How’s studying progressing thus far?

@googs1484 , long time no see. I’m through ethics, alternative investments, corporate finance, and have half of study session 6 and all of session 7 to go then FRA will be complete as well (6.5 sessions complete).

I agree completely that it is much more in-depth and difficult than Level I. I’m not covering pages nearly as quickly. That being said, ever since I received the hard copy Schweser books it’s been much better than using eBooks.

L2 is much more complicated than L1. I would say that you have less topics but more details explained and examined, and the exam structure is also tricky. I always start with the most interesting topics first and then on less interesting. It show to me as a good strategy because once I complete more than half of readings, I am motivated to complete the entire process.

Happy New Year 2016, everyone!

My strategy for L2 this Jun16 is to tackle the low hanging fruit first:
1) Economics and Alternative Investment all done.
2) Portfolio Management almost done, tomorrow I should be done with the last chapter on IPS.
3) FRA, Equity, and Corp Fin are halfway there, but I must admit they’re quite pain in the butt.
4) Ethics is my spare time reading so far.
5) The others I haven’t really started yet.

By February-March, I hope I could be done with all the reading and then focus with all the EOC problems and mock exams. My senior reminded me that while L1 is about blitzkrieg, L2 is about combo… whatever that means. B)

Prep has been a grind here lately. I reworked my study schedule to give myself more days to cover certain topics. Covering 20 pages a day wasn’t a stretch for Level I, covering 15 pages a day is no small feat for Level II.

I also need to study approx 15 pages per day. I used TimePrep iPhone app that helped me a lot with study plan. I found out about the app here on 300hrs forum and it showed as a very good app. The best about the app is the possibility to reschedule the study plan if you miss the study session.

@googs1484, what has your strategy been using the Schweser reading videos? I’ve gone between using them as an introduction and as a recap. I’ve found recap to be most useful. Your thoughts? 

If you’re preparing for June – you’re doing well. You’re absolutely right that L2 has a crazy amount of material. Hopefully with enough practice a lot of it will come as second nature (seems impossible right now probably, but it will get better!)

Probably not what you want to hear, but keeping at it, lots of practice questions will make it less overwhelming. 🙂

My progress has been good so far despite some days in November when I could not find time due to official and personal engagements. I completed the ethics and professional standards sections. I skipped the most of the detailed chapters on GIPS, which was marked as ‘optional’ in the official curriculum. 
Financial Reporting: I completed income statements and currently studying Balance sheet
Equity: I completed up to Market Efficiency. I will start the next one after a short break. 

In terms of study materials I’m using the official curriculum as a base. I explored other notes but due to the costs and the need to follow the core background material I decided to stick to CFA material. However, I’m using Finquiz notes as an aid to complete some sections faster or to review completed readings or to revise on certain areas. 

googs1484 said:

This is a one off question but do level II item sets combine topics? For example could an item set contain ethics, quant and a FRA question? Also, like level I do the questions go in order of Study Sessions? for example, Ethics item set first, followed by Quant, then FRA?

They absolutely do. The combinations may not be as wide-ranging: e.g. usually one topic dominates a particular item set, but you will find that there will be a 1-2 questions in there that would be from other topics.

They do tend to start with Ethics as far as I can remember. I’m not sure about what follows after that. But I would say any order is fair game. A good example of how things might go on the actual exam is to refer to would be the CFAI mock.

Good luck to everyone this weekend!

It’s been really tough for me to buckle down like I did for Level I. To put it into perspective, I’ve been working on Quant since the beginning of November. It’s simply a motivation thing more than anything else. I’m sure there will be plenty of regrets in a few months…