anybody in the same boat here. This was my first fail and I can’t get over it. I got a band 10 but I’d expected I’d pass on the margin at least. I passed December 10 level 1 and June 2011 level 2 with pretty good matrix. I also passed FRM part 1 2011. Don’t know what went wrong in the essays that I failed.
Anyways, congrats to all those who passed. WIll miss all the people that helped here so much. And I hope we do it all in 2013.
^ sorry to hear buddy…but you almost know what it takes to clear it…Good luck for next year…chin up! I cleared.
yeah man. Congrats, I knew you’d pass anyways. I once called you a miniature version of CPK123. You had all the answers.
haha…that’s was so nice of you! I marginally passed though… i think band 11…
that doesn’t really matter. Pass is pass.
^yeah i know…you don’t be disheartened. Last year me falling L3 exams was the first time ever me flunking any exams. Just get on with life for few months then return with new strategies! GL!
Failing Band 10 is not a problem because you need a small push and ull be fine. However, in most of the cases including mine, failure was BAND 4 and others in band 2-3 … that was shocking because im damn sure i aced portfolio indv/instit but my score was below 50. That’s the shocking part about it. 
what i can’t get is the following: When do I answer a question and explain why? and when i dont? i believe that was my mistake… I think i wrote too much and explained myself more than enough.
Failed Lv 3 at Band 4 last year but got passed this year! I don’t have much advice, but I found that do all the official past papers is a must! I know most of us know the answer or idea well, but how to present it in written form and especially, how to write the answer close to the making scheme, is not easy. The only way to get the ‘right’ answer is following the model answer format, but not inventing something new by yourself.
The question formats are more or less the same, so it does help you passing Lv III.
I do believe that I failed last year because I didn’t do any past papers, and of course, not revising deep enough.
It’s really heartbreaking to fail after consecutive passes, especially for Level 3. I hope to study again, but I’m not sure whether it’s worth it any more. Congrats to all those who passed. You deserve to be proud!
I am in the same boat here … cleared Dec 10 Level 1 and June 11 Level 2. Also, the first time I failed an exam, and this when I was confident I had done enough to pass the exam easily. For some reason ended up getting below 50 in portfolio management essay qs in all but one set. I ended up in Band 7.
I hope I can gather the energy again to put in the same amount of effort, but at this moment I am just not sure …
Rahul, anything specific you did in the second attempt? I have done well in PM(6-70+ and 3 sections 50-70) yet I did not clear due to a poor AM score. Did you use CFAI curriculum or schewser?
I was Band 9 last year and passed this year.
If I were to do this year’s prep over I would not bother rereading texts, I would just review notes, do end of chapter problems during review, and then do lots of practice tests.
I am in the same boat. This is my first fail (band 9) after passing L1 and L2 consecutively (Dec. 10 and Jun. 11). I took a few hours to feel sorry for myself last night and that is all I am going to give it. It is time to get back to work and use the experience to get a pass next year.
Write only what they ask - no more, no less and in bullets. If they ask for 2 advantages - just write 2 exactly! Writing too much works against you and also against the clock you are trying to track.
First, of course, congratulations on having the courage and drive to do the exam again. It’s never easy to deal with failure, especially after having come so far to Level 3. There is no real difference between passing the CFA in 18 months, 36 months, or 48 months - the critical point is passing it. I have heard that people (employers included) respect the determination, drive and commitment that are reflected in pushing through a failure!
I failed level 3 the first time I wrote it. It was the only exam in the CFA curriculum I failed, so you can imagine how I felt - crushed. You’d be surprised how many people fail parts of the CFA program (check out www.analystforum.com). The differentiating factor is who keeps coming back and people respect that! Don’t give up, you and I have/had a leg up on all the other candidates because we had an extra year of studying the material to use to study for the next Level 3 exam.
I failed the first time because I was finishing my MBA and chose to focus on passing that as a priority since it was expensive and a one time deal, whereas the CFA I could take as many times as I wanted. So I studied from August to December and stopped studying from January to May… Then I studied in May. It wasn’t enough and I knew it. Failed band 7.
So last year after all my university education was complete, I picked up my notes from the first time I reviewed the Level 3 material, and added to them as I read through the CFA curriculum entirely a second time. I read every page, did every blue box problem, and all the problems at the end of the chapters. I finished the CFA books by December by averaging about 3 hours of studying a day - that includes 5 hours each week-end day (Saturday & Sunday) and 2 hours a day during the work week.
Beginning January I bought the Schweser material and began doing practice problems. They have a multiple choice question bank of 2’500 questions and I did every single one of them by June! I also did their essay questions (about 25 total). With the notes I had added to from reading the first Level 3 books and the second Level 3 books, I added anything I found interesting to know to the notes as I went through the Schweser material. By the time I was done I had notes that were reviewed and added to 3 times: Once the first time I wrote the Level 3, second the second time I wrote Level 3, and third the time I went over the Schweser questions.
What helps with the essay questions is knowing everything about the CFA material. Memorizing historical essay questions really won’t help if you don’t understand the material and cannot talk about it. With the notes I had, my girlfriend would read them to me and ask questions about them to me. Sometimes she would begin saying a few words and I would ramble off for 5 minutes about the topic and related topics! Being able to do that after hearing only 2 words is how to answer the essays. It also boosted my confidence!
So in summary, the 2’500 practice multiple choice questions helped a lot. I noticed a lot of similarities in the afternoon section and I got over 70% in all but two sections! The morning session was hit & miss but by no means a disaster. I answered all questions solidly because I understood the material, went over it multiple times, revised two years worth of notes, and talked about it. Talking about the material is really important. If you have no one to talk to about it, visit www.analystforum.com and talk about it there. Good luck!
I revised SCH till Nov since I had gone thru many times before exam in June, then totally switched to CFAI.