Band 10 2X Essay Suggestions

I have finished in band 10 twice on the Level III test and was looking for suggestions. Both times the morning essay has clearly cost me from passing. Specifically, I have gotten less than 50% on the first two essay questions for Individual Portfolio Management and 50-70% on the Institutional Portfolio Management question. It seems to me that it is very difficult to study for the essay part of Portfolio Management. Can you be taught to answers questions the CFA way?

You can use Schweser Practice exams, aswell as CFA AM parts from past years. But I myself found the Schweser tests most useful for the AM part of the tests. They explain very very well what you are supposed to answer, whht you might be asked and so on.

@ Tiburon I failed in 2010 and 2011. I aced the afternoon session in 2011 (this year) and felt good about it leaving the test. However, as in 2010 and 2011, I did extremely poorly in the morning session. There are a few reasons I did poorly in the morning session in both years. First, there was some material that I did not know well enough. Second, I wish I had taken more morning practice exams so that I could have gotten a different perspective on the CFA material. In my case, having a different angle on a concept that is explained in the CFA texts is all that it takes (not because the concept is necessarily difficult). Part of this is knowing how to give a response that the graders who rely on the guidelines are searching for. Simply knowing how to package an answer can help me to learn the material, too. For example, if you look at the matieral on individuals and insitutional portfolio management, the end of chapter exercises are long, thougtful, and drawn out. The actual morning examination questions that have been released by CFAI are quick one-two punches compared to the end of chapter exercises. The end of chapter exercises help you to learn the concepts the long way. The make you thoughtful, but they don’t necessarily make you quick at packaging the answer quickly and efficiently. Indeed, the answer to the end of chaper exercises are at least a full paragraph in length. To that end, I plan on using a review course of some sort this year.

Tiburon Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I have finished in band 10 twice on the Level III > test and was looking for suggestions. Both times > the morning essay has clearly cost me from > passing. Specifically, I have gotten less than > 50% on the first two essay questions for > Individual Portfolio Management and 50-70% on the > Institutional Portfolio Management question. It > seems to me that it is very difficult to study for > the essay part of Portfolio Management. > > Can you be taught to answers questions the CFA > way? Take the level 3 creighton boot camp this year…it teaches the exam, not just the material.

use the CFAI examples in the text they are very thorough. i too scored <50 in those sections and thought i nailed them on the exam…time will tell when we get the exam itself to look over.

Tiburon Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Can you be taught to answers questions the CFA > way? the 90,000 active members are proof it can be done

Watch videos to get enough to BS your way through AM. Blue box examples and EOCs are important. Write short answers in lists.Attempt all questions. At least aim for 50-70% for each question or around 2/3 of lists first round and come back if you have time (Do familiar parts first).

Practice actually writing out answers and timing yourself. I did this with the old AM questions and found it to be difficult at time, but I eventually got the hang of it. There are tons of institutional questions to practice with and it helps to make a summary sheet

Dont write as soon as you finish reading the question. Think for a moment what is really being asked.

Practice morning sections as much as you can, if you have noticed they are trying to change the pattern of the morning exam. However you have to score good in the afternoon…I think. thats the key. I failed twice before I thought I did okay in the morning but my score was not showing that for the morning…afternoon saved me. Therefore practice the technique for morning but don’t give up on the afternoon.

Tiburon Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I have finished in band 10 twice on the Level III > test and was looking for suggestions. Both times > the morning essay has clearly cost me from > passing. Specifically, I have gotten less than > 50% on the first two essay questions for > Individual Portfolio Management and 50-70% on the > Institutional Portfolio Management question. It > seems to me that it is very difficult to study for > the essay part of Portfolio Management. > > Can you be taught to answers questions the CFA > way? Can you give me an idea of how you are answering the question? Cause I nailed all the morning section (Q1 to Q3) with ease but I find afternoon always the difficult part for me. or other questions in the morning. I think I might have an idea as to why people score poorly in those sections. But let me know how you answer it and I might have some insight for you. Passed level 3 this year, wrote twice.

The IPS questions are all about being able to do the calculation for the required rate of return. You need to be able to do those backwards and forwards since the calculation itself could be worth anywhere from 12 to 16 points on the exam. The Creighton Boot camp helped tremendously for these types of questions. Generally there are two types of IPS calculations: 1 year forward rate of return, and ongoing rate of return. Know how to do both of these and you should get >70 on these IPS questions without a problem. One thing some people forget is when they say to state the return objective and calculate the required return, people go straight for the calculations and forget to write the part about stating the return objective. It should go something like: “So and so’s return objective is to cover the cost of their children’s college tuition costs and maintain the level of assets while producing a return to sustain their lifestyle through retirement.” (Followed by the required return calculations…) That statement alone is worth 3 points I believe.

get in touch with Marc Lefebvre at Creighton University