CFA Exam Level 3 - Some tips

Dear all,

By writing this, it is just a pure intention to help peoples to clear their CFA exam. So if you are reading this wrongly, don’t get me wrong.

Before i continue i will like to thanks the people here for helping me with some of the question i have ask previously.

A background about myself on my CFA route

CFA level 1 - I managed to clear level 1 after 2 attempt.

First attempt i was proud and arrogant after my university and went straight into the CFA exam without completing reading the schweser book. Failed. Managed to pass on the 2nd attempt.

CFA level 2 - two attempt

First attempt, skip the afternoon paper as i realized i could not focus on the paper due to my lack of sleep. Managed to pass on the 2nd attempt.

CFA level 3 - two attempt

First attempt- Skip the afternoon paper as i feel disappointed with myself for not finishing the morning paper. Managed to pass on the 2nd attempt.

Some tips which i can think of and it work for me are as below:

Pre- exam ( read through the books at least 2 time, i use schweser) . Practice CFA end of chapter questions and Schweser questions two times),Note: i do read through the curriculum if i do not understand what schweser are writing.

Do blue box question if possible and also log in to CFA website to do their questions.

One week before exam - practice CFA past year question and mock paper. of course if time permit do as many as possible, otherwise focus on institutional and private investor questions. . For calculation question, make sure you cover it at least once.

Practice on Ethic as it can give you a overall pull in your score, i score above 70% for level 3 on ethic however for level 1 and 2, it was only between 50 - 70%

Formulas - make sure you remember all of them and know how to applies the calculation. Don’'t waste this part as you can score it easily.

EXAM Day - avoid eating funny food the previous day as you do not want to get an upset stomach , reach the exam hall not too early and not too late as you need to rest well the previous night. please do sleep well otherwise you cannot perform.

Stay Relax - It really stressful on the exam day and you may under performed. Questions which seem straight forward become complex as we become stress.

Pencils and Eraser - I use Mechanical pencil for my morning paper and 2B pencil for my afternoon paper. Why? there is lot of cancelation of writing during my morning paper and i just use eraser to rub it off. If i had use a pen, the whole page would be a mess after the cancelations. Bring more pencil and store your pencil led in your mechanical pencil as you do not wish to waste time to replace.

Calculator - i bring 2 of them

Handling questions - think through before writing. If they ask for one reason it mean one reason. don write more, it does not help. Also please note that from what i gather, Candidate usually run out of time for their morning paper. So don waste your time writing more. 3 hours = 180 minutes, if a question state 8 minutes as your write time, you should allocate 8 minutes or less to it. why? because the calculation question can burn your minutes

Calculation questions - Have you time yourself for a calculation question? I have tried it after reading through a particular chapter and went straight into the past year exam question. I know the formula and application by hard, I tried to solve the question ( 8 minutes allocated) and only managed to finish it by around 7 minutes 30 second. Do note it was a fresh reading and i only managed to finish it 30 second before the allocated time. If it was on a exam day, you would be stress and you tend to used more time.

Deliberatel y Skipping questions - i did that during my 2nd attempt. if you really run of time during exam, In my opinion, you should skip the question in which you have no confidence. Simply state, don’t waste time even thinking through the answer, just ignore it ,i will save this time for question in which i can answer.

It really hard to get above 70% in all area for the morning paper - in this case why not just skip the questions where you have no confidence and move on to the next question. If i do not recall wrongly, i should have skip around 10 - 20 minutes question.

Below are my result slips, the above method work for me and i hope it will work for you. Cheers.

Result slips is show because why i want show that deliberately skipping question is possible .

Essay

Q#

Topic

Max Pts

<=50%

51%-70%

>70%

1

Portfolio Management - Institutional

20

*

2

Fixed Income Investments

22

*

3

Equity Investments

19

*

4

Portfolio Management - Asset Allocation

13

*

5

Portfolio Management - Monitor&Rebalance

13

*

6

Portfolio Management - Individual

22

*

7

Portfolio Management - Individual

17

*

8

Portfolio Management - Risk Management

20

*

9

Economics

18

*

10

Portfolio Management - Indiv/Behavioral

16

*

Item Set

Q#

Topic

Max Pts

<=50%

51%-70%

>70%

Alternative Investments

18

*

Economics

18

*

Ethical & Professional Standards

36

*

Fixed Income Investments

18

*

Portfolio Management - Asset Allocation

18

*

Portfolio Management - Individual

18

*

Portfolio Management - Institutional

18

*

Portfolio Management - Performance Eval.

18

*

Portfolio Management - Risk Management

18

*

Congratulations for passing Level III! Truly an accomplishment, no doubt.

May I offer one more suggestion?

#HookedOnPhonics

Please do put in your suggestion

Thanks Lawrence!

Respect to previous years successful candidates and sharing your experience. Appreciated.