the worst part of failing level 3

what is it–

registration fee?

telling friends/family/coworkers?

time commitment?

placing career prospects (new job) on hold?

For me, its knowing some people finish in 18 months the entire program and it takes me forever. Somewhere there is a kid that just passed level 1 this past December, wrote level 2 in June and will sit level 3 next year with the retakers!

Well I took this years test when I was 8 weeks pregnant. Definitely don’t want to study again next year with a toddler lol

Dan,

There are definitely alternative and sunk costs to failing, but going in you realize only 50% of L2 passers pass L3, so its by no means a stroll in the park. Further, given the high variability most L3 takers had on their mock AM exams, you realize quite quickly that there is a lot more uncertainty of passing L3; this year one could make the same argument about the PM. Ultimately, I think it has to do with your personal value system. For me, failure would be not to put in the effort to learn and master the curriculum, not whether I passed the exam. I measure myself against the best “me” I can become, not against someone else - this is NOT a contest. The reality is you will always have people who passed all 3 exams at the first attempt, some in 18 months, some while working 100 hours weeks with a wife and 5 kids, some with >70 on all categories, etc. etc. In the end, all those people have is their knowledge and the Charter.

As it is now out of our hands, let’s just concentrate on enjoying our summer and when we get the results re-assess. I hope you get a congratulatory email come August!

Cheers,

Magnus

There have been a lot of sacrifices that people have been making across years for CFA (across all levels). The risk reward (rather sacrifice/reward) tradeoff is not that great currently in my country (India) but hopefully the tides will change with time. No doubt I have also put in the maximum amount of effort for Level III (though I never counted the hours) but still I am most uncertain regarding the results for this particular level. Somewhere within, I believe by God’s grace, I will make it through but if I don’t, I would have no complain either to prep providers or to myself as I gave my best. Though I am relatively young (25y), but still if I fail, most probably I will not be appearing again (this was my first and last shot at LIII) because by no means, I can put in more efforts than I have done this time and I will be completely clueless why I failed. Having said that, I still believe that I can get ~65% in AM and ~75% in PM which shall hopefully see me through.

But I really respect the efforts of all the candidates who have sacrificed so much for this thing. I hope all your efforts pays off :slight_smile:

A great mindset to have if one wishes to be permanently unhappy

Maybe we should open thread “the best part of failing L3”. For me: beautiful friendship continues on this forum, next, I have started getting bored, Lol!

The time required for preparation and its impact on my ability to be alert and spend quality time with my family. No question. I’m praying that I don’t have to do it to them yet again.

I have alibi to study and spend the time only with myself what is invaluable.:slight_smile:

This is not the worst thing what can happen in your life and is reasonable scenario and one should count with this probability.

Imo, by each outcome, there is always at least one good thing. I really like this preparing CFA exam phase excitement and really like isolation and studying.

How tell to friends, family etc. you fail?. Screw 'em all. They all failed many times on various occasions and will fail again. You may fail on your workplace, your each project may fail, your marriage relationship may fail. Your children may be drug addicts etc.

Yeah I don’t mind failing, or having to tell others that I failed. I’ve failed at something before and will fail again.

“Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” ~ Denis Waitley

Pre-congrats to those are able to climb over that final hump.

But for those who don’t make it this year, you need to take a hard look in the mirror and ask yourselves if…

#MaybeNot

This is You on this picture, #Hash? You look pretty fresh…:slight_smile:

Well that’s good because you won’t have a toddler next year…you will have a four month old.

IMHO…

Registration fee is not that expense.

Telling friends/ family - they don’t care because they don’t know what CFA is… coworkers - they understand it is a tough exam and they should understand.

placing career prospects (new job) on hold - not usually the case because very few jobs require the candidate to be charterholder only and absolutely will not consider a CFA level 3 candidate (all else being equal).

time commitment - ABSOLUTELY! By the time you take level 3, you have already done level 1 & 2 (perhaps more than 1 try each), so you have been studying for at least a few years… it’s the complete exhaustion that make it difficult to commit to another attempt, time and ENERGY!

best of luck people~

NANA

I’m quite relaxed about the possibility of failing level 3 more so then level 1 or 2.

Although I have put a subtantial number of hours in, the way that I see that next year (if I fail) would probably mean half the amount in prep time and this will always be the last exam I will probably take for a long long time.

Failing level 1 or 2 for me is worse as you have to seriously consider whether its worth carrying on. With Level 3 you are almost there so just a bit more effort and you are over the line.

Although i have seen people getting stuck on level 3 for an uncomfortably long time (like 5x and more)… i am sure the question of whether to carry on or not will come again.

i would have to postpone buying a guitar by at least a year. :frowning:

I hate losing. That feeling of failure is something that I don’t want to deal with on game day. That’s the worst part. Perhaps it’s exactly like the process of messing up mocks to learn the material for the test but I don’t want to find out.

Cracking those books to begin the first week of studying – again.

#OneMoreTime

3 attempts is a reasonable number. After that, Daddy would say: “Thank you and Good bye!”. Something must be wrong with many multiple attempts. Looser strategy must be changed.