Start Studyin in March Doable?

Planning on applying to business school this year, so will be spendig the next 2 months studying and taking the GMAT Anyone think it’s doable for me to study for Lvl III with a decent chance of passing? Sounds like the schweser material is useless at this level (been mainly using schweser for the last 2 levels) so will be more time consuming Also I won’t have much vacation days to take off, so taking 2 weeks off right before the exam is out of the question. Pretty much I can put in 2 hours on weekdays and maybe 6 hrs each on weekends.

YES, stock your fridge with redbull, cancel your cablevision and internet services, and buy a sweet desk in your place and youre golden.

Doable? Yes. Recommended? No.

It’s doable. I started studying for L3 in March, and then took time off in April to go to China for a while with my gf at the time. I still passed L3 but it was a “memorable” couple of months. I wouldn’t recommend it with the amount of time you are planning to put in, and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it if your strategy is to use CFAI materials (which are incredibly long winded at L3).

bpdulog Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Doable? Yes. Recommended? No. Second BP’s thoughts, but it obviously depends on your other responsibilities/workload and your natural grasp of the curriculum. You’ve passed levels one and two at this point; your past performance is probably the best indicator of your abilities. For lvls one and two, did you do an intensive cram kinda study program over a short few months, or did you need lots of time? For me personally, I definitely don’t think I could tackle the exam without more than three months, esp. given my current workload, but maybe you can hack it. My personal opinion? No, you’re really hurting your odds. I imagine that my own personal tryhard abilities for “big achievement” type goals are limited in a given year. Trying to break 700 or whatever on the GMAT, capped off with a condensed run at L3, would be too much for most.

So, if you spend 22 hours week and there are 13 (14?) weeks from March - May, that gives you close to 300 hours of study time. That is quite a bit more than what many people do. So assuming you can stick to the schedule and you aren’t burnt out from business school applications, it seems like enough time.

300 hours total is much more? I’ve been putting it even more… 3 months is really challenging. If you’re really serious, it’ll be a very harsh 3 months

Hmm. Maybe you are in the category of very well prepared candidates?

thx for the reponses I been pretty much the type of person who cramps for test (past lvl 1 and 2 with with cramping in the last 4 months, but had schweser to help) It was just poor preparation on my end with the timing of my GMAT and CFA exam, so this should be a fun 6 month Good luck everyone

Merfolk17 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > thx for the reponses > > I been pretty much the type of person who cramps > for test (past lvl 1 and 2 with with cramping in > the last 4 months, but had schweser to help) > > It was just poor preparation on my end with the > timing of my GMAT and CFA exam, so this should be > a fun 6 month > > Good luck everyone Good luck with those cramps.

I passed level I&II with about 3 months of preparation time on the first go around; probably not with great margin of safety but nevertheless. waited 7 yrs to do my level III and tried the same thing but didn’t pass, band 10; so it’s pretty close. So i would say you should be fine. ALso, if I remember GMAT correctly from 11 yrs ago, not much you can really study, more of just practice and getting used to the problems; math was easy. so I don’t think those two are mutually exclusive. You can do one then other or why not do two concurrently? use GMAT practice as a break for CFA study…good luck.

yea the problem is not having enough time in a day to do both GMAT + Level III. I’m going to try to take my GMAT beginning of Feb and retake GMAT after Level III if need be.

red bull like an energy drink

For me the GMAT was harder than the CFA. I passed Level I and II of the CFA no problem, but went to take the GMAT this fall and failed bad. Really bad. . . . . . I’m going to have to dedicate massive amounts of time to the GMAT next time around. Ughh. . . And I am using Schweser for Level III just like Level II. I’m following along in CFAI, but I think Schweser is just fine. Just do some of the CFAI problems. That GMAT really bent me over. I mean really bent me over.

The GMAT was way easier than the CFA has been so far for me. A bright junior or senior in high school should get above a 700 since the math doesn’t go past pre-calculus or trigonometry. If you read a lot, the verbal isn’t so bad either. The key is dealing with the adaptive nature of the computer exam where, if you’re doing well, you only get tough questions! The CFA has been tough for me because it’s mostly new stuff in my 30s when my brain is certainly not as spongy. I’m in the semi-cram camp; I’ve started in February or March each year (and passed) and am going to do the same for L3. Deadlines are motivating!

CFA L3 is much tougher than GMAT bros

Last year I studied for the GMAT from Jan-March and then switched gears and passed LII. Although I had several fail attempts for LII. The GMAT you have to take serious if you’re aiming for a real good score. And studying for the GMAT blows compared to the CFA.