Also - want to say a big THANK YOU to those on this chat who have discussed their workout routine. It made me realize that the tightness in my shoulders probably had a lot to do with not working out in a long, long, long time. You guys inspired me to get back on track! Thanks for that.
Glad to see I am not the only one struggling to get through the mountain of material. For kicks and giggles here is what I shoot for on weekdays:
Up at 5 AM to workout
Work from 7:30 - 5:30
Squeeze in 30min of study time at lunch
Study from 5:30 to 7
Night cap of studying of about 30 min
In total I try to put in 2 - 2.5 hours each day, sometimes that does not always work though. Good luck out there.
Hey Man,
You might want to try something like Men’s Health 15 minute work outs. I usually stretch these to 30 mins. And some times do two 20-30 work outs in the day. One in the morning to energize the day and one after work to energize for studying.
This is likely only effective because we are in a condo building with a gym, but works great for me.
Hi
As this is my first post here I thought it would be best to introduce myself. I did L1 in Dec 2011, and unfortunately couldnt take L2 in 2012 (thats not an excuse to say that I failed!). I read this forum a bit when I was doing L1, and thought nows my time to get involved. I work at a private equity fund advisor based in London, and have been here for about a year.
Regarding work/study balance…
Luckily my company agreed to pay for me to train with one of the big providers in London, who I was with for L1 aswell, which means that on top of the CFA curriculum I also have thier own notes which I found very good. They do 16 3-hour evening sessions going through the curriculum (which are also available online), and a further 10 3-hour evening revision classes just going over everything. I knew that I would be pushed for time, and therefore started early this time, so by mid Feb I had already watched the videos of the tution classes and by the end of Feb had written my own notes, which I find very benefificial. Aswell as attending the classes, I am spending all of March, and half of April just going through the Schwesser Q-bank and trying to do as many as possible on every subject. The last 6 weeks I aim to do all the questions in the curriculum books, going over topics that im not too sure of. I dont really learn by just reading, so I thought this would be the most efficient way of doing things.
I do on average 1.5/2 hours a night after work during the week, and aim to do around 6 hours a day on the weekend. I have taken off the last 2 weeks before the exam from work where I just intend on doing as many questions as possible.
I completely understand that… when I was a student I was lazy as balls, despite wanting to be a go-getter. Now that I’m working, that’s all changed - something about actually being required to be productive for 8 hrs/day. It’s exhausting at times, but IMO nothing feels better than crashing at 11p after a solid 17 hours of productivity.
“Nothing”…? I could come up with a very long list of things that would feel better — but I’m trying not to think about them too much until June 2nd 
On a related feel-good note: someone asked me a question about the currency markets this morning and believe it or not PPP came in handy. Hopefully there will be more of those small but gratifying moments. Making it all (almost) worth it.
Im thinking about reversing my schedule. Right now I wake up and sit at work till 5pm wanting to be home so I can study and by the time 5 rolls around I dont have the energy to keep studying (classroom style training so I study full-time in a different subject). I could get away with being worthless at work but it simply doesnt cut it for studying L2 material.
Has anyone here had success waking around midnight to start studying and then going to sleep right after work?
Hmm, at what time do you have to get up and go to work right now? While I can’t help but admire your commitment and work ethic, getting up at midnight hardly seems sustainable/reasonable/advisable. Then again if you’re already getting up at 3am because you cover European markets or work on the West coast it may not be as much of a stretch for you as it would be for most of us.
For what it’s worth, my own two cents:
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with 70-some days to go, this is a marathon, not a sprint. You’ve got to study for sure, but you also have to keep yourself healthy, happy and sane.
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keep in mind the exam itself will be from 9 to 5, not from midnight to 8am… If you do decide to pull all nighters, you’ll have to stop and readjust a week or two before the exam or you’ll be jet lagged on D-day.
I do 5ish AM. Midnight’s unimaginable 
Agreed, midnight seems a little extreme. Is there really no other solution? I do 4:45 right now and I curse the world every morning. Maybe it’s plausible if you have no wife/gf/kids that will have suffer the nasty mood you’ll inevitably be in.
To give a little more info, I fucked up and didnt start studying till early march. I got complacent and I understand its unlikely that I will pass but I cannot stand the only work I was able to find and am willing to do whatever I can to get that extra line on my resume. I expect to need an avg of over 4hrs a day to hit the mark, or 5 a day if I take one day off a week. I have no family or outside obligations to be concerned about.
As of now, Im coming home from work and putting the hours in front of the books but Im simply to tired and scatterbrained to make things stick. Im toying with flipping my schedule and still getting a full 6 hours of sleep just at a different time of the day vs maybe taking a short nap between work and study. I guess this is really something I need to experiment with for myself.
ya bro dont give up. read the schweser secret sauce to give yourself a head start. and if you still dont think you can pass, come and give both sessions of the exam to help us pass
Don’t go home after work. Find a quiet space in your office and after work just hammer out 3 hours or more if you can, once you get home you’ll have a harder time studying. If you get hungry after work, put hot pockets in the fridge. It’s now or next year, i’d much rather get it over with now. You should only be going home to sleep. 9am-10pm in the office, work and study on weekdays sir. This is the goal I set, I end up doing between 2-3hrs on most days and leaving around 9pm, some days 10pm if I have to work longer. My place is only for me to sleep, I am literally a social outcast right now and I’m ok with that because come the night of June 1 brain is shutting down, ill have a life again, and hopefully living in the office will pay off ~July 24th when result emails are sent out. Mind you I still get about 7 hours of sleep per night, I just literally don’t do ANYTHING else but work and study (ok I go to the gym right after work usually on wednesdays but come right back to hammer out 1-2 hours on gym day), and weekends I study and chill locked in my apartment. It gets depressing at times but do a job search and see all the jobs you want that you know would be easier to get an interview with (not necessarily get) with the CFA charter and itll motivate you again, or pop in Wall Street.
I technically didnt go full CFA until March either. I did Alt, derivs, and PM in January but was studying CAIA L2 in Dec, overlapping with CFA in Jan, and then full speed in Feb, and some of March. Since completing that though I’ve gotten right back into it and scheduled to finished my first pass through by April 15, but that requires having a depressing life. Point is, just dont go home. I think that might be what’s ruining your brain from retaining stuff. When I used to attempt to study at home after work (for L1), it either wouldnt happen or I would just keep thinking, “TV…bed”. If you have a nice office, live in it. Weekends seem to work studying at home, cuz there is more time and I havent worked all day. I may be hopeful but w/e I guess we’ll see, I may have sabotaged myself by doing CAIA and CFA L2’s in the same 6 month period. Hope this helps…just keep going, it’s over in 71 days, that’s nothing compared to the years ahead.
Ramos I agree, i study right after work during the week (3 to 4 hrs) it’s really effective…it’s calm and quiet…I also get 7 hours of sleep everyday…I was a total outcast last year when I was studying for L1, but this year I am doing more things in the evening on week end of course after studying (6 to 7 hrs) during the day. it just take sacrifice…my wife is in second year Pharm school and we have a 6 months old baby (NO EXCUSE)…
It seems people who are working and taking the exam all have reasonable working hours. I work around 9h per day, as soon as I have a 10h working day there is no energy left that day for studies. Mostly I have to sacrifice my weekends. So my life circles around working, working out and CFA.
Anyone else starting to find that they have become less sociable and have a harder time to mingle around when that type of occasion arise?
I think my friends and family are starting to think I’m a total dick for not being to spend any time with them. I had a friend who was on his way back home to Hollande from New Zealand and emailed to say he could stop by for the weekend to catch up. I haven’t seen him like 2 years and told him I couldn’t spare any time on the weekend. I told him it was because of this exam but I’m sure he doesn’t understand. I mean, who is so busy studying for an exam 2 months before the exam that they can’t spare a Saturday at least to hang out?
The only spare time I’m giving myself now is hanging out with my wife and kids and that time is limited as is (i.e. we spent 2 hours together going out and having lunch together).
I totally think I’ve become far less sociable these days. People always have something interesting to say and I feel I’m coming off as a boring guy these days.
Have 4 days of holidays next week and I’m planning to go to this Buddhist place nearby. Really need some quiet time to rejuvenate and study.
I live in Hong Kong for the last 1.5 year. My family is coming to visit for the first time (first time in Asia for my parents) and staying for 2 weeks. I’m starting to panic a bit, since I really wanna spend time with them and show them all HK has to offer. But 2 weeks without studies at this stage… I just started Level 2 in Feb, after getting my Level 1 results.
The panic of failing the exam and looking at 1 year left to the next opportunity starts to kick in…
Man, that’s really bad timing. I had my dad come over from Germany staying with us for a month. He left about 3 weeks ago but I didn’t get anything done when he was here which really set me back.
I take it they’ve already booked their tickets? And you’re working as well I presume? That’s a really tough one. My only suggestion would be try for an alternate day on, day off and hope they can understand. That way you “only” lose a week of studying.
That’s some serious multitasking