Exam in 30 days. Tight, but real for a retaker. This plan shows exactly what to cover, what to cut, and how each day looks.
30 days × 6h = 180 total hours — 51% of typical CFA Level 2 prep. All published topics still fit, just barely. Realistic for a retaker with prior exposure. Brutal for a first-attempt candidate — the page below tells you what to expect.
Typical CFA Level 2 prep runs ~350 hours over ~22 weeks at ~16 hours per week. This cram window gives you 180 total hours (30 days × 6 h/day). The plan below allocates ~75% to coverage and ~25% to review + at least one full mock — that ratio shifts later as the window tightens.
CFA Level 2 has 10 topic areas. With a 30-day window we keep the highest-weight + load-bearing topics and explicitly drop the rest. The cuts below are deliberate — you only pick those topics back up if you finish higher-priority material ahead of schedule.
Every published CFA Level 2 topic fits inside a 30-day window at this hours/day level. Tight, but no triage required. Lower-weight topics get fewer hours but stay on the schedule.
What a real 30-day CFA Level 2 cram plan actually looks like. Heavier topics get more time. Review starts at ~55% of the window. Final stretch is mock-driven. Adjust the start date below to align with your exam.
A visual preview of how exclam.ai compresses 10 CFA Level 2 topics into 30 days. Update the start date so the exam date aligns with your sitting.
Cover Quantitative Methods (5–10%), Economics (5–10%), Financial Statement Analysis (10–15%), Corporate Issuers (5–10%) in this week — paired because their individual weights are light or the intensive pace requires combining adjacent syllabus sections. Read each objective, flashcard the key formulas, and run one quiz across the group before moving on.
Cover Equity Investments (10–15%), Fixed Income (10–15%), Derivatives (5–10%) in this week — paired because their individual weights are light or the intensive pace requires combining adjacent syllabus sections. Read each objective, flashcard the key formulas, and run one quiz across the group before moving on.
Cover Alternative Investments (5–10%), Portfolio Management (10–15%), Ethical and Professional Standards (10–15%) in this week — paired because their individual weights are light or the intensive pace requires combining adjacent syllabus sections. Read each objective, flashcard the key formulas, and run one quiz across the group before moving on.
Weak-topic drilling. exclam.ai surfaces topics where you underperformed during coverage and re-quizzes them. Daily FSRS flashcard reps across all 10 topics to prevent decay. Start doing timed question batches focused on the heaviest-weight sections.
Full-length CFA Level 2 practice exams under timed conditions. Target one mock every 3–5 days. Same-day error review: for every question you miss, re-derive the solution from scratch. Taper in the final 3 days — light flashcards only.
Cram advice is dramatically different for first-attempt candidates and retakers. The plan above is the same; the playbook is not.
Skip the textbook entirely. Level 2 cram requires condensed notes (Schweser SecretSauce-style or Mark Meldrum) + item-set practice. There's no time for the full CFA Institute curriculum.
Item-set practice is non-negotiable. Cover content via vignettes, not by reading. If you only do MCQs without vignettes, the exam day format will be a shock.
Watch how the vignette information layers — Level 2 items often depend on a single fact buried in paragraph 3. Train yourself to extract before computing.
Save the last 3 days for Ethics + Quant fundamentals + 2 timed mocks. Lock in pacing — Level 2 is 90 minutes per session, items are denser than Level 1.
If you've never done Level 2 vignettes before, do not start with a full mock — start with single item sets and build up.
Patterns that show up specifically when CFA Level 2 candidates compress the timeline. Worth scanning before you start your week.
Vignettes are the bottleneck, not content. A retaker who cracked Level 1 by recall will fail Level 2 if they don't practice item-set application — drill vignettes from day 1 of the cram.
FSA is roughly 1/3 of the harder vignettes — pension expense, intercorporate investments, and FX translation are the highest-yield drilling targets.
Equity Valuation vignettes follow predictable templates (FCFE/FCFF, residual income, P/E, DCF) — pattern-match the templates instead of treating each one as new.
Fixed Income at Level 2 is brutal for crammers — convexity, key rate durations, and structured products. Budget 25%+ of cram time here if it was a weak topic.
Derivatives shows up in vignette form with binomial trees + swaps. Either you can solve a 2-period binomial in 90 seconds or you can't — drill the mechanics until it's reflex.
Different window, different math, different cut list. Pick the duration that matches your real exam date.
For retakers with prior vignette exposure: yes, with discipline. For first-attempt candidates: 30 days is below the realistic floor for Level 2 — the item-set format alone requires 2–3 weeks of practice to become comfortable with.
Useful if you already own them. Do not buy them at day 14 of a cram and try to absorb them — the marginal value past 2 practice exams is small. Free CFA Institute mocks are higher-yield.
You're already in good position. Pull your last topic results, target the bottom 3, and drill item sets specifically on those. A small-margin failure with focused 30-day prep usually flips to a pass.
Topic names and weight bands are paraphrased from the public CFA Institute Level 2 Topic Outline (public). Verify the current outline before your sitting.
CFA Institute Level 2 Topic Outline (public)Upload your CFA Level 2 materials, plug in your exam date, and exclam.ai builds the compressed plan automatically. Free to start.