IN SHOCK - FAILED 2 TIMES BAND 7 - NEED ADVICE

itera wrote:
I think it’s time to move on. If you actually did all that work you say.. it’s not for you
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I Disagree with this. If you are determined keep going.
I will pipe in with one comment based on what I read from you. If on exam day or when you are doing mocks you get fatigued or lose concentration you haven’t built up enough physical and mental endurance. I did a ton of mocks so when I wrote the exam its no big deal. I went out after and my brain wasn’t even mentally tired. I could write a third and fourth session if need be. The point that I am trying to make is two three hour tests should be no big deal.
The other posters made some good points about studying, which I would follow if it was me.
 
OP you can do it again, just keep yourself motivated and dedicated. Here’s what I did (passed level 2 first attempt, only ethics <70%).
-Read CFAI Curriculum twice. You need to make sure you understand every concept, so that you can make inference in addition to memorizing which makes you more flexible in dealing with concept variations.
-Crashed question bank like crazy: save mock and practice exams for last 2 weeks before the exam. I did 100% of question bank in level 1 and 70% of question bank in level 2. IMPORTANT: pay strict attention to the question you did wrong. I always skip the question that I answer correctly as long as I did it instead of guessing. But I pay detailed attention to ones that I did wrong to understand why I did wrong, and then review the related concept in the curriculum if necessary.
-Took last week off from work to do mock & practice exams. Dig into the questions I did wrong.
Good luck mate.
 
aymane07 wrote:
dude seriously if you want to nail this exam, just mecanically doing the things you are supposed to do won’t get you anywhere!
you have to understand the shit, and for that you have to like it first and be passionate about it (it’s OK to hate one or 2 topics (econ or something) but you gotta be passionate about something else (equity, derivatives, FRA, CF, ….)
after that, and what i think most people who fail don’t do is that you have to try to ask yourself WHY to every single thing you come across in the curriculum (why this way, where does it come from, can I explain it to a collegue without looking at the book ?, you will be surprised how many things you think you master but if asked to explain them to a friend you’ll just stand there)
I took the level 2 this year for the first time, i found the exam extremely easy and scored every section above 70, and if you ask me how i did it it’s the following:
0) forget schweser unless you absofuckinglutely have to (for lack of time) / forget Qbank no matter what
1) never skip anything you come across in the CFAI books before you ask yourself WHY is it this way and not some other way, where does it come from, how does it relate to the topic, and most importantly be able to explain it to a 5 year old (most things you think you understand but you don’t)
2) do as many CFAI mocks as you possibly can (I think i did almost 5 years back worth of mocks + schweser mocks for 2013/2012/2011)
3)Do ALL the CFAI EOCs
PS: ALWAYS: while doing mocks and eocs have a sheet of paper where you write down the hard one, and redo them in the last weeks
4)keep calm and smiling during exam day, that is key!
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I agree with aymane07. i failed last year at band 4 because I didn’t understand the material, I just focused on the test taking part. I passed this year and made sure I understand every little part, and it the reason why I used CFAI notes.
 
Given the effort you have put in, I don’t think there is an obvious thing you are lacking. T. I feel if you replicate your effort and do the blue boxes + EOC+ problem sets from finquiz or another provider, you will pass. I mean you have done a ridiculous amount of mocks, eocs etc. It’s obvious that you understand the material and the concepts. Try to figure out whether the tension from the exam makes you miss traps etc.
I failed level 2 this and last year with band 7s as well and I did really confident after the exam. I also freaking failed derivatives, and no idea how !? I know people who got below 50% in mocks and studied only shweser and still passed ( annoyingly ) . End story is, we are in this for the long run. Sometimes, the subjects we felt strong about aren’t tested, and sometimes people who make less silly mistakes on a certain day for an easy test win. We gotta go with the flow and keep fighting :)
 
goalrush wrote: I know people who got below 50% in mocks and studied only shweser and still passed ( annoyingly ) .
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Seems this year, many Shweser-only takers passed, I know one who only did one mock and passed. I failed Band 5 twice using CFAI only and doing all EOC and 3 mocks. I think it varies year to year, based on the question sample.
 
mission2014 wrote:
@brightstar
I might give it a try, but honestly, I don’t think more material is the answer I need. Got here so many Stalla books, I hadnt even the time to unpack them.
@stunnerrunner
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not rushing through the material. When I do not understand something, I surely look it up in the material. I’m not ignoring CFAI books, quite the contrary. I’m using them as primary resource. However, I doubt that reading the whole material in a row AGAIN would have made a big impact on the outcome. Partly looking up issues I haven’t covered thoroughly feels way more effective to me.
@NANA Hachiko
I was writing them for myself and graded them afterwards. Since I have taken the CFAI mocks on both preparations, the scores of them might be a bit inflated. I wrote the exam without notes, paying attention that I’m staying within time limits. When I’m finished, I’m reviewing both correct and incorrect answers. The review process can take 1-2.5h per session.
Concerning the actual exam: It feels like I’m falling short in all topics. I have never scored >70% in each sections in mocks, however, normally 3-5 sections are above 70 (they alternate, no clear pattern), rarely fail a section. At both real exams I took, almost everything is in the 50-70 area with 2-3 fail sections. This is something I don’t understand. Are the traps in the real exam different? Am I too nervous? Am I missing important facts? Since I’m not a native speaker, does stress detain my understanding? I really don’t know.
During the exam I had some concentration problems in the end, however, my result suggest that my entire performance was insufficient, so I don’t think this was the one and only reason. I was walking out of the exam with a mixed feeling, Had 2 questions from morning session I could not find any answer, and 4 out of the afternoon session (including that one derivative question NOT covered in the curriculum; had checked each of them at home, got 0/4 out of my guesses >_<). Yesterdays results killed me.
@Giovanni
I’ve observed the same. Some “unsuspicious” sections like QM, PM seem to have some very mean traps this year. Little bit sad, since I’m normaly doing quite well on those - failing both this time :(. Concerning bed time: did completely the opposite: get up early on thursday to be able to sleep at friday. Was okay…
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THere are definitely traps on the exam but there are also sufficient “doable” questions for you to pass.
After reading everything you wrote, i think the problem is you are not understanding the concepts behind the questions. Meaning, you did the mock and hope that hte same patterns appear on the exam.
While it is true that sometimes the mocks can be similar to the actual exam questions, you still need to be able to intuitively understand the concepts behind them. The CFAI mocks are only a starting point - but Schweser has pretty good practice exams.
I also encourage you, if you do re-take it, spend more time re-doing the questions. It’s very possible that you have forgotten the mock questions you did by the time you write the actual exam. Try to purchase as many q-bank questions as possible, make sure you practice HOW the questions are asked.
If everything failed, you may want to focus on larger sections and at least nail those sections - perhaps you can get through?
 
You are probably right. There might me no easy solution. Especially, when you read this thread and see how different people nailed this exam in so many different ways, we gotta find our own. EOCs+mocks works for most people. However, there might be no easy recipe for everyone.
Personally, I seriously have to think about my mental endurance and abilities. Put so much work in this exam, still can’t believe the outcome.
 
try once more and do much less reading and just do questions, not so much Q bank, but actual questions in the exam format which is EOC questions from both CFAI and Schweser and practice exams. Also try to take a review course I found those can be helpful to drill the concepts into your brain and for practice.
You need to nail the big sections like Accounting/Equity and definitely Ethics - read CFAI material for Ethics and the do the EOC problems.
Also don’t assume that the actual exam will mirror the practice exam questions. You may master an item set on say Alternatives in a practice exam and then they test on the same exact thing in a totally different way on the actual exam so you really need to know the concepts and not just assume they will test you on the information in the same exact way. L2 is a bitch I know, but you can do it and band 7 is not bad - keep at it.
 
Btw. do you know whats Band7 roghly expressed in percentage? 55%? 58%? 60%?
This could be helpful to compare it to the mock results.
 
May I suggest something maybe will get me in trouble on this forum, but here goes:
Forget about the CFAI books and EOC questions, just focus on something like a Schweser. the CFA books are just too much information, what good is it to read it and not fully understand it. Something like a Schweser condenses things (although still an overwhelming amount) and makes it more palatable. Then take really good notes along the way, and go back and read your notes over and over again as you do practice questions. Everytime you get a question wrong, go back to your notes and find where you had it and try to understand why you got it wrong. A lot of times your notes might miss the particular point but then you can add things in to make it more complete. The most important part is to understand things, so whenever there’s a debate over a point on this forum that ppl are perplexed over, try to solve it for yourself, like being a detective or something. Try to explain to yourself in plain English why equations are a certain way, like why FCFE is this equation but FCFF is different. Even derivatives can be understood in plain english. Then in the last week really memorize all the equations, but that should be easy at this point because you understand why equations are the way they are.
Saying don’t bother with CFA books might be heresy here, but I never even bothered to download the books. Just looked at Schweser. I followed the method I listed above, passed L2 on my first try, everything over 70% except for ethics.
 
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