CFA Level II

After passing Level 1 of the CFA at the December 2010 writing, I decided to not attempt the 2011 June exam....new job, new in Copenhagen....too many changes to also be worrying about studying. probably a good choice...i was absolutely drained after Level 1 and think it took me a couple of months at least to recover.

So early last fall, I signed up for writing the June 2012 Level II exam. These are my general thoughts on the exam and my preparation....

• I had the books delivered in early September but really only started looking at them in mid November. I had really enjoyed the derivatives section in level 1 so thought i would start with that. Likely a dumb thing...after a few chapters of some review and some new parts, i quickly became overwhelmed with the new material and decided I had to go back and start at the very beginning....starting at chapter 56 out of 64 chapters was likely a stupid thing.
• 
  
• December: many christmas parties, gatherings, shopping....my books were not opened again.
•  
• January: I started studying seriously. All weekends, at least 8 hours a day and at least 2-3 hours on weekdays. Maybe one night off a week.  The other cool thing to happen in January was that my work submitted a team to participate in the Rotterdam marathon in April. Of course I had been disappointed that i had not managed to run the Berlin marathon the previous year, so I signed up. I figured that for four months i would focus on two things: running and CFA. And then after the marathon i would spend the final six weeks focusing on CFA. 
• Running: I ran a 21 km race in Kalunborg in early January, 2 hours and 6 minutes i think? road to marathon looks good.
• CFA - managed to start on ethics and get bored as per usual (last time i left ethics until the very end. I wanted it to be fresh at the exam date, decided to do the same). I started on the Quantitative section and then Economics. I have an MA in econ so felt those two sections would be straight review and pretty easy to breeze through. I hit a wall when i got to the chapters on exchange rates....found that stuff pretty tough.

•  February: Studying going ok. We had a couple of work events at the start of the month: hockey and dinner and then a bowling and dinner night. Both nights I had a few drinks and both following days were not as productive as I had hoped. I also went to Canada for a week. I took the book on Corportate finance with me but did not open it. For some reason i felt better just having it with me....
• Running: I ran a 21 km race in Ottawa, the Winterman Half marathon in just over two hours. At least I am improving somewhere.
• Studying: this month was not as good as i had hoped. I cannot find my calendar for study calendar for February, but I know that on Feb 26 I was only on Chapter 31/64...

• March - I made a very detailed calendar of a running and studying plan. Running 5 days a week, spinning 2 times a week and then a circuit training class on Friday mornings when I could fit it in. For studying, my plan was to have covered all of the material by April 4 so I could spend the Danish Easter break (which is a lovely set of 5 days off) reviewing all the material and then writing my first practice final exam on the 5th day off. Of course i did not managed to get through all the material by the April 4. I got hung up on some of the sections in Derivatives, as well the fixed income chapters - while i found them to be some of the lesser challenging ones - were just compiled with lots and lots of info!
• Running: ran 21km Pig run in CPH, 1 hour and 58 minutes....cool.
• Studying: this was a better month for studying, I am starting to get scared.

• April: Although I had not finished all the material by my deadline of April 4, I decided i would still spend the Easter weekend reviewing all the material I had covered to date and practicing the end of chapter questions. I had not covered chapters 56 - 64 or any of the ethics chapters at this time. I figured this was ok....i could slowly over the next month review while i took in some of the more complicated info in these chapters (or so i found it). So i had a really big push for the CFA over the Easter weekend. This was also the weekend before the Rotterdam marathon too, so not too much running was expected. I tried to maintain the momentum over the next week and left for Rotterdam on Friday April 13. Took about 1 week off i think in April to participate in the marathon, and then got back to the grind.
• Running: Marathon completed in 4 hours and 16 minutes. Exactly about the time i expected which was great.
• CFA studying: by the end of April i was well on my way to having gone through most of the material for a second time. Still no review of ethics, still only into my first covering of portfolio management and derivatives. And the chapter on hedge funds - UGH! I left that one too.

• May: now the focus was 100% on CFA, no more running. There was a quick work trip to Stockholm at the start of the month to see Denmark play Sweden at the IIHF world hockey tournament....as well as a cold, but i did drop the running entirely. This is when my back started to hurt. I had been studying in the same chair, using the same table and same position for months and months with no issues....but as soon as the running stopped, the pain started. This made studying for the long intervals over the weekend days very long. I had to take more breaks. The other great thing that started in May was my vacation leave from work. I had started at my job the previous January but did not get full vacation until May the following year. I decided it was best for me to take a week of holidays staggered over the month. Denmark is also luckily endowed with 3 civic holidays in May - perfect timing for taking days to study for the CFA. In all I had 8 days off of work in May, sometimes I would take a half day and study in the mornings and work the afternoons. Sometimes I would take the whole day. By the end of the month I was just so beat down. I had gone over most of the material 3 times, with ethics i focused my efforts on the chapters that differed from level 1. I only developed my trick for exchange rates the day before the exam at noon...and after that I was done, could not study anymore. My biggest regret for this month was only starting to go through the CFA practice exams the week before the exam. My 'May' plan was to write one the first week and write the other two weeks later....i never felt ready at those times.

• Exam Day: I spent the night in the hotel where the exam was being written, Radisson Blue in Copenhagen. Great hotel, expensive, and breakfast not included. I got there in the early evening, worked on some practice exam questions, and had some wine. I ordered room service for the next morning - best thing ever! To have a huge bowl of bacon come to your door the morning of the CFA was well worth it. ;) I wrote the Level 1 exam in London, in a room with what seemed like thousands of other candidates writing. Writing in Copenhagen was a far more cozy experience. I think there may have been 200 - 300 candidates in the room which was nice. And at the break, we walked out to the lobby and there was lunch waiting for us! What a nice thing to have for you in between the morning and afternoon sessions. My official thoughts on the exam were:
• I just had enough time. In level 1, especially the afternoon session, i finished after about 2 hours. For both the morning and afternoon sessions of level II, I just finished in time to have 10 minutes to review. I hate reviewing though.
• I found the derivatives section very challenging. Wish I had spent more time there.
• Special thanks to a friend in canada writing level III this year....we had been talking about the rhymes he uses to remember certain things, and one of them really came through to me in the exam. Props to him, the bond traders and the housewives!
• I found level II a lot more challenging than Level 1. Level 1 I was able to remember all the formulas, not for level 2. I just ran out of studying time...

All in all in worked out well for me. I did manage to pass CFA Level II on my first attempt even though I really did not have a good feeling coming out of it.

<50% in the Derivatives Section
>50% and <70% in Ethics, Quantitative, Corporate Finance, Economics, Financial Analysis
>70% in  Alternative Investments, Fixed Income, Equities, Portfolio Management

No idea how many hours I spent studying. I think this is a difficult measure of studying to assess because all hours of studying differ in quality. I know it was a lot though. And i think if it is really something that you want, and you give it 100%, you can pass it.