CFA level 2 June 2012

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Hey friends,

I need a small help from you people. Can anyone send me the soft copies of scheweser notes for the level 2 exam. Need to assess the syllabus before I actually give it a go..

thanks in advance...
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Cleared L2!! Feel so happy. I have heard that L2 is the toughest of all 3 levels (in terms of length and breadth of syllabus). Is it? Anybody registered for L3 yet?

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Saanil how many hours did u study

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Well you should not follow the study habits I followed. I cleared CFA L1 in December 2011 - results of which came out in Jan 2012. I did not register for L2 straight away because of several reasons (general laziness/not sure whether I will be able to prepare or not).

In 1st week of March I registered for June L2. So theoritically I just had 3 months. Note that that I literally struggled to finish the portion. I had not practised many questions so was a little short on confidence. It is possible that me working in Equity Research helped me in understanding certain topics quickly. But 3 months is surely not enough for a working professional. Studying on weekends can be really painful.

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is CFA much easy to CA

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I have not studied anything related to CA so cannot comment on it. But in my opinion, CFA includes more of accounting wherehas in CA Tax is given greater importance. This is what people tell me. Please correct me if I am wrong here.

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Saanil i am amazed u cleared L2 in 3 months. At best u could have studied for 400 hrs i feel

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@[582498:iwantgovtjob] 400 hours is a huge amount of time....i studied for 180 hours max over a period of 2 months and cleared it.

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@anupam001 said: @iwantgovtjob 400 hours is a huge amount of time....i studied for 180 hours max over a period of 2 months and cleared it.
Man so many genius people giving CFA . Competetion is tuff
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@iwantgovtjob said:
Man so many genius people giving CFA . Competetion is tuff
yes...but i think a proper strategy with some luck should do just fyn...for me cramming a lot of stuff in the end works so did just that...are u planning to give L2
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Anupam dear no L1
but seriosusly 180 hrs me . Are u IIT/IIM person?

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@iwantgovtjob said: Anupam dear no L1 but seriosusly 180 hrs me . Are u IIT/IIM person?
i am from Bits-Pilani.....hopefully will bell the cat this time :P....in case u need any help reagarding ur CFA preps...u can pm me
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Cleared L2.. Please pm me if anybody wants to create a study group for L3 in June 2013.

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I can see hardly some 5-10 ppl clearing level 2 here.. For all those hu has not cleared (I am in the same club), any one has plans of registering for next year.. ??

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@msln2008 hey.. I am planning to register for L2 for June.. however I am not sure how to start with the preparations.. by any chance do you have any ebooks which I could go through and decide if I can devote enough time for the preparation..
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Sorry to hear msln2008. All the best for your preps.


Kill it!!!
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Hello Puys ! Cleared by CFA in Jun 2011 and got the Charter in 2011. PM me in you need any specific advise on the course. Also would like to share some study notes for L3 with those who are interested. Cheers !

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Hi,

I have just completed my MCom and planning to appear for CFA Level 1 in June 2013. Would it be helpful as a first degree?

I mean most pple doing CFA have already some other professional qualification. Would it be fine to do it as the main professional qualification? Or should i look up some other degrees?

Please help urgently as i plan to register before Sept 19, 2012

Thanks!

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this might be helpful for those appearing for CFA L2, I shared my thoughts with people on email and they found it extremely helpful....hence posting it on the fourum.

Me4 weeks ago

Hi ..... this is what I shared with someone else when i was asked about the strategy that I applied..........I simply used Schewser notes. At the same time..... while I was going through the notes I kept a notebook alongwith in which I used to write down my understanding of each chapter, key points and important formule ...this made sure that I understood each chapter well. Because when you have to write down something you need to understand it very well.... so many a times while making my own notes I realised that initially i felt that I have understood the concept well....but when I wanted to write it in my own words I struggled! this method was really helpful..... also by this proccess revision was easy and also I would not forget the concepts easily.

I devoted around 1 month for the preprations.... first two weeks would be around 2-3 hrs a day (as i am working)...... in last two weeks I took leave and devoted almost 12 hrs a day studying.

My analysis for CFA L2: You should look the entire material from three perspective.

1. How difficult is each topic? (Depth!: how difficult chapters are)

easy: Alternative investments, Ethics (as you have done this before!), Economics.
moderate: corporate finance, equity investments, FRA, portfolio management.
difficult: Quant, Fixed Income, Derivatives

2.How vast is each topic?(breadth!:no. of chapters)

Small: Ethics(doesn't take lots of time as you have done in L1), economics, alternative investments.
moderate: Corporate finance, portfolio management, Quant, Derivatives.
Large: FRA, Equity invetments, fixed income.

3. How important is each topic from exam point of view (Weightages!)

Small: Eco, Alternative investments, Quant
Moderate: fixed income, ethics, derivatives, portfolio management
High: Equity, FRA, corporate finance.

Now based on the above dissection it is easy to see that

a. 3 topics that can help enhance your score with very little effort are Eco, Alternative investments, and Ethics. (Low effort High returns). You can finish these topics between the breaks that you take between two large topics, it helps you feel good that one more topic is done.

b. 3 topics that you cannot afford to score low if you want to pass are: Equity, FRA and Corporate finance. Start early with these topics as they are vast (but not very difficult). Corporate finance is relatively easy to handle as it has 4-5 relatively easy chapters. Make your own notes while you go through the chapters, it helps you revise faster. Mark the difficult problems that you come across while reading the text. Visit them later while revising. Dont start another big topic after finishing a large topic. Example dont start with FRA after you are done with Equity..... it will lead to mental fatigue. (These three topics are like running a full marathon on a plain ground, in a very nice weather, where you can aford to take rests)

c. Quant in L2 is difficult, moderately vast and less importance, so if you cannot manage quant at all, I would suggest that leave it for the last so that if you get time you can try to master it (This topic is High effort, low return!)

d. Portfolio management is manageble as it is moderately important, moderately difficult and no. of chapters as not very large. (This is a must do section to supplement your score).

e. Fixed income is the biggest problem, it is large topic, difficult and has a decent amount of weightage. (This is like running a half marathon on up-slope in a hot weather), So if you are missing on Quant and derivatives you cannot afford to miss on fixed income

f. Derivatives: difficult to comprehend and retain the concepts, though chapters are relatively smaller here and derivs is less important as compared to Fixed income in terms of weightage and questions in exams are not very complicated, so if you solved a lots of examples before going to exam you can handle questions from derivs.

If you simply cannot handle Quant, Fixed income and Derivs (worst of the 10 topics of L2). Derivs is what you can manage by solving lots of examples and remembering them until the exam is over, and quant has relatively less number of chapters so you can mug-up and manage.

To sum up..... Equity, Corp fin and FRA are areas that form the base of your passing score, and manageble if your are consistent in your efforts. Eco, Ethics and Alternative investments are the bonus and you cannot afford to miss this, (as this will compensate for poor performance in any other areas). Portfolio management is manageble. Fixed Income, Derivs and Quant are the party spoliers, so in average case scenario you can manage any two of them at best and let go the third one. I let go quant as it has little weightage in L2 and is not a part of L3.

Hope this helps you how to go about dealing with CFA L2.

ATDH.
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@saanil 😁 ...