Hello,
I have been a passive reader of this forum during my CFA journey and I feel like I should give back the valuable insights I have garnered about passing Level 3. Today I have been among the lucky ones who received the “Congratulations!” email. Before the receipt of the email I thought, perhaps I could pass but I could also very well imagine the “We regret to inform you…” email.
I think Level 3 was the toughest of them all. I started studying on 2nd January, 2019 and I set myself a goal of studying 4 hours a day, every day. I counted only the pure study time, I didn’t count the bathroom breaks or occasional checking of Facebook, WhatsApp etc. I used primarily Schweser Notes. My first pass of the material consisted of reading a reading first and then making my own hand-written notes and then doing the Schweser Module Quizes. I then did the end of chapter questions from CFAI books and when I was done with a Study Session, I did Schweser Topic Assessment and then the corresponding Topic Test from CFAI QBank. I skipped Ethics completely in the first pass and didn’t make notes for GIPS. I was done with the first pass by the beginning of April whereupon I started my second pass of the material.
In my second pass I read first a Schweser Secret Sauce reading and then my hand-written notes for that reading, supplemented by Schweser Notes and again did Schweser Module Quizes, CFAI EOC questions. When done with a Study Session I did Schweser Topic Assessment and CFAI Topic Tests from CFAI QBank. Here is where I read Ethics for the first time.
My third pass consisted of rereading all of my hand-written notes and then practicing the readings I felt week at. When done I started doing CFAI past papers and other mocks. Below are my comprehensive scores:
Provider** Mock Exam Title Date Attempted Score** CFA Institute 2010 AM past exam 6 May 2019 62,50% CFA Institute 2011 AM past exam 7 May 2019 60,79% CFA Institute 2012 AM past exam 8 May 2019 66,45% CFA Institute 2013 AM past exam 9 May 2019 53,85% CFA Institute 2014 AM past exam 10 May 2019 73,68% CFA Institute 2015 AM past exam 11 May 2019 62,02% CFA Institute 2009 AM past exam 12 May 2019 57,03% CFA Institute 2008 AM past exam 13 May 2019 68,46% CFA Institute 2007 AM past exam 14 May 2019 49,59% Mark Meldrum 2019 Mock Exam 1 AM 25 May 2019 67,78% Mark Meldrum 2019 Mock Exam 1 PM 25 May 2019 70,00% Mark Meldrum 2019 Mock Exam 4 AM 26 May 2019 62,15% Mark Meldrum 2019 Mock Exam 4 PM 26 May 2019 70,00% Mark Meldrum 2019 Mock Exam 2 AM 27 May 2019 62,22% Mark Meldrum 2019 Mock Exam 2 PM 28 May 2019 70,00% Mark Meldrum 2019 Mock Exam 3 AM 30 May 2019 56,11% Mark Meldrum 2019 Mock Exam 3 PM 31 May 2019 70,00% Kaplan Schweser 2019 Live Mock Exam AM 1 Jun 2019 70,00% Kaplan Schweser 2019 Live Mock Exam PM 1 Jun 2019 66,67% Kaplan Schweser 2019 Practice Exam 1 AM 3 Jun 2019 68,33% Kaplan Schweser 2019 Practice Exam 1 PM 3 Jun 2019 76,67% Kaplan Schweser 2019 Practice Exam 2 AM 4 Jun 2019 65,00% Kaplan Schweser 2019 Practice Exam 2 PM 4 Jun 2019 70,00% Kaplan Schweser 2019 Practice Exam 3 AM 5 Jun 2019 69,82% Kaplan Schweser 2019 Practice Exam 3 PM 5 Jun 2019 77,78% Kaplan Schweser 2019 Practice Exam 4 AM 6 Jun 2019 55,97% Kaplan Schweser 2019 Practice Exam 4 PM 6 Jun 2019 80,39% Kaplan Schweser 2019 Practice Exam 5 AM 7 Jun 2019 65,93% Kaplan Schweser 2019 Practice Exam 5 PM 7 Jun 2019 73,33% Kaplan Schweser 2019 Practice Exam 6 AM 8 Jun 2019 63,22% Kaplan Schweser 2019 Practice Exam 6 PM 8 Jun 2019 70,69% CFA Institute 2016 AM past exam 9 Jun 2019 77,69% BPP from 300hours.com PM mock exam 9 Jun 2019 60,00% CFA Institute 2017 AM past exam 13 Jun 2019 70,18% CFA Institute 2019 Mock Exam AM 13 Jun 2019 76,67% CFA Institute 2018 AM past exam 14 Jun 2019 79,31% CFA Institute 2019 Mock Exam PM 14 Jun 2019 83,33%
Overall mock score 67,67%. AM only 64,7%. PM only 72,54% (including CFAI Mock Exam AM, which was multiple choice).
My CFAI Topic Test score after the second pass was 74% (around 63% after the first pass), my percentile when I checked few days before the results release was 66%.
I never did the blue boxes in the official CFAI books, I only passingly read those for Equity and Fixed Income because I felt weak in these topics.
I was never super strict nor lenient when grading my AM mocks. I frequently awarded myself partial points where I felt appropriate.
I didn’t leave anything blank on the AM portion of the exam and finished just in time. At the PM portion, I finished with maybe 40 minutes left and managed to check some 70% of my answers. My initial impression after the exam was that the AM portion was not that difficult as the PM one. I felt that the real exam was neither the hardest nor the easiest of all the mocks I had done.
I also used Mark Meldrum as a prep provider but especially due to his practice exams. I watched only few of his videos.
My overall study time was 786 hours, that is on average, 4 hours and 49 minutes a day. I had no life during the studying, I was a lifeless soul. My only companion during that time was a popular tv series from the 80s.
I am incredibly happy that it’s all over. I never wanna study like that again.
God be with those souls who failed, may they pass the year that shall come.
Amen.