How many hours to set aside for Level iii?

CFA Level III
#1

How many hours to set aside for Level iii? Those who just took the exam, can you give a rough idea (for 1st time Level 3 preparation).

#2

Enough to read the books, re-read study notes, and complete as many mock exams as you can get your hands on.

#3

… and for average human being … that’ll be around how many hours? 300? 350?

#4

I did 375 for LI, 485 for LII, and 450 for LIII (still waiting for LIII results so cant say if that was enough yet).

In the end, I would aim for a min of 300-350 hours and push it from there. Obviously it depends how fast you can study. I tend to be slow and methodical, hence the high hours. I know people who have studied under 300 and have heard of some breaking 600. It all depends on yuor style.

#5

I read very slowly (and boy do my lips get tired) so I can honestly say it took me 250 hrs to get through the books alone. At 2,563 pages of the CFAI material that comes to about 10.6 pages an hour (that includes doing all blue box and EOC as I went along) .

I then watched all the Schweser videos for review, so that was another 45 hrs+a misc 5 hours for stopping the video and doing examples, rewatching, etc. As I watched the videos I read a study note packet that roughly corresponded to the videos made by a friend who passed L3 in 2011.

I did quite a few mocks/question (probably not enough in late April/May about 125 hours.

Lastly, in the last week I read Secret Sauce (290 pages) and did some random problems for ~30 hrs.

All that adds up to ~455 hours. Of course this excludes the 250 or so hours I lost sleep and whined to friends about the exam.

Even given that, I had to skip one question in AM due to time (it was one of low point value, but I had to move on and felt I knew another better). I do feel confident with what I put down for most of the AM and felt very confident about the PM. So I’d put my odds at slightly better than even money.

#6

got it thanks … so it would seem 300 would be on low end for most people, more likely it is around 400-450 hours. Wow … i really didn’t track how many hours i spent on L2 (passed on 2nd try), but don’t thnk it was over 400. So, if i start in August, it would be 40 hours per mont. Wow!!! That’s rough.

#7

Sounds about right. I started in mid-Oct with an ethics review and really picked up steam after Jan 1. One of the hardest things is when I answered sample written questions was giving them an honest correction. As I said, I think I did well on the PM and if the exam was all multiple choice I would be more comfortable. Don’t underestimate the change in format, it is a factor.

#8

got it … need to have differnt mindset then L2 - as writing open ended question is whole differnt ball game then picking one out of 3 answers.

#9

I can’t break it down in to hours easily but I studied five nights a week for an average of 2 hours a night from December through march and then started mocks. In my opinion, the best approach is to consider the way in which you need to know the information this time. In L3, you need to know the material well enough to actively pull it out of your head where as L2 you needed to be able to find the right answer from a list. For me, this meant I needed to know the material much, much better. The material itself is a tiny bit easier than 2 but you need to know it well enough to explain it to someone. Good luck!

#10

GPM - how useful was Secret Sauce for L3? Do you recomend it and how did you use it in your study routine?

Thanks

#11

RE: Secret Sauce–I honestly can’t say right now. If I pass, it may very well have been helpful, if not…who knows. Truthfully, I don’t think it was a core component (like reading the CFAI texts) in my prep.

I will say I was pretty much burnt out by the last week, but I still wanted to do some kind of studying and I think to that end it was helpful. Someone else might have gotten more value out of doing more (or redoing) mocks, but at that point I couldn’t.

#12

Thanks a ton trimonious2. I needed to know the difference between the way I should prepare and you pretty much nailed for me. All the very best for your results.

#13

one more question … please. In terms of 3rd party materials, now that schweser bought stall - what are possible options? Is it just schweser or more vendors out there. I like the schweser notes, but didn’t like thier video lecture (stall videos for level 2 was much better).

#14

1.2x the hours you put for Level 2.

#15

think 450 for L3 is about right. passed L1 and L2 on first attempt. pending L3 results (think barely passed)

#16

To put the above comment in perspective, 450 hours is equivilant to 65 straight days of studying for 7 hours a day.

I found ~150 hours of focused effort over the course of a few months starting in mid/late Feb to be more than reasonable for an attempt at L3 and probably less than that for level 1 and 2.

The notion that someone can tell you how much time YOU need is crazy. But if you spend 450 hours doing anything in life and you’re not a complete loser, I’d like to think you can be successful.

#17

I started two weeks ago , about just 1.5 hours a day to get into the mood, will start hammering now, aiming at 4-5 hours a day

#18

Good luck h21, you will do fine. Try to finish the readings as fastest as you can don’t worry if you forget behavioral finance while you reading private wealth. All the concepts will stick later when you do questions, EOC and mocks

#19

After working with more than 1,000 participants, the magic number of hours you should study for Level III with a better-than-average chance to pass is (drumroll)…

#373Hours

#20

So, this is assumption based on Monte Carlo simulation? Lol!