CFA Level II (June 2011 Exam)

[1] CFA PROGRAM CURRICULUM

8/2/2010-10/31/2010
VOLUME 1 - Ethical And Professional Standards, Quantitative Methods, and Economics

• 8/2/2010-9/22/2010: Ethical And Professional Standards
• 9/22/2010-10/31/2010: Quantitative Methods

8/9/2010 - 12/4/2010
VOLUME 2 - Financial Reporting and Analysis, and Corporate Finance

Omitted:
VOLUME 3 - Equity Investments
VOLUME 4 - Alternative Asset Valuation and Fixed Income
VOLUME 5 - Derivatives and Portfolio Management

[2] Schweser Practice Exams
http://www.schweser.com/cfa/cfa2.php

• Practice Exams Volume 1
• Exam 1
• Morning Session
• 1st: 12/6/2010 - 12/10/2010
• 2nd: 12/10/2010 - 12/11/2010
• 3rd: 12/11/2010 - 12/13/2010
• Afternoon Session
• 1st: 12/13/2010 - 12/23/2010
• 2nd: 12/23/2010 - 12/24/2010
• 3rd: 12/24/2010 - 12/28/2010
• Exam 2
• Morning Session
• 1st: 12/28/2010 - 12/30/2010
• 2nd: 12/30/2010 - 1/4/2011
• 3rd: 1/4/2011 - 1/5/2011
•  Afternoon Session
• 1st: 1/5/2011 - 1/8/2011
• 2nd: 1/8/2011 - 1/8/2011
• 3rd: 1/8/2011 - 1/9/2011
• Exam 3
• Morning Session
• 1st: 1/9/2011 - 1/11/2011
• 2nd: 1/12/2011 - 1/13/2011
• 3rd:  1/13/2011 - 1/14/2011
• Afternoon Session
• 1st: 1/14/2011 - 1/19/2011
• 2nd: 1/19/2011 - 1/25/2011
• 3rd: 1/25/2011 - 1/26/2011 
• Practice Exams Volume 2
• Exam 1
• Morning Session
• 1st: 1/26/2011 - 1/30/2011
• 2nd: 1/31/2011 - 2/1/2011
• 3rd: 2/1/2011 - 2/5/2011
• Afternoon Session
• 1st: 2/5/2011 - 2/10/2011
• 2nd: 2/10/2011 - 2/12/2011
• 3rd: 2/12/2011 - 2/13/2011
• Exam 2
• Morning Session
• 1st: 2/13/2011 - 2/16/2011
• 2nd: 2/16/2011 - 2/18/2011
• 3rd: 2/18/2011 - 2/19/2011
• Afternoon Session
• 1st: 2/19/2011 - 2/24/2011
• 2nd: 2/24/2011 - 2/26/2011
• 3rd: 2/26/2011 - 2/27/2011
• Exam 3
• Morning Session
• 1st: 2/27/2011 - 3/6/2011
• 2nd: 3/7/2011 - 3/9/2011
• 3rd: 3/9/2011 - 3/10/2011
• Afternoon Session
• 1st: 3/10/2011 - 3/11/2011, 4/1/2011- 4/2/2011
• 2nd: 4/2/2011 - 4/3/2011
• 3rd: 4/3/2011 - 4/3/2011
• Practice Exams Volume 1 (2010)
• Exam 1
• Morning Session
• Afternoon Session
• 1st: 4/3/2011-4/5/2011
• 2nd: 4/6/2011 - 4/7/2011
• 3rd: 4/8/2011 - 4/9/2011
• Exam 2
• Morning Session
• Afternoon Session
• 1st: 4/9/2011 - 4/12/2011
• 2nd: 4/12/2011 - 4/13/2011
• 3rd: 4/13/2011 - 4/14/2011
• Exam 3
• Morning Session
• Afternoon Session
• 1st: 4/15/2011 - 4/17/2011
• 2nd: 4/18/2011 - 4/19/2011
• 3rd: 4/19/2011 - 4/20/2011
• Practice Exams Volume 2 (2010)
• Exam 1
• Morning Session
• Afternoon Session
• 1st: 4/21/2011 - 4/23/2011
• 2nd: 4/24/2011 - 4/25/2011
• 3rd: 4/26/2011 - 4/27/2011
• Exam 2
• Morning Session
• Afternoon Session
• 1st: 4/27/2011 - 4/30/2011
• 2nd: 5/1/2011 - 5/2/2011
• 3rd: 5/2/2011 - 5/3/2011
• Exam 3
• Morning Session
• Afternoon Session
• 1st: 5/4/2011-5/5/2011
• 2nd: 5/6/2011-5/7/2011
• 3rd: 5/7/2011-5/8/2011

[3] CFA Glossary
Check: 5/15/2011-5/28/2011

[4] Schweser's QuickSheet (CFA 2010 Level 2)

Check: 5/28/2011-6/2/2011

[5] CFA Institute

• 2010 Mock Exam
• 1st: 5/8/2011-5/11/2011 (50/60+47/60=97/120=80.83%)
• 2nd: 5/11/2011-5/14/2011 (59/60+60/60=119/120=99.17%)
• 3rd: 5/14/2011 (60/60+60/60=120/120=100%)
• 2011 Mock Exams
• Early May
• 1st: 5/29/2011
• Review Morning session (45/60 = 75%) 5/30/2011
• Review Afternoon session (49/60 = 81.7%) 5/31/2011
• 2nd: 6/3/2011
• Review Morning session (59/60 = 98.33%) 6/3/2011
• Review Afternoon session (58/60 = 96.67%) 6/3/2011
• Sample Questions
• 1st: 6/2/2011 (16/18=88.9%)
• Sample Exams
• Open - 9/6/2010
• (did NOT try it)

http://www.cfainstitute.org/mycfa/candidate/takingexams/dates/Pages/index.aspx

[6] Exam admission tickets
Late April 2011 Exam admission tickets available online

[7] CFA Level II Exam date (Tokyo)
5 June 2011

June 2011 Level II CFA Exam - CFA exam registration

I've ordered CFA exam registration + eBook and print.

2011 June CFA Level II Exam: $745.00
Level II Print Curriculum June 2011: $225.00
Level II eBook Curriculum June 2011: $185.00
Discount: $495.00
Shipping: $20.00
Tax: $0.00
--------------------
Total: $680.00

June 2010 Level II CFA Exam Result (Fail)

I've received email from CFA Institute today that said I've failed the exam; it's very disappointing but this is the reality. I had did my best and there is nothing to be shamed. It was just 6-month prepareation after Level I. Most importantly, we had a lovely baby girl in Janurary! My family comes first.

I will denitely review my results and start studying for next exam. I will never give up CFA.

The email from CFA Institute is as follows (parts I changed are indicated by gray, blue and red characters):
----------
XXXXXXX


Dear XXX XXX,

Your results for the June 2010 Level II CFA exam are below. The pass rate for June 2010 Level II was 39%. If you have questions or comments, please contact us.

Level II: Fail

The table below illustrates your subject matter strengths and weaknesses. The three columns on the right are marked with asterisks to indicate your performance on each question or topic area.

Item SetQ#TopicMax Pts<=50%51%-70%>70%

-Alternative Investments18--*

-Corporate Finance36--*

-Derivatives36--*

-Economics18*--

-Equity Investments72-*-

-Ethical & Professional Standards36*--

-Financial Reporting & Analysis72-*-

-Fixed Income Investments36--*

-Portfolio Management18--*

-Quantitative Methods18*--



We have divided the full group of failed candidates into ten approximately equal score bands. Your score band below shows how your overall score on the exam compares with all other failed candidates.

For example, if your reported score band is 1, you scored in approximately the bottom 10% of failed candidates. If your reported score band is 2, your score was within the next band width ranging from approximately the bottom 11% to 20% of failed candidates. If your score band is reported as 10, you scored in the top 10% of all failed candidates.

Your score band: 9

Candidate registration will be available 27 July on the CFA Institute website. All candidates may register for an upcoming examination. Please note that heavy traffic due to results may slow our online registration system on 27 July.

Any alteration of this e-mail message is strictly prohibited and may be grounds for disciplinary action by the CFA Institute Professional Conduct Program.

This e-mail message and any attachments it contains are confidential and are intended solely for the use of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you received this e-mail message in error, and that any use, dissemination, distribution, printing/copying, or forwarding of this message and any attachment is strictly prohibited. If you received this e-mail message in error, notify info@cfainstitute.org immediately, and delete the message and any attachment from your system. Thank you for your cooperation.

Mastering MATLAB 7

I've just started reading today to master MATLAB 7!

ZoomIt

This is really useful software to zoom on Windows. This must be useful tool during your presentation.

• No need to install; when you download the file and extract it, you will find ZoomIt.exe. All you have to do is run the exe file.
• How to use:
• Ctr + 1: Zoom
• Focused
• Move up/down or left/right
• Left-click to hold the screen
• Then you can draw and type
• Esc: Back to normal
• Ctr + 2: Draw without zoom
• Ctr + 3: Start timer

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897434.aspx

CFA Level 2 June 2010 Exam

I took the exam at Asia University in Musashisakai. It was a bit tough given more calculation problems than expected, but I certainly did my best; I have nothing to regret. I made some mistakes in, say, swap calculation in Morning session and also one section regarding futures in Afternoon session. But I think I did not made a huge mistake. I never lost my control and I just solved problems one after another calmly almost on time.

Let me look back my challenge so far. Right after the Level 1 in December 2009, I had started preperation for Level 2. Then our baby girl was born at the end of January. The most painful thing is that I could not have time with my family at all. Our baby girl is too cute to keep me away from her, however, to have enough time to play with her in the future, I made up my mind to pass all levels asap so I had only 6 month to prepare Level2. My wife takes care of our lovely girl, I do really feel sorry for that. What a farther!

Trying CFA is really great experience for me. Although I passed CMA (securities analyst charter in Japan), I really want to go global as a professional in finance. CFA covers not only US, but also international like IFRS. I thought that CFA is the best way to comprehend finance, rather than MBA. I emphasize on basic theories at this point in time, so I might apply part-time or executive MBA to learn combination of finance and other major like accounting and management/strategy. Furthermore, I do want to study with people with different background. Finance is important for me, but it's not everything.

I never feel that I don't wanna study finance. Taking exams are absolutely stressful, but studying finance gives me wonderful intellectual stimulation. Like I felt in phyics. Most importantly, it's deeply related to my day-to-day job; with theoretical knowledge and experience, I can understand practical matters better and that makes me feel like learning more!

Now I am on my way home. My wife is waiting for me with cold and my favorite beer, Suntory's Premium Malts, and cooked dumpling, gyoza. I really appreciate my family; with my wife and our girl, I could stick to extensive and continuous study. Let's drink, eat, and laugh! We will have fun. Oh, maybe our wonderful girl is sleeping:-)

CFA Exam - belongings

• Admission Ticket
• Map
• ID(Passport, Driver's license, etc.)
• Mechanical pencil
• Eraser
• Extra lead
• Earplug
• Eye mask (for lunch break)
• Financial Calculator
• Battery (for the financial calculater)
• Watch(G-SHOCK)
• Mobile phone (with mobile Suica; electronic money/commuter pass in Japan)
• Lunch box
• Pet bottle (mineral water)
• Snack (chocolate or something sugar-rich)

Unnecessary
• Wallet

Only for December exam
• Underwear for cold protection