Studying for CFA Level 2

Time to start studying for the Level 2 exam of the CFA.  I did so poorly the first time I'm convinced I must have spelled my name wrong.  At the beginning of the course I took to help pass the test, an instructor said "Don't get married, switch jobs, or sell your house while you're trying to study..."  Fortunately I only did one of the three (sold my house), but that process was both extraordinarily stressful and overwhelmingly time consuming that I'm pretty sure it negatively impacted my test results.

So, instead of studying for just 6 months for the test, I'm going to start now (well, a few weeks ago), and try to review everything at least once before January, 2012.

Let me just say, for the record, the my father in law was correct - the market's taken off since he and I had our little bet, and he won. This just illustrates that I'm too bearish on the market in general, and I'm not taking broader impacts into consideration when analyzing the market.

Let me also say, for the record, that I think we're in for a few more years of essentially zero growth - there's no meaningful job growth in the private sector and there is only going to be job losses on the government side.

One thing I don't quite understand is how someone could think that firing government employees is going to lead to increased job growth - firing people makes jobs? Is this like pro-lifers killing people?