CFA L2 study session difficulty level

S

sachin_patel

New member
Joined
Jun 18, 2026
Messages
0
Reaction score
0
Those who have some experience with below can you please let me know what is relative difficulty level of each study session? if you can order or give numbers 1 to 10 to each of topic below. it would be a great help.
It would help with planning.
Ethics
Quantitative Methods
Economics
Financial Reporting and Analysis
Corporate Finance
Equity
Alternative Investments
Fixed Income
Derivatives
Portfolio Management
 
From most difficult:
1. FRA
2. Derivatives
3. Ethics
4. Portfolio management
5. Economics
6. Quant
7. Fixed Income
8. Equity
9. Alternative assets
10. Equity
 
Last summer I collected data from posted results on this board from June 2012 and 2013 results (I work in banking and it was the very slow week before labor day and I had nothing else to do). I used the 80/60/40 methodology to assign scores to reults posted by forum users. These are the estimated average scores per section for those that successfully cleared Level II (sample size ~80 or so);
Equity: 76.2%
Corporate Finance: 75.0%
FRA: 74.8%
Alternatives: 69.0%
Derivatives: 67.1%
Fixed Income: 66.5%
Quantitative Methods: 65.5%
Economics: 65.3%
Ethics: 64.4%
Portfolio Management: 63.8%
The average estimated 80/60/40 score for those that reported their results and cleared Level II was 70.7%. Those that were bands 9 and 10 averaged 62.7% (sample size of a dozen or so).
 
Here is my take. Not ranking them as such.
Ethics— crapshoot. you never know what CFAI has chosen as the correct answer.
Quantitative Methods- didn’t understand most of it till the very end.
Economics— too much material given its weightage. most of it was dry and in my opinion the most boring of all topics.
Financial Reporting and Analysis— Mostly tough.pensions, intercorp, multinational ops. all difficult topics.some parts like IFRS vs GAAP and the goodwill methods were not intuitive to me and required rote memorisation.
Corporate Finance— scoring topic. average difficulty
Equity—- Found it easiest of all topics but many readings.
Alternative Investments—- Iffy. couldn’t be sure of some parts others were ok.
Fixed Income— average level of difficulty till you get to the ABS/ MBS stuff. couldn’t figure out how to retain it.
Derivatives– found them tough to study. but once you get it, it can be easy points for some . not for me.also formula heavy.
Portfolio Management–the first reading was tough rest was ok.
The important point is you have to get used to the item set format which comes only with practice .the material is vast,more in depth and formula and calculation intensive.
 
Tommy83 wrote:
Last summer I collected data from posted results on this board from June 2012 and 2013 results (I work in banking and it was the very slow week before labor day and I had nothing else to do). I used the 80/60/40 methodology to assign scores to reults posted by forum users. These are the estimated average scores per section for those that successfully cleared Level II (sample size ~80 or so);
Equity: 76.2%
Corporate Finance: 75.0%
FRA: 74.8%
Click to expand...
I think these scores have more to do with their WEIGHTAGE and not neccessarily their DIFFICULTY LEVEL. Candidates knew they have no chance of passing Level 2 if they don’t score high on Equity and FRA.
Anyways, good stuff.
 
For me it’s this
Ethics - 8
Quant - 9
Econ - 8.5
FRA - 90000
Corp. finance - 4
Equity - 5
AI - 6.5
FI - 7
Derivatives - 8
PF - 8.5
However, I think you should distribute your study based more on weight than difficulty.
 
If you get 100% in FRA you will pass.
If you ace all sections other than FRA you will fail.
The other stuff you most likely know already.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top