Thanks to all of you . Celebration time for you all. I am raising a toast for all of you and hope to be on the other side of the table next year. Cheers
I would look into LevelUp Bootcamp (Instructor Marc). The slides/book/classes are set-up perfectly for a pass. I walked out confident and I passed with high marks. Honestly, it’s worth it, all things considered. Cost alone beats spending $120k on an advanced degree, which is another discussion.
As well as someone’s notes that I cannot be asked to search for right now, I think the guy’s name was Peter. I spent some time on secret sauce during the last 2 weeks refreshing memory every now and then.
Note that they were only helpful for the parts that I didn’t have enough time to study, or was weak at. Do not use these as your learning resource, rather a handy supplement.
I focused strictly on AM mocks and prior year exams. Focus on CFA Books for EOC, Blue Box. More emphasis on blue box.
Time Allocation-
25 % -Study Chapters ( as you already read in first attempt)
75 % - EOC ( 2 X), Blue Box (2X)- Make notes for tough questions/topics, Past AM question (Segregate topic wise) and see Topic appeared in last 8 years (High chances of topic reappearing if it has not came in last 2/3 years), Practice more for higher weight areas like PM, Derivatives, Fixed Income etc.
Try to Kill PM it has saved me, solve as many type of new questions as possible. So that small tricks can be observed. You can easily get 75-80% in PM in same time allocated for AM, so respect that and try to put extra practice for PM related topics
If I were have to give you the most important 3 pieces of advice to pass the exam. It would be
Outstudy. Trust me 300 hours of study is not going to be enough. I believe I spent like 400 hours on level 3. It is the last level and you want to make sure that you put everything on the table in order to pass. Some people say the CFA curriculum is the most reliable source and I tend to agree. But it depends on how each person gets the most out of it also. I personally rely on Schweser and use the curriculum as the second source of reading. Whenever Schweser does not seem to make me fully understand the material, I go back to traditional curriculum. I believe I can do this because I am truly honest with myself whether I do or do not get the concept out of Schweser.
Stick with the LOS. Make sure you can exactly do what LOS expects you to perform on the exam. For example, When it says ‘Calculate…’, you can calculate what it says. I made the checkmark on each LOS as I go through the reading to make sure that my reading suitswhat CFA expects from you.
Classic recommendation: Do as many mock exams as possible. Go back to at least 6 years of practice exams. I personally did 6 practice exams (AM+PM) for 2 times. For the essay, keep the answers to the point and concise. Search ‘how to pass CFA level 3’ on youtube. There are a few videos that explain how the graders grade your answers and you will get the idea of how CFA expects you to respond.
Last year my first attempt was band 5. Didnt do any serious mock on essay part and unable to finish AM.
This year i also started in around Mar(after working hours daily). Just read through Schweser notes once more and do the exam practices provided. I dont have enough time to spend 3 hrs each for a paper but what I do is to do all MC and Essay Q on same chapter at the same time to consolidate. Just before the exam I just did once real trial.
Like everyone said the more u do AM mock, the more u know how to write only the necessary thing on the paper and save your time. This helps me a better AM score