Thinking about packing it in...

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Mister2

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Well, after studying pretty diligently since mid October, and after learning quite a bit from the Level 2 material, but getting dismal scores on the two mock exams I’ve done so far, I am strongly considering packing it in and just not even bothering. I was fortunately able to get the week off before the exam to study. But am now wondering if it will really serve me any benefit at this point. When doing thr EOC questions, I did pretty well on them but the mocks are a totally different animal and found them to be way harder. Studying for level 2 has made me very reclusive and has forced me to abandon all my hobbies and interests (except for working out which I will never give up) and passion for a lot of things. As a result, it has put me into a state of depression. After studying hard for Level 1 and clearing it with ease, I figured I would need to do the same but start earlier and study harder which I did and have been. I’m not sure what to do anymore. I’ve taken my share of difficult exams and have passed them with hard work. But maybe I’m just not getting this at all. I don’t know what to do.
 
Hey Mister, no reason to give in. You’ve nothing to lose and everything to gain.
just take the test and see how it goes.
 
Mister2 wrote:
Studying for level 2 has made me very reclusive and has forced me to abandon all my hobbies and interests (except for working out which I will never give up) and passion for a lot of things. As a result, it has put me into a state of depression. After studying hard for Level 1 and clearing it with ease, I figured I would need to do the same but start earlier and study harder which I did and have been. I’m not sure what to do anymore. I’ve taken my share of difficult exams and have passed them with hard work. But maybe I’m just not getting this at all. I don’t know what to do.
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Abandoning almost everything to study is the normal for L2 and L3. State of depression isn’t, so I’m guessing you’re not too into the material then? or you just dislike studying. L2 and L3 are both significantly harder than L1
If this process was easy, then everyone would be passing, and the CFA charter would be worthless.
There are currently 100,000 CFA charterholders from 50 years of the program being around.
There are more than 120,000 MBA’s awarded every year.
 
No. Stick it out. It’s like a marathon runner seeing the finish line and going “Screw this, this is as far as I can go”. The reason you started is so you could finish. Finish it.

You have about 300 hours. Sure you need to sleep and work and eat. So what. Sleep less, work more effectively or try get time off and eat while studying. You can squeeze another 120 - 150 hours.

Get the hell off AF and into the books. Look at where you were 100 hours ago, do you remember? I knew a fraction of what I know now, and was nowhere near as confident. You have another 100 hours+ to go. Apply yourself and plough through.

As I said in another post, walk out of the exam on the 2nd saying to yourself, “there is nothing, nothing, that I could have done better in the last 2 weeks than what I did.”


Once exam is over you can get back to your interests and normal routine - for ever if you like - but this is exam season bro, dig in.
 
Do not feel down in the dumps, this is a perfectly normal happening. You have simply reached a plateau in your learning curve. Now you have to focus on consolidating what you have learnt – for which the best combination is a mix of tests (sample / practice and finally mocks) and ‘reinforcing’ the weaker areas as reflected by your performance in these tests. Now when you are about to sprint the last 100 mtrs to successfully complete the 800 mtrs race it will be really sad to get discouraged and give in just because you are feeling ‘overwhelmed’. Look at your strengths (as said by you):
* When doing the EOC questions, you did pretty well (is not a common occurrence for all!)
* You have been able to abandon all your hobbies and interests to achieve your goal (shows your deep commitment and focus)
* You studied hard for Level 1 and cleared it with ease (so why not Level 2 – it may be tougher but not certainly undoable for you!)
* You have been motivated and gauged the toughness of Level 2 in advance (that is why you figured you would need to do the same hard work as Level 1 but start earlier and study harder - which you have been doing already) so mentally you are prepared to face the tougher consequences
* You have taken more difficult exams and have passed them with hard work (so what is so new or more depressing in Level 2 ?)
*You have got the week off before the exam to study
Your only problem seems to be not scoring upto expected level in the Mocks and sudden desire to “packing it in” without any strongly justifiable reason. Stop negative thoughts and be positive – you are almost there . You need to analyse the reason which may be either your concepts are not well-ingrained in your mind yet or your approach to answering the questions does not tally with the expected approach (for example you are missing crucial / critical words in the vignettes which make your answers wrong!) or simply you are not able to recall the desired points while answering which makes you unsure of your answer or you are not able to match the require speed. None of these problems is unsolvable at this stage with the type of focused preparation you did for this exam. Just attack the shortcoming with appropriate measure like refining your approach by deeply reading the sample answers to previous mocks/ tests, or making habit of analyzing the question by underlining the crucial words and info and reading it again if the need be, or revising the topics notes /flashcards that you may have prepared / access to in which you feel you need reinforcement of knowledge or simply improving your speed by organizing your thought process , reducing stress (as it slows down reproduction of content and thinking fluently) and trying to be to the point and brief etc. Stop being overwhelmed by the thoughts of failing – if till now you have done all you can do by being focused and preparing as well as you could perhaps do –was it for passing or failing. You are certainly going to get this too. Have faith in yourself and your capability – do your best and leave the rest to God.
You still have 13 days in which you have a week off which means at least 3x6 + 12x7 = 102 hours at your disposal. That also means out of 300 suggested hours by CFAI more that one-third hour are still remaining for you – so where does the question of ‘packing in’ come from? Come on you can do better than that.
Just forget how did in your mocks last week, just address your weakness and deficiencies and see you score in Mocks too cross 70 or even 80 (which by the way is a sure sign of your strong preparedness!) Hope you will think it over and come out of your depression. Only you can help yourself – no one else. If you do not know what to do – who else will. Think, analyse and address the problem – you will know what to do. Just a word of advice – take lot of rest in between (for most people music too help) and eat healthy food (exercising you are already doing) – and beat the ‘burn out’ feeling. You are almost there.
Best of luck.
 
Keep going - We are almost there. Another 2 weeks of intense study and it is over. Leave everything on the court/field/pitch (so to speak.
 
62 on the 1st Schweser AM Mock and 50 on the CFAI AM Mock. I took the CFAI mock a week after reviewing the fixed income, quant, derivatives and PM material again.
Thank you for the encouragement. It just seems to me at this stage in the game that I have a better chance of winning the lottery than passing with scores like these. While taking the CFAI mock, there were quite a number of questions that I either had no idea how to solve or questions that I was pretty confident in the answer but got it wrong. Inprobably would have gotten the same score had I not picked up a book at all. Lol!! Many people are scoring in the 70s and I’m nowhere near there.
 
Mister, I’m with you. My mocks have been horrible as well. I honestly don’t think I’ll pass. I’m giving my chances at around 30% to pass. I’ll still take the exam though. I know I’m no where near as ready as I should be. My FRA is horrible and someone should shoot me. But I encourage you to just study a little bit, or take a day off from stressing about it, take the exam and see how you’ll do. Even if you fail miserably, like I probably will, you’ll know where you stand instead of always wondering. This might create a turning point.
 
mygos wrote:
Do not feel down in the dumps, this is a perfectly normal happening. You have simply reached a plateau in your learning curve. Now you have to focus on consolidating what you have learnt – for which the best combination is a mix of tests (sample / practice and finally mocks) and ‘reinforcing’ the weaker areas as reflected by your performance in these tests. Now when you are about to sprint the last 100 mtrs to successfully complete the 800 mtrs race it will be really sad to get discouraged and give in just because you are feeling ‘overwhelmed’. Look at your strengths (as said by you):
* When doing the EOC questions, you did pretty well (is not a common occurrence for all!)
* You have been able to abandon all your hobbies and interests to achieve your goal (shows your deep commitment and focus)
* You studied hard for Level 1 and cleared it with ease (so why not Level 2 – it may be tougher but not certainly undoable for you!)
* You have been motivated and gauged the toughness of Level 2 in advance (that is why you figured you would need to do the same hard work as Level 1 but start earlier and study harder - which you have been doing already) so mentally you are prepared to face the tougher consequences
* You have taken more difficult exams and have passed them with hard work (so what is so new or more depressing in Level 2 ?)
*You have got the week off before the exam to study
Your only problem seems to be not scoring upto expected level in the Mocks and sudden desire to “packing it in” without any strongly justifiable reason. Stop negative thoughts and be positive – you are almost there . You need to analyse the reason which may be either your concepts are not well-ingrained in your mind yet or your approach to answering the questions does not tally with the expected approach (for example you are missing crucial / critical words in the vignettes which make your answers wrong!) or simply you are not able to recall the desired points while answering which makes you unsure of your answer or you are not able to match the require speed. None of these problems is unsolvable at this stage with the type of focused preparation you did for this exam. Just attack the shortcoming with appropriate measure like refining your approach by deeply reading the sample answers to previous mocks/ tests, or making habit of analyzing the question by underlining the crucial words and info and reading it again if the need be, or revising the topics notes /flashcards that you may have prepared / access to in which you feel you need reinforcement of knowledge or simply improving your speed by organizing your thought process , reducing stress (as it slows down reproduction of content and thinking fluently) and trying to be to the point and brief etc. Stop being overwhelmed by the thoughts of failing – if till now you have done all you can do by being focused and preparing as well as you could perhaps do –was it for passing or failing. You are certainly going to get this too. Have faith in yourself and your capability – do your best and leave the rest to God.
You still have 13 days in which you have a week off which means at least 3x6 + 12x7 = 102 hours at your disposal. That also means out of 300 suggested hours by CFAI more that one-third hour are still remaining for you – so where does the question of ‘packing in’ come from? Come on you can do better than that.
Just forget how did in your mocks last week, just address your weakness and deficiencies and see you score in Mocks too cross 70 or even 80 (which by the way is a sure sign of your strong preparedness!) Hope you will think it over and come out of your depression. Only you can help yourself – no one else. If you do not know what to do – who else will. Think, analyse and address the problem – you will know what to do. Just a word of advice – take lot of rest in between (for most people music too help) and eat healthy food (exercising you are already doing) – and beat the ‘burn out’ feeling. You are almost there.
Best of luck.
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Thanks for taking time and writing this post. It is motivating. Good luck
 
Keep going man, you’ve put in 7+ months of study and you’ve got 2 weeks! At times I get down about studying and personal relationships and missing going out on weekends, I think we all do at some point or another. Just keep pushing along. 2 weeks is alot of time, and you’ve got a week off work. Your base knowledge sounds like its there, just gotta keep honing the skills for a little bit more time then apply what you know on exam day. From where you’ve said you’re at I bet you have a much much better chance of passing then you’re giving yourself credit for.
Give 100% for 2 weeks then treat yourself to a good night out!
 
You are not alone.. I have been studying since October too.. A lot of personal issues happening in my life for last one year.. SO it was hard to focus on studies.. but I have been pushing hard to work towards it.. did all EOCs twice and was quite comfortable doing them..After putting so much of time and effort into it.. even im scoring like 55 - 65% range.. Really don’t understand where do I lack.. But one thing is for sure, I can’t quit now.. I have given so much into it, I would atleast give it a shot (that too with full commitment)..
I have been depressed for quite some time, not because of CFA but other personal issues, so from my experience I can tell you.. meditation really helps.. You can search Youtube for good meditation music and techniques. It worked for me..
Good Luck :)
 
I’m a late starter….started off in the first week of May…..read around 60% of the syllabus…and not going at a very good pace…..it’s hard especially when I read posts of people doing 70+ on mocks, while I’m too far away from my first mock……but I still think I’m gonna take this exam….I keep telling myself that even in Level I I took the mock just 3 days before the main exam and managed to do well eventually..I know this is level II and its harder, but I’m giving it my best shot….
@mister2: you are far ahead my friend….get up and start working harder….if you think you are gonna fail, then what should I think?
@mygos: thanks for writing in soo much!
 
@worldofecofin. I also started in early May, currently at 70% of syllabus read and have yet to take a practice exam. I think with 100 hours left to study anything is possible, yes it’s depressing and miserable not being able to pursue other interests (hence why I only started in May) but only 2 weeks to go.
Also, although nobody really knows, it sounds like CFAI would probably use some form of taking 70% of the top 1% of papers as the pass mark. So yes, getting 70%+ on the day will guarantee you a pass but in reality nobody gets higher than 90% on this test, so the pass mark is likely to be in the reigon of 230/360 which is in the low 60% range. That’s what I’m counting on anyway, as long as I’m hitting >65% on the mocks I’ll be feeling ok going into the exam, with my fingers crossed for some question allocations which play on my strengths (not FRA/Equity).
 
FRA and Equity are not your strengths? That is 35-55% of the test and somewhere around 126-198 points on the exam.
 
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