When do you plan to start studying??

shawty I can take you there

Im not gonna be forgetting shit going through the material a second time. Im going to be combing through the curriculum with a fine tooth comb, and mastering the material

adda boy. thats the attitude you need to be successful. See you on the forums in the comings months. This really is a great resource here.

jan u ary. joy.

I am starting now, waiting for my Schweser to come… I work full time - so cant spare more than 1-2 hrs daily. Guys - you are scaring me (and presumably others) so much!

amit_edge Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Guys - you are scaring me (and presumably others) > so much! believe the hype.

don’t believe the hype. all the people i know who got through level 2 started in January in their respective years. i think the balance is between getting started strong and burning out too early. i started in dec with the FRA material because i didn’t feel confident with it in L1 (despite a >70 pass) but only studied three days a week. In jan i’ll ramp up to four evenings and two weekend afternoons of studying (~2hrs each) but mainly because i don’[t have anything approaching a finance background.

Got my schweser notes now. I just started and plan on completing my Schweser, just dont have enough time for CFAI text. Given my work hours, I may not be able to complete my first pass before April. I hope I will find my way after that… pick up the differences between schweser and CFAI as I practice/do question bank in May…

Finquiz has uploaded a free study plan www.Finquiz.com/tips

mitchells Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Finquiz has uploaded a free study plan > > www.Finquiz.com/tips Thanks Mitchells for posting this. The study plan suggests a different order of study sessions as CFAI. Although I find it logical, I’d like to know if anyone (retakers presumably) who followed this order found it more efficient / helpful? Thanks,

I’m a retaker and starting same time as last year. Mid Jan If you have time to do the 300+ hours in that time: You can go through the curriculum and learn you can pass the exam Just be aware that, Level II is a different beast “as an exam”. I passed Level I with all >70 and was band 8. Could I have passed within the same time frame? I was ready for an exam like Level I and it turned out not to be the case, because: - The devil is in the details on the actual item set, be veeery careful reading it - Expect deeper questions that do indeed test for mastery of the topics (unlike surface questions on LI) - Do not underestimate the CFAI curriculum. They encourage reading it for a reason - They wont necessarilly test the new topics, if you think they are be ready for a surprise - Be ready for two full item sets on one topic, that happen in my case on Fin. Stat. Analysis. Two full item sets on 3 pages from the CFAI books. Just my .50 cents

i’m hoping to be done with six of the study sessions by tomorrow night, be 2/3 done with the readings by early february (when my local society classes begin), and be finished with the reading by early april. compared to level I, i’m trying to read things faster so i don’t get hung up on difficult concepts that i should get quickly at my classes, but that does mean i’m backloading things a bit. still, finishing the reading 2 months before test date should give me a big cushion for review, tests, etc. i’ve used CFAI texts only so far, but have schweser books standing by.

Guille: Can you tell us a little more how the exam is laid out? For instance, are item sets separated by topic, as they were in Level 1 (“the following 12 questions pertain to Equity”)? Also, how long are the individual item sets? I just completed the EOCs for Corporate Finance, and I was surprised how long those item sets were. Guille_GE Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’m a retaker and starting same time as last year. > Mid Jan > > If you have time to do the 300+ hours in that > time: > > You can go through the curriculum and learn > you can pass the exam > > Just be aware that, Level II is a different beast > “as an exam”. I passed Level I with all >70 and > was band 8. Could I have passed within the same > time frame? I was ready for an exam like Level I > and it turned out not to be the case, because: > > - The devil is in the details on the actual item > set, be veeery careful reading it > - Expect deeper questions that do indeed test for > mastery of the topics (unlike surface questions on > LI) > - Do not underestimate the CFAI curriculum. They > encourage reading it for a reason > - They wont necessarilly test the new topics, if > you think they are be ready for a surprise > - Be ready for two full item sets on one topic, > that happen in my case on Fin. Stat. Analysis. Two > full item sets on 3 pages from the CFAI books. > > Just my .50 cents

Hi Robert, - Item sets are by section and they follow order of text (Ethics, then Quant, etc.) - Each Item set has 6 questions but could relate to one topic and usually is. - Good thing is that the questions are independent from each other, i.e. you wont find the situations where where if you answered wrong the first part of the item set then the rest of the answers are wrong, but they tend to relate to the same topic. - When I took it I felt that a small proportion of the curriculum was tested whereas in level 1 you touch in most topics, mainly because you have double the amount to questions - And yes, item sets are long (ranging from 1 to even 2 pages) and do test your concentration (I’d recommend highlithing key points as you read through them to get all assumptions). Questions are long but you have 120 total questions so all in all it takes about the same time to complete as Level I - It’s more calculator intensive than Level I I hope this help but let me know if you have more Q’s

Practice exams are really important to me. Which provider(s) would you recommend for Level II? As an enrollee in the CFALA review course, I’ll get the BSAS mock, the Schweser Practice Exams (book 1), and naturally the CFAI mock. I question the effectiveness of Schweser’s practice exams, and might consider paying extra for a different provider. I’m also considering paying $100 to access BSAS’ question bank (which is supposedly based on previous BSAS mocks). Any thoughts/recommendations here?

go read the questions first to get a hang of what they want. usually questions follow the pattern of the item set - like paragraphs 1 and 2 pertain to question #1 and so on. (they usually do not break that pattern). once you read the question and determine what they are asking - find the material in the vignette pertaining to that… answer it. folks have different styles - I found this above method worked for me. others tend to read the entire vignette - go to each question and back track to find the matter - which might take longer. also make sure you know if material presented in the vignette is really relevant or not…

CFAI are a clear representation of how the exam is, I think BSAS was closer to the real deal and schweser practice exams are not a bad either but make the item sets extra long. One word of caution is that in L1 I thought the exam and mock tested pretty much the same thing. I didn’t find that at L2 but it is never a good idea to play the guessing game with CFAI on what they will test. I think Q bank from schweser might not be the greatest because it also has non-item set questions. Stalla, I don’t know, I’ve never used it. With EOC questions, BSAS, Scheweser exams and CFAI sample and mocks you’ll be good to go… CFAI Text is the key, If you look at past post-exam threads you’ll see just how much frustration was shown after D-Day but mainly was CFAI punishing those that decided not to read/or read too litle the actual curriculum and go with only Schewer or Stalla. The tested a lot of stuff that Scheweser only covered on the surface.

Bear in mind that this is just my opinion which I’m sure will differ from many others :slight_smile:

Your study group is on crack. If you cover that much material this early you risk burn-out in the crucial last 2 months before the test, not to mention your knowledge retention is going to be terrible. Having 50% of the material covered already is just no good, very bad, completely horrible approach. What are you going to do for the next 6 months? Play video games? Pgiger Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Unless you just passed level 1, you’re already > behind the crowd. My study group is finishing > corporate finance today. Thats 50% of the material > covered.

Level2Ain’tEasy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Your study group is on crack. If you cover that > much material this early you risk burn-out in the > crucial last 2 months before the test, not to > mention your knowledge retention is going to be > terrible. Having 50% of the material covered > already is just no good, very bad, completely > horrible approach. What are you going to do for > the next 6 months? Play video games? > > Pgiger Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Unless you just passed level 1, you’re already > > behind the crowd. My study group is finishing > > corporate finance today. Thats 50% of the > material > > covered. I dont understand why people thing starting early is so terrible? So what you’re saying is since he will be done with the curriculum soon, he will not be able to retain the information because for the next 6 months he will have nothing to do? How about study??? If you wanna start in Jan or Feb, go ahead and do that. But for those starting early, I really doubt it will be to their disadvantage. It allows more time for repetition which is what really promotes learning the stuff, not just memorizing.