Samual J. Gottlieb is a former New York trust/estate attorney and successful Merrill Lynch wealth management advisor, providing legal and financial planning services since 1988. In 2009, Sam moved into a new career as an instructor for the CFA program at a leading financial training company.  He recently completed a tour of duty with Kaplan Financial Markets as an instructor of courses for the CFA, Financial Risk Manager, and securities licensing examinations in Hong Kong. Currently Sam is an instructor for Year Up, a nationwide non-profit and youth development organization, where he teaches Financial Operations. He also continues to teach as an adjunct instructor for several training companies. Sam passed all three levels of the CFA exam on his first try by distilling only the essentials from the multi-volume CFA curriculum materials. He makes it fast as easy for you to concentrate on what you need to pass the Level II exam in this streamlined course of study.            Jane Vessey, CFA manages a training company in the United Kingdom specializing in financial analysis and investment. She has been a visiting lecturer at Cass Business School teaching classes in asset management and valuation and is a visiting lecturer at Cranfield Business School.  She is an associate at a leading London financial training company where she teaches courses covering investment management and related topics.  She has developed online training programs for students taking the CFA examinations and teaches CFA preparatory courses at a number of universities. Jane graduated in Mathematics from Oxford University and is a CFA charterholder.  She has some eighteen years’ experience working in the investment industry; she started out as an equity analyst before becoming an investment manager.  She was based in London and Tokyo and took responsibility for managing equity portfolios invested in the Japanese and other Asian markets. In 1990 Jane moved to Indonesia and established and ran an investment management operation on behalf of MeesPierson.  She took responsibility for all areas of the business, including investment, operations, marketing and administration.  Whilst in Asia, Jane was involved in providing training to capital market participants, state officials and teaching at courses provided by local universities.          A few tips on taking the exam: Budget your time.  Three hours for 120 questions may seem like an eternity, but if you spend too much time on a question, it’s easy to lose track and have to scramble in the last half hour to finish.   Don’t be thrown by how a question is worded.  The exam will throw some curve balls.  There’s a good chance that if you are properly prepared, you know the answer.    Don’t panic.  With all that you’re charged with knowing, there might be a question which you have no earthly idea of the answer, or one that you knew but just can’t remember the formula to calculate it.  Mark it, and go back to it later.  It’s better to answer the questions that you can answer and besides, I don’t think anybody will get a perfect score.   Bring lots of sharpened pencils.  There are no pencil sharpeners in the room.   Make sure that your calculator’s batteries are fresh.  Seems elementary, but I’ve heard of stories where somebody’s calculator died.  Many candidates bring more than one calculator, but that’s up to you.   Use all your time.  It is a good idea to review your test, if for no other reason then to assure yourself that you read the question properly.  Besides, you can’t leave once there are 30 minutes or less until the end, and most people aren’t going to finish in 2 ½ hours.  More candidates fail than pass, so do everything you can to increase your odds.   Good luck, and let me know how you did!!!!!