Hello everyone I am Lianrongbao!
welcome back to my channel
In today's video, I am going to talk about how I passed the CFA level II exam
CFA level II exam consists of multiple choices
but it differs from the Level I exam
The multiple choice questions for the Level I exam stand independently by themselves
All the questions are unrelated
For the Level II exam, the exam consists of vignettes
It's like a reading comprehension
there would be a small passage for each item set,
followed by 6-7 questions for each vignette
The Level I exam is very broad
but the Level II exam is a lot deeper
Also, you could only take the test once a year
it is in June
So if you didn't pass the exam
you need to wait for another year to be able to take it again
This is also very different from the Level I exam
Level I exam is offered twice a year
First of all, I want to share the study materials I used
I used three categories of materials
The first material is the Kaplan Schwser Notes
I also used Kaplan Quick Sheet
Those materials belong to the first category
Second and the most important one,
are CFAI official curriculum
,the online topic tests and mock exams
These are the most important materials
When I studied for the Level I exam
I didn't read any CFAI official curriculum
I only read notes
But when I studied for the Level II exam
I felt like just reading the Kaplan Schwser is insufficient
First of all, Kaplan Schwser omits some knowledge points
In some topics, Kaplan Schwser didn't do a good job of explaining things
so after reading notes
There were still some areas of study that I did not understand
and when that happened, I would read the CFAI official curriculum
This is the second category of materials I used
The third category of materials I used are online resources
Me and my fiance studied together for the exam
We didn't take any classes
So we took advantage of free online resources
For example, YouTube
and the Analyst Forum
There are not only test takers on this forum
but also experienced test instructors
They are very active
So if you have any questions
you can use the search function fist
because there might be somebody else asking the same questions before
and you might find lots of posts that related to your questions
but if you can't find anything
feel free to post your question
there are people that will help you answer your questions
so please make good use of that forum
These are the three straightforward materials I used to study for the exam
Next up, I want to talk about my study plan
I started early for the Level II exam
I started around Janurary
I strongly recommend you to start early
because Level II is a lot harder than Level I
especially if you are working at the same time
I recommend you to start early
I started off reading Kaplan Schwser
After reading each chapter
I would do the after chapter questions immediately
because if I only read through the material without doing any questions
I would easily forget everything that I just read
so doing after chapter questions is a good way to check the learning outcome and reinforce my memory
I spent about 2 months or so to finish reading all the notes
Like I said before, when I read Level II notes
I found that Schwser didn't do a good job explaining some of the knowledge points
So I went back to read CFAI curriculum
and I understood it completely
The CFAI curriculum is very well written
and it is in details
just in case you don't know what is the official curriculum
It is the materials that you are required to purchase when you sign up for the exam
it is the official curriclum
after signing up for the exam
CFAI will send you a code to your email
I think it is on VitalSource that you could download all the books using that code
after reading all the notes
I have a general overview of the curriculum
Then I started doing the topic tests
please take good advantage of those topic tests
because the difficulty level is very close to the real exam
when I did the topic tests the first time
I didn't do very good
it might because I forgot the materials that I've read
or I think the Notes is over simplified in some areas of study
it omitted some important knowledge points
I drew blank on some of the questions completely
it's probably because I've never read them in Notes
This also shows that using the official curriculum is important
and this is different from how I studied for the Level I exam
I didn't read the official curriculum when I studies for the Level I exam
I only read Kaplan Schwser
There are explanations for each topic test questions
and the explanations tell you which section of the curriculum is tested
then I read through the related sections of the official curriculum
and I also made note cards
to write down the important formulas and knowledge points
you can review your note cards anytime
They are valuable resources for your study
because it is very good if you learn from your mistakes and improves
it is not enough to do topic tests just once
because when you did it the first time, you might not know a lot
so you might not have a good grips on what the questions is tested
every time I redid the topic tests, I found something that I've never paid attention to before
so redoing the topic tests is very important
CFAI also will provide you 2 sets of mock exams
You can access them online
and they have a timer built in
so this will give you the real test experience
so treat mock exams very seriously
because the time management skills are also important to succeed in the Level II exam
you should learn how to finish all the questions in the designated 3 hours
so please treat the mock exams like real exams
and I highly recommend to time yourself when you do questions
Next I want to talk about my personal reflections
First is to start early, especially when you work
next is to make note cards
The Level II exam has lots of calculations
I think this might be a good thing for Asian test takers
because we are generally very good at math
You can write down the important knowledge points and formulas on the note cards
and the note cards will benefit you all the way to the end
and can serve as a great last minute review material
The third things I would suggest you to do is to read official curriculum
I don't mean to read the whole thing
because we have limited time to study
and the official curriculum ls lengthy
but under these 2 circumstances, you should go back to the official curriclum
The first one is if you can't understand Kaplan Schwser in some specific area of the topic
then you should refer to the official curriculum
because it will give you a more detailed and clear explanations
second is when you did wrong on your topic test
and you don't understand the explanations very well
please go back to the official curriculum
Next up, I would recommend you to allocate your study time according to the topic weights
Level II exam is not only broad but also very deep
if you don't have time to study everything thoroughly
you can allocate your time according to the topic weights
there are 3 topics that are tested last time in the CFA exam
because the Level III exam eliminates those 3 topics
Because Level III exam does not have these 3 topics
I think the Level II exam will put lots of weight on testing these 3 topics
because this is the last chance the CFA could test you on these 3 areas
another point is to pay attention to the curriculum changes
there is a section on the CFA website called "what changes..."
for example, what changes from 2015 to 2016
they will tell you if there are any new readings, deleted readings or revised readings
and those changes are heavily tested
so please pay attention to that
last but not least
if time permits, in addition to the topic tests and mock exams
please do the CFA curriculum blue box questions and after chapter questions
Those questions are very good quality
so doing those questions will benefit you as well
That's it for today's video
If the Level I exam is a piece of cake
the Level II exam is definitely a lot harder
so please study hard for it
and it is only offered once a year
so you would need to study for another whole year to be able to sit for the exam again if you didn't pass
so hopefully you can pass it on the first attempt
please leave me a comment if you have any other questions
thumbs up if you like this video
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See you next time, bye!