Economics and FSA done!

I finished Economics a couple of weeks ago and finished FSA this weekend. Last year, these sections were my strongest (I got >70% for both). So this year I will be aiming for the same.

There are less than four weeks until the mock exam, and only 6 weeks until the main exam. I have stepped up my study a lot now. I feel like I have a good chance of passing even though I have not had as much preparation time as last year. I have learnt from my mistakes will finish strong.

How are your studies going? Have you almost finished the material? Go hard for this last month!

41 days until the level 2 exam.

Finally finished Quant!

I finished Quant last weekend. Hopefully I can get through the rest of the material faster because there's only around eight weeks until the exam!

Since I spent so long on it, I'm aiming to get a high mark for this section. If there are two item sets for Quant, I would like to get 9/12. I will continue doing questions leading up to the exam so I'm comfortable with getting that.

How is your study going? Hopefully you're well ahead of me. If you are putting in the effort, you have a very good chance of passing. Go hard!

62 days until the level 2 exam.

Reminiscing

I'm doing a fair bit of study now and I think I'm in a good rhythm. I study during my lunch break, every night, and most of the day during the weekends. It's reminding me of how I studied last year and for level one.

I will be happy if I start dreaming about what I'm studying. Thoughts of Quant is never far away from my mind these days..

75 days until the level 2 exam.

Best news of the year!

I have not updated this for a while because there has been nothing to update. My study has been virtually non-existent until this week. However I have done a fair bit this week and I am pretty motivated to keep going.

This year, the NZ CFA society is offering the chance to do a live schweser mock exam for $50! It is very cheap and it is on the 22 of May.

That is two months away, or eight weeks. Since I have not studied much, I need to aim to finish more than two study sessions each week. Since I have notes from last years attempt. I think this is possible. But it will require a lot of dedication from now on.

This week I will finish Quant. I will post an update once I have done that.

Good luck with your studies.

78 days until the level II exams.

Time to start studying again..

I haven’t posted anything since I got the results of level II because I haven’t been studying. I’ve enjoyed having a break and not having to read textbooks or do problems. However now that it’s November and getting close to the end of the year I think I should start getting into the habit of studying.

I figure I will study one day this week for 1/2 an hour. And each week I will add another day on. I don’t know how much study I’ll do in the weekend but it will depend on how hard the topic is and how much study I need to do for it.

I have an idea of my strong and weak areas from my previous study and the exam results. This time around I think I will alternate between subjects I find easier, and hard subjects. Hopefully this will stop me from falling into a rut.

So first off will be ethics. Ethics is a hard subject (I got <50%), but it is lighter reading and not mathematical so it wont stress my brain out too much. I will try and write to let you know how my studies go.

Has anyone else started studying for the June exams yet? I guess it is still a long way off, but even if you skim through the material now to get an idea of what you’re going to cover, it should help you later on when you start studying more seriously on.

210 days until the June 2010 exams.

The Result

I ended up failing. I didn’t expect to pass it after doing the mock exams and the real thing, but it was still disappointing to see it in writing:

Level 2: Fail
The table below illustrates your subject matter strengths and weaknesses. The three columns on the right are marked with asterisks to indicate your performance on each question or topic area.
Item Set Q# Topic Max Pts <=50% 51%-70% >70%
- Alternative Investments 18 *- -
- Corporate Finance 36 -*-
- Derivatives 36 -* -
- Economics 18 - - *
- Equity Investments 72 - * -
- Ethical & Professional Standards 36 *--
- Financial Reporting & Analysis 72 - -*
- Fixed Income Investments 36 - * -
- Portfolio Management 18 -*-
- Quantitative Methods 18 *--

We have divided the full group of failed candidates into ten approximately equal score bands. Your score band below shows how your overall score on the exam compares with all other failed candidates.
For example, if your reported score band is 1, you scored in approximately the bottom 10% of failed candidates. If your reported score band is 2, your score was within the next band width ranging from approximately the bottom 11% to 20% of failed candidates. If your score band is reported as 10, you scored in the top 10% of all failed candidates.
Performance band of your overall score among all candidates who failed the exam: 6

The most surprising point of the exam was that I got >70% for FSA, and <50% for Ethics. I thought the ethics was easy and spent a lot of time on FSA during the exam.

This has been a good experience and has set me up well for next years exam. I plan to start studying again in September and take my time. I should be able to write more entries into this blog this time around :)

To everyone who passed their level II and III exams, congratulations! Your hours of hard work has paid off. Good luck for your level III exams, or congratulations on obtaining the charter! I wish you all the best.

289 days until the June 2010 exams.

What happened:

The exam last Sunday was tough. I would go as far to say it was tougher than the mock exam, and since I only got 61% on that I have probably failed.

There’s a slight chance I could pass. I found ethics very easy. If I do pass, it’s because I got very lucky with my guesses and aced ethics.

I found that two questions in each section were gimmies, while most of the others were tougher. For the FSA sections, I could usually knock off one of the answers but choosing between the other two was just a guessing game.

I think FSA will be my downfall. It’s one of the most important sections, and it was definitely my weakest.

I wont be disheartened too much. If I don’t pass, I will have plenty of time to study for it next year. I will understand all the concepts a lot better and ace it.

How did you find it? We have a long wait until we find out the results, so relax and enjoy the break from studying. We definitely deserve it.

354 days until the June 2010 exams.