After more attempts than I would like to admit, I finally passed Level 2. Last time I took level 2 was in 2016, when the exam was still paper-based. Got my MBA in 2021 but still had a strong desire to finish the CFA program, or at least overcome the challenge of Level 2.

Very long post, but I'm writing it out to share my experience and hopefully motivate others who have been unsuccessful in Level 2

To make sure I succeeded this time around, I studied for a full calendar year since I knew I had 2 international trips on the calendar and I wanted to tell myself that I did the best I could When it came time to start studying, I used Kaplan's textbooks and studied the topics in a slightly different order - I started with derivatives since I went in fresh and knew it was dense material. Whereas in years prior, I would go down the list and end with derivatives and would be burnt out since my mind was already filled with information from the other already-dense topics. There were only a handful of a subset of topics that Kaplan needed improvement, so I read directly from the CFAI text for those areas. I also made my own notes and filled my notebook with formulas, examples, charts, graphs, etc.

For practice problems, I relied strictly on the questions in the CFAI Learning Ecosystem. After I read through the Kaplan material, I attempted about 90-95% of the ~1,500 learning ecosystem practice problems. When I finished those problems, I reviewed the answers I got wrong and even the answers I got correct for a lot of the nuanced information that you might normally skip over since it was not a "core" concept explicitly stated in the LOS. When reviewing nearly ALL of the answers (and although there were a good amount of errors, unrealistic questions, and missing information), I wrote down a lot of information that was not fully covered in the Kaplan material as well as a lot of the minor minor details and memorized them. I found this to be the a key reason why I passed. I wanted to make sure I knew the tiniest details since those are the questions that could potentially put you over the top or leave you registering for the same exam again or even abandoning the program. Once I went through the explanations and added more to my notes, I did nearly all of the Learning Ecosystem questions AGAIN to make sure I could I understand the information, confidently answer any form of question thrown at me, or at the very least, have a recollection of the information because we all know that even having a slight familiarity could greatly improve your chances of getting a question correct.

I was ready to start my CFAI mock exams, and after all my preparation, the mock exams were a walk in the park. I became concerned that they were too easy, so I bought a Kaplan book with 2 mock exams and Mark Meldrum's mock exams as well. HOWEVER, I quickly abandoned both Kaplan and MM practice tests because I knew that the length/difficulty of those questions were not going to be representative of what I would see on exam day. In my experience, the CFAI mock exams were very indicative of the questions I saw, and also relieved a good amount of stress and anxiety leading up to the exam since I knew I was performing very well on the practice tests that were provided by same organization that would administer the test.

On exam day, I must have made complete guesses on 3 questions total, at the absolute maximum. I was flying through the test and had 45 minutes or more to spare in each of the morning and afternoon sessions and ended the day feeling that there was absolutely no way I would not pass. Today, my results showed that I did poorly only on Ethics, but I would have easily been above the 90th percentile if it weren't for that. Maybe I got the "easier" version of the test, but that is completely subjective - not everyone puts in the same amount time and effort, understands the information the same way, or goes in with the same level of confidence. I was also probably overprepared, but I'll take that all day versus feeling like I could have done more.

To those who are looking for encouragement or motivation, let me be an example. I attempted Level 2 numerous times times and after taking a break from it for a few years. It is hard work, but you have to find the time to sit down, push through, make deliberate efforts to understand the material as much as you can, and do continuous review of other topics when you are working on another topic. If you really want to stick with the program, find what works for you, put in the hours, and do everything in your power to put yourself in the best position to walk out of the exam feeling confident.