First timer drama

A

adekunle

New member
Joined
Jun 18, 2026
Messages
0
Reaction score
0
Hi all,
First time level II-er here.
Just started preparing for 2015, and it seems a new level of difficult. Wasn’t like this when I started level I though(no finance background). Tips based on how you’re going about it(for fellow first timers) would be appreciated. No one seems to be posting problems as regards early(opening) topics. You guys haven’t started yet?
 
Congrats. you have discovered first hand why there’s a whole thread dedcated to the difference between L1 vs L2.
 
Doesn’t look difficult so far, just lots of text.
But who am I to judge, I’ve only done equity and part of FRA.
 
MrSmart wrote:
Doesn’t look difficult so far, just lots of text.
But who am I to judge, I’ve only done equity and part of FRA.
Click to expand...
You’re Mr. Smart. I’m not Mr. Smart. Lol. FRA & Equity? I’m going at everything at once. Not a good idea?
 
adekunle wrote:
MrSmart wrote:
Doesn’t look difficult so far, just lots of text.
But who am I to judge, I’ve only done equity and part of FRA.
Click to expand...
You’re Mr. Smart. I’m not Mr. Smart. Lol. FRA & Equity? I’m going at everything at once. Not a good idea?
Click to expand...
What do you mean everything at once.
I’d suggest you alternate between difficult and easy topics.
Start with FRA (if you find accounting difficult), then Corp finance (easiest), then FI/AI (should be the hardest book), then Equity, Derivatives/PM, Quant/Ethics/Econ.
Or if you’re patient, finish up the difficult books first. I’m going E>FRA>FI>CF>D>QEE
 
I had the same overwhelming feeling when I started last year and what worked best for me was I would watch the schweser videos on a topic, read everything on the topic, then do practice questions and review the material I had just learned every lunch hour at work, then move on to the next topic. Eventually it will all sink in and you’ll be fine. The key to success is planning out a strategy and leave even more time to practice than you think you’ll need (eg if you plan on doing practice exams/questions for one month budget two months of time instead of just one). If you can make a study plan that leaves all of April and May for practicing you will be in good shape.
 
BobbyBraveheart wrote:
I had the same overwhelming feeling when I started last year and what worked best for me was I would watch the schweser videos on a topic, read everything on the topic, then do practice questions and review the material I had just learned every lunch hour at work, then move on to the next topic. Eventually it will all sink in and you’ll be fine. The key to success is planning out a strategy and leave even more time to practice than you think you’ll need (eg if you plan on doing practice exams/questions for one month budget two months of time instead of just one). If you can make a study plan that leaves all of April and May for practicing you will be in good shape.
Click to expand...

Right. Thanks.
 
Forgot to mention that I would start on Equity, FRA and Fixed Income first. These are the biggest topics that will be 50% of the exam. I think if you learn those first, then go to the other material, and then go back to equity, FRA and fixed it’ll be like you’re learning it a second time over and it’ll seem easier. You can never spend too much time on FRA. I failed band 8 last year after passing level 1 in December I only started studying in February for L2 and that just isn’t enough time. When you factor in how many people are writing the exam on their second or third try, those people are way ahead of someone learning it for the first time that is only starting after Xmas. If you can learn everything this fall and be done the material by January you will be miles ahead of the game.
 
BobbyBraveheart wrote:
Forgot to mention that I would start on Equity, FRA and Fixed Income first. These are the biggest topics that will be 50% of the exam. I think if you learn those first, then go to the other material, and then go back to equity, FRA and fixed it’ll be like you’re learning it a second time over and it’ll seem easier. You can never spend too much time on FRA. I failed band 8 last year after passing level 1 in December I only started studying in February for L2 and that just isn’t enough time. When you factor in how many people are writing the exam on their second or third try, those people are way ahead of someone learning it for the first time that is only starting after Xmas. If you can learn everything this fall and be done the material by January you will be miles ahead of the game.
Click to expand...
Maybe your approach wasn’t right. Lot’s of people do it
 
I finished 2/3 Equity readings and their EOCs last night . So far everything has been very managable. Maybe the nightmare topics have not come yet…
 
Equity is arguably the easiest topic area of L2… the nightmare for most L2’ers are the big 3 FRA topics, and some, or all of the following: Derivatives, Port Mgmt, Fixed Inc., Quant (specifically time series).
 
Study one subject at a time. Concepts aren’t that complex but it’s just too many so you might want to go back to the previous topic after finishing the current one. If you can cover all the topics by March that would be nice. Cause April-May will be dedicated to going over EVERYTHING. Do mock exams and practice questions during the last 4 weeks. And I would say master FRA and Equity plus all the new topics added for the year. Master meaning know everything in and out.
 
Others are free to disagree with me, but you’ll know when you’ve hit the rough parts of Level II when you cover the following;
(a) Time Series Analysis
(b) Economics (Currencies and Triangular arbitrage)
(c) Mortgage Backed Securities (PAC Tranches)
(d) Derivatives (basically the entire section)
(e) Portfolio Management
(f) FRA (Pensions, Intercorporate Investments, Multinational Ops)
I didn’t think FRA was too difficult, but I have a background in it and I spent a lot of time studying the topic.
To me, equity was the most simple part of the Level II curriculum.
Fixed Income seemed simple at Level I, but became materially more complex at Level II.
 
Tommy83 wrote:
Others are free to disagree with me, but you’ll know when you’ve hit the rough parts of Level II when you cover the following;
(a) Time Series Analysis
(b) Economics (Currencies and Triangular arbitrage)
(c) Mortgage Backed Securities (PAC Tranches)
(d) Derivatives (basically the entire section)
(e) Portfolio Management
(f) FRA (Pensions, Intercorporate Investments, Multinational Ops)
I didn’t think FRA was too difficult, but I have a background in it and I spent a lot of time studying the topic.
To me, equity was the most simple part of the Level II curriculum.
Fixed Income seemed simple at Level I, but became materially more complex at Level II.
Click to expand...
I found time series and MBS to be easy.
Equity was a freebie.
Derivatives were difficult on the exam.
Triangular arbitrage I never understood until in the exam where I started to think hard about what was going on and am sure I got the right answer. (So agree it is a harder topic)
And pension stuff I still don’t understand but somehow scored over 70 in FRA.
 
Tommy83 wrote:
Others are free to disagree with me, but you’ll know when you’ve hit the rough parts of Level II when you cover the following;
(a) Time Series Analysis
(b) Economics (Currencies and Triangular arbitrage)
(c) Mortgage Backed Securities (PAC Tranches)
(d) Derivatives (basically the entire section)
(e) Portfolio Management
(f) FRA (Pensions, Intercorporate Investments, Multinational Ops)
I didn’t think FRA was too difficult, but I have a background in it and I spent a lot of time studying the topic.
To me, equity was the most simple part of the Level II curriculum.
Fixed Income seemed simple at Level I, but became materially more complex at Level II.
Click to expand...
Skipped quant last time, but I know it is hard.
Triangular arbitrage was actually made easier by watching the schweser video. I think it was the Indian dude who did that. He is a good teacher.
Same with MBS. Andrew Holmes, if I remember correctly, did that reading. He explains it well.
Derivatives - its a f*cking b*tch. Still, Jonathan Bone did explain very well. My problem was that I didn’t practice it at all. The only thing I did was watch the video and read the notes. I did read the problems in Kaplan notes. But as I found out, reading the explanation makes perfect sense. Trying to do it yourself is a whole another story. L2 requires practice, unlike I think L1 where you can get away with it a bit. That is true almost across the whole curriculum.
PM - Holmes explained well. I got >70 just watching the video and reading kaplan notes.
FRA - this one was a b*tch also. Out of all the major topics, I thought pension accounting took a lot of work to get on top of. Probably the only reading that I watched the video a couple of times. I think I did that for derivatives also actually. Don’t bother with kaplan notes on pension. Very, very poorly written. Honestly if you look up some threads on the forum, you might have a better chance of learning it.
Equity - easiest section by far. One stage, two stage, etc. - it is all the same. Just more steps. Plus it makes very good sense intuitively.
FI - Easy to read, but I thought the item sets on the test were hard. But it could be because I didn’t prepare it well. As always, if there is anything you don’t understand, this forum is awesome. Especially look for s2000 magician. Dude’s a f*cking genius.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top