Those who think you failed when do you plan to start again?

CFA Level II
#1

Unfortunately for a variety of reasons I didn’t put enough time in to feel very confident this time around. I’m pretty sure I didn’t pass unless answer B (my go to guess) was a common correct answer choice.

So for anyone else in this boat, when do you plan to resume studying? I’m planning to take a few weeks at least to just take a break from it and then start back up but slowly. I don’t want this test to consume my life so my thought is if I can spread it over a longer period of time I’m hoping it is less intrusive.

Also, what do you plan to do differently in studying? I only read the Schweser notes and did one mock exam. I’m thinking this time since I have a lot more time (I passed L1 in December) I will read the CFAI curriculum and then allocate a good amount of time to question bank/mock exams.

#2

Hey, I put B on my blind guess, too devil

#3

on july 29th I will be ordering these two, with the intention to read them cover to cover before the end of the year.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/International-Financial-Reporting-Consolidated-application/dp/1909704601/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_2

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1118999983/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

otherwise the money goes on some L3 guides :slight_smile:

#4

Owww GOSH!!! Even if I failed 3x and FRA was the last thing to master, I think I’d rather abandon the program than having to read these.

#5

Pass or fail I’ll be starting up again October 1st, whether it be to go through L-II again or start on L-III.

If I didn’t pass (likely outcome in my opinion but who knows), things I’ll be doing differently:

  1. Read the CFAI books this time rather than just read the Elan study guides and doing all the CFAI EOC questions after each reading. I thought the Elan guides were very well done overall, but I’ll have the time this time around so I may as well read the CFA books.

  2. Pay closer attention to the LOS statements and go through each one while in review mode to make sure I at least have a reasonable understanding and retention of some of the peripheral subjects.

  3. Do more mocks. I only managed 3 for this exam and would have liked to do at least a couple more.

  4. Do more practice questions. I did every EOC, and about half of the Elan study guide questions, but didn’t have time to go back through them, nor did I do enough CFAI website practice questions. When I was working problems I was nailing them, but I think I was on auto pilot a bit because as time passed I forgot some of the mechanics, such as how to work through currency swaps.

  5. Work harder on my weaker areas. I struggle with currencies for some reason, and it seems probable that CFA will always test you on them at some point in an exam since they cross multiple subjects. I need to be better with currecy swaps for sure, and swap hedging in general.

#6

I’d drop out of the program probably. I think I was well-prepared and next year will be the same, it’ll be a matter of what comes up in the exam and what does not, and I wouldn’t write 6 months of my life off to take chances once more.

#7

I’ll start in October with either Schweser or Elan. I refuse to read the CFAI materals - no mattter how many times I fail. I would skip Schweser EOCs, if I go with Schweser, and do just CFAI EOCs, which I did in addition to Schwesers EOCs this time around. I’ll do 7 exams again and read the 11th hour guide.

My prediction is I failed Band 6-8. There’s just no way I passed this exam. I had to guess quite a bit on Quant, PM, Deriv., and some of FI.

#8

I don’t get this. What are you in the program for? Just curious. I would never do all this if I didn’t have a guaranteed promotion/raise coming upon completion.

#9

It does beg the question, what is the CFA worth if even well-prepared candidates who put in a reasonable effort can’t pass in one or two attempts, especially given the one-year wait. The opportunity costs of doing something else then come into play.

For retakers on L2, my advice is, DO NOT rotely work through the CFA curriculum and work the EOC end-to-end. The curriculum and readings are too bloated. I did this first attempt, and found I forgot everything I learned at the first. I suggest working from multiple sources to get the key concepts (e.g. Google it !!!), but above all, work EOC’s and mocks in a random fashion, and use the CFA readings as a reference. This mirrors the test format, and will help one retain more info up to the test date.

#10

If you have any, your ego comes into play as well.

#11

I agree with calvol’s recommendations. I started in September 2014 and read through the entire CFA curriculum and come April, I couldn’t remember a good chunk of it and panicked (and to be fair, I was also watching Wiley videos and looking occasionally at provider books). So be careful starting early…You can get information overload and burn out.

Yes defacto, this is about ego to some extent for many of us I suspect.

#12

I took L2 last year with about 3.5 weeks of studying. Failed Band 7.

This year I felt a lot better about the test than I did last year. With the disclosure that how you feel about the test could be a lot different than you actually do, either I passed,

Or, I failed by a smaller margin.

I didn’t do it after I didn’t pass the first time, but

I actually say go ahead and read it now; not at a frantic pace like you would 24 hours before the exam, but at a pace where you don’t go insane.

Think about it, and if you’re anything like me (procrastinator, non-finance profession, non-finance/accounting/econ major), you barely finished reading the curriculum for the first time a few days before the test.

My theory is that since this sh*t is so fresh in the mind, why not revise it at least once, may be a couple? Chances are it will only take a couple of weeks to go over the material one more time. Do it, possibly, a couple of times, and then it will be engrained in your head.

The other possibility is to plan on taking up studying again a couple of months from now. For prastinators like us, it is a bad bet. At least in my case, history is not on my side.

Just like TVM says, money now is better than money two months from now;

Effort put in now will benefit you more than effort put in two months from now.

#13

even worse than the above…after passing Level 1 in December, I didn’t start on Level 2 until February. Well I started Quant/Econ first so got through those topics in February. By May, I remembered none of it. That’s like 3 months. That’s the thing with this entire process and the curriculum; the shelf life of a reading you learn/master, is so short. I mean obviously there’s differences - like if someone gave me questions on equity right now, probably even 2 months from now, I’ll still know the major equations. But still, with most of the material the shelf life is so short in the memory. So the hardest part of preparation is timing all the sections to have a decent grasp of all at the same time. It’s an INCREDIBLY tough task given the breadth of material. After 2 Levels I still don’t have the answer for the best way to achieve this state of all sections at confident level.

#14

Started studying Level II in April, no lie. We shall see what happens

#15

well, interesting to read from the two of you.

I think, if you fail and drop out of the CFA program completely you have lost a large protion of 2 years (one yr for L1, and one for L2). You keep the knowledge, but try to put a “stopped pursuit of CFA charter after my first fail” on your CV…? @Cory688, what are you in the program for, if I may ask? Personally, I have no raise or new job on the hook, but I will increase my standing with CFA after my name

#16

I agree. Unless it’s really not working out for you after several attempts and flawlessly consistent studying, you keep plugging away. The great majority of Charterholders have failed at least one exam. It’s their perseverance that makes them Charterholders.

#17

You beat me there in terms of start time-- I started the last week of February/beginning of March!

#18

I completely understand where Gurifissu is coming from. I felt I was well prepared and did enough to pass. If it weren’t for you guys talking about tips and tricks, I wouldn’t be so nervous. I read through the entire curriculum starting in October, went through EOC twice, did all Wiley practice problems and did some problems from Konvexity. I did 6 mocks (CFAI twice for a total of 7 times).

I would read from the CFAI curriculum and use Google as a reference. Everything on the test is in the LOS so I think it was fair.

#19

If I failed, I would start October, 1 using 1)CFA curriculum, 2) Finquiz, 3)AF and 4) Google. It’s more than enough.

#20

Pass or fail, I’ll start in January.