Band 5. BAND 5! … I had passed L1 and L2 in 6 months (1st time on each) and scored 70+ on 19/20 topics between the two and back in August I was staring down at a band 5 fail for the L3 exam.
Simple advice:
1 - Don’t not go just as hard as you did on L2 because you hear a lot of people say that L3 is easier. IMO - the material in L3 is generally easier to comprehend, however, it’s still a lot of f’ing information and recalling information on an open-ended question can be a mofo. [I studied about half as much for L3 as I did for L2]
2 - Practice many simulated AM exam sessions no matter how fast of a test taker you are. I am an extremely fast test taker (I finished the L3 PM section with like 45 min to go (my L3 results still sucked in the PM as well though )) and never did any simulated exams for L1 or L2 so I decided not to for L3 as well. [I didn’t heed any of the many warnings I read online about time and was forced to leave several questions blank because I had no time management skills. I had practiced open ended questions when studying and felt like I had the time down, but come exam day it wasn’t even close to good enough.]
3 - Go start studying. [I didn’t start studying until February for my L3 exam]
4 - Don’t fail, it sucks. [I couldn’t even log into AF until a few weeks ago because thinking about the exam got me so angry at my hubris the first time around. Cheers to another spring time filled with studying! FML]
Material is not more difficult than level 2 material. Practicing open type questions is more difficult and time consuming. You will see by solving EOC questions and later AM Mock session. I am still spending more than 2 hours on each official EOCs set, usually 18-19 open type questions, sometimes followed by additonal 2-3 vignette sets.
I agree, I am back for my second try at Level 3. Passed 1 and 2 my first shot as well…
Best advice to everyone, start yesterday!! Study hard, and ignore anyone that says Level 2 is the hardest. At level 3 you are competing against a select group of candidates that have all passed levels 1 and 2 already. Only 52% of everyone will pass!!! That means 48% will fail. Competition is stiff. Don’t underestimate this exam.
My opinion about competition is debatable. Conventional is those are the best group of candidates selected by passing previous two levels. That’s might be correct. But, those are also tired candidates and many of them maybe are not as well prepared as they had been before. I know couple of candidates who did not study enough for level 3 by their own words.
Have started L3. Feel fine about PM. But for AM, the advice is always: a) do a lot of AM mocks; b) write tight phrases in bullets.
When self-scoring AM, the suggested answers are long winded. So, you need to use a lot of judgement on whether your 10 words and 2 arrows are worth the same points as the 50-word given answer.
Q: What’s the best “teacher” for writing short, strong answers?
I didn’t use a 3rd party provider for L2. For L3, bought GoStudy – excellent so far, but for $99 it doesn’t touch on constructed response.
Ideally, I’d like to watch videos of an expert demonstrating how he/she answers dozens of AM questions.
Perhaps I am over simplifying, but while the actual exam may have some difficulties, the concepts are not harder than L2.
L2 was wide and deep, and quantitative. It was made up by many little pieces, each with its own difficulty. Also, constructed responses are difficult and new, but for what I remember, the first impact with L2 vignettes was hard. They were done in a way that forced you to really understand what you are talking about. L3 constructed responses are going to have the same effect. I think if we are truly interested in what we learn, the type of exam shouldn’t make much of a difference.
Yes, but I haven’t heard of many people who struggle badly to finish the L2 exam within 3 hours.
I think almost 100% of stories about L3 describe being literally unable to answer every AM question. I.e., if you study for L3 extremely hard and efficiently, it’s still possible that you’ll fail due to writing 40 words x 30 question parts, and leaving a lot of points on the table, when 12 words per will do.
band 9 idiot here… at the end of the day it was time management in the AM for me, and i felt the PM was very hard compared to any mock/ sample item set
This is true. It’s really hard to teach yourself not to get stuck on something that you are shaky on and try to work your way through it. Practice as many AM papers as you can. I did like 10+. Wound up being enough as I was fortunate to juuuuust finish the AM session with like a minute to spare. Still was <50 on four questions though. The morning is just BRUTAL.
What worked for me was if I wanted to get a 70 on the exam then plan to get a min of 60 on the am and an 80 on the pm.
In other words, one needs to get apx. 10 points more on multiple choice type questions than level 2.
The key is lots of practice. I recommend practicing pm type multiple choice questions in addition to am type essay questions immediately. There are several providers who offer these.
At the beginning, time wasn’t the biggest focus but understanding the material and style. Short answers… using a pen thats comfortable (I used an erasable pen because i like being able to correct). Learn to read what they are looking for and grade myself strictly. More is not better. but time how much you write based on the number of points assigned.
I recommend getting through the material by early april, so april and may are available for practice tests. of which I heard the recommendation of 10.