@timbcanada
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Up5
@DollarsToDonuts it looks like there are 2 mocks available from CFAI this year, so you can do one right away and one closer to June with supplementary ones in between
Up5Level II: Like several others above I did 6 mocks exams in preparation and was surprised at the weight some areas were given vs other areas on a test with only 120 questions. I also found the afternoon slightly more difficult in general, despite being more awake. Cautiously optimistic for August results. @ynag12 60 days until results
Up5I skipped a year before writing level 2. Might be a nice idea to read through the secret sauce for the previous level but if you’re at all pressed for time I would just skip it. Most prep providers will give you a bit of a refresher if there’s something that carried over from the previous level too (schweser videos for example).
Up4As others have said, flash cards are great. I’ve used them for levels 1 and 2 so far. The downside is the time investment. If you were writing in Dec and just getting started, you don’t have time. If you’re writing in June and asking the right questions now, you’ve got loads of time. You have the option to just make flash cards for formulas, which wouldn’t take as long as including definitions etc in your flash cards.
Up3@christine Excited to hear what it is you guys have in the works!
@sethneha Good luck on the exam. I am writing level 2 as well. The main trouble I have is that even if I know something well after just having gone through it, if I go back to it a few weeks later I have forgotten most of the detail. Flashcards really help in this respect but they take absolutely forever.Up3Good points @edulima. Schweser refers to OAS as “option-removed spread” which is a helpful way of thinking about it. It allows an apples-to-apples comparison for bonds once their options are taken out of the equation so that you can focus just on liquidity and credit risk to figure out of it is over or underpriced (knowing higher rates = lower prices)
Up3I’m one of the few who spent the time to make literally a few thousand flash cards. Flash cards take longer to make but they’re extremely useful for reviewing in the final month. They’re good for reviewing as you’re still learning material as well – the last thing you want is to finish all the material and not remember the first bunch of topics you saw
Up2I think the CFA curriculum probably uses theirs so that you can clearly see how the two parts (the beginning book value, and the RI) are separate. Otherwise maybe people would use the 1st formula and then add BVo while your formula does not require that addition. Also, (ROE-r)BV is the formula for RI, so it is easy to remember that way that the 2nd part of the equation is just RI/(r-g)
Just be careful not to get all of those mixed up with the formula for justified BV = (ROE-g)/(r-g)… They all start to melt together when they are similar.
Up2Flash cards work great as well, and although they take a long time to make they are very valuable come review time
Up2You have some impressively broad experience with computer engineering, banking, sales. I’m not sure where you want your career to go from here but people in your industry will certainly know about the CFA and understand the effort you put in to get it
Up210:21am EST and no result yet for level 2…
Up2You’re done the toughest section (FRA); you can project forward your time knowing that with Quant, FRA and Econ you’re done 42% (http://www.cfainstitute.org/programs/cfaprogram/exams/Pages/exam_topic_area_weights.aspx) so far. Try to leave 3-4 weeks for review and decide if you need to speed up or not. Know that you’ll likely need to increase your avg study time/day as you go forward to accommodate reviewing past topics so that you aren’t forgetting everything.
Up1Good experience with Kaplan for 2 years. Believe they are the most widely used. Haven’t used Analyst Success so can’t comment
Up1Status update: 11am EST. No level 2 result. Starting to freak out
Up1BeanCounter said:Because you are – effectively – buying only the print version. There is a marginal cost of pretty much zero for the eBook, so they offer it ‘for free’.I’m sure they have some sort of deal with VitalSource technologies. Also, they have years of information seeing how many people picked print vs online so they must have figured it was worth it with the deal they worked out to provide everyone with the online version for exams 2014-on.
Up1I’m seeing a lot of “if NPV < cost, this is bad” – that should really be “if NPV < 0”. Cost is already removed in the NPV equation, so saying NPV < cost just means you’re not doubling your money when taking TVM into account.
Up0Wow yes that is good to know! I would think in FRA there would maybe be a different trigger word than ‘calculate’, but in the end it would be a numerical solution to numerical inputs that it is looking for. Not a big difference, but maybe just because there isn’t a simple 1-step formula they don’t use the word calculate as often in that section. In any event even 91 calculations is quite a few!
