f2d Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It would > suck to get hit with 6 questions on one tiny piece > that you don’t know on the real exam… that’s a > pretty big blow to your overall score since > there’s only 120 questions total I think that is the main difficulty with L2.
philip.platt Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > f2d Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > It would > > suck to get hit with 6 questions on one tiny > piece > > that you don’t know on the real exam… that’s a > > pretty big blow to your overall score since > > there’s only 120 questions total > > I think that is the main difficulty with L2. That kinda sucks… it makes luck a bigger factor in whether or not people pass the exam… IMO exams should be made to have the lowest amount of volatility possible (L1 is actually good in that aspect, 240 Q’s and a consistent, broad range of topics)
Good luck f2d. I’m rooting for you! With only 3 mc per question, the random factor will be huge this time around. What is it you do again?
exactly…there is no way you are passing with 2 weeks of studying. I have a top 5 MBA and work in the industry and while most of this is not brand new, there are a bunch of little inconsequential topics that they will likely touch on that requires you to know the curriculum inside and out. If there was a way of proving that you are really only studying for 2 weeks, I’d gladly take you up on your 10-1 odds…
It’s always the tiny details that make the difference. (True in life, true at work, and true on the exam as well.) And I believe many would agree that CFAI has this tendency to ask questions from the various “blind spots” in the curriculum that people tend to have overlooked. Anyhow, I don’t know how you are going to adapt your study plan given the new findings. I can tell you (from a guy who has both worked in industry and has education in both comp sci and math) that it would take a non-trivial amount of time to cover the details in the curriculum. I don’t consider myself very smart, so I took three passes to iron out the details. You are probably smarter than me, so maybe you can half the effort that I have put in.
Well, if anything f2d, your brazen attitude only fills me with inspiration and confidence. Good luck to you dude.
In my opinion (having passed L2), the L2 exam consists around ~60% core material and then another ~40% non-core material. By non-core I mean item sets or questions on perceived minor topics (usually some obscure subset of a more major topic). CFAI structures it this way to separate those who know the entire curriculum from those who just tried to “wing it” by mastering the major areas. Now that I have passed L2, I think it’s a great structure! 
Despite this, you cannot underestimate the paramount importance of knowing FSA and Equity inside out at L2. Likely the best bang for your buck in those areas.
Yes, I notice that 60/40 rule too when I review the curriculum. In a way, it is good, because the system has a higher chance to produce well-balanced candidates to proceed to L3. I believe you can still “wing it” in L1 because the distribution of problems among topics are pretty even (not to mention the topics in L1 are a lot easier than L2). So it’s very possible to pass L1 by acing a few section and ignore the rest (because there is no penalty for guessing on the exam, the parts that you ignore would unlikely to contribute 0 points to your overall grades as long as you make guesses).
Well, the afternoon session didn’t go well. 39 / 60 correct, but after deducting correct guesses (questions where I randomly clicked a circle because I have no idea what it’s talking about): 34 / 60: 57% I’ve tested at least 1 item set from each category now… Strong areas (>70): Ethics Economics Alternative Investments Fixed income Derivatives OK Areas (btwn 50 and 70): Equities Port Management Corp Finance Weak Areas (<50): Quant Methods (this is just pitiful…) FSA (! this is a surprise to me. It’s because a LOT of new concepts are showing up. The plus side of this is that I’m good at learning this type of material, after going thru the material 1 or 2 times I should be able to bring this score up to the 80s) http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr86/failtodeliver/cfa_prelim.png Overall I’d say I performed slightly poorer then I thought I would. Possible adjustments to study plan: - Extra hours. Instead of putting the books down after going thru it on the designated days, I may spend the remainder of the days working on weaker sections - Elimination of 1 rest day (The rest day on the friday before the exam is non-negotiable though, studying through that day will most likely weaken my performance on the exam… kinda like how you don’t run 10 miles on the day before a marathon)
I love threads like this. I failed L2 last year. I’ve put in a couple hundred hours on this go around and I’m scoring 65%. Meanwhile, there are a few people who just happen to know a several thousand pages worth of material and can do related problems. Oh well. Back to studying for me. It’ll all be over in two weeks.
seerwright Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I love threads like this. > > I failed L2 last year. I’ve put in a couple > hundred hours on this go around and I’m scoring > 65%. Meanwhile, there are a few people who just > happen to know a several thousand pages worth of > material and can do related problems. > > Oh well. Back to studying for me. It’ll all be > over in two weeks. It takes a lot to have that kind of dedication. With me, I have to know (or at least think I know) that I can do it, otherwise I’ll give up before I try. Like if I was getting 33% on the practice exams to begin with, I’d probably just give it up and never look at the stuff again. I looked at the sample test material cfai has on their website before I ever registered for Level I. I actually wrote out the answers to the sample level III essays and compared them against the answers to see how do-able it was. (I did decent, not passing level though. I got around 1/2 the points). If I couldn’t answer any of the questions at that point, I never would’ve started the program (why start if you can’t finish?). I also looked at the level 1 & 2 questions and decided that it was doable with some studying. If I’m close to passing something, then I can easily get my act together and bring it up to a passing score. If passing is very far in the distance… I wouldn’t be able to move my score up a single point, because I’d lose all motivation.
lol… the start of each book actually says congratulations on passing level I
f2d Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > lol… the start of each book actually says > congratulations on passing level I Wait a minute - You are planning on reading an entire curriculum book a day for 6 days? I though you were doing Schweser. There is no way you can read that much material in that short of a time period
f2d . . . are you determined to get your charter , or are you just BSing around hoping you can knock out three exams easily? ie if you fail L2 now . . . will you do what it takes to pass it next time?
f2d if you can pull this off, congrats to you. Qbank “benchmarking” is like using pre-school to benchmark a phd program. (exaggerating of course) good luck man.
f2d - I think it’s absolutely possible for you to pass if you scored in the 60s ballpark w/out doing any work. a lot changes after reading the material once or twice. yes, the exam is hard and more detailed versus L1 but I think ppl tend to overexaggerate the difficulty.
Yeah, I know qbank “benchmarking” isn’t exactly accurate, but it DOES tell me the areas I’m weaker in. I’m not going to skip sections because I got 100% in qbank. That would just be stupid. There’s no room to give up points on this exam for no good reason. Yes, I plan on reading a whole book a day for 6 days. I did this for Level I. I’m doing the exact same thing I did for level 1. Qbank + CFAI Books. I am determined to get the charter, if I fail L2… it depends. If it’s band 9/10, then I’ll put in more effort the next time around. If it’s lower then that, I’d probably give it up. And I started reading the FSA book today… and a lot of things are already falling into place (all those questions about acquisition accounting would be easily answerable now… the 6 that I got 5 wrong in). Of course, that’s because I JUST read the material. It’ll be a bit tougher after cramming another 5 books of material in on top of this. I think I may go over FSA 2 times, since this is a major portion of the exam (~ 20%) Edit: Actually for Level I, I skipped about ~ 1 book worth of material (I didn’t bother reading derivatives and parts of FSA), but for the rest of it I was doing about a 1 book a day pace.
Anyone can score 50-60% on q-bank questions. Q-bank is ridiculously easy compared to the actual exam. When I passed L2, I was averaging over 90% on q-bank while scoring about 80% on the mock and sample exams. A monkey could score 33% on pure chance. In addition to that, about 1/4 of the questions are basically gimmes that anyone can pass with a basic knowledge of the material. But here’s the thing… Each incremental gain above that 55 - 60% requires a SIGNIFICANT amount of work, because CFAI does NOT test on the main topics / general understanding for L2. Knowing the main topics, or even knowing ALL of the topics pretty well, will not translate to a passing score. The test is designed to ensure that. You need to know this shit inside to pass the exam. This is why it is almost impossible to pass this exam with 2 weeks of studying unless it’s by pure chance alone.
Well, first off, you have to do the item set q’s on qbank only. The other questions don’t follow the real exam format, and are worthless. I also don’t count questions I take non-educated guesses on it (I keep track of them, and deduct the points at the end)
So far what people (who already passed L2) said are consistent with my experience. There is a certain critical mass that one need to cross in order to reach the 70% plateau. Ever wonder why people who worked in CFAI said there are usually two “humps” when they plot the mark distribution? I believe one hump corresponds to people who crossed the critical mass and the other hump corresponds to people who didn’t. So it makes sense for CFAI to draw the passing mark somewhere in-between the two humps, to minimize the number of Band 9-10 fails and Band 1-2 passes. Anyhow, enough chit chat. My worst fear now is that I belong to the Band 9-10 fails (got cut off right in-between the humps). I better stop browsing this forum and use the last two weeks to push in another 1-2% to be safe. Good luck to OP though. We await your good news in August.