Passed L1 - Prep Course Question for L2

H

Hydra

New member
Joined
Jun 18, 2026
Messages
0
Reaction score
0
Hello!
I took the L1 exam this June and passed. I prepared using Kaplan, mostly, and did the EOC questions from the CFA books. I’ve heard mixed reviews about using Kaplan for L2. So I was wondering, what materials you used to prepare for L2 and if you would recommend them. Thanks.
 
Hey Bro,
Congrats on your accomplishment. But IMHO, L2 is totally different than L1 and ten times harder. I can only speak for myself, but I did fail last year and passed this year. I found Kaplan’s Schweser notes to be lacking when it came to L2 prep, and I failed using Kaplan *only*.
This year, I used CFAI materials for study, Kaplan’s Qbank for “soft study” and repitition, and CFAI tests (EOCs) for final testing. Yep, I did no “mocks,” only CFAI EOC stuff. I did hear good things about Kaplan’s mocks though.
Long story short, I wouldn’t use Kaplan as reference material for L2 (other stuff would be ok though, as I outline above) but I’m sure others would differ. However, don’t expect a lot of others to chime in here as many are moving to L3 soon and most people will probably take a month or two away. Posting this today during exam results day is probably the worst move you can make. If nobody else responds, you may want to repost/bump this in a week.
Oh, and another thing, read and understand what the LOCs are asking you to learn!
Good luck bro!
 
Kaplan is clearly not sufficient for L2. It’s great at introducing you to the material though.
I summarized the Kaplan books, and complemented my summaries by going through the CFAI. How did I know what was important from the CFAI? Well, i did all the EOCs and BBs in there, and those were GREAT at showing me where the Kaplan was weak at and I re-read in details those parts from the CFAI books.
 
CFAbeatmeup wrote:
Hey Bro,
Congrats on your accomplishment. But IMHO, L2 is totally different than L1 and ten times harder. I can only speak for myself, but I did fail last year and passed this year. I found Kaplan’s Schweser notes to be lacking when it came to L2 prep, and I failed using Kaplan *only*.
This year, I used CFAI materials for study, Kaplan’s Qbank for “soft study” and repitition, and CFAI tests (EOCs) for final testing. Yep, I did no “mocks,” only CFAI EOC stuff. I did hear good things about Kaplan’s mocks though.
Long story short, I wouldn’t use Kaplan as reference material for L2 (other stuff would be ok though, as I outline above) but I’m sure others would differ. However, don’t expect a lot of others to chime in here as many are moving to L3 soon and most people will probably take a month or two away. Posting this today during exam results day is probably the worst move you can make. If nobody else responds, you may want to repost/bump this in a week.
Oh, and another thing, read and understand what the LOCs are asking you to learn!
Good luck bro!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. I didn’t want to post here before I passed L1 and jinx it :) I will definitely bump it up in a week or so as you suggested.
I’ve noticed during my L1 study that for certain topics, CFAI material was much more easy to understand, compared to Kaplan. Sounds like that’s the case for L2 topics. I will make sure that no matter what prep material I get, I focus more on the actual CFAI material this time. Thanks again!
 
Gurifissu wrote:
Kaplan is clearly not sufficient for L2. It’s great at introducing you to the material though.
I summarized the Kaplan books, and complemented my summaries by going through the CFAI. How did I know what was important from the CFAI? Well, i did all the EOCs and BBs in there, and those were GREAT at showing me where the Kaplan was weak at and I re-read in details those parts from the CFAI books.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. That sounds similar to what I did for L1. I read the Kaplan material, did the Kaplan concept checkers, CFAI blue box and EOC questions and reviewed any parts I didn’t understand from the CFAI material.
 
Reading curriculum is a waste of time for level 2 as it is mostly about memorizing key formulas and concepts which Schweser does an excellent job at.
 
I’m going to go against the grain and say that Kaplan was largely sufficient.
The only time I cracked open the CFAI books was to do the EOC and blue box questions. On the rare occasion that the information the question covered was not in Schweser, I reviewed using CFAI.
Never used the Q-Bank for L2, mostly because I’m cheap.
 
Oh yeah, get Wiley’s 11th hour guide. Trust me on this one! Good heads up Lammy
 
Used Wiley first go around with 4 months or less to study, books were good but didn’t like the practice problems and online format. Adding Schweser to the mix for next year along with more CFAI EOCs and reading for tougher sections… I have to do tons and tons of problems to understand some stuff. Hoping adding Qbank and 6 full mock exams will help!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top