Sorry to anyone who failed. I failed last year, and I was devastated, sad, angry, shocked, felt cheated, etc. So, I know how you feel. I passed this year after adopting a new strategy for the AM (my glaring weakness). I’d like to share what worked for me in the hopes that others may avoid my fate. Everyone is different, so this will likely not be useful to everyone.
You’ll hear Level 3 is the easiest test to pass. That may be true, but it’s also the easiest to fail. Underestimate the writing, or approach it the wrong way, and you’re doomed.
Biggest tips: 1) CFAI releases old exams, 2) Start practicing them in late March/early April, and 3) be able to nail those AM questions that seem to pop up often in old CFAI exams in your sleep.
Background: 32 y/o, married, one child (born 4/2016). Non-finance education/job. Passed Levels 1 and 2 first attempt. For Level 2, I used only Schweser, i.e. did not open CFAI books once. I read and re-read each section, did every problem in every book, multiple times, on repeat. Barely did half a mock, not by design, but because I ran out of time. Why practice doing problems wrong? Passed pretty easily.
Tried a similar strategy for Level 3 last year: only used Schweser, and also left 3 weeks at the end to do Schweser mocks, did 5 (ha!). I didn’t know that CFAI releases old exams. Shame on me for that. Did well in PM, got murdered in the AM (of course!)
So, in 2017, I didn’t bother with Schweser. Only used CFAI. In hindsight, I’m not sure this was necessary, but I played it safe. Went through material once, doing blue boxes and EOC as I went through, slowly, carefully. Started doing past CFAI AMs in early April when I was almost through the material. I printed out all of the exams I could find ($130 at FedEx), along with guideline answers. Started with 2014, worked my way back to 2008, saving 2015 and 2016 for last.
How I approached old AMs:
Late March/Early April : initially do 3 to 4 CFAIs to get a feel for the exercise. During this phase, focus on knowing what they’re asking, what the answer is, and not so much on how to word your answer. In other words, make sure you have a strong grip on the content of the material such that you can retrieve the answer without multiple choice options to prompt you, and don’t worry about the specific answer yet. Do one question at a time, going over the answer immediately after you do it. Keep your books open, and look up/revisit anything that gives you trouble (redo EOCs). Be sure to understand what they were asking, and what you missed. Then repeat the exercise. It took me a few AMs to get a feel for the format of the questions, but I think others may have an easier time than me. The guideline answers from CFAI exams are wildly verbose, so again just focus on knowing the material at this point. Also, don’t worry about repeating old exams. Repetition is good if it helps you retain the concepts.
Mid-Late April - After you’re comfortable with the format of the questions, I recommend doing some Schweser mocks for the sole purpose of getting the hang of how to construct your answer. Their AM tests are quite bad imo (I caught a command word that CFAI doesn’t list), but their answers are great for instruction in how to be quick and precise, which is key. I recommend you only do the questions that look and feel like the CFAI questions you had been doing before (maybe 3 or 4 per exam). You’ll recognize these after having dug through old CFAIs.
Now go back and do some CFAI exams with the Schweser-like answers in mind (bullet points, incomplete sentences, etc.). Here you should be focusing on how you construct your answers in addition to knowing the content.
At this point, you’ll start to see repetitive questions that pop up on multiple exams (every other year, 2 of 3 years etc.). What I recommend doing is to make a list of these questions. Then, one by one, perhaps by order of year, go through each past CFAI exam and do every question that fits that particular category. You’ll wind up doing almost the same question 3, 4, or 5 times in a row. These are the questions you have to nail. Be able to do them in your sleep. I performed this step during on weekdays, and saw great progress when I did my mock exam day experience on the weekends (next paragraph).
Late April/Early May - Now you’re ready to figure out your timing. Many people run out of time on the exam, so it is important that you get a sense of where you stack up. What I did was this: on weekends leading up to the exam (4 or 5 weekends), treat the morning (Saturday and Sunday if you can) as if it’s exam day in terms of showering, food, coffee, etc. Whatever your routine is gonna be on exam day, do that. The one thing I will recommend is to forego the alarm and be well rested instead: practicing while tired seems silly to me, and your adrenaline is gonna be in high gear on exam day anyway. Go to your local library, and sit for an AM test, preferably one you haven’t done before, with a timer. Do not rush: focus on getting the answers right, not finishing in time. See where you fall on the timing scale while going at your own pace. Timing was never an issue for me, so I can’t help you if it is. But don’t get blindsided on exam day. After you take the exam, take a break (you’ll need one after 3-4 hours straight). Then, check to see how you did shortly after taking it. Later that day (or sometime soon thereafter), go over the exam in detail, pinpointing where you performed well and where you fell short. Study anew those areas that gave you trouble. Keep doing this until exam day. By the time the exam rolls around, you’ll feel like you’ve done it before.
Early to Mid May : After a few rounds of this, you’re ready for a true mock exam day. Do what you’ve been doing in terms of treating the weekend morning like the real exam, only this time, try to finish in time. You should be well on your way to feeling comfortable with the AM. This is when I attempted the most recent CFAI exams for the first time. Do them multiple times.
That’s it. Be aware that there will also be questions completely out of left field: that’s OK. That will happen on exam day too. Take the points CFAI gives you, and let CFAI have their points. Also, I know I missed some questions that I should have nailed. That’s OK too, it happens to everyone. Try not to dwell on it after the test (do as I say…)
I passed 1/4/5 AM, 0/1/8 PM after doing this. It was a big jump from 7/2/1 AM, 1/2/6 PM last year.
Hope this helps. Good luck to everyone.