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.

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.