Most difficult LOS's difficult

irlfaan7

Can any one list down the most difficult to study LOS's in Level 2

former

Equities: inflation forcasting together with Residual income valuation approach is hard.
long process, multistep calculations, messing up 1 small calculation can screw you up

corporate finance: replacement project NPV valuation;
long process, many factors to be taken into account: depretiation, ending value, selling value etc. again, messing up 1 step will get you no where.

FRA: translation and remeasurement in hyperinflationary economy for cash and non-cash items

Derivatives: dynamic/delta hedging; swaps

mdfb79

wake2000 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> currency swaps are nasty cousins.


+1. Freaking currency swaps are the worst. Nothing like trying to answer one of thoes questions on the pM session after your brain is already fried.

AnalystAlan

Just dont give up.
From my experiences from L1, to materials I found hard to digest at the first time, re read it after a while may work better, because you have a bufferint for reflection. This method works as well in my financial reporting class. Of course it's not recommended for people lacking of time for prepartion, but im sure you are not among those.

adehbone

I don't mean to turn this into my personal blog, but I think the suggestion of just lightly reading over quant was a good idea. I barely understood what the heck I was reading actually going through the chapter on time series (R13). So I went straight to the end of chapter summary and questions and I understood it all perfectly after that.

I'm starting to wonder if I'd by saving time with Schweser or something like that to help me understand the readings better.

DoubleDip

The middle SS of FRA (covering pensions, multinational operations and intercorpoate investments) is pretty intense. Take some time getting through it.

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.

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.

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.

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.