How ready do you feel? 3 weeks to go

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Batman1

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Hello all,
Hope the prep is going well. How do you feel with 3 weeks to go?
For me, it’s completely different to Level 1, where I felt confident even at this stage.
Am scraping/just short of 70 on the mocks but that doesn’t fill me with confidence.
What is everyone elses sentiment?
 
It feels exactly like 3 weeks before L1, except all of my memories from studying are stored in a part of my brain that contains molasses.
 
I have a feeling that at the end of this 3 weeks I will have groin pain……
 
I feel the same as you. Unlike L1, all this for me about L2 looks very shaky.
According to other posts, I’d say that also ‘feel for about 80% of the candidates. With exception of those who had started studying in 2007.
 
Tired. I’m not retaining as much as I’d prefer at the moment, but that’s normal for this beast of an exam. I’ll be diving into mocks tomorrow and doing nothing but taking and reviewing mocks until the final week. Looking forward to 5pm on June 4th. I’ll be grabbing a big fat carne asada burritto on my way home and pass out on the couch while watching Game of Thrones.
 
horrbile . 18 more readings to go . havent worked out EOCs for even a single chapter yet , just started doing it today plus i need to also do mock exams !!!
 
JayWill wrote:
Tired. I’m not retaining as much as I’d prefer at the moment, but that’s normal for this beast of an exam. I’ll be diving into mocks tomorrow and doing nothing but taking and reviewing mocks until the final week. Looking forward to 5pm on June 4th. I’ll be grabbing a big fat carne asada burritto on my way home and pass out on the couch while watching Game of Thrones.
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I feel you as today I felt like my productivity level was down the drain and I know why… Lack of sleep. Maybe today will be the night I will get full sleep and tommorow I will be fresh and back to my normal retention rate
 
Flashback wrote:
I feel the same as you. Unlike L1, all this for me about L2 looks very shaky.
According to other posts, I’d say that also ‘feel for about 80% of the candidates. With exception of those who had started studying in 2007.
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same,
HOW.ON.EARTH.CAN.YOU.RETAIN.ALL.THE.CRAP.
I am at the point for FRA and Equity where I spent a lot of time on, I cant remember everything but at least when I am doing topical test I know what it is testing
For other stuff is tougher, I did second round for most other topics besides derivvatives, portfolio economics, when I am doing the second round I can recollect learnned those and can pick up calculation quickly but at same time, I am scared I forget the calculation in a week too.
 
I was way more rushed in L1 than now. I only spent 3 months studying for L1 and wasn’t at full speed until the last month. So the last month last year I was grumpy.
However, looking at L2, it seems like there are so many intricacies you need to execute and dodge swiftly in the exam. I feel like it’s a juggling act with 10 glass cannon balls where if you push me a little all will shatter. I spent 6 months studying for this I’m still not confident.
 
Definitely not feeling as confident as I did while taking level 1. I just finished all the readings a few days ago and have been working through FRA EOCs for a couple of days. I’ll be taking my first Mock exam on saturday to see how well ive retained everything. I studied for level 1 for about 4 months and this time around I swear I would start earlier. I started 7 months before exam day. Studied hard the first 2 months then COMPLETELY slacked for 2 months after. Now ive been busting out 25-30 hour study weeks for the past 2 months and im just trying to give myself a fair shot at passing this exam. Im anxious, miserable and also cannot wait until 5PM, June 4th when the pressure of this exam is finally lifted.
 
DPBass88 wrote:
Definitely not feeling as confident as I did while taking level 1. I just finished all the readings a few days ago and have been working through FRA EOCs for a couple of days. I’ll be taking my first Mock exam on saturday to see how well ive retained everything. I studied for level 1 for about 4 months and this time around I swear I would start earlier. I started 7 months before exam day. Studied hard the first 2 months then COMPLETELY slacked for 2 months after. Now ive been busting out 25-30 hour study weeks for the past 2 months and im just trying to give myself a fair shot at passing this exam. Im anxious, miserable and also cannot wait until 5PM, June 4th when the pressure of this exam is finally lifted.
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same, i recorded my time by now I have spent 520 hours, and i just cant retain stuff, i will try first mock on sunday, and aim at doing 7 of them before the exam day
 
To be honest, at this point I can say that I have understood everything in the curriculum amd am scoring 70+ on average on mocks. Ironically I am less stressed and anxious than I was at this point in level 1. The only and biggest issue for me (and it seems for many others) is retention. The reason I am losing points is because I am forgetting a lot of stuff and silly mistakes (least likely, most likely). The rest of the days for me are aimed just to maintain the current level of performance and improve retention. I have never worked as hard in my life as I have for level 1 and now level 2. I truly hope all this pays out and not just for me, but for all of us. Best of luck guys.
 
For me, I have only FRA to review, my performance on practice test are withing 66%-88%, which later improved to 88%-100%. I am yet to attempt the Mock, but planned on doing that next week when I am done with FRA.
Confidence level is high, and I hope it remain the same by the time I start doing mock.
It will be good, and I trust we will have cause to smile come July 26.
 
I’m getting absolutely destroyed on the schweser mocks..I don’t get how you guys do it, getting over 70+… I have already sunk in over 450+ hours at this point and it still feels like at times I know absolutely nothing… My avg mocks have been floating around 61-65%, and with only 3 weeks left to go, I’m starting to panic.
Just like many of you guys, I’m also just struggling to retain the formulas and names of all these theories. My goal is to finish up another 4 more mocks (finished 3 already) and quickly review 2 finished mocks early in the morning, finish all topic tests, hash out another 1k qbank questions or so and pray that I’ll be ready.
Anyone got tips on how to retain all this info and finish each half-mock under 3 hours? I’m still struggling to meet the time limit and often have 1 vignette leftover, which I just solve for the sake of getting a complete score.
 
My biggest hurdle with finishing in under 3 hours is I get bogged down on a single calculation question like marking to market a currency forward and spend 20 min on that single question and by the time I get to the last 2 vignettes I only have 20 min left and have to rush through them. I was one told the quote - “mark and move” when taking exams like this. You have to weigh the cost/benefits on valuing a fixed for floating currency swap for the time it takes you to actually do that question - could I get this question right. Absolutely. But is it worth the 12 min. it would take me. No. Not for 1 question. Just mark and move on. Come back to it if you have time.
 
I am thinking of purposefully leaving behind 2 questions from each item set (even if all questions in an item set look trivial) finish 67% of the exam in 50% time and come back to the remaining 20 question to nail them.
I did it in L1 (left 40/120 for second wave) and I remember the boost in moral when I did the last question in the first wave and realized there is still 1.5 hours left for 1/3 of the exam. Went up to the water cooler, had a drink, stretched a bit, had a chewing gum, cracked my neck muscles and went back to business.
L2 will be more challenging because this may imply re-reading the item set to refresh memory but like you said, if a question can be answered in 20 sec and another one in 5 minutes then there is definitely a priority here.
I guy in L3 forum suggested marking unanswered questions with a large square so as to come back and tick them later. He even marked dubious (but answered) questionswith a small circle so as to review them carefully as well in case there is spare time left after 2nd wave.
 
I feel more confident than where I was at this point for Level 1, but because I started so early I have to keep cycling through the curriculum to refresh myself on random facts/formulas that I likely won’t see on the exam. I am still a bit nervous on some of the obscure topic readings (Credit Analysis, Portfolio Management, Derivatives) particularuly the qualitative trivial persuit questions where either you know it or you don’t. Those I will need to revisit the week right before the test so it is fresh in my mind.
On test day, I think what I will do is for some questions if I am not super confident in the formula or something I will circle it and come back to it at the end. I would rather plow through the answers I am confident in and hope to speed through the exam quickly and then be able to use trial and error at the end. I finished Level 1 super early and did well on it, so hoping I finish early again for L2.
 
Low 60s through two Schweser practice tests and I haven’t studied derivatives or ethics yet.
I will take another practice test this weekend and review it. I’ve been finishing the mocks with 30mins-1hr to spare and guessing on derivatives. Is there any low-hanging fruit in derivs I could go for? Probably won’t read the swaptions section.
I don’t feel confident but I’m also not panicking. That could change if I score poorly on this weekend’s mock, though.
 
My feeling can be summed up in one sentence: Fuc&ed, with a glimmer of optimism.
Good luck to you all!
 
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