confused2010
New member
- Jun 18, 2026
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I passed Level II this year. My third attempt. I am 38.work full time. married. with a 3 year old daughter and another child due in March 2014.My 1st attempt was only about helping with the curve as I had not even finished reading the syllabus. Band 2. btw i passed Level I in my first attempt.
My 2nd attempt result was a band 8. tripped in derivatives and corp fin. Shattered.angry.frustrated!! All those hours of time away from family!! really sucked. decided to try one last time.
For June 2013 started early. I had to account for the inevitable breaks in study routine. focussed on weak areas initially. moved to the heavily weighted areas later. despite maintaining a fairly regular schedule, there were breaks,distractions, family committments and what not.!!
Finished by mid march. Had forgotten a lot by then.fnished review around mid may. Review took longer because
a) i had forgotten a lot
b) professional and personal work
c) reviewed everything thoroughly which included reading notes, solving all CFAI EOC and select BB examples.
Did the CFAI mock and a couple of other mocks. Read Ethics thoroughly during this period. Did the Elan Mocks in the last week.
On Exam day solved questions at a steady pace. marked stuff i thought was important in the question.If i couldnt solve a question, didn’t waste too much time on it. I came back later to those questions after i had picked the low hanging fruit in all sections.This helped me complete both sessions with a little time to spare and could make educated guesses on some questions.
I tripped on alternative inv because i figured it would have a low weightage on the exam and hence didnt review it as much as some other areas
i passed with alt, econ and quant below 50, Fixed and derivatives 50-70 and the rest above 70.
A few suggestions.
1. Start early and Study EVERYTHING.
2. Review every week.
3. Do CFAI EOC and select BB examples. the former twice atleast.
4. practice questions and mocks. every question and mock you can lay your hands on.CFAI mock a must.
5.Finally the choice of prep provider.. Elan. I used CFA texts only for chapter summary and EOC.
Their notes are lucid and well written.topics like pensions are very well explained. the CFAI BB for pensions made me nervous. I could solve CFAI EOC fairly well after i studied from their notes.the videos are long but very good. I used only few videos due to lack of time.The video for the first chapter in portfolio for example was very long but after watching it, i read the notes just once and i could solve practice questions. result >70 in portfolio. a topic i couldn’t grasp the last time.
Topics like Econ which i think is the most boring of all topics at level II are also well explained and for most subjects their solved examples in notes cover a large part of what the CFAI covers in their BB examples .
practice questions were good though i would have liked them in item set format. elan mocks were hard and helped me focus on those tiny parts i had ignored/forgotten.
so starting early, studying regularly with Elan notes, chapter summary and EOC from CFAI, Elan Practice question and CFAI and Elan mocks with a few elan videos got me over the line.
If i had the time i would have watched more elan videos Only grouse is they didnt release mocks till the week before the exam.
Good luck to all.
My 2nd attempt result was a band 8. tripped in derivatives and corp fin. Shattered.angry.frustrated!! All those hours of time away from family!! really sucked. decided to try one last time.
For June 2013 started early. I had to account for the inevitable breaks in study routine. focussed on weak areas initially. moved to the heavily weighted areas later. despite maintaining a fairly regular schedule, there were breaks,distractions, family committments and what not.!!
Finished by mid march. Had forgotten a lot by then.fnished review around mid may. Review took longer because
a) i had forgotten a lot
b) professional and personal work
c) reviewed everything thoroughly which included reading notes, solving all CFAI EOC and select BB examples.
Did the CFAI mock and a couple of other mocks. Read Ethics thoroughly during this period. Did the Elan Mocks in the last week.
On Exam day solved questions at a steady pace. marked stuff i thought was important in the question.If i couldnt solve a question, didn’t waste too much time on it. I came back later to those questions after i had picked the low hanging fruit in all sections.This helped me complete both sessions with a little time to spare and could make educated guesses on some questions.
I tripped on alternative inv because i figured it would have a low weightage on the exam and hence didnt review it as much as some other areas
i passed with alt, econ and quant below 50, Fixed and derivatives 50-70 and the rest above 70.
A few suggestions.
1. Start early and Study EVERYTHING.
2. Review every week.
3. Do CFAI EOC and select BB examples. the former twice atleast.
4. practice questions and mocks. every question and mock you can lay your hands on.CFAI mock a must.
5.Finally the choice of prep provider.. Elan. I used CFA texts only for chapter summary and EOC.
Their notes are lucid and well written.topics like pensions are very well explained. the CFAI BB for pensions made me nervous. I could solve CFAI EOC fairly well after i studied from their notes.the videos are long but very good. I used only few videos due to lack of time.The video for the first chapter in portfolio for example was very long but after watching it, i read the notes just once and i could solve practice questions. result >70 in portfolio. a topic i couldn’t grasp the last time.
Topics like Econ which i think is the most boring of all topics at level II are also well explained and for most subjects their solved examples in notes cover a large part of what the CFAI covers in their BB examples .
practice questions were good though i would have liked them in item set format. elan mocks were hard and helped me focus on those tiny parts i had ignored/forgotten.
so starting early, studying regularly with Elan notes, chapter summary and EOC from CFAI, Elan Practice question and CFAI and Elan mocks with a few elan videos got me over the line.
If i had the time i would have watched more elan videos Only grouse is they didnt release mocks till the week before the exam.
Good luck to all.
