping itself just is freaking expensive.
Pharma guy,
Did you take detailed notes the first time you read through the CFAI material or did you just do a clean read through? I’m wondering how much time should be spent actually diving in and understanding concepts during the first read vs just reading to familiarize yourself w the material?
Anyone else who’s passed L2 feel free to also comment.
L1 dec schweser notes, schweser mocks, elan mocks, cfai mocks, elan 11th hours: passed L2 jun Elan notes, elan videos, elan mocks n pq, 11th hour guide, 1 schweser mock, cfai mocks, cfai bb&eoc: passed
CFA books. Schweser books just don’t go into as much minute detail, of which you’re likely to see be included in some questions on the exam. CFA material is a lot drier, without a doubt, but if I’m going to take a test offered by CFA, I’d obviously want the CFA books.
For practice exam material, I did use Schweser practice exams vol 1 & 2, as well as flashcards (not much value-add), secret sauce (must have), and the 3-day review crash-course (because they give you more practice questions as well as Mind-Maps (slides on all the material, with someone walking you thru it all).
That, and take lots and lots of notes. I’ve compiled about two 3" binders for each L1 and L2 test with notes, separated by tabs by session. Helps to read it, write it, then review it.
Read all the Schweser notes doing their EOC quizzes as I was going along
CFAI BB + EOC for Equity & FRA only
Took NYSSA condensed class
Did 9 practice tests (6 Schweser, 1 live mock, Boston mock, CFAI mock)
I wish I had a chance to review the CFAI BB & EOC for all topics, not just Equity & FRA, and would recommend this to anyone who has time, but having only 4 months I had to pick my battles and practice tests were my higher priority (no regret there, I thought mocks were tremendously helpful).
PS: bought the FinQuiz smart summaries but barely used them; glanced at the Secret Sauce but only for a couple of targeted sections.
Read thoroughly CFA books or material provided by good coaching institutes and then practice a lot of mocks and sample paper. That should develop understanding and take you to next level.
www.cfatutor.net - a tutoring service that offers intensive CFA preparation through coaching
@Prison Mike
My first suggestion is that you get rid of that profile name “Prison Mike”. The forces of the universe will always punch your temple with a claw hammer if you carry such a name.
On the study bit, dude, if you take a closer look at all the numerous suggestions you have received, you will realize that it’s pointing to no one universally accepted methodolody. Infact, the suggestions are bounded by two extremes: chance-takers , who study for a couple of months and pass, and non-chancers , who study for 9 months doing two thousand practice questions and still pass. It will be a futile effort to synthesize one useful strategy from all these differences. This leaves you with one plausible solution, albeit one you dont want to hear: Discover what works for you and stick your ass up the wall with it!
Note: The record I know is someone who tool L2 nine times. 6 more strikes for you!