HI all,
I have failed this year and last year finishing with Band 8. I got >70 in the afternoon exam but did horrible in the morning exam. Feeling very discourage at the moment. Any advice on how I can improve my morning performance for next year? I tried to do as many mocks as I can but I keep choking in the morning exam.
Idonk,
First of all I feel your pain and am sorry about it but at least we know it’s an issue with how you write because you know the material.
I would recommend GoStudy’s special course for the AM. I took it this year and got 5/3/2 in the AM with 5 over 70%.
Basically, every week you get a bunch of questions from various AM papers and answer them. Then you scan and send them and get back your answers graded. While your grader is not someone who was a CFA exam grader, you get a lot of good feedback that I found useful. I would also take all of the AM mocks you did for this year’s exam and send them to GoStudy or to S2000 and have them grade them for you.
Best of luck next year!!!
Magnus
Thanks for your input Magnus
Try practising as many AM essays as far as possible… I went back till 2008 essays, and noticed some questions appear recurring, although in a different style. Look for IFT to determine which questions are still relevant up to today’s curriculum.
I was in your similar situation last year, when I bombed AM and had > 70% in 9 out of 10 PM sections!
The difference I made this year was also sign up for GoStudy’s morning course. In addition I practiced with 7 Prev AM papers. I am sure you can do it with small changes like this to your prepration. Wish you the very best in your next year exam. Don’t give up…
idonk,
I feel every word you said. I failed band 8 in 2015 and band 9 in 2016.
I made mistakes in these 2 years. I ignored the CFAI material. Didn’t practice enough AM questions. This year I did the exact opposite.
Don’t give up. Never back down. Enjoy Summer and come back in January refreshed and stronger. YOU GOT THIS
you have to print out all the AM exams going back to 2010 and do them 4-5 times each… then do the 6 current Schweser mocks
word?
i practised lots of AM papers and thought I’d be ok, was terrible for this year and last year. I really need a new approach for next year as I don’t want to give up. I solely need external help for the AM as I’ve been doing independent study this whole time and i’m confident my knowledge is there, just poor execution.
Yes I have some advice: do things differently next time. Deprive yourself of your comforting delusions.
or, take a few years off and come back when your big boy pants fit ya
LevelUp Bootcamps. No one else covers the ACTUAL CFAI text in as much depth as Marc. He knows it inside and out, and his study prep materials are insanely organized and alone will send you 10s of hours of flipping and searching for key topics.
Did exactly this. + started off with schweser exam mocks that have decent descriptions regarding answer style and level of detail.
Was very afraid of the AM portion and left 9 points unanswered on the exam, however passed AM with 6 items over 70 and 4 between 70-50. You can overdo the AM portion, however if you know the material but struggle with the implementation on the AM you might benefit of bluntly hitting 1 question of exam 2008 and immediately grading it. Check for all aspects a grader wants to see, and refer to the CFAI guidance answer. Check is you accurately interpreted the action words: explain, contract, state, justify etc. Filter the relevant sections from guidance answers tht will give you points. IF you didn’t get full points, redo and move to question 2. After you did a round of 2008-2016 redo Exam 2008 Q1-6 in one row and start timing with 90% of allowed time. grade and redo the ones without full points. Move to the second half and repeat. Move up to 2016. Do a final check from 2008-2016 and hit all questions you still mess up when you glance over them, the questions where you do not understand the underlying reasoning or dynamics.
You sacrificed 2 weeks of vacation and will kill the AM section. Make sure you still are well prepared for the PM section. I alotted time about 50/50. Helpfull links: My core mantra during L3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiHJI1kjHiI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWTMycg9f4I I did the schweser exams during studying the Schweser materials and passed out (sober) listening to the video course. So I knew the materials and grading style before final cramming season in the final 2 weeks. I also did a few AMs during my preparation just to test knowledge level and to ‘plant the seed’ in my more long term memory to get a feeling of acquaintance. I printed all exams from 2008 to 2016 and just bluntly hit the top of the pile and increased momentum till exam day. Take note they changed answer format from 2014 or something. I used blank paper to adjust for the non lined answer format. Bullet points help with formatting and assigning points. I practiced writing style and handwriting readability. Although people say otherwise i felt comfortable with a fountain pen. Not sure if others that killed the AM section did the same approach… I did not wanted to fail so did not wanted to leave anything on the table.
Let me try to give my story…
band 4 2015
band 8 2016
passed 2017 barely based on matrix
do not touch Kaplan, only use cfai period, there are no shortcuts at level 3. I passed 1 and 2 first time, level 3 is a complete different animal, no more memorization and running through the motions. If I ever hear how easy level 3 is compared to all overs I will completely lose it, no comparison.
You need to do everything CFAI and enroll in levelup period. No other options. Do every morning exam possible and multiple times.
Levelup is the way to go and so is cfai, level 3 has no short cuts.
Where’s Onward when you need him… He needs to clean this joint up.
#FunPolice
Haha hashtag, i have no personal vendetta against you mate. But even you have to admit that you do cross the line sometimes with your jabs . Those might be perceived as hilarious from your perspective, but infrequently they are substantially hurtful to other members. I dont mind your light hearted jabs, lets be clear on that. Please soldier on, just try to take the harsher/colder edge off especially when people are still in a state of disbelief.
#nohardfeelings
I used Schweser notes and barely passed. But almost all my practice was solely from official material. I did hand notes as well, the largest one for L3.
Unfortunately cannot prove that Schweser did a good job at least for AM part.
I wouldn’t risk with Schweser if I should take exam once again.
That’s my experience.
I used Schweser and comfortably passed first time for each level - not boasting, just saying it’s a bit reductionist to blame the provider…
I don’t blame anybody just have my opinion.
When you just said that, nothing related to CFA L3,
but this provider for some reason cancelled my past L2 vital source material so I cannot longer read and use it regardless I legally purchased it. And I need Schweser L2 material as a cheat sheet for my daily work. This action was completely unexpected and I really don’t understand this. I paid this thing and I would do better if I had downloaded it from some Chinese web pages.
Fair enough. For level 3, when I came to do past CFA mocks, I didn’t find that Schweser left me unprepared, which is where I was coming from, but I guess it’s difficult for me to compare when I didn’t use CFAI material.
Separately, congrats on passing Flashback. It’s deserved, and I’m sure you helped others with the contribution you’ve made in answering a lot of questions on this board.