badonkus

i think many topics might seem easy at first, and you might even cruise through the readings, but one you start solving problems, either in EOCs or in the mocks, you'll realize there's a lot more depth to it than just looking at some definition and mugging up a formula

bpdulog

In addition to the above, derivatives take time to master.

justin88

It really depends on what your background is going into the exam. Personally, I struggled the most with derivatives, pension accounting, and accounting for foreign subsidiaries (current method, temporal method, and adjusting for hyperinflation). It seems like anything where there is a clear distinction between IFRS and US GAAP accounting was a pain to keep everything straight.

former

I had all the swaps down cold but still couldn't manage to answer a single question correctly when doing interest rate swaps in different currencies, there just seemed to be too many moving parts

Darien

Swaps are miserable, quant can be a moving target but it's hit or miss.

zephyranalyst

i believe the most difficult vary depend on individual background & interest

some people said derivative is tough, but i found it quite ok to me

i spend lesser time in ethics, probably i found that no matter how much effort i put in, my score in this subject is still maintain at an optimal level, hardly improve from this, and you can never be very sure & confidence you are getting the right answer in the exam, relatively compare to others subject

AI has the lowest examable value to me, the material that you need to study is wide, not easy to digest, various topics likes commodity, property, private equity, hedge fund... need to cover, and yet it has only one vignette

i like economy, so i dont have pressure to study it even though is only 1 vig

QM is scorable, as long as they dont ask so many question on time series

& to pass, we must make sure we cover FRA and Equity well, coz these 2 add up can be 10 vignettes, 50% of the exam marks, i doubt someone can pass if he did poorly in these 2 subjects

Iginla2011

Well I went through *reading* 11 and I feel like most of it was pretty simple. I didn't quite grasp the ANOVA stuff as well as I did the other stuff, but I get the general idea.

Reading the blue box examples is very helpful to clear things up.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Saturday, August 20, 2011 at 09:55AM by 99 cannon sloop.

luckygiftvn

99 cannon sloop Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well I went through *reading* 11 and I feel like
> most of it was pretty simple. I didn't quite grasp
> the ANOVA stuff as well as I did the other stuff,
> but I get the general idea.
>
> Reading the blue box examples is very helpful to
> clear things up.

Quants isn't necessarily "too difficult", but it is VERY dry material, imo. I barely studied that area and (not surprisingly) scored < 50% in that section of Level II. FYI- Reading 11 is just a warm-up for 12 and 13, so it's not supposed to be very difficult to comprehend. Time-series analysis is probably the hardest part of that area.

I think biousia's comment hit the nail on the head a few posts back -- if you want to know the "hardest" sections of Level II, those are probably the ones that stand out.

ba736

You might be better off not studying quant or just covering it lightly -ONLY if you have the other topics down. Ofcourse it could be your luck and they test you heavily on that section.

I wouldn't bother with it for the exam. Read it leisurely later and you will have a better grasp/understanding of the topic.

svgleeson

tozerrt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 99 cannon sloop Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Well I went through *reading* 11 and I feel
> like
> > most of it was pretty simple. I didn't quite
> grasp
> > the ANOVA stuff as well as I did the other
> stuff,
> > but I get the general idea.
> >
> > Reading the blue box examples is very helpful
> to
> > clear things up.
>
> Quants isn't necessarily "too difficult", but it
> is VERY dry material, imo. I barely studied that
> area and (not surprisingly) scored < 50% in that
> section of Level II. FYI- Reading 11 is just a
> warm-up for 12 and 13, so it's not supposed to be
> very difficult to comprehend. Time-series
> analysis is probably the hardest part of that
> area.
>
> I think biousia's comment hit the nail on the head
> a few posts back -- if you want to know the
> "hardest" sections of Level II, those are probably
> the ones that stand out.


You're right. It's much better to focus on the areas that are important for the test.

The CFAI material isn't as gripping as a Sherlock Holmes novel or anything, but I am finding it somewhat interesting. Its well written and it does a good job of making the information relevant and immediately applicable to actual analytical work.

I've found it faster to skip a lot of the material, though, and focus on reading (1) the definitions, (2) the formulas, (3) lists, (4) figures, (5) examples, and (6) footnotes. I think the materially was written partially in mind to be a reference book for analysts, so I'm just skipping things that don't seem particularly important.