Everything is going to be okay (really)

I thought I would check in on the L3 forum and offer a few encouraging words to candidates prior to the exam. The best advice I can is to calm down, relax, and take a deep breath – it’s going to be okay. You can actually miss a healthy number of questions and still pass the exam. Like many of you, at this time last year I was freaking out about implementation shortfall calculations, the finer points of swap math, etc., etc. In reality, there were no “absurd” formula questions on the exam; the test was a lot more subtle than that. So don’t focus so much on that last elusive formula, and spend the rest of your time going over the big stuff that really counts, like practicing IPS questions. If it makes any of you feel better, I got hammered on both of the IPS questions and missed the entire swap vignette in the afternoon, as well as getting dinged by some pretty random stuff (the legendarily lame reverse cash an carry question from last year, if that rings a bell for any of you). I also left one or two sections in the morning (out of 11) completely blank since I ran out of time, and didn’t ever bother to read SS 16 (performance attribution – fortunately didn’t show up) and didn’t review SS 18 (GIPS – smashed it anyway lol) prior to sitting for the exam. So most of you are probably in better shape than I was, and I still passed by a decent margin, as most of you folks will as well. The other important advice I could give is to focus on having nerves of steel during the exam. Do not panic! In the morning, focus on the big ticket items first so that you get maximum points where it counts most and build some psychological momentum going into the middle and back half of the section. Take your time and read the questions carefully. A little extra time up front saves a lot of time by not having to return to sections where you couldn’t finish some of the questions and end up re-reading stuff, trying to find the correct place to write, etc. Stop, think and answer carefully – take your time! What NOT to do is what I did last year, which is panic during the morning exam due to the sheer volume of material and the obscure nature of some of the questions. In hindsight, I wasted a lot of time flipping around looking for low hanging fruit, instead of just plowing ahead into the hard questions and putting something to paper. At any rate, the message is: If you have studied hard, you are most likely going to pass. I made plenty of mistakes and still made it through, and you guys will as well. Good luck! You guys are going to do great!

bromion. really appreciate this. perfect for this late in the game. thanks.

yes, thank you much.

thanks man, I am feeling like crap right now but this helps a bit

very encouraging words!

Seriously. very helpful. I spent the day freaking out (5 coffee shops- that much coffee/iced tea didn’t help much either), flipping through books, goign over old problems and thinking “oh how could i forget that!!” and you’re right- at this point i know what i know, 20,000 minor details aside. have to keep that in mind. mind like water.

thanks for the words of confidence man, need that right now

> the finer points of swap math, lol, I spent a LOOOONNNNG arse time today going over this ish today. I wish you had given the pep talk about 10 hours ago! Im just playing - thanks for this though…this definately is a boost to help me plow through the remaining items on my to do list.

thanks bromion

Good man. Thanks.

thank you friend

I should have mentioned as well that all the blood, sweat and tears you have put into studying for these terrible exams IS WORTH IT. I went through the exams with a good friend from undergrad. After we both passed last year, I went to a hedge fund as an analyst and he went to a large asset management firm as an analyst, to each of our dream jobs, respectively. Studying hard paid off big for both of us. And it feels so sweet not to have to study on Memorial Day weekend after you pass L3. Just buckle down guys, you’re almost done. Good luck everyone.

yay for the encouragement, i’m really scared and excited and hopeful all at the same time.

much appreciated Bro-mion. Thanks for taking the time to post this.

I dont want to set a low bar but… i got through L2 and L1 with this method, Every time I saw a MC question I had no clue on, i got all freaked out , started to panic etc, but then I thought wait a sec, i typed 42/60 in my calc and saw a .70 so i kept saying " i can get 18 wrong and still pass", we study so hard and lots of us are over achivers and perfectionists and if we get something wrong we take it out on ourselves that we should of studied harder, should know this etc… but in reality, no one in history has ever gotten perfect on this exam, cfa puts questions on there on purpose that they know we wont get. so lets say you got 10 wrong and purely guessed on 8 of them? well you still passed ! and might have scored a few points on the guessing right. so relax people !