Anybody here like me who has still to complete 1st pass of whole syllabus
After failing the mock test I just started end of chapter questions!!!
I started a couple of days ago and panicing already
Syllabus? I’m confused…
Are you folks the ones that show up to the exam center and say “Wait…this isn’t an open book test?”
I am. Read from bf till equity. Alt, deriv, rest of pm, gips and ethics to go.
Haven’t done any eoc/mocks.
Vicky_cool most definitely is NOT one of these. Quite frankly, this shocks me - Vicky, what have you been up to and what have you done with Pierre?!
Ch
I’ll read the Fixed Income part tonight. after work. Maybe I can even finish book 4.
I’ll read book 5 tomorrow evening, and I’ll try to read at least part of book 6 and take my first half-mock exam on Friday.
Everything is under control. I’ll keep you posted.
I was studying at Starbucks over the weekend and a guy asked me if I was studying for the CFA exam. Apparently he was studying for Level III, too. I was going through my 6th Mock and he had yet to do any practice problems, let alone a practice test. “If I don’t pass, I’ll just take it again next year. I think this will be the easiest one so far,” he told me.
Suddenly I didn’t feel so bad about my inability to break 70% thus far…
How are you doing, Vicky?
I am hopeful that the majority of L III candidates mirror the “Starbucks guy’s” mentality mentioned above. However, from the looks of this forum, many do not. I’m still not sure why everyone feels that L III is so easy. Sure, the material is not as quantitative as other levels, but the subjective format and necessary active recall for essay portion requires a much more in-depth understanding of the material. I remember being terrified of the item set format in L II, but I certainly miss it now! I’ve taken L III more seriously than any other level despite the “easy” comments made by others, and still do not have confidence. Avg on mocks roughly 65-68% (before applying a discount to essay score in case I am being too friendly with partial credit). Morning avg around 60%, and afternoon avg around 70%, but still don’t think this is enough. Why is it considered “easy?!”
Vicky- I’m shocked to see you so far behind given your diligent approach for L II. 10 days left; pour it on!!! YOU CAN DO THIS 
cross-ied, I’m right there with you. My scores are about the same as yours (a little lower average on the PM) and I am by no means confident in my preparation. But AF had the same effect on me in Level 1 and 2. I never felt like I was anywhere close to other posters on here in terms of preparation.
Guys you should all keep in mind… @ level 3 most people work unlike level 1 and 2. and like 15k people take the test. people on this fourm represent like 100 people max. Think about the all screen names you can remember and double it. This is a verry narrow representation of the test taking population.
Lets keep on Truckin. its the only thing you can do…
Why do you feel that L3 candidates are more likely to be employed than those at L2?
I dont know 100% but when i went for the reviews these were my observations:
@ level 1 there were a lot of college kids in my schweser review class
@level 2 there was a good mix of recently employeed vs MBA students
@ level 3 review: 20% MBA types, 30% in between jobs and life issues, 50% taking the last week off from work to study for the test.
Again just from interaction with people at these review courses I can be wrong… but I believe the average test taker is older in level 3 than 1, which leads me to think they may have more financial responsibilities
GoBigRed- agreed. We can do this/ we’ve made it this far. Let’s both keep it up!!! Another thing I’ve come to realize is that typically, mock exams test diff items (vs. testing the same concepts over and over again). So when mocks scores don’t improve much, doesn’t mean you’re not improving overall. Good luck and hopeful I get to read your “I’ve passed” posting soon!
I wasn’t arguing, just genuinely curious - my experience/opinions are based on the AF community. Obviously, this is not representative of the candidate pool as a whole.
GoBigRed and cross-ied. Couldn’t agree more with your sentiments. I too am in the boat of mid-60’s (generous when applied to the morning session) to mid-70’s and get intimidated with the many mid-80’s I see on here. I still believe that as long as we keep revising and keep focused, we can make it through.
The exam is definitely not easy. You really have to know a lot of the material in and out. Especially for the individual IPS, you have to pay keen attention to detail as missing one aspect of the vignette can cause a lot of lost marks.
Here’s hoping there are more Starbucks guys out there