Best study material for CFA L2

hey guys

some people say that schweser cuts too much, and lacks depth in several areas

would you recommend any specific topics to go with curriculum, and others safe enough for schweser?

thanks

I used Schweser for Level I  and attempted to use it for (now) two tries at Level II.  I seem to be right on the brink and I know I can learn this, so I think I am going to switch providers.  If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.   Also… if anyone out there has failed and retaken Level II, would love to hear feedback.  Thank you.  

> @Aakansha said:
> I am a CFA L2 2017 candidate. Please advise me as to which study material I should use to pass my exams. I used Schweser for L1 but I am not quite sure if Schweser is good for L2 as well. CFA L2 qualified people and above please advise.

Hey ! I am CFA L2 2017 candidate too. What makes you feel that Schweser is not good for L2 ?

retaking level 2. what’s the best material Schwesser and Wiley?

Can someone answer this question:

For what it’s worth my manager at work has used Schweser for all three – said it was more than enough to pass.

what do you guys mean by Q-bank, does it refer to end of study session questions or something else?

tkann said:

Hey guys, I was wondering whether anyone would be interested in self-made notes for the key topics of L2. I’ve created them while preparing for the exam myself. They helped my pass it without any problems, so I think they are worth it? Let me know if you’d be interested or want to get a sample ?

Yes please, thanks!!!

I like Schweser thus far and don’t find it to be too light. The Q bank is the real value add of the service imo and will give you a good feel as to whether you need additional reading supplies. As a side note- I have found a strange amount of typo’s in the L2 Schweser reading. Doesn’t really matter, but it’s odd.

@sushri I do not spend much time/ brain power on technical analysis but I think the answer answer is C. If I remember correctly- It’s a head and shoulders pattern. Once the price breaks through the “shoulder” support level it is expected to fall the difference of the “head” and the “neck” (57-48=9), so 48-9=39. I find these questions to be pretty lame and would hope that there aren’t many on the exam.

I am going to use bloomberg and mark meldrums videos.

Short and sweet. If you put in the time to actually thoroughly read and understand the Schweser Notes then its more than enough. I used them almost exclusively for levels one and two and passed easily. Well, “easily” is sort of exaggerated, I did put in 1300 hours between the two levels. 

Hi All, I am planning on taking CFA level 2 June 2019. As a head start, I was thinking of starting with Equity, Quant now. 2019 L2 books are not yet released. Is there anyone in this group who took L2 recently? Do you have an e-book that you can share with me for Quant and/or Equity? Thanks.

L2 books aren’t ready yet but the online study notes are with schweser so you could use them or the CFA material 

Sure. 

BobBarkerPlaysPlinko said:

I’m working on Kaplan’s free 5-day trial right now.  The curriculum starts with quants.  I’m reading the CFAI book and comparing it to Kaplan’s video lecture and slides for reading 7, and Kaplan straight up missed a LOS. 

The LOS in question is the f-test.  To Kaplan’s defense, there actually were no test questions in CFAI’s book on the f-test, so maybe that’s why the blew it off.  Nonetheless, it has me a bit miffed.

I also tried to register for Fitch’s 15-day free trial, but they default to a Level 1 curriculum.  I emailed their home office over the weekend, hopefully they can switch it.

Kaplan skips certain bits – that’s one of the ways they make the material more palatable for students. I think they should make it clearer to students what they are doing, but I understand why they do it.

@Hasan

Q-Bank effectively means Level II format type questions that is – Vignette based question. Yes, EOC questions count the most (even if they are of Level I format questions). CFAI offers Topic Based Quizzes online. Do them in and out.

@tempo

To answer for both Best material and Vignette type questions sources- I  had used IFT (amazing awesome videos out there!), also used its notes & slides, old notes of Elan Guides and the Curriculum.

Extensively practiced Vignette (Item-based) questions from CFA examples, EOC, Online topic quizzes, IFT, Adapt Prep Ques and Fin Quiz. These are the ones I used in and out and worked for me during the exam day 🙂

All the best!

Hey, you should try studying with a partner or someone who’s already given the exam, like a mentor! It really helped my friend who found a partner through studypal.co. Hope this tip is helpful for you!

Hey guys, I was wondering whether anyone would be interested in self-made notes for the key topics of L2. I’ve created them while preparing for the exam myself. They helped my pass it without any problems, so I think they are worth it? Let me know if you’d be interested or want to get a sample ?

AryaStark said:

@Hasan So Schweser offers a question bank in a CD format, which contains about 4000 questions for practice…

ohh..It really provide the questions for practice. Then I go with Schweser

mjgavilanes said:

retaking level 2. what’s the best material Schwesser and Wiley?

I was planning on going for Schweser, worked well for me in L1 but @ellieb19 is giving me doubts! Are there any differences in L2 that may call for a different provider? Schweser has a discount right now I think, so would want to decide soon.

I started with the curriculum in September, switched to finquiz summaries as I found the curriculum too heavy. My reading time allocation makes it quite apparent. It really helped, but I came to fully appreciate Schweser when I got it in late November. It was a revelation. Straight to the point, well structured and delivers the material with a constant and clear flow. 

Level one strategy was mainly Schweser with further reading in the curriculum. Will stick to this on Level 2, and will be using qbanks from every source to get many angles on the material. 

@Hasan So Schweser offers a question bank in a CD format, which contains about 4000 questions for practice…

Me too, thanks @tkann!

I’m working on Kaplan’s free 5-day trial right now.  The curriculum starts with quants.  I’m reading the CFAI book and comparing it to Kaplan’s video lecture and slides for reading 7, and Kaplan straight up missed a LOS. 

The LOS in question is the f-test.  To Kaplan’s defense, there actually were no test questions in CFAI’s book on the f-test, so maybe that’s why the blew it off.  Nonetheless, it has me a bit miffed.

I also tried to register for Fitch’s 15-day free trial, but they default to a Level 1 curriculum.  I emailed their home office over the weekend, hopefully they can switch it.

I will be sitting for Level II as well.
For what it’s worth, different people prefer different methods. I apologise as that sounds quite trite, but it really does depend on your study method.
I will be using the CFA curriculum, as I did for Level I, because I find that reading more helps material to stick in my brain.
Two successful CFA charterholders I know think I’m crazy for not using Kaplan Schweser instead, but I fear that the succint material would not be as memorable for me.

I will admit that the CFA Level I curriculum reading on tax was desperately hard for me to grasp and only Schweser helped me to understand it, but I attribute that to the poor writing ability of the reading authors.

Thanks for starting this thread @Aakansha, I’m looking for the same advice too.

What about other providers aside from Schweser, e.g. Wiley, Bloomberg, Fitch? Anyone has any experience to share with them?

Hello All,

Long time anonymous user, first time poster. Take what I say with a grain of salt, since I have failed twice. The first time was after taking the December L1 exam (God I wasn’t ready for the four months of brutality that provided) and quickly realized how much trouble I was in. I don’t recommend the December and June L1 + L2 exams, unless you have nothing else going on in your life. I was in grad school at the time as well as a significant other and couldn’t handle it all. The second time through I had about 6 months of study, but again realized I didn’t commit as much as I could have due to my split time between grad school studies and what the CFA commanded. I am finishing grad school this semester and am giving it one final go with complete focus on CFA studies (I plan to start in October). Regardless, here is my thorough review of two products and I hope it helps.

Kaplan/Schweser – I used this for L1 CFA and felt that it greatly prepared me for the exam. I used their notes and QBank, which I can’t emphasize enough for the initial level. I was able to complete about 80% of the questions in the Qbank and felt very comfortable throughout the exam (well as comfortable as you can be). Schweser provides enough detail to pass the exam, but cuts out some of the components that are either rarely seen on the exam or subjects where the CFAI beat a subject into the ground. That is the point of supplemental material though. We buy it to not read as much and provide it in less of a “textbook” fashion as CFAI books present. I also used this for the first attempt of L2 CFA exam along with the 13 week(ish) course that is 4hours per week. I felt the courses were good, but it was difficult to keep up with all the readings in order to fully get everything out of the videos. Certain assumptions are made which is expected as each minute is precious for the classroom. The Qbank for L2 I think was too easy honestly relative to the L2 format and strength of each question (within mock exams and then eventually on the actual exam I took). It seemed more basic conceptual questions and basic computations than the situational scenarios that the exams are based on. Again just my opinion.

Wiley – I used this course for my second attempt at the L2 CFA exam as an alternative. There were highs and lows with Wiley. Wiley seemed to still be building the course at times and didn’t have all the content immediately available. They were nice, short lessons that allowed you to read the material or watch a video (which was word for word the text lecture). For those like me who are a visual learner, the videos drastically helped to understand particular concepts. Their question base appeared to be extremely better than Schweser; however, I can recall there being only about 1000 questions throughout the entire course. I enjoyed the layout of Wiley and the tracking it provided. It analyzed your weak points, how you did on your end of section questions, etc.

For both levels I did the end of chapter questions from the CFAI books as I felt the extra questions helped me and provided me the format for level 2 that I needed to become comfortable with. I can’t say enough that the mock exams are critical to being prepared for the exam.

I’m a little unsure what I will go with this time around. Part of me wants to go back to Schweser while the other part says to do the entire CFAI curriculum. I’ll debate it up until shortly before the registration deadline in September to make my decision. Many have told me to go to Windsor Week, but I have a hard time stomaching the $2K in costs. I suggest everyone look into those or similar events around the country that are 3 or 5 day sessions.

Hope this helps everyone attempting to pass L2. Good luck!

I got an email recently on a free Jumpstart package from Schweser – any thoughts on that? I know it’s free but I don’t really want to invest 2-3 weeks of work into a package that I may not end up buying…

How are you?is there anybody charitable enough to give me study material for CFA level 1.I would also want to join a whatsapp group…Moyo in South Africa.