Congrats Ramos…well done. Schweser didn’t get me through it last year…so I’ve started out reading the CFAI. After I finish book 2, I’ll assess and see how I’m doing for time.
Thanks for your comments.
I started FinQuiz and I like it so far. I like that it goes together with the curriculum and will tell you to go do the blue box and end of chapter Qs. That being said, I will re-read the full curriculum for all IPS and problem areas (fixed income for me, etc…). My goal is to do way more practice questions and exams this time around.
If you’re looking for practice exams, nothing better than the old CFAi exams. I would find somebody with the huge binder of 10 years worth of CFAI old exams categorized by relavant material from the Bootcamps Marc LeFebvre put together. I thought that thing was genius. Or sign up for the earliest LevelUp Bootcamps, get one and have enough time to do them all.
That’s my plan this year. The AM is rough, you have to give them these buzz words they are looking for to get credit for essay answers.
*And I would read the CFAi books again. You need to be looking at their examples and their solutions to figure out what they want you to say come test time. Third party material can’t replicate that for you.
Eunuch’s can focus better because they hacksaw their junk.
Thanks to everyone for the advice. I’m very happy to report that I passed this time around! I took tozzert and alcpimpin’s advice and used the FinQuiz notes. Except for Ethics and IPS I used the FinQuiz notes exclusively plus I did all the CFAI BB and EOC Qs. Didn’t really use the FinQuiz summaries though. I also did some of the problems in the FinQuiz Q bank after every chapter. Their Q bank is not amazing but it’s helpful at reinforcing concepts at that initial stage of study.
Not re-reading the curriculum the second time around helped me save a ton of time that I could use in the Mock phase of my studying. This is where the rubber really meets the road! I started in January and by mid April I was already doing Mocks. I did all past AM papers from 2005 to 2014. All the PM papers from Schweser’s book 1 and 2 plus every CFAI question and all their Mocks. So a total 10 AM papers and 6 Schweser PM plus 3 CFAI PM Mocks (two new ones and one from last year). I didn’t do the FinQuiz mocks though.
This time around I had time to go back to the curriculum and redo BB and EOC Qs in my problem areas. This was key! Another thing that worked for me were those Schweser mocks (only PM, I didn’t touch their AM). They definitely turn up the heat on the level of difficulty and they expose you to new material on every Mock. I was scoring in the mid 70s towards the end and even scored an 85 on my last Schweser PM Mock so the practice definitely paid off. I found the real deal CFA PM Session considerably easier than some of the Schweser Mocks I took.
As for my score, I did the same as many others here. Killed the PM (7 sections over 70%) and got killed in the AM (7 sections under 50%). I felt extremely confident walking out of the PM session and I must say, my poor AM performance was a bit of a shock. But you really never know with the AM. Goes to show you what they say is true, you gotta kill the PM to give yourself a chance on this level.
Later and best of luck to those taking L3 next year.
wow … quiet night and day, from 7 below 50% in AM and 7 over 70% in PM!!
I’m in similar boat - retook it 2nd time. Mostly used SCH notes, and used some Qbank from Finquiz, and about 3 AM exams and 3 PM exams. I concentrated on how I was writing response to AM and how much time and compared it to guideline answer. I felt most of things i kind of had it in my head, but just was’t putting it all together in writing. Kind of took mental notes on how guilde line answer are being done, and what i can realistically write down in 10-15 mins. Managed to get 5 over 70% in AM, 4 below 50% and 1 in middle. In PM, i did’t do as well as you … but got 5 over 70% and 3 over 50% (key i think was in PM, nothing below 50%).