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.

Exam Preparations

Over the past two days I did the mock exam. I scored 58% for the first half and 63% for the second half. FSA was my weakest point which it has been throughout my revision. I will probably focus on revising this tonight. Ethics was also very tricky in the first section. I only got 2/6 which was disappointing.

Overall I think the mock exam will be quite representative of tomorrow’s exam. If you passed well, you are in a very strong position to replicate that result tomorrow. If you scored under 70% like me, do not despair! You would have learnt from the mistakes you made, and reiterated your strong areas. You will more than likely get higher mark tomorrow rather than a lower mark. And the pass mark is likely to be lower than 70%. We have a good chance to pass!

So tomorrow, four months (or more depending on when you started) of hard study and devotion to improving your financial knowledge will be put to the test. If you are ever in doubt between two answers, go with the first answer you thought was correct. If you want to change your answer, prove to yourself without a doubt that you are changing it to the correct answer.

I wish you all the best for tomorrow. Take it easy tonight and try to get a good night’s sleep. I posted this before I sat level 1 in December. It has some links that were good to read before the exam. If you have some time, take a look.

GOOD LUCK!

1 day until 7th June 2009

Sample Exam #3

This afternoon I finished reviewing my notes and did the third sample exam. I got 70% which is a great moral booster.

Ethics 3/6

FSA 4/6

Fixed Income 4/6

Derivatives 5/6

Portfolio Management 5/6

I was disappointed with ethics but surprised with derivatives. I still make silly errors from not reading the question properly. Since time is not an issue for this exam, silly errors shouldn’t happen. I need to slow down and take my time.

Tomorrow morning I’ll do the AM Mock exam. Tonight I’ll just go over my notes.

3 days until the level 2 exam.

Sample Exam #2

I just did my second sample exam and got 60%. I’m still failing but it’s a great improvement from the 46% I got last week. The breakdown was:

Economics 5/6

FRA 2/6

Corporate Finance 3/6

Equity 5/6

Derivatives 3/6

I’m pleased with my results for Economics and Equity. I studied those topics during the last week and the result shows that. I am worried about FRA because I studied that as well but I got a very bad mark. This section makes up 15-25% of the exam, so if I get a mark like this I will most probably end up failing.

I will revise it again over the coming days and also cover Quant, Derivatives and Corporate Finance. On Monday I will do the third sample exam and then prepare to do the mock exams on Friday and Saturday. It is going to be a tough week.

11 days until the level 2 exam.

First Sample Exam

I did the first sample exam last Thursday and failed miserably with a mark of 46%. The breakdown was:
Ethics 4/6

Quant 3/6

Econ 2/6

FRA 3/6

Equity 2/6

So for the past few days I have revised my weakest topics (Economics, Equity and FRA). Tomorrow I will do another sample exam and see how I have improved on those areas, and which areas I should start revising next.

Schweser’s question bank is quite good. After revising my notes on each reading, I do the LOS quizzes for that reading. I do questions on the topics I’ve revised every morning, which is pretty much the same way I studied for level 1. The material is a lot more difficult to comprehend though, so I’m not sure if the result will be the same.

12 days until the level 2 exam.

Calm before the storm.

I haven’t written in this blog during my studies like I was planning to. If you passed level 1 in December and were studying for the level 2 June exam you would understand why. There is a lot of material to cover with only 4 months to do so.

I can thankfully say that I finished going through the curriculum today :D My notes are made and I’m ready to start the intense revision tomorrow. I am only three days behind the schedule I made at the start.

Overall I found the material only slightly tougher than level 1. In level 1 I found SS9 to be tough. Some parts of fixed income and derivatives also confused me. For level 2, the hardest part was definitely SS17 (derivatives). I found the swaps in level 1 confusing. Swaps in level 2 are a nightmare. I still don’t understand the concepts well but hopefully doing questions will help.

Other tough parts were fixed income, and part of portfolio management. I didn’t think they were as bad as derivatives though.

Tomorrow I’ll do the first sample exam to see where I should start revising first. I’m hoping  I don’t fail it miserably. Good luck for your studies. There’s only 2 1/2 weeks to go so go hard!

18 days until the level 2 exam.

Level 2 Exam Format

The exam format for level 2 is quite different from level 1. In addition to having to do item sets, the CFAI does not give exact weightings of each topic in the exam.

Altogether there are 20 item sets; 10 in the morning and 10 in the afternoon. Using the exam weighting guide, I have made a table showing what the exam structure could look like:

AM Session

Ethics	Quantitative Methods
FRA	Fixed Income
FRA	Alternative Investments
Equity
Equity

PM Session

Ethics	Corporate Finance
FRA	Derivatives
Equity	Portfolio Management
Equity
Economics

Two item sets in each session have been left blank because the weights for each topic in the exam are ranges (apart from ethics which is set at 10%). This means these items sets could be any four from the following topics:

Quantitative Methods	Corporate Finance
Economics	Corporate Finance
FRA	Equity
FRA	Equity
Derivatives	Fixed Income
Derivatives	Fixed Income
Alternative Investments	Alternative Investments

The first thing to note is that FRA and Equity together make at least 35% of the exam. Possibly up to 55%! These two subjects are definitely the most important, and getting a high mark in these can help immensely in passing.

The other thing to note is that every topic has the potential of being heavily tested in the exam. Quantitative Methods and Economics could possibly be worth 10%, and the others (apart from Equity and FRA) could be worth 15%. No topic can be ignored. There is no way to predict which topics will be tested more than others.

I took the same approach towards level 1. I didn’t neglect any area, even when I knew there were sections worth only 5%. I will take the same approach to level 2 and when it comes to revision time I will cover every topic as if it were crucial to the exam. And they are: 5% could mean the difference between passing and failing.

Today I finished study session 8. I will aim to finish corporate finance by thursday. It’s strange how I can spend four days on one topic, whereas it took me two weeks to get through FRA, which is about the same length as corporate finance. I’m not complaining though. I’m behind my study schedule so I need to get through some topics very quickly…

75 days until the level 2 exam.