For LVL III Candidates

To LVL III Candidates:

Background: Passed LVL 1 2017 90% percentile, Passed LVL 2 2018 90% percentile. The strategy was simple, study study study and memorize what you can and practise.

For LVL 3 I decided to read CFA books practise every single question I could and understand the logic behind every LOS. I spent 5 months reading the books and taking notes [working in City, long hours]. By that time you finish Book 5 you have no idea what the book1 was about.

Now looking back - use Kaplan books to grasp the concept. CFA books go into detail and first you MUST understand what is it all about,before you get lost in all the what ifscenarios. Kaplan is great for that, but doesn’t provide you with details you need to pass level 3. I recommend stat with CFA books than refer to KAPLAN if you struggle with the concept and go back to CFA books again.

Mocks: S2000Grading Service, Mark MeldrumPapers (written by S2000), Official CFA mocks going back as far as you can.

BUT this was the mistake I made. Last 2 weeks I focused on just doing mocks without understanding what I was actually doing. Take a step back and understand why you made that mistake and what CFA guideline answer was. Mocks are showing you the same examples all the time, it won’t happen on your Exam date.

The most important thing what really saved my ass was ETHICS - two days before the exam I tried to memorize all the examples CFA provided. Even really stupid ones, when I thought chances of getting this example are close to 0. In reality, they managed to pick all of those.

Exam Day : Essay - I left probably 30 points (bullshit) on the table. I was not sure about the other 40 points. The rest I don’t even remember because at that point I started to panic. PM session - was difficult but doable. I was more confident with the PM that it could save me.

Result Day - I passed slightly above 50% in the essay and above 70% in the PM. I was 80% sure I will sit again next year. So the lesson I’m trying to convey here is that understand the concept do not rely on mocks and don’t panic if you leave 30 points blank and you are not sure about couple of other questions. Master what you can in AM part and try to kill the PM and do not DO NOT underestimate Ethics since it can save your ass. Book an erly grading service so you don’t waste your time - learn to manage your time.

Best of luck my friends and thank you S2000 and for your help for last 3 years !!!

Time to start drinking! Cheers