CFA level II study strategy concepts, everyone, question, starting, morning

nixie24

Good morning everyone,
I  passed the Level I exam this past December. i did pretty well on it ( 70%+ on all the sections except ethics and AI).
My question is, what strategy should i take to pass Level II this first time around?
I plan on starting to study in Sept-Oct and start doing questions by Feb-March.
I will be usng Schweiser and will be taking a class.
is the exam all about memorization? or is it more on understanding concepts?
Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Howd

Start early, be thorough, cover EVERYthing!

brainsX

I know a lot of people take notes and summery but i never do. I don’t think i will be able to get through the material if i try to write down the notes, and even if i do, i won’t have time to review the notes i will just dive into questions.
I would, however highlight “certain” things (not the whole book like some people!) and use sticky labels to mark questions and sections i find difficult or need to get back to.
Once i start doing the questions i will know what i understand and what iha ve forgotten, then i just go back to the section and re-read those parts.
And if i ever wonder if the questions cover everything i need to know, i just go to end of chapters summery and see if anything looks “foreign” to me, and re-read those sections.

kickthatcfa

Use the CFAI textbooks.  The Schweser notes are OK and can be used as a quick refence but focus your time on the textbooks!  The exam itself is going to come directly out of the textbooks.  I don’t think it’s a good use of time to read the notes when you have to choose between the two.
Do every single question in the readings (the “blue boxes”) and end of the chapter questions.  Especially focus on the end of the chapter questions that are in item set format.  This is exactly what you’ll encounter on exam day.
Make sure you’re very comfortable with equity, accounting, and corporate finance.  These are heavily weighted topics and will probably appear in both the AM and PM sections.  I can’t stress this enough. Maybe you go 2/6 on economics.  That sucks but it’s much, much better than going 8/24 on corporate finance!
Spend the month of May doing practice exams, reviewing all the answers, and making sure you know why the correct answer is the correct answer.  Spend time rereading those sections that aren’t clear.  Do as many of the past CFA mock exams as you can find.  The Boston Society mock exam is a great resource as well.

ryanlb

Go with Schwesser for level 2. Study Schwesser notes, question bank and practice exams. You should also solve the end of study questions in the curriculum. That should take you past the finish line.
I am surprised though that you did not write the level 2 this June. The momentum of passing or crushing level 1 could have been an added advantage.

laurab

I used the CFAI books as well as Qbank.  I agree that you should hit the EOCs as you go through and then at least two more times.  Those essay type questions are a bit of a pain but they really drive home the mastery (NOT MEMORIZATION) needed for level II.  I would also focus on the Blue Boxes in the CFAI text, those are a tremendous asset, especially on sections where the EOCs don’t cover everything in the reading.  The CFAI is want to test topics in the material that they don’t cover in EOCs to verify you read the material.  Blue Boxes were huge for me in passing level II and hopefully in level III.  Hope that helps.

yospaghetti

As to how to study I wish I had taken the time to go back through some of the L1 Financial Staement stuff, particularly Cash Flows and Long Life Asset adjustments (e.g. Operating vs. Finance Leases) or anything else involving recalcualting Balance Sheet and Income Statements.
If you do not already know your calcualtor really well, learn this too.
Otherwise it comes down to what everyone else says study early, study hard and study often.

chunty

You can probably pre-order in August. They won’t do anything until the results for 2013 are out

ninja1024

Hi all,
When can i get the Scheweser Level II material for June 2014 exam?

Valores

One bit of advice I’d echo (while most of what’s above is VERY good) is that the QBank (if you DO decide to go the Schweser route) is useless.  I couldn’t bring myself to believe this even though I was told exactly the same when I set out to tackle L2.  Used it plenty in the first month or two and eventually used it less and less until I came to agree with what I was told at the outset.  The questions are too simplistic (no hidden tricks), they’re repeated over and over and….over with numbers changed, and only some are in item-set format.  
I know you mentioned you like Elan for L1 but heard people recommending Schweser for L2 - please don’t waste your time or money on the QBank, I already did the recon for you.