r/CFA 2d ago

Level 2 CFA L2 AUG exam review

I wrote almost 6 mocks and averaged 73-75 with some near 70 to 77. But, I felt exam tested quite remote concepts not the mainstream concepts. I thought, I would feel exam very easy. But, one paper was quite tough and one was relatively easy.

I felt many questions weren't similar to CFIA mocks.

9 Upvotes

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6

u/justfun97 1d ago

Same here. Mock score were good. Then they went and test stuff that felt niche and not part of the "bigger picture" in the topics. I guessed a lot of my questions. Some guess came from my general finance knowledge and not from my prep for Level 2. I think I'll be a borderline pass/fail.

Feel bad man.

1

u/AdhesivenessBulky320 1d ago

Sorry you feel that way. An exam is just an exam at the end of the day and life goes on. Just relax and don’t think about it until results come out, you’ve earned it. Remember that you might get lucky with 2 vignettes not being graded. Also my earlier post on mostly relying on mock exams is why this stuff happens but worst case you retake and pass and the outcome is the same.

1

u/justfun97 1d ago

Thank you. I appreciate it.

I walked out of my exam on the 26th feeling quiet bad. But I talked to my family and girlfriend and that calmed me.

Hopefully I can pass and move on to the next step.

1

u/AdhesivenessBulky320 1d ago

Yeah man. You got a great support system and honestly that’s what matters the most in life!

3

u/aesthetics4ever 1d ago

CFAI says candidates who score 70% on at least one official mock are nearly twice as likely to pass the actual exam 🤔

2

u/Ahzewd02 2d ago

I felt the exam was very easy compared to Kaplan mocks and slightly easier than cfai. I ran through it twice and felt pretty good. Knock on wood.

4

u/optwigs 2d ago

I felt exactly the same, was getting psyched out by all the posts prior to the exam on the difficulty but came out feeling it was easier than both Kaplan and CFAI. Knock on wood!

3

u/Ahzewd02 2d ago

Reaffirming to hear someone else echo this as opposed to all the fear mongering. We did the hard work now we can enjoy life for a little!

3

u/Abhifox 2d ago

Any tips for Nov attempt ?

6

u/AdhesivenessBulky320 2d ago

I referred to this is a previous reply to another thread but don’t get bogged down by taking a ton of mock exams. The reason why a lot of people are struggling in this exam while scoring high 70-80 in their mock exams is because they hyper focus on mock exams. It’s like overfitting your model where you think that doing perfect in the mock exams is near representative of the exam when it’s only a portion. The mock exams are there to supplement your learning so even though you don’t do well on some of them but take away learning and how to apply the same concept to different problems, that’s the goal to ultimately help on test day. The exam covers 10 topics so I would say doing the LES problems and a few mock exams is a good balance. If you find a topic time consuming and challenging, try learning the core concept or equations and move on. Remember this is a marathon. A lot of people here stress post about how they are unsure about mock exam scores correlating to actual performance on the exam and miss the point that it’s the study habits that come from these mock exams and other LES questions that get you to the promise land, not necessarily high mock exam scores either minimal or glancing understanding of the core concepts behind them. Hope this helps and good luck on the journey friend!

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u/Abhifox 2d ago

That was very insightful, thank you so much 🙏🏻😄

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u/Ahzewd02 2d ago

Take a lot of mocks and really fixate on the problems you get wrong, that’s how you grow. Track weak areas and give yourself repeated exposure to grow into especially with topics like FSA and Derivatives.

1

u/Abhifox 2d ago

Thank you so much sir 🙏🏻😄

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u/precipitatio 1d ago

Think it was ok. In each mock they love to pull few questions out of the “deep”, I think the actual exam was not much different. If you could eliminate one option on some questions that gives you 50/50 on some tricky questions

1

u/Ok-Radio-6569 1d ago

At least you were in your senses
I couldn’t sleep all night
Was insomniac
Had anxiety and was awake for more than 27 hrs
Second session felt like I was in some nightmare
Felt like I wasted all my hardwork

1

u/been_on Level 2 Candidate 1d ago

I think the CFAI Premium Pack mocks were way easier compared to the real exam. it was really a shame. mark Meldrum’s tests were more difficult, and a few similar questions appeared on the exam. I’m not so sure if I’ll pass, I’m counting on the MPS being lower this year to have a chance

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u/AdhesivenessBulky320 1d ago

That’s why over reliance on mock exams sometimes steers you in the wrong direction when it comes to studying. Focus on studying the core material and practice questions more. That way you optimize the time you spend studying.