Band 7 Candidate- Preparing for June 2016 – Help Needed..How far am I? **Results included

@hellomarconi I totally agree with your plan. I had Band 8 in 2013 L2 just after I had passed the Dec 2012 exam.

I finally passed the June 2015 exam and it was a similar plan.

I commenced studying c. November and hit full mocks by January. You need to OD on questions, I did all the questions I could lay my hands on.

 CFAI EOC, Schweser EOC, Previous CFAI mocks, Schweser Mocks, Questions on the CFAI site, let practise questions be a drug you are addicted to. It helps to bring everything together.

 Strategy wise, I advise you maintain your grasp of the Equity material and improve your on FRA & FI.

My passing strategy was to ensure I was over confident on FRA, Equity, CF, Der, always aiming form >70 in those. Maintain average scores in AI, PM, and FI. I honestly did not mind not getting Eco and Quants.

But for now, you should rest and rejuvenate as you prepare to kick the question writers next year!

More questions is a good improvement. Forgetting things is unfortunately a problem for me (and a lot of others) as well. What I try to do is simply pile on the practice exams – you can never have too many. Start early with practice exams. Stick to your planned schedule to finish your review period, even if you’re not happy with how thorough you got through your material (you never will), and hit the practice exams hard and fast. Go back and review problem areas, then back to practice exams again. Rinse and repeat.

The gradual questions plan sounds interesting and could work – the worry is that it might end up being too time consuming. Again, sticking to the schedule especially in the early stages is crucial to ensure you have enough time to practice properly later on.

This is what I did and it worked for me (passed Level 2 first attempt in 2015):
1.  Last week before the exam – do all the blue box and end of chapter questions from the CFAI material.  This ensures that you have covered all the material and revised everything.
2.  Last 6 weeks – cram in at least 8 mock exams (I did 6 Schweser, 1 CFAI and one Schweser live mock).  4 of the eight, I had to do AM and PM on separate days because of family/work issues, but avoid that.
3.  Last 4 weeks – do all the topic questions that the CFAI makes available.  These are all old exam questions and they are invaluable.  The total (56 item sets) equals almost 3 additional mock exams.
4.  When you read the Schweser materials (I used CFAI only for Ethics), make note cards as you go.  I didn’t do this and lost valuable time later having to go thru and look at my highlights again.  Try to look at note cards one day before each mock exams as you will be doing this the day before the exam and it will get you practice to scan quickly.

I have a full time job, a 1 hour each way drive and 4 kids (9-15 years).  I have a wife who is bipolar and had to be hospitalized etc in Jan.  If I could get thru Level 2 in 2015 with all this – you can too.  Hang in there and don’t give up!

Sounds like a solid plan to me. How much more does this plan ‘improve’ on over your June 2015 attempt?