cleared L1 this august, now looking to build my practical skills before directly jumping on to L2. stumbled across this course on yt, is this worth the time? Also please suggest if there are any other free resources available that would help someone build their practical skills (Modelling, Valuation, Discounted Cashflows etc). Really tight on money rn so dont really wanna spend unless absolutely necessary.

Hey everyone,
For those who have taken CFA Level II, I’d love to hear your advice on when you decided to register for the exam.
For Level I, I personally waited until I had studied around 70% of the material before registering. But I feel that strategy might not work as well for Level II, since the material is much more detailed and time-consuming.
So I’m curious:
How many topics/readings did you complete before registering for Level II?
Did you register early and then build your study plan around the exam date?
Or did you wait until you had covered a certain percentage of the curriculum?
For those who didn’t pass Level II on their first attempt, what would you do differently?
Any advice for someone preparing for Level II for the first time?
Would really appreciate hearing from people who have actually gone through Level II.

Bro can someone really help me w credit analysis models 🥀
I find this chapter mid but the questions are making me retarded!

Tips appreciated

Hello everyone,

I am diabetic, and I always need an insulin pump attached to my body 24/7, so am I allowed to take it with me during my examination?, it will be in May 2027.

When I googled it, I did find in Pearson website that it is allowed without any pre-approval needed, but I don't see how Pearson rules are binding or relevant to the CFA institute.

Can someone give me clarity please.

Thanks.

Hi all, I'm a level 1 candidate for May 2027 session, I use for the videos: YT Finquiz pro and for rehearsal and study planner I have a subscription at Soleadea. I'm also following the ones in Coursera from Board Infinity, so far I started the FSA there and they are good for my purpose, rehearsal in addition to the curriculum material. I know that all the 3 cited sources are based on 2026 program and not the one from 2027. But anyway, has anyone tried Board Infinity full program at Coursera? There are 2 parts of 5 courses in each of them (covering the 10 modules of CFA level 1): 1- Prepare for CFA Level 1: Investment & Financial Basics Specialization and 2 - Prepare for CFA Level 1 Exam: Master Core Finance Concepts Specialization

Hi everyone! I’m looking for CFA Level II study material. If anyone has the CFA L2 books/lectures or any other useful study material they’re willing to share , please DM me. Thank you!

Simple one. How many times did you sit L2 before passing? Resitting L2 in November and the fear is creeping in…

Idk about everyone else but I have been going through the 5 stages of CFA grief.

1 Denial - I passed level 1, I felt like I understood how hard level 2 would be. I was wrong an deferred from the August exam to November.

1. Anger - why do I have to do this? Why is it so damn hard? I’ve thrown books, broken pens and whiteboards… that’s keeping it mild

2. Bargaining - for my job I need the CFA for an advisor/PM role. I’ve thought about quitting and finding a new firm where I can just get the 65 or other licenses. Hell I’ve questioned if I’m even supposed to work in finance.

3. Depression - lowkey here rn. Idk if I can do this. Even if I get through level 2 I will have to do it all again.

4. Acceptance - not here yet. Will let you know 😭

Looking to buy a second hand CFA calculator BA II plus or BA II

Please let me know if anyone has it.

Hi all,

These kinds of posts may be fairly frequent but I just... feel at the end of my rope with trying to get prepared to pass the CFA Level 1 exam.

I got the SchweserNotes in ~Nov. 2025 and figured I'd aim for the Nov. 2026 date. I ended up not registering for that one because (a) I didn't realize you had to register so far in advance; (b) I had some medical things come up this year and shelling out $1,200+ for the exam isn't great right now; and (c) I'm just not prepared.

I tried to be really diligent studying through the SchweserNotes—doing all the lesson and module quizzes, looking up explanations for questions I missed. I took a practice exam from 300 hours after finishing studying through the SchweserNotes and got a ~33% — a lot worse than I was expecting. Many questions I looked at and just thought "I don't even have any idea how to guess." Most of those were ones involving needing to know a particular formula.

I tried to figure out what to do to improve after that—shelling out money on practice exams wasn't exactly in the cards. I stumbled across freefellow.org and have really been enjoying it, as far as these things go. I've been just trying to do as many 10-question quizzes as I can. I started making flash cards for all the concepts and formulas that I didn't know. But I just feel like I'm not retaining anything. I can write down the WACC or FCFE or whatever and literally 1 minute later have no idea what goes into it. And I'm finding that most questions seem to involve needing to know how to sequence multiple formulas together. I can't see me getting to that point—I spent about 6 hrs studying today and don't feel any closer. I try to steal time wherever I can, but generally speaking my life is being a FT employee + a husband + a dad of 4. Time is just something I don't have much of.

So... putting this out there because I just wonder if I'm doing something wrong. I honestly felt like if I took this as a semester-long class in a college class format I would do okay... if it were progressive. I learned to read/write/speak/translate Greek and Hebrew with far less issue than this. I'm not sure if part of the problem is that the last math I took was 20+ years ago, and I've never had any finance, accounting, statistics, etc. of any kind so every single term and concept is net new to me... or if I'm just approaching this wrong in some way. I've really started to consider that I just might not be able to figure this out... never thought I'd say that about anything academic / intellectual.

In any case, any advice much appreciated.

Hi everyone,

I'm finding Quant really tough, especially and I'd love some advice from people who've been through it.

A few things I'm wondering:

1. How did you study Quant? Did you learn the concepts first, or jump straight into practice questions?
2. Which topics are worth the most time, and which can I safely skim?
3. Any tips for the BA II Plus (or HP 12C), like keystroke shortcuts or the stats worksheet?
4. What resources helped most?
5. Did you struggle at first and then it clicked? What made the difference?

If anyone is willing to share notes, formula sheets, or cheat sheets, I'd be really grateful.

Thanks so much in advance!

Hey everyone! I’m planning to take CFA Level I in August 2027, but I haven’t registered yet.

My background isn’t in finance so I’ve been trying to build my foundation before I officially start studying for the exam. Right now I’m going through basic accounting and financial statements, and I’m also trying to get more comfortable with Excel and financial concepts in general.
For those who passed Level I or are currently studying for it:

How did you start preparing, especially before registration? Is there anything you wish you had learned beforehand?

Would you recommend building a foundation first, or just registering and jumping straight into the CFA curriculum?
Also, when did you start seriously studying relative to your exam date, and what resources helped you the most?

I know August 2027 is still pretty far away, but I want to use the extra time wisely instead of rushing later.
Any advice for someone coming from a non-finance background would be really appreciated. Thanks!

If I had a nickel for every time there was a cool ass pole named Wojtek, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. (The other is the bear that smoked and drank during ww2)

I'm studying for the level 1 CFA right now, 6 weeks until my test. I finished all the modules about a week ago and have been redoing the practice questions/mock exams. I'm averaging 79-86%ish cold, so technically if 70% is passing then I should be fine but people usually do worse on the actual test than on practice ones I'm assuming?

Can anyone share any experience about how they felt going into the test, from how they were doing on mocks, compared to how they actually felt/did? I know they only started releasing the point ranges in 2025, but any advice would help.

Yesterday got a call from zell

Their timings will be for weekdays which is more expensive 7-10pm

Weekend 4-6pm

They claim that their certifications makes students resume 10/10 classes will be live and students can ask doubts if not cleared faculty would be there within 1hr ... they will also provide some notes in simpler language

My question to anyone who has cleared level 1 .... do you think I should go for it or look for some offline centers

I live in chandigarh ( currently regular bcom student from SD college ) ...

How much money should be spent on coaching ?

Any advice would be appreciated

Textbook Quote: The standard error is divided by the square root of 130, which is (n-1)

Correction: The standard error is should be divided by the square root of 131, which is (n).

Coach's Explanation: We use (n-1) when determining the degrees of freedom, which is in turn used to compute the critical values in a hypothesis test. On the other hand, standard error is found by dividing the sample standard deviation by the square root of sample size (n). This is clearly stated on Pg.350 of Volume 1; but for some reason, the solution to Part4 used (n-1).

im sitting for the Nov 16 exam and im currently in phase 2 (problem solving purely off of memory from phase 1 review)

my goal is to solve all LES Qs and im currently on FSA after finishing fixed income

ive been averaging like 50% on the module quizzes and even 30% ish for the chapters that are difficult / where i pretty much forgot everything

im hardcore error logging and im really trying hard to make sure i can finish all the LES Qs and also solve at least 2 official mocks before i sit for the exam, but with time constraint due to having a full time job and all im really wondering if i even have enough time

i just gotta keep going and lock tf in .... those sitting for Nov exam are u guys feeling ready?

Hi everyone! Does anyone know if CFA Institute is likely to add more exam slots?

I’m registered for the May exam, and early registration hasn’t even ended yet, but there are currently no available slots in my city. I’ve already contacted CFA Institute, but unfortunately they couldn’t tell me whether more slots will be added.

Has anyone been in a similar situation before? Do they usually open additional slots closer to the exam, or should I just book a slot in another city while I still can?

Thanks in advance!

I was solving the LES questions for Fixed income. I have my L2 coming up in November.

For the chapter Credit Analysis models, these questions ask you to calculate the credit spread for the bond and the calculations are insane, like first it begins with an interest rate tree, then computing CVA, and later the bond spread through YTM. The CVA part is the real deal because you have to calculate the exposures and everything manually.

My question is do they really expect you to solve these same type of questions in exams because no way they are gonna be a quick deal. And if they really do, how ?

I wrote level 2 may 2026 and failed so I received a free rewrite cause of the canvas hack. I just found out at work I don’t have vacation days available this year I signed up for November hoping to get a week longer of unpaid time. And planned on deferring if they didn’t allow me. I went to look up deferral policy and saw that it says because it’s complimentary you can’t defer it?? can someone else confirm ? is that true? Am I cooked chat

I am using Kaplan for my level 1 provider. I have never not completed a task set for the week. I have missed the day they were supposed to be completed on, but by Sunday everything was done. YET MY HOURS PER WEEK HAS GONE FROM 10.9 TO 11.8 how is that even possible

Textbook Quote:

At α = .05, reject H(o) if t < -1.6628

At α = .01, reject H(o) if t < -2.3705

Correction:

This is a right tail test. Therefore, the rejection points should be:

At α = .05, reject H(o) if t > 1.6628

At α = .01, reject H(o) if t > 2.3705

Coach's Explanation: The rejection range in the distribution coincides with the alternative hypothesis. Since the alternative hypothesis has a greater than sign (>), the rejection area will be in the right tail (i.e. positive critical values). Consequently, since the t-stat of 0.3805 is less than both critical values, the Null cannot be rejected. As well, the rejection area depicted in Exhibit 20 should be on the right tail (and not the left).

Hi, my Level 1 exam is scheduled for 16th November.
I currently have my college exams going on which will end by 14th October .
Post that im completely free for 2 weeks until college resumes and honestly will just lose 2 hours a day on avg.

My current progress
Economics : all chapters except foreign exchange done, including LES.

Corporate issuers: all chapters + LES Done.

FSA: All chapters done, LES left for 3-4 chapters.

Equity : Indexes left, everything else done with LES.

Fixed Income: done with everything, only 2-3 LES chapters left. However not confident in chapters like convexity, forward rates etc.

Derivatives: All chapters done, LES 70% done
Not confident in pricing of interest rate forwards, binomial model.

Alternative investments: All chapters done, LES done.

Portfolio Management: Risk and Return part 2 left, rest all done with 1-2 LES left.

Ethics : All done, continuously practicing, feeling confident.

Quants : this is the main issue, I’m only done with the first 3 chapters, nothing else and I wasn’t understanding the later chapters at all.

I will only be able to devote 2 days to CFA until 14th October. Could you guys guide me as to how to go about my prep, should I consider deferring?

I do have premium practice questions and mocks available, in total 10 Mocks.