Hours put in are a residual effect of one’s ability to grasp the material and understand how to phrase his or her responses efficiently. That being said, I put in probably between 350 and 400, which is more than I put in for 1 and 2 considering it was the final stretch. I felt confident about my AM and this turned out to be true. I found the PM harder than the CFAI mocks that the institute gave out this year. I was scoring above a 70 in all of those and probably got mid 60s on the actual PM this year. Either way, it’s a pass.
I have no idea how many hours I put in – but it was a lot. I started early (August actually), although I did have periods where I only studied minimally.
Since I saw the finish in line in sight and only wanted to go through L3 once, I figured it was better to study too much than too little. If I had to guess, I’d estimate that I put in ~500 hours
What did you find funny there?
Why does everybody starts bashing the guys who are above average? I would understand your responses if he said/implied something like he’s a genius and we all are losers but the dude just mentioned his stats. Outliers will always be there —some extremely good and some extremely bad.
few days ago I was googling this and a saw a survey from a local cfa society. The average was 350 hours, around 300 people answered
About 250 for me I would guess, I had a lot of interruptions unfortunately (serious family illness, marriage, building a home, prepping for a baby). But those were quality hours and I did practice tests again and again until I was getting 100%. I passed it first attempt, after taking the long road to level 3 if you know what I mean.
360 Hours, 1st attempt.
470 hours, 1st attempt
The more the merry.
Around 425 Hours.
Around 400 hours, 1st attempt… I also took a lot of mocks and spent a ton of time reading all the answers that I got wrong to make sure I understood the concepts
580 hours, first attempt, passed with good scores. Used CFA only with supplemented schweser videos.
500 on 1st attempt … band 2
600 on 2nd attempt … band 6
250 on 3rd attempt … pass
figure it out lol.
About 200 hours, least I spent for any of the levels.
Around 60 hours irfanullah videos. 50 hours practice material. 50 hours of reading the curriculum. and 50 hours of final studies of mostly mock exams and reading up on stuff I failed on in the mocks. Probably can add another 10 on analystforum 
I over studied but did 400 hours and got> than 70% on all areas except 3 which all happen to be less than 50% hahaha.
~250 for lvl 3
No clue. Never saw the point in tracking hours, study until you know the material. What one person can learn in 200 hours does not translate into what the next person can learn in 200 hours.
Spend more than 800 hours and still failed, CFAI is not going to pass you because you are a hardworker and you know all the material by heart…
They are looking for ppl who are good at detalis and small points, they assume everyone should know all the concepts…
^ Disagree. They test conceptual understanding at L3 and the application of those concepts.
^ and problem solving ability.
May be you can help me to understand the huge difference btwn my AM and PM results…
Probably not knowing how to answer the questions. You should have done 10+ timed morning papers, getting near 100% by the end. If you look at the publically available historic papers, there are definitely trends of what is on the test. Practising exams alone should get you 50-60% without even in depth studying. It can’t be said enough. L3 AM is about practice and how to deliver the answers as expected. I’m not good with details and sure enough, nailed the AM and struggled on PM but still passed. If you can get near 100% on the last several years papers by test day, you’ll be golden.