When will you start studying and what is your plan?

Hi Everyone

Background: Retaker here, will be my 3rd time, first time in 2010 Failed Band 10, then massive break for 7 years and failed again this year (2017) Band 8. This year did not finish the last 3 morning questions which were my 3 below 50s - clearly zeros… I feel had I written anything to get over 50 in those could have squeezed by as some of the matrix’s that passed looked pretty interesting. Anyway truth be told with only about 200hrs of studying and very limited practice exams under my belt this past year I am not too shaken up. I am glad I finally got back on the CFA horse and sat the exam though. One thing I learned reading for this level will not help its the practice that will help hammer home the concepts.

I do want to put this long journey to bed more than ever and so planning on starting to study super early and get the readings out of the way.

I registered yesterday and already have my E books. I am planning on starting to study after September long weekend in roughly following format:

-September - November -Read CFAI Curriculum, Make notes and do EOC questions after each readings. roughly 1.5- 2 hrs every morning

-December - take first two weeks to do some CFAI Past Exams and PM questions to see where I stand; take last two weeks of December and first week of January off for vacation

-Mid January (2nd week) to End od February use my notes and third party videos or notes source to review and study concepts again (looking for suggestions, Kaplan, LevelUp, Wiley whats better?)

-March to Mid April - BB & EOC from CFAI curriculum again along with TTs and AM topic focused questions (weekdays CFAI BB & EOCs and Weekends TTs and AM questions)

-Mid April to June 23rd - Review Notes, Take as many AM and PM exams as possible and revision.

This is the outline of what I am thinking, hoping to fine tune as I go along but going to spend way more time practicing questions (both AM and PM) vs reading this year…

Thoughts?

THX NVC

Hey,

I’ve been a silent lurker on this website since 2015. I passed all three levels consecutively and can tell you my process for Level 3.

I read through the CFAI books and took notes as I was reading through each chapter. These are the notes I used in April/May as I was reviewing the material instead of going back to the books. Starting at the end of March I began doing practice AM exams. I was scoring terribly and didn’t even know how to write many of the responses. However the first two weeks in April gave me an idea of what the institute was looking for in terms of a response. For the next two weeks, I started doing practice AM tests by topic. For example, I printed AM exams from 2008 through 2016 and did all of the Individual/Behavioral questions on each test and then moved on to the next topic. Through this process I also referred back to the CFAI books and my notes for anything that was unclear. All in all, I probably went through all of the AM exams (08-16) at least twice and did about 5-6 PM multiple choice mocks. Besides the CFAI material, I also purchased the IFT videos for Level 3. He was very helpful with the Level 1 free videos and I just listened to the lectures when I couldn’t read anymore. The accent may be tough at first, but its a good addition to reading the material. I’d go out for a walk and just have his lectures play.

My advice would be the following. I think starting in September is too early. It’s a long road to June 23rd and you don’t want to have the CFA on your mind the entire time. I started last year in October, but didn’t really sit down to study every day until February. You’ve already put 200 hours in and you should have a good grasp of the basic material.

-Re-read and do notes on your weak areas (for me it’s always been derivatives).

  • Do all of the topic tests on the CFA website at least twice, 3 or 4 times for the ones you score 1/6 on.

  • Then do as many AM mocks as you can and make sure you are answering with key words that the graders would be looking for.

  • Make sure you spend ample time on Individual/Institutional/Behavioral - if you score >70 on these topics you have a good chance of passing.

Hope this helps.

Nik