My CFA journey

CFA Level III
#1

Just wanted to share my experience and which might be useful for you. I had no finance background when I started the race in 2012. I just joined a PE firm back then as business Analyst and wanted to accelerate. Passed L1, failed L2 twice before passing in 2015 and then passed L3 last year.

L1 you can pass without much trouble if can study. The situation changes in L2 where clearly just studying is not good enough, you need to cover and retain the complete course on D-day which off course comes with practice. There is nothing which beats the practice. Practice at least 2000 question, the source does not matter. I did all the level with just schweser.

Then comes the monster L3 which I am still happy to have nailed in one attemt. Number of hours studied is irrelevant and never made any sense to me. I studied and never counted hours. Do it unless you get it. I revised the whole curriculum 5-6 times, did approx 4000 questions and all the mock test from schweser scoring on an avg around 60/75 in AM/PM. The biggest benefit of doing this is with each subsequent round of revision it gets shorter and shorter. The last one took only two days and I could retain all concepts. You are in complete control of the course if not the exam.

Yes I spent all my weekends from April-may. I knew I could not have passed without significant effort. Everybody has a different capacity to retain and process the information captured. The success lies in realizing how well you know about yourself.

(L3: if you are able to finish your PM with an hour or more to spare AND felt your AM ok ok, the chances are quite good about positive outcome)

Good luck everyone!

#2

Thanks for sharing with us your experience, every encouraging. “The success lies in realizing how well you know about yourself.” - very true.

Just curious, how did you revise the whole curriculum 5-6 times before the exam? When do you usually start studying? I usually can barely do two passes before the exam…

#3

Here was my rough schedule.

Jan - Feb round 1

March-mid April round 2

mid April - early May round3

next 10-15 days - round 4

next 7-10 days - round 5

last three days before exam- round 6

day before exam - chill just revise gips and formulas during first half and watch TV in the second.

As I said with each revision you bring your subconscious / vague memory to the current and able to apply from multiple concepts together.

With vague memory CFA will force you to choose the wrong answer and commit mistakes.

#4

That’s a G O :+1:

#5

Thanks,you must be a fast reader. I can’t read all the curriculum in two months. Did you do all the BBs and EOCs along the reading?

#6

Not sure why this website not let you delete comments? For some reason my comments always got posted twice.

#7

Yes But only in round 1 and 2. From round 3 you remember the question, the options and even the right answers. From round 3 I used qbank to practice new questions.

#8

Thanks for the post, it has motivated me to clear L3 first time.

I’m curious if gaining the charter has helped your career?

#9

Well certainly yes. The good thing it’s going to be with me forever. Short term I am happy with the sudden respect after the charter. Long term depends on how I capitalize and pave my way up the ladder. It has opened the gate for me.

#10

Thanks for sharing!! Very inspiring! Just curious did you do a lot of previous AM papers as well in addition to the Kaplan 6 exams?

#11

Hi Manu_kr,

Thank you very much for sharing! Very timely.

> The success lies in realizing how well you know about yourself.

I totally agree. Thanks!