How I passed in 1 attempt

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If you’re reading this then congrats. It’s not a matter of if anymore it’s when. When I got through level 2 (band 10 retaker) I finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Few experiences I had with the material and my study strategy I thought I would share because I got help from a lot of people for all levels of the exam.
1) start early: I can’t stress this enough. Use the mindset that this is the last exam you will ever take. I started in late October when the schweser videos came out.
2) do not be afraid of the morning section just prepare properly. I want to clarify comments you will here that you will bomb the morning and ace the afternoon and that is the only way to pass. The morning section tests the easier material that is covered by far. The only difference is there are no excuses if you don’t know the answer. So you need to know your stuff but none of it is very difficult compared to the subjects tested in the afternoon.
prepare properly? To prepare for the morning start on day 1 by writing out the answer to the questions in the schweser and cfai books and compare them to the actual answers. You’ll find it will take a solid 2 months to figure out how to answer the way they want you to answer and until then you’ll be way off base.
3) practice tests practice tests practice tests. Especially the morning sections. I used 2013-2015 morning tests, schweser mocks, bsas mock, and cfai mock. I also did them over again after going through them once. Don’t waste your time with mocks prior to 3-4 years ago because they become less relevant. Use these to practice how to answer the questions, the types of questions asked, and good tests taking strategy (this is key)
4) good test taking strategy. All of the preparation in the world mean nothing if you don’t manage your time well. The amount of points per question in the am is the amount of time you have per question……period. If you don’t believe you can answer the question in the time allotted realistically. Skip it. Seriously ask the people this year who failed. They will tell you they got caught up on 1 or 2 questions and had to rush the rest of the way. Treat the entire am section as a level 2 item set. There will be some easy medium and hard questions. Make sure to nail all the easy ones first. You’ll gain extra time for the easy ones. Because I practiced this strategy on mock exams I was able to crush the morning section and not get bogged down on harder questions.
good luck to everyone. Life on the other side is really worth the struggle.
 
I would like to add my experiences 2.
1) I started late December, read the Schweser books and did the EOCs, both once during the year. Took 2 weeks off prior to the exam to study. I did not use any complementary material to prepare.
2) Did 3 practice AM exams and also the blue boxes 2 times (this was also a good preparation). My time management was well rehearsed so no problems on exam day.
3) Receiving the results, I found that I did not nail the AM, even though I understood every question and thought my calculations were mostly correct. I think I lost points on not fulfilling the expectations of the graders wrt what should be included in the answer.
I’m very happy that I received a pass and do not have to spend another year studying. If I had to do so, I probably would have used the same preparation. I used it also in level I and II and succeeded on first attempt. Further, I also knew after the exam that I had a good chance at passing (I only feared a band 9 or 10, because you never know, especially in level III..)
Where can I get my coockies? :-) lol
 
CFA_is_a_beast wrote:
I would like to add my experiences 2.
1) I started late December, read the Schweser books and did the EOCs, both once during the year. Took 2 weeks off prior to the exam to study. I did not use any complementary material to prepare.
2) Did 3 practice AM exams and also the blue boxes 2 times (this was also a good preparation). My time management was well rehearsed so no problems on exam day.
3) Receiving the results, I found that I did not nail the AM, even though I understood every question and thought my calculations were mostly correct. I think I lost points on not fulfilling the expectations of the graders wrt what should be included in the answer.
I’m very happy that I received a pass and do not have to spend another year studying. If I had to do so, I probably would have used the same preparation. I used it also in level I and II and succeeded on first attempt. Further, I also knew after the exam that I had a good chance at passing (I only feared a band 9 or 10, because you never know, especially in level III..)
Where can I get my coockies? :-) lol
Click to expand...
you want some “coockies”….(facepalm)
 
Yeah I knew it when I wrote it. Luckily being a non-native English speaker did not prevent me from passing ;-)
 
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