Just curious if anyone has passed when the night before the exam they couldn’t sleep and maybe slept for a few hours? I took this past exam sleeping only a few hours. Anxiousness must have taken over and I just couldn’t fall asleep. Felt I did ok on the exam but am now worried that I may have missed a lot of tricks especially in the AM, or just didn’t answer the questions well. Now that a month has passed I feel I did worse than last year where I failed band 10, whereas right after the exam I felt I did slightly better.
nobody has ever passed the cfa with less than 6 hours of high quality sleep with multiple REM cycles.
i passed the all the exams on 3 to 4 hrs of sleep. for l3, i studied until 12, and tried to sleep but couldnt sleep until 1 am. i then woke up at 4am, and just kept studying and binge watching entourage. when i finisehd the exam, i still couldnt sleep, cuz i realized i was free… i think some people just function with less sleep. a good sleep for me is around 6 hrs. i average around 5 hrs a day. i have actually changed mty sleepign schedule recently. 3 to 4 hrs at night around 1 am. and 1 to 2 hrs when i come back from work and do an hr run and eat and shower around 3 or 4 pm.
Been there done that but i’ve never been a good sleeper so I have semi effective coping strategies.
…which is why I told you guys to get a full night’s rest on Wednesday and Thursday ('cuz it wasn’t likely gonna happen on Friday night).
But then again, wtf do I know…
#hashtagCFA
yea i can understand not sleeping due to nerves but staying up all night to study is obviously a mistake.
I went to sleep at 10 PM woke up at 1 am and then couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night. I am sure it must 've affected my score
If you need to stay up studying the night before the exam, you’re already in trouble.
I never studied the night before the exam but for all 3 levels I was usually asleep by 12 and up at 4am. Worked for the first 2 so I guess we’ll see for 3.
And I agree, if you are studying the night before… good luck
I’m usually an 8 hour sleeper consistently. I might have slept 4 or 5 hours the night prior to level 2. I slept 6 hours for levels 1 and 3 which I consider best case scenario. For June’s level 3 I went to a bar across the street from my hotel and had a couple pints around 11pm to relax a bit. Worked like a charm.
While experiencing a sleepless night certainly won’t help you… I feel like adrenaline gets you through the majority of the exam… I started to fade a bit for level 2 pm.
In my opinion, if you were adequately prepared, no amount of sleep or lack thereof will change the result of your exam.
Also, I would suspect that your good feeling immediately after the exam is likely a more reliable measure of your performance compared to your feelings a month later after the negative thoughts have had time to fester and grow.
I felt pretty decent about my performance immediately after the exam. Each time I catch myself thinking negatively I convince myself to remember how I felt right after I put my pencil down.
I slept around 3 to 4 hours before the level 3 exam (btw - I slept well the nights before L1 and L2) and passed. Concentration was a bit difficult the first 10-15 mins in the AM session, but was ok afterwards. At around 4pm my I thought I had to fall asleep, but fortunately I was almost finished with the PM session by then. So, it’s possible to pass level 3 with not that much sleep.
I only managed four hours of sleep. Not optimal, but don`t think there is any drama to that.
Wrote the exam on a great adrenaline rush. Struggled with the first question in the AM session, but felt things started clicking 30 minutes into the exam. Finished on time, likely will get <50% for the first question, but I can live with that.
I was not too tired in the PM session, probably because I had eaten little and drank a coffee. Took a lot of time to read through some of the questions (especially ethics), but still finished with 20 minutes left.
Whatever will be, will be:)
The night before L3 i didn’t sleep at all. Struggled to stay awake when the proctor was reading the instructions. Saw essay Q1 (2018), put my pencil down and decided i would just try again next year. Slid my chair back from the table…then decided to look at Q2. Got on a roll and finished morning session. Tons of coffee, banana and a muffin at the break. Came back and cruised through PM. Passed somehow with a pretty good matrix.
Are you from the future?! 
Don’t think I’ve slept more than 6 hours cumulatively for all three levels combined (less than 2h per exam). Every single time my heart starts beating faster the night before exam day and can’t manage to get a proper night’s sleep.
Yes, I was tired every exam day but adrenaline helped me carry through and managed to pass L1 and L2 the first time with a good score too. As long as you’re well prepared sleep shouldn’t be an issue! Lack of sleep won’t affect your pass if you’re aiming for a 80%+, it might though if you’re on the brink of a minimum pass.
Couldn’t get to sleep for the life of me the night before L3. Finally took a hit of pot around 4am. Got a couple hours from there. Adrenaline kicked in for the exam and ended up passing, thankfully.
Sometimes i think i must be.
I think the take away from this topic is that if you prepare adequately, just trust your preparation and let your brain work. Should be no need to cram and get anxious. Tough to let go that final night and relax but force yourself to.
for L1 I remember there was poor air conditioning and the hotel room was full of mosquitos and I couldnt manage to sleep even a single minute… in the morning I was like a zombie but at the end cracked the exam…))
I agree. I would recommend not to study at all the day before, let your brain relax for a day. You will have a good night’s sleep that way as well. One must be really delusional to think that one more day of studying would contribute materially to his knowledge that he has spent months accumulating.