Writing in March - any advice from those who passed

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toHFanalyst

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Hi guys, I just passed Level I and looking to write Level II in March. I just joined AF yesterday and there seems a wealth of forums to catch-up on. Any wise advice to pass Level II?
My buddy recommended UpperMark for both levels. A couple people at the CAIA networking event recommended actually reading the CAIA material, not just the study package. What are your thoughts?
Thanks in advance!
 
I just used Schweser for level 1 and felt kind of underprepared in the actual exam (even though i did pass). So for level 2 i used Uppermark and bought the CAIA Core topics book. I read this first and then realised when reading Uppermark that a lot of topics weren’t covered in anywhere near as much detail as the CAIA book, and i felt like what was missing was important for my understanding. I didn’t buy the Current topics book as that is mainly articles which you get with Uppermark anyway. I felt much more prepared this time for the exam and I passed so i would definately recommend buying the Core book (i got it for £50 off Amazon). Good luck with your studies.
 
Important caveat: the CAIA books have no questions in them!
 
@ holiday. I ordered the Advanced Core today for $120 cad (free shipping). Did I get this backwards?
@big ML, I also ordered UM (with exam bank) a few days ago, but after reading older posts, may I expect they will arrive late-November? Another post recommended using flash cards extensively for essay prep.
Thanks all for your input!
 
I would say that taking questions and writing is the best way to conquer the essays. I used kaplan and they had an extensive essay question section that I never even got through, but I read all of the questions and wrote down answers for about 50%.
I studied for about 150 hours from ~July 15-September 21. Your experience may be different, but that’s what I did.
I highly recommend spending a lot of time going over the Study Guide as there were easy points to get on the exam if you were comfortable with that material.
I hope this helps.
 
I was pleasantly surprised when I got my results as I was convinced I was going to fail. For the essay questions, I just tried to write as much as I could. For the ethics question I wrote what I could remember (which was very little) and then started writing many points using any general knowledge that I could think of. To my surprise I scored well for this section.
So in my opinion for the essay questions try and write as much as you can. There’s no penalty for writing incorrect things… but there is a chance that what you write could be correct and it could be the difference between passing and failing.
 
@ toHFanalyst
i got my copy second hand from Amazon. - i dont think the 2011 exams used a different core book than the 2010. It was the current and integrated section that had some differences.
 
holiday wrote:@ toHFanalyst
i got my copy second hand from Amazon. - i dont think the 2011 exams used a different core book than the 2010. It was the current and integrated section that had some differences.
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Lol, Amazon Canada is always stocked low on second hand! I sometimes have to buy from US. US had some used at $80-90 + shipping; Canada was $120 new with free shipping. I was lucky to get last discounted one. Yes, I believe they are all the same as the 2009 edition - maybe some errata but I would not have minded looking that up if the discount was greater.
I’m just glad I ordered the right one. CAIA renamed the Current & Integrated topics to “Core” Topics & Integrated and Core as “Advanced” Core. A bit confusing…
 
Those books are kind of a waste of money, IMHO. Kaplan and the CAIA study guide should be all you need.
 
big ML wrote:Those books are kind of a waste of money, IMHO. Kaplan and the CAIA study guide should be all you need.
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I’ll keep it as a reference then. I’ll also consider your study guide advice. Thanks.
 
i think this may have been mentioned on another post…
the CAIA books don’t have any questions in them so i definately reccomend getting a question bank regardless. I used the Uppermark one and it had 45 essay sets and about 1000 multiple choice questions and there is no way i could have passed without that!
 
Just take Schweser materials: 2 books, sample exams, weekly program that is actually fun, and you’ll do fine. That is the secret.
 
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