Back in the ring to retake CFA L2

Shouldn't be too bad, was very close to passing my first take. Would have been nice to pass first try but I don't feel my social life was too screwed up as I studied (meaning, I didn't study all that much and went on a few weekend trips)

When it's all said and done, I'll probably have put in 400 total hours for L2. Spread out is honestly nicer, but I guess it costs me an extra $1k

Not discouraged. Most important thing is to dust off and get up stronger than before. Often when it seems like it's time to quit, is right when everything turns around. Keep going. 

15 Comments
 

Nice job

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
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Thanks man. L1 felt difficult to study for but realistically wasn't so bad because I majored in finance. So I had a good background for many of the units. I definitely put in the work but easily scored very well.

My biggest tips for both exams is to get through the material first pass as fast as you can. Start the CFA ecosystem practice questions asap. 

And most importantly, make flashcards of things you don't know during your practice questions. It's going to be slow at first but when you find something you don't understand, take time to fully understand it. Write the formula or definition on a flashcard. Look at it once or twice, but once it's on the flashcard and you understand it... now you're set 

Keep doing practice questions like that and periodically memorizing the flashcards, which actually doesn't take all that long (running through flashcards).

Eventually you'll understand everything because you've learned in the practice problems, and you actually memorized it all with the flashcards. 

It's very doable imo. Good luck, it's a ton of material but nothing is super difficult if you just understand and memorize it!

 

Maybe! But I think it can help my career and I've decided I'd rather have somewhat of a life and take it twice if needed, than crush myself for 6 months straight. 

It's honestly very doable for me by just taking it easy, ~6 hours total on the weekends and 1-2 hours during the week. Still leaves most evenings open. I can lift and run. 

While I'm doing it, yeah it kind of sucks. But when I'm done, I'll have the letters. Sure maybe it doesn't help a huge amount, but it's a good signal. It opens doors on the margin. Gotta make our own luck. I think it can help enough, that it's worth the time investment. 

It's a risk I'm willing to take, on the time investment. But again, I comfort myself that I'm not really crushing my weekends. I'm still having a good time 

 

I passed L1 and L2 easily (well-above the MPS) and first-time, and then got 10% percentile on L3. I stopped after that. 

 

Don't know how people can fail this exam. It's basic stuff. Fine if having kids or for personal reasons, otherwise you should probably not be in finance.

 
MarcBahamas

Don't know how people can fail this exam. It's basic stuff. Fine if having kids or for personal reasons, otherwise you should probably not be in finance.

Have you taken the CFA L2 exam?

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

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