How hard is it to pass L3 exam?

[nikhil4645]

+1

[olivia_x]

Do more exam-like questions before exam is perhaps the most efficient way to do well.

Time is quite tight in the exam day, at least from my own experience…Questions might not be that difficult, but enough to confuse one during the exam.

Start preparing earlier and practise as much as possible…

[LevelUpBootCamps]

You are correct…especially with the time constraint in the morning portion, it messes with your head and you panic. If you don’t know how to answer those morning essay/constructed response questions you burn up way too much time. Rarely is there a Level III candidate done early in the morning. Because the exam scoring is so competitive that if you leave a question or two blank no matter how good your afternoon score is, your coming back. That is 22 years of experience talking here.

Furthermore details matter, top level prep will have you coming back year after year until you figure that out as well. The complexity is hard at Level II and details mattered there. At Level III the information is far more integrated and not silo’ed thus you have to answer with more memory recall from various parts of the curriculum.

If you can find a review provider that helps with essay/QR in the morning, time management, details and ties everything together…go see them.

Marc A. LeFebvre, CFA

Founder & President - LevelUp and LevelUp BootCamps

www.levelupbootcamps.com

[SorcererMikey]

@Dick

That’s pretty impressive. I started just reading the CFAI textbooks beginning of August, and I have only finished book 2-4, I’m currently busy with book 5. I plan to finish all the books except book 1 by year-end, then I will use Schweser next year.

Is the total size/number of pages more or less or the same from LVL II?

[Alex74]

Less than level II

[maq7192]

Hi Guys,

I just wanted to update that I passed. I only followed/practiced CFAI books, took Arif Irfannullah L3 Lectures and his L3 crash course; and did not refer to any other material.

Regards,

[Flashback]

Hard as h**l. I’m happy it’s behind me. Good luck to current candidates! You’ll need a luck as well more than before.

[honey_steak]

@reisaroni

Passed CFA3 first shot using only Schweser. From reading many many posts on this subject, I believe that the source material is not that critical so long as you are actively evaluating your progress. I think you can score well on the multiple choice with hard work alone regardless of source of material. With regard to essay, I strongly suggest you get as many practice tests from as many sources as possible and do them all.

+1

Never used CFAI books for all the 3 levels

[cheswick]

I found it the most difficult, but it was hard to judge as I also had a new born born in March and was working a new job with less avaialble time to study. I personally only used the scheiwser notes as the CFAI material is far too wordy to get through for me. I do a great deal of learning by practice. But if you have ample time obviously the CFAI material works.

My one piece of advice is to practice AM exams to proper time constraints. I found it quite a bit of a time crunch. PM I had plenty of time for review but AM was a bit hectic.