Just took Level 2 for the first time in June, and unfortunately I’ll be taking it again in 2017. For this time around, I used Schweser ; The quality of the material itself was fine, but I was really disappointed with the quality of QBANK for Level 2. Obviously, most of the questions were not in vignette form, but in addition to that, I felt that the difficulty of individual questions were not nearly comparable to the difficulty necessary to be prepared for the exam.
Wanted to to see if any of you have been happier in the past with a different provider, and what your recommendations might be (strictly related to QBANK/practice questions).
At L2, use schweser for the books and live classes (if that’s your style.) You are spot on about Qbank at L2- I think the questions were too easy and did not adequately prepare me the way that CFAI EOC’s did. The biggest problem is that 50% of the questions are fluff… Schweser really needs to give L2 candidates a subset of 200-300 HARD questions in the qbank for it to be useful. It would make the transition from the last reading to the first mock that much more efficient.
If you’re getting your studies paid for, by all means, use it for a quick refresher when you have spare time at work- but do not rely on it as your main source of practice questions.
How are the Schweser videos for L2? For L1 I just used the books, but thinking about adding the videos for L2 as another resource. Curious if you had used them for L2?
Schweser videos were solid. If I had the time and a redo I would only use the videos for areas I was completely overwhelmed and would have spent 75% of my time on the CFAI EOC?'s.
Thanks - I hadn’t used the Schweser videos for either L1 or L2, just the printed materials and QBANK, but I’m definitely going to use some form of videos this time around, Schweser or otherwise
QBanks suck! Both Schweser & Wiley/Elan tout having extraordinary QBanks in their ‘essential/recommended’ courses, with thousands of questions that will really help you pass your exams! Although they’ve both gone for quantity & not quality. Don’t waste your time or money on that crap.
Your time will be better spent drilling the BB, EOC, topic tests & mocks.
Aside from the fact that it’s one mock exam (since an exam is AM and PM), I would disagree that you need more than that if you fully utilize the CFAI EOCs and online topic tests (from my own L2 experience in 2015). I think it be helpful to have more than that, but it’s not imperative. You have access to several hundred questions between EOC/Topic tests and the Institute-provided mock exam. You can learn a ton by properly using and reviewing that material instead of blasting through mocks without ever plugging the leak. Everybody is different, but for most people, they need to work smarter (quality), which isn’t necessarily harder (volume). Once you’re working “smarter” you can see if you need to work “harder”.
I prepared for Level II exam june 2016. I used Willey notes + IFT Videos. due to the fact that I worked full time (9-7pm) I could not get a chance to practice. I was done with the theory reading by june frst week and beofore the exam I reviewed it quickly. Got Band 1
Kindly suggest me how to best prepare for the Level II monster. P.S : Do I need to switch from Willey+IFT combo ? Any suggestions?
I think you just need to re-read the weak part and do more mock exam. The only problem you have I think is time constrant. For this time, you know which part you must improve so it would be easier
For me, Schweser’s qbank will help to solidify concepts. That’s the objective. However, their Mocks are spot on. They help you identify tricks. What is most valuable for any candidate writing the L2 are the CFAI EOCs. They should be done over and over again. The exam in itself is very simple other than for the tricks. Reading Kaplan notes is spot on. You can answer all EOCs conveniently after reading the kaplan notes.
I’d agree with you on the question bank, I found it great for levels 1 and 3, but quite poor for level 2.
I don’t believe it is necessarily the format but the quality of the questions as in level 3 you only have vignettes as well.
It could be that the level 2 material doesn’t translate as well as the level 1 material, as the questions are similar one off format, or level 3 where the nature of the material is more suited to this format.
