Here’s how i passed the exam in 2014 after failing lvl 3 last year:
Go through Kapland’s notes first and attempt to understand the main concepts on the first run, if you are good,you could probably remember 30% of the content.
Go through the notes again for the 2nd time but this time round, coupled it with the txtbook as well, eg.Notes 1 + followed by CFAI book 1 (in this manner, it makes the reading of those thick chunk of texts in CFAI much easier).
Do the Qbank questions arranged under the Chapters, try to do like 50% of the questions for each topic.
After you are done with that, go through the notes again once more in 1 GO, then followed by the txtbooks in one GO. You should be able to grapse at least 80% of the concepts already.
Finish the remaining 50% of the Q bank and start doing all the questions in the CFAI textbooks.
For revision, just follow this sequence, notes -> textbook, notes -> txtbook. Reason being simple, notes makes you understand the concept faster while txtbooks drill you on how to solve the questions (lengthly but it re-enforce your concepts real well)
2-3 weeks before the final exam, do the mock questions online as well as the past year papers (2013 mock papers are the most effective IMO, esp on the portflio management individual/institutional, make sure you can really do them within 10-15 mins, remb by heart the step by steps method in solving those kind of questions, be it pretax/post tax).
Revise your notes 1-2 days before the actual day and kill the beast on the actual day! Good Luck!
I benefitted a lot from this forum, thank you to everyone for all your support. This is my first proper full post. I passed Level 3 the first time round, and really would like to share my experience of what I thought worked, and what didn’t.
Prep Strategies
Do a first round pass of Schweser and finish by early April. Don’t bother with taking what i call “blind notes”. ie notes for the sake of taking notes. In the first round, you never really understand everything. And more importantly, you don’t understand how these concepts will be tested.
Start rigorously on questions by April - EoC questions (both Schweser and CFAI), all example questions in Scwhweser, and selected CFAI example questions. Make notes as you go along.
By end Apr (5-6 weeks before exam) , you should be doing Practice Exams from your prep provider / CFAI. For CFAI past year exams, write on the lined paper and templates provided by CFAI. Don’t worry if you don’t feel prepared. The first 2 practice exams will really show you what you need to know, HOW you need to understand and apply it, and what you will need to memorize by the last 2 weeks.
At this point, it’s very tempting to go back to the material and star memorizing everything, because you feel you can’t remember anything and that’s the reason why you are failing so badly.
Go back to the material if it it is due to poor understanding of the material, but do not try to re-read things just to memorize. I went back to a lot of Schweser videos for the parts i wasn’t clear on. The videos and Schweser notes helped me more this time round as I understand what pitfalls all the “professor tips” are meant to pre-empt. Make short succinnt notes and chug on with questions and more questions.
Last 2 weeks prep & fine tuning exam strategy
By this point, you know that you are facing a monster, and the style is quite different to what you imagined. What has helped me:
Schweser videos on exam review - these videos helped train me how to read the AM question. It’s an exam skill to be learned so you don’t miss any easy points, and don’t fumble through the parts. It is a very structure way to approach the question. You need know how to do this without thinking, because exam day can be very stressful.
Finish practice exams and re-do some exams. Do all exams under time pressure, and time each question as you go along. You need to know what it’s like to not finish writing your response, or write in bullet point, and organise your answers in the format given to you.
Go through notes and make a list of formulas you need.
Finally on the day before exam - rest. I used to be cramming notes for level 1 & 2 on Friday. But this time round, i knew i couldn’t. You need a very fresh mind for the morning exam. There are just too many words and schedules and questions to work through.
On the actual day,during the exam, as many will tell you - stick to the allocated time. DO NOT be attempted to spend more time than allocated. Write what you think you know and move on. Be aware of how many parts there is to each section - part (a) (b)… (f). And tick them as you complete.
IMPORTANT - tick the questions at the front index as you finish them. put a STAR in the index indicating a specific section you need to go back to. This would be useful at the end if you have about 5 mins just to look through and make sure you have at least attempted all questions.
Good luck! I hope these simple strategies will help keep your mind sane during the process and on actual exam day!
I failed Band 10 this year. I used Schweser for all readings (except Ethics), did all EOC and grey box questions at least twice, and took every AM practice exam I could get my hands on. I did well on the AM, but did not do well on the PM.
My strategy this year is to try to get through the Schweser readings twice. I’ll do all CFAI EOC following each reading and I will probably make notecards on topics I struggle with on my second pass.
This was the first CFA exam that I failed and it stings, even moreso being so close. I’m very motivated not to let that happen again.
I did the same and recieved the same result (although I was more mixed between AM and PM). As a retaker, I’m going to start with the CFA texts in the areas that I was most weak and then go back over everything using Schwesser. Personally, I think that Schweser plus CFAI EOCs and Black Boxes is more than sufficent, just need to start earlier and hit the mocks in early April not early May
My sentiments exactly. The CFA books are like reading a dictionary. It takes forever for them to get to one point. I only did CFA end of chapter Questions for Ethics and GIPS. I never even opened the books for Level 1 and 2. Schweser only. There were only a handful of questions (I mean max three) between Level 2 and 3 actual exams that I had no idea where they came from after only doing Schweser.
I will admit immediately after doing the test and opening up the CFAI IPS sections for the first time to review my answers that it may have helped in the IPS sections to at least look at the CFAI blue boxes and EOC questions. Still, you can answer them with Schweser knowledge but my score on those questions may have been a little better if I had spent a few hours reviewing CFA material there. Other than that, CFAI books are a waste of time in my opinion.
I greatly appreciate all of the comments. Every post provides valueable insights for new candidates like me. It’s going to be a bloody battle but I’m sure with all of your guidance, we will conquer this and come out as winners.
I greatly appreciate all of the comments. Every post provides valueable insights for new candidates like me. It’s going to be a bloody battle but I’m sure with all of your guidance, we will conquer this and come out as winners.
I think the biggest thing without a doubt is taking off time from work the week before the exam to just study! If you can, the more time the better (7-14 days). This really forced me to sit down, do practice exams over and over and over. As many as I could find.
I took 8 full length practice tests and still think I should have done more. Schweser and CFA tests but also any tests you can (in accordance with the CFA code of ethics of course) gets your hands on!
I like your advice on reading all of the Schweser material through once before working CFAI problems. For Level II I did CFAI EOC problems as I reach each Schweser reading. I found this to be very time consuming. After I got through all of the Schweser readings and CFAI problems once, I went are reread all of the Schweser readings and redid CFAI problems but found that I had forgottem much of the CFAI problems. For level 3, I will save all CFAI EOC problems until my second read of the Schweser matersials. I disagree with your advice to only read Schweser material once.
First pass: Read Schweser material, hand-wrote every Schweser chapter summary, and did every Schweser end-of-chapter question in the books.
Second pass: Read Schweser material, did every CFAI end of chapter question and made flash cards for any formula or list of info I thought I needed to remember.
Third pass: Read Schweser material, did every CFAI and Schweser EOC question.
After going through the material three times, I had seven weekends left before the exam, so I did one Schweser exam every Saturday, and then proceeded to review whatever area I was weak on for the following week based on my practice exam result. This is key as you start timing yourself to get prepared for the actual writing of the morning session which many people told me was the most difficult aspect of Level III. Finally, after writing my final Schweser exam, I started pounding the stuff I didn’t know into my head through flashcard memorization and then wrote the three most recent years’ CFA exams over the final five days before the exam.