Whats the game plan

Hey guys after taking the Level I this past weekend does anybody plan on studying for level II or brushing up on level I material before the official results come back. That is, if you plan on taking level II in summer.

If I do pass, I plan on taking it this summer. However waiting this lat Jan to start will not work for me seeing as I work 50+ hours a week and have an infant at home.

i am not taking level 2 this june if i pass…i think 6 months for level 2 is just too short of time…maybe you do squeak by, but my understanding of level 2 is that it is valuation at its fullest, an area that is just too important to me to cram…i want to make sure i understand it fully…i will be working extra OT during the first few months of this year and then studying for well over a year for l2 if i passed…i will be going through my notes for level 1 and sorting out the most important stuff and putting together a 4 month review study plan to take it in june…that will be implemented 2/1 if it didnt work out this time

I’ll be taking level 2 this June (if I passed). Just want to bang these out and get it over with.

I’m thinking about getting some Schweiser stuff for L II, but I want to take a few week off just to collect my brains a bit. Its a good idea to maintain momentum because a lot of the L II stuff apparently builds on L I. As I just graduated from b-school it is also helpful as your knowledge is better retained.

Definitely taking Level II this June. In fact I will start preparing in a week’s time - If I failed LI, some extra knowledge won’t hurt me ^^.

Elans guides is offering some free material on Quant for Level II if anybody’s interested. I am going to check this out.

In the same boat, but im not picking up another book until I find out the result, need a break, simple as that. Spend some time with the family over christmas becuase if I have passed L1, they wont be seeing me much due to the all night studying sessions at the office that will precede L2 in June.

I’m going to take a break.

I would love to pass L2 in June and have a chance to be a CFA charterholder mid-2014, but I don’t think I can do it. Even though I managed to avoid working weekends until the last 2 months of L1, my social life really suffered and my girlfriend was not happy! Looking at the L2 forum, most of them are well into the materials by now, so to stand a chance we’ll have to hit it hard as soon as we get our results (if we pass). L2 is a lot harder than L1 so that means weekends almost immediately, studying pre and post work, etc.

I found my work also suffered as I rushed to finish everything quickly so I could begin studying. As people keep saying, the CFA is not a golden ticket, so i’m going to forget about the CFA once results come in (unless i’ve failed, in which case i’ll retake) and spend the next 9 months concentrating more on work. Maybe try to get a new job, or push hard on a new project. I also want to work on my model building skills. Mostly though, I just want to relax and enjoy my free time. There’s more to life than work and books!

I’ll be buying the L2 books very soon and plan to start studying on the 1st Jan. If I fail L1 then i’ll prob just retake in June.

don’t you have to pass L1 before being able to buy the new L2 books or are you going to use older L2 books??

Thats a good Idea.

Definitley going to spend time with the family this christmas, and then delve in beginning of January. Its best to knock this stuff out while its still fresh in your memory. It will be a tough 6 months, but the payoff can be 12 months off/ getting the charter 12 months earlier.

And would rather fail this june, than fail next june and figure I let a whole year go to waste. It’s only going to get tougher my friends, but lets stay committed.

No. You can still buy prep provider books for Level 2. You just can’t get the CFAI official textbooks without finding out your result and registering for Level 2 first.

Thanks for the heads up on this! I used Elan for Level 1 and thought they were better than what Schweser had provided. The Elan videos were overkill though. Infact the videos in general for both Elan and Schweser were pretty useless looking back on it.

I’ll definitley be going with Elan again for Level 2 so I’m looking forward to checking out what they have on offer for free until I find out my final result!

Are you people serious? Take some time off and enjoy life for a few months while our results are pending. Have fun with friends and family, enjoy the holidays (if applies) and the new year. Take up a hobby or focus on your career. Studying for level II is just weird.

Part of me wants to relax but I think just like an athlete who is off season it’s s good idea to keep yourself in shape and not drop your workout habit. Otherwise it’ll be more painful having to begin again as opposed to having maintained a study habit and ritual. Besides, what if life or work circumstances take time away from us later? You’ll be thankful later on.

L2 for me this June (if I passed L1 that is). I am in a point in my life where I can afford to study, compared to later on when I may not have that option.

Well I can understand where you are coming from, but I think the logic behind starting on studying toward Level 2 soon after the December Level 1 exam is that there isn’t much time between the two exams.

Level 2 is regarded as the most difficult of the exams by many people and some have said that 4 months (or however many you have left after finding out the results for the December sitting of Level 1) to prepare for Level 2 just isn’t enough.

I will take a look at Level 2 this month but I am not going to do lots of studying. I don’t even know if I have passed yet!

If you’re not burned out, it seems like not a bad idea to do some light L2 reading… just to familiarize yourself with the course outline. I wouldn’t recommend serious study at this point though - in 7 months, you’ll probably have forgotten the stuff you learned today.

Yeah, I’m planning on starting with some third party prep for Jan. 2nd, maybe a little light reading in Dec. to get a head start. Right now I have very little overtime, but in the next six months to a year I expect that will be no more. Also, since I started on L1 as soon as I moved to this city I’ve been too busy studying to go out and meet people, so that’s one less distraction I can play off of if I continue. If I take the year off, thats a lot of free time to negate that one too.

Ugh, I feel for you guys going into L2 directly. I did the same thing and it was one of the harder things I’ve ever done. I passed pretty confidently, so it is doable. Just be sure to be on guard against burnout as some of the others mentioned. Burnout will be your biggest enemy in L2, although the time crunch is pretty rough as well.

I posted this in the L2 forum, but Schweser will give us access to the first book and full qbank for free until Jan. 30th, so that should help decide if we’re serious about this or not