CFA L3 candidates, describe your feelings here

To those who attempted the December 2020 exam - What are your feelings as the results are approaching? Do you feel more or less confident about what you did, or just the same… Considering that your memory of the exam is all foggy now!

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Jealous of everyone who got to take it last year. Was shut out twice due to Covid, now have to take this new computer version. Had hoped to avoid that, but it is what it is. Safety first I guess.

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I’m feeling pretty good about my chances though I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s a sure thing. After the exam I was feeling cautiously optimistic and emotionally I feel about the same however the (apparently) higher than usual pass rates for L1 and L2 give me some additional comfort. I feel like there’s some application of Bayes theorem to be had here but I can’t quite put it together - something about how a higher pass rate will increase an individual’s chance of passing.

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I don’t know what to think anymore. Still in sort of a limbo. I believe my center was the only center open in 1000 miles radius and 2 weeks prior to D-date government was evaluating and bringing new strict measures every 3-4 days. Even the day before the exam I wasn’t quite sure what was going to happen. So immagine the conditions in which I had to prepare myself in 2 most important weeks. There is not a day passed that I don’t think about the results, but in the end I am just grateful I had the opportunity to take it compared to thousands of others.

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Sorry about that… Some of us who took it may need to repeat it as well in computer based! I also wanted to avoid computer, but then, it is probably not as bad as we think. When I was taking IELTS, which is an English exam, I tried the computer version of it once, and to my surprise, it was a lot better than the paper based!

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I was in a worse situation! I did not have my passport until literally two days before the exam…! I was pretty sure I won’t be able to attempt until like the last two days, when both the embassy and CFAI responded back to my emails with good news… The embassy gave me my passport back and CFAI gave me an exemption letter to use another ID! So yea, i was like, either the exam will be cancelled, or I won’t get it in, and what made it even worse is the holidays that coincided with it all, because of the thanksgiving holidays in the US and some long holiday in my country as well right before the exam!! Which made the communications get delayed even more! It was REALLY BAD, was practicing and feeling like what’s the point!!

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Good for you! I’d say if you were feeling good after the exam, chances are you did indeed do well! Because your memory is still fresh and you know very well what you did. As for myself, the morning session was a complete disaster that even though I feel I did well in PM session, I am not feeling good about my chances. I did notice the high pass rate, and it made me feel better, but still, don’t feel good lol

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I’ll just chime in that I was going through similar uncertainty over whether the exam was happening or not. I was expecting it to be canceled for the 2 weeks leading up to exam day. I’m hoping this is reflected as a “mask bonus” (for lack of a better term) for candidates sitting for the exam during the time of COVID 19.

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I just passed level II, so I’m just happy to be here.

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So are you guys feeling like you passed or no? @LadyMacbethStrategy @Toto_11

On some level, I feel like telling myself I probably passed is a good way to trick my mind into focusing on something other than the results and studying for the next attempt.

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Ennui.

Torpor.

Insouciance.

That sort of thing.

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To tell you the truth, I feel that I probably failed… It is just that the AM session was really bad. But the thing with essay questions, is that it is not easy to judge… I remember in my accountancy exams, it was ALL essay and I’d feel I did badly, and end up passing.

Bottom line, i have no clue… I think I won’t be surprised if I fail or pass, both are possible and I may even get a borderline fail or pass. It sure would be nice to get the results, you know :confused:

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Thanks @LadyMacbethStrategy, that’s what I was wondering about. I feel like I’m in a similar place for what it’s worth, we may just have different perspectives looking at the same rough probabilities (glass half full vs glass half empty to make an oversimplification).

I’ve felt similar at LI and LII but wound up passing. One thing that felt different for LIII was that while the morning felt pretty bad, I felt like I performed well in the afternoon which wasn’t the case for prior levels. Regarding the difficulty of the AM session, I keep telling myself if everyone did badly, then doing badly means you were average!

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Yea I actually tend to be the pessimistic type lol I don’t like to get my hopes high and then fail…
Something weird often happened with me over the years though, is that when I felt I performed badly, I passed, and when I felt I did well, either I didn’t or performed worse than I expected. Never failed an exam in my chartered accountancy, but my actual performance was always at odds with my expectations throughout all exams. CFA L2, the time I failed, I thought I nailed it (was crushed)… So I am hoping this is one of those times, but I am still not getting my hopes high over this crooked theory haha
Yea… I agree with you on the doing badly means you were avg thing since everyone did… This is how CFA works anyway… right… and it is what I’ve been telling myself…

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Cheers! Me too never failed any exam till this CFA L2 :grimacing:

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Haha it happens to the best of us!

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So @LadyMacbethStrategy have you been studying since exam day? I feel like if I was confident that I didn’t pass, I’d have started studying for the next try immediately. Since I’m not certain, I’ve been doing a lot of non-financial reading to keep my mind off the curriculum for my own sanity - I’d been studying for L3 from 8/2019-12/2020 so I desperately needed a break from the material.

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This is the thing, I am not confident that I will fail… I wouldn’t be surprised if I failed because AM was bad… But I did do well on PM or at least I think that i did well, so who knows… Either way, I am not planning on reattempting in May anyway… If I am unfortunate, I will reattempt in August or November, so either way won’t start studying just yet… The thing making me feel bad if I fail is that I had lots of time to study, but I didn’t use it well… but I am cutting myself some slack because I had a lot of personal circumstances some of which were in the month of November right before the exam :frowning: So yea, definitely did not study as much. You very much deserve a break, I don’t think it is wise for you to start studying now before the results… I wish you the best of luck, hope you (we) make it!

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I’m wishing you luck too! For what it’s worth, I bet you’ll pass but that’s just based purely on interactions on this message board.

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Haha well i studied like last 10 days for 80% of L3 :expressionless:
Did like 3 months for the rest 20% :grin:

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