How did you prepare ur CFA Level 2 exam? wonder, reading, only

former

I heard lots of ppl said that using Schweser Notes is not enough for level 2 exam, I just wonder how u prepare for that? reading notes only? reading curriculum only? or both?

Thanks

ayaz_mahmud369

The issue is not schweser not being enough on its own, its more about how you study with schweser or any other source.

many have passed level 2 based solely on Schweser preparation. Even if we assume Schweser covers 80 to 90 % of the material properly and you end up knowing 90% of what schweser covers then you may very well be capable of passing.

The biggest flaw in my view of schweser notes is the fact that they handicap you with the 4000 questions on their question bank. & the notes alone arnt enough so you need to use both notes and bank... but usiing the q bank more than you should may end up haunting you and screwing you for the exam

with 4,000 questions and lets say an average of doing 100 Qs a day this means thats 40 days out of your study time just devoted to doing those practice questions. so if we analyze those 40 days and 4000 questions i think you would find that you only gain a certain amount of knowledge from lets say 1000 questions and then its all basically variations of the same thing being asked and pure repetition. like how many questions of FCFE yr 1, 2 ,3 4 etc do you need to do and/or waste time on in order to think you know and are fully capable of solving an FCFE problem. I dont know about you but for me just understanding the theory and maybe doing ten of those questions should be all it takes for you to be fully capable of solving an exam question on FCFE, so think of the enormous amount of time you might end up wasting on things you are already fully capable of just because the Q bank happens to have a ton of questions on each of them. Same with ethics, 400 questions??? do you really think in order to grasp the core concepts of ethics you need to do 400 questions.

what i find weird is that after doing a ton of schweser questions on contango & backwardation and getting them all right , you can still end up with an exam question on this very simple theory where you are confused and not sure of your answer. Thats why the smartest thing to do whether using schweser or any other source is know that quantity of practice questions isnt your best indicator of your learning... its sort of like the marginal benefit of doing extra practice questions diminishes after a certain point and maybe you have spent a whole month from your study time with zero added to your knowledge just becos you were too busy doing the same thing over and over again with your calculator in hand thinking that if you do another 50 questions on capm then this will make you remember it better or understand it better for the exam.

I used schweser in 2009 and ended up a band ten fail, and i am not blaming schweser for this, but when i think back to myself as well as the fact that i used schweser again this time along with CFAI what i have come to realize is that you should always keep assessing where you stand on each LOS so that you dont spend more time than needed on certain LOS's and their associated practice Q's and move to topics you need to spend more time on... so my recommendation is to not think you are bound by the schweser Q bank and thinking that going through all their questions equates to good preparation, it would do you more good to maybe use schweser text with around 1000 of their practice Qs from Q bank and then move on to doing all the questions contained in the CFAI text, and whenever you think you fully mastered a topic cut down on time wasted impressing yourself with the fact that u can do all its questions with a high success rate and focus on your weaknesses.

another tip relating to formulas would be that it only takes half an hour the most to write down each and every formula you need to know for the level 2 exam, so one good strategy is the month before the exam you allocate 15 to 30 minutes of your daily study routine re-writing all the formulas out and making sure you know them all by heart... its amazing how you end up somtimes thinking you know all the formulas soo well then end up forgetting them on the exam day because of thinking you know them better than you actually do.

if you get to the point where overall you know most of the LOS's and their required explanations, definitions & calculations you should be good for the exam and then again you just never know there is always a little surprise factor on level two exams to see how we function and react to questions that are "different" from what we are used to or expect, and you only see those on the actuals not on mocks ;)

sameeragarwal

i used schweser. read the notes and also did the review.. spend just a month studying! so u can guess how confident i m about passing

kickthatcfa

TexasInstruments Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The issue is not schweser not being enough on its
> own, its more about how you study with schweser or
> any other source.
>
> many have passed level 2 based solely on Schweser
> preparation. Even if we assume Schweser covers 80
> to 90 % of the material properly and you end up
> knowing 90% of what schweser covers then you may
> very well be capable of passing.
>
> The biggest flaw in my view of schweser notes is
> the fact that they handicap you with the 4000
> questions on their question bank. & the notes
> alone arnt enough so you need to use both notes
> and bank... but usiing the q bank more than you
> should may end up haunting you and screwing you
> for the exam
>
> with 4,000 questions and lets say an average of
> doing 100 Qs a day this means thats 40 days out of
> your study time just devoted to doing those
> practice questions. so if we analyze those 40 days
> and 4000 questions i think you would find that you
> only gain a certain amount of knowledge from lets
> say 1000 questions and then its all basically
> variations of the same thing being asked and pure
> repetition. like how many questions of FCFE yr 1,
> 2 ,3 4 etc do you need to do and/or waste time on
> in order to think you know and are fully capable
> of solving an FCFE problem. I dont know about you
> but for me just understanding the theory and maybe
> doing ten of those questions should be all it
> takes for you to be fully capable of solving an
> exam question on FCFE, so think of the enormous
> amount of time you might end up wasting on things
> you are already fully capable of just because the
> Q bank happens to have a ton of questions on each
> of them. Same with ethics, 400 questions??? do you
> really think in order to grasp the core concepts
> of ethics you need to do 400 questions.
>
> what i find weird is that after doing a ton of
> schweser questions on contango & backwardation and
> getting them all right , you can still end up with
> an exam question on this very simple theory where
> you are confused and not sure of your answer.
> Thats why the smartest thing to do whether using
> schweser or any other source is know that quantity
> of practice questions isnt your best indicator of
> your learning... its sort of like the marginal
> benefit of doing extra practice questions
> diminishes after a certain point and maybe you
> have spent a whole month from your study time with
> zero added to your knowledge just becos you were
> too busy doing the same thing over and over again
> with your calculator in hand thinking that if you
> do another 50 questions on capm then this will
> make you remember it better or understand it
> better for the exam.
>
> I used schweser in 2009 and ended up a band ten
> fail, and i am not blaming schweser for this, but
> when i think back to myself as well as the fact
> that i used schweser again this time along with
> CFAI what i have come to realize is that you
> should always keep assessing where you stand on
> each LOS so that you dont spend more time than
> needed on certain LOS's and their associated
> practice Q's and move to topics you need to spend
> more time on... so my recommendation is to not
> think you are bound by the schweser Q bank and
> thinking that going through all their questions
> equates to good preparation, it would do you more
> good to maybe use schweser text with around 1000
> of their practice Qs from Q bank and then move on
> to doing all the questions contained in the CFAI
> text, and whenever you think you fully mastered a
> topic cut down on time wasted impressing yourself
> with the fact that u can do all its questions with
> a high success rate and focus on your weaknesses.
>
>
> another tip relating to formulas would be that it
> only takes half an hour the most to write down
> each and every formula you need to know for the
> level 2 exam, so one good strategy is the month
> before the exam you allocate 15 to 30 minutes of
> your daily study routine re-writing all the
> formulas out and making sure you know them all by
> heart... its amazing how you end up somtimes
> thinking you know all the formulas soo well then
> end up forgetting them on the exam day because of
> thinking you know them better than you actually
> do.
>
> if you get to the point where overall you know
> most of the LOS's and their required explanations,
> definitions & calculations you should be good for
> the exam and then again you just never know
> there is always a little surprise factor on level
> two exams to see how we function and react to
> questions that are "different" from what we are
> used to or expect, and you only see those on the
> actuals not on mocks ;)

great post. I totally agree having used Schweser last year and went to CFAI only this year

tianxin

jackofalltrades Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Summary pages at the end of each chapter of the
> CFAI textbook.


Thanks for ur advice

ppls

I'm on the fence. I used schweser to learn all the material & did all their questions. Then did all the CFAI EOC questions and when confused I looked in both books.

I think for Level I Schweser is definitely enough. If it's your first time on Level II, use schweser to get the basics. But come March and April, start looking at all the EOC questions and examples throughout the CFAI books. Thats where you make your money.

I'm pretty sure I failed Level II. Still not sure about how I will go about it next year. I mean I already have Schweser level II notes, so not sure if I want to purchase them again. Hmmmm......

wilslm

I used Stalla extensively, and in the last month I went back to teh CFAI books and did all the end of chapter examples. I used Schweser to fill in gaps and barely touched QBank.

The problem is, you also needed to understand in the in chapter examples inside and out. Some of those questions would have been easier to tackle had you gone thru the examples they walked you thru in the text. Assuming I have to retake this, I'm going with the CFAI material as my main course and use Stalla as a backup. I've gone from thinking there was no way you could use the CFAI material only to pass to thinking that was the real secret to passing.

I'm borderline on whether I passed/failed. Somehow I suspect the early notification this year is due to there being a much clearer distinction between who passed and who failed. In past years, there's probably been less dispersion from the MPS.

wxs1986

CFAI text all the way. I used them for both Level 1 & 2. I guess with my medical background, I am used to reading all those heavy books without breaking a sweat. I don't know how I did it with my 45 hour per week job but I went through the curriculum twice on both levels. Weeks before the exams, I ate the Schweser Q-bank like my life depended on it. I also paid for all available sample questions and did the mock questions twice.

SFoyil

me.tega Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CFAI text all the way. I used them for both Level
> 1 & 2. I guess with my medical background, I am
> used to reading all those heavy books without
> breaking a sweat. I don't know how I did it with
> my 45 hour per week job but I went through the
> curriculum twice on both levels. Weeks before the
> exams, I ate the Schweser Q-bank like my life
> depended on it. I also paid for all available
> sample questions and did the mock questions twice.

How did you feel the exam was? You confidence level of passing?

ninja1024

Agree with almost everyone in here. Not sure if this has been said already but I also recommend making flash cards for WEAK areas/lists/pros-cons/assumptions etc. I didn't do this for Level 2 the first time around and I am convinced if I pass second time around it is because of reviewing flash cards on weaker areas. OFCOURSE in addition to Schweser notes, CFAI Questions etc.