How to pass Level 3

[suzieq]

+100 style points. Classy post. Thanks, trimonious2

[Sean_Kim]

Thanks for the tips. After I registered the level 3 exam few hrs ago, I’ve been googling to find out about level 3 exam, and your post helped me a lot to plan how to study. Good luck for the exam result!!

[KoolSIM]

Thanks for the detailed post. It was helpful. I agree with your views, especially the ones when you said that if you don’t follow the question, you can probably deduce what it means from the options. This was very useful for me in both L1 and L2. And now with this thing missing, the AM session will be slightly difficult for me I guess. Well, this time I’ll practice writing a lot while I study. (I’m a poor note maker)

[hailtothevictors]

bless you sir - good luck on the 7th!

ua_bender - stfu. someone takes out the time and effort to write a detailed post on something really important to all of us here based on his experiences and you’re harping on about how he should include factors like marital status and what not into consideration before giving out advice?

@trimonious2

When i passed L2, I came on the L3 forum and there were some pretty nasty posts from L3 people awaiting results and telling people not to pester them. I don’t want to be that person, so here are my thoughts on L3 keeping in mind I don’t have my results but passed the vast majority of my 8 practice tests.

Differences between L2 and L3 The L2 material is on balance probably a little harder than L3 but the L3 test is on balance harder than L2 largely because of the AM session. There’s no opportunity to guess in the morning session and time management is much harder (see below).

The test itself is the invisible study session Unlike the other levels, the morning session requires you to actually write short answers in pen. This means you have to actively recall information and be able to explain topics rather than passively choose the best answer. For me, this meant you have to know the information a lot better than you did at the other levels because you are actively recalling it. It’s kind of the difference between being a student and being a teacher. The student needs to understand the information enough to pass; the teacher needs to understand it enough to explain it thoroughly.

Start Earlier Because the test requires active knowledge and the format is completely different in the AM session, you need a lot more time to practice the test format itself and learn how to answer succintly in PEN! This means considering the question thoroughly and then considering your response before you commit the answer because if you decide you are wrong, you have filled up the space to answer and need to start again. So i would aim to finish the reading about two months early and do as MANY PRACTICE TESTS AS YOU CAN.

Time Management From my experience and the experience of Schweser professors, the most difficult thing about L3 AM is time management. In L1 and L2 you could manage your time by looking at where you were in the question block versus the time because all questions were an equal number of minutes. In L3, you will have 9-15 questions, each with multiple sub parts. Each sub part has minutes allotted to it which can VARY WILDLY. Part A may be 18 minutes while part B may be 4mins. Keeping track of time is crucial and I found it to be very challenging in the heat of the real exam especially.

Answering ‘essay questions’ The ‘essay’ questions are really short answer and you can use bullet points etc. to get across your knowledge. There is a tendency to want to write tons to display your knowledge but the real key is actually understanding what they are asking and write as little as possible to answer the question. In L1/L2, if you didn’t quite get what the question was asking, you could deduce it from the responses provided. Here there are no responses to guide you and you will be frequently frustrated by the model answers given in practice tests e.g. “That’s not at all what the question asked!” “How can you just put that sentence and get it right!?”

Partial Credit The only good thing about essay questions in the AM is that you can receive partial credit so SHOW YOUR WORK on calculations. This can be frustrating as well since we have been trained to just get to the answer as quickly as possible and I needed to train myself to write out all the steps. You also have a chance to really explain yourself but remember to keep it brief.

Cross Pollination of Topics More so than any other level, this one combines topics and asks questions that were never asked in the curriculum. In L1 and L2, you are tested pretty much how the material is explained. In L3, you can get pretty much anything and it will likely combine lots of different study sessions together in one question. Basically, when you are studying, think about how the topic you are reading connects with other areas you have already read.

Practice Tests The Schweser practice tests are good but you are grading yourself in the AM session. For those of you, like myself, who loved getting metrics from L2 and L1 on how you are doing in each topic to target your revision, this throws a spanner in the works. You are asked to grade your written answers against a model answer. This causes many challenges: (1) it’s not always clear how to grade yourself and (2) you are asked to be hard on yourself in the grading which is difficult psychologically when all you want to do is hit 70% and (3) the graders have discretion your answer can still be correct even though it is different from the model answer but you have no way of knowing when this will be the case. It is very frustrating to finish an AM session and then find out that you misunderstood a 15 pt question and got zero on it.

Grading The CFA graders grade individual questions. i.e. the person grading question 1 will not be the same as the one grading question 2. So don’t be afraid to be redundant if you feel it is correct to do so since the info you put in question 1 will not have been seen by the grader grading question 2.

GIPS GIPS are a significant part of the curriculum. Unfortunately, there are chock full of arcane rules that vary by investment line and year and you have to know them pretty darn well. It’s still not clear to me how you study them since they are not conceptual really so you are really force feeding your brain lots of little rules. Make sure you go through this material a lot. Flash cards are probably a good way to go but you are talking about a very large stack of cards.

IPS Most years you will find a bunch of IPS questions. I found these extremely difficult to study for since they can be absolutely anything. The variety of questions is as varied as there are individual circumstances in life. I found it useful to write “base case” IPS’s for most of the institutional investors and the individual investors so that I could have a ready response already honed if the typical case came up and adapt it to a different case. Answering IPS questions takes a lot of practice in my view to get them whittled down to a good, succinct response.

Calculate, Evaluate, the stuff for which you want your calculator In L1 and L2 you could count on the action verb in the LOS to tell you whether you needed to learn the calculation or just learn the concept. As you will see from the past exams in L3 on the CFA website, there are several instances where you are asked to perform a calculation even though the action verb is something like “explain X”. Be prepared. All this speaks to starting your studies earlier.

My results I think that the above really summarises a good, productive approach to L3, however, I think I failed so bear that in mind. I hit a time warp in the AM session and spent a long time on two 4 minute questions (worth just over 1% each). I thought I was doing ok since there were roughly 10 questions and halfway through the exam I was on question 5. The problem was that the bulk of the minutes were in the latter half so I was wayyyyy behind and panicked and rushed through making mistakes no doubt and also not finishing by a long shot. I probably finished only 70% of the morning session. When that happened in L2, I could just guess A, B, or C but here you are left with no way of getting ANY points on the ones you didn’t complete. Bottom line is that I definitely knew the material much better than L1 or L2 (both of which I passed first time) but the format of the exam and poor time management probably sunk me. That’s why I think it is the key difference between L3 and L2.

GOOD LUCK and here’s hoping I am wrong about my results.

[unni1114]

Hey Trim,

Your post is a real godsend for the CFA L3 newbies (me included) about how to take baby steps to L3 prep.

I am in complete agreement with everyone elses’s comments (except ua_bender’s juvenile remarks which sure as hell didn’t really warrant any apology from you) on your advice and particularly the response that your post is perhaps the most detailed one has ever come across on this forum.

I am sure that Aug 7 will see you uncorking the bubbly. Good luck.

Cheers

Unni

[trimonious2]

Thanks for all the feedback. I hope this helps you all. And thank you all for the good vibes - here’s hoping some of them bend the universe a little my way on August 7.

ua-bender, you are entitled to your opinion and, having done half my university degree in a foreign land in a second language, I sympathize entirely with those who are doing the CFA in a second language. You are certainly correct on that front (although we can disagree on whether I should have bothered with my post). I can’t imagine trying to dissect ethics questions in a foreign language when so much depends on nuance.

[trimonious2]

I’ve just updated the post to include a note on topic weightings which can also trip people up from level to level. Congratulations to all of you who passed the monster of L2!

[sooraj]

trimonious2 - Thanks a ton! I am going to take a print of this and stick it up there on my study table. All the very best for your results mate!

[Chimmers]

ua_bender… what a knobhead? lol. It makes no sense what you said.

[Alladin]

Lol guys lay off on ua_bender…he did make valid points. How well you approach the exam depends on many issues that are not related to the exam at all ( work load, marital status , personal dispositions, etc) and therefore is very unique to each individual. Since he is from Afghanistan I am guessing his first language isn’t English which probably means he encountered linguistic difficulties when absorbing the material and expressing himself in the AM section of L3, something which people for whom English is foreign must come to terms with. These are fair issues that compliment the nice post by OP…

[BBUI]

Thank you for the advice. Best of luck to trimonious2 on 7 Aug

[Damil4real]

It’s always good when someone takes the time to help others…, so kudos to you, trimonious2.

While I disagree with ua_bender that nobody will benefit from trimoniuous2’s write-up, I do agree that the process of learning and preparation for any exam is unique for each candidate depending on so many different factors including the ones ua-bender mentioned.

Congrats to all those who recently passed L2, and welcome to the L3 board.

[prozario]

@uta\_quant

I would like to extend a piece of advice that Trimonious touched on…the material appears to be much easier than level II, but don’t get overconfident. As he stated you’re expected to know it much more thoroughly. Also while each LOS may be easier…they don’t dovetail together as nicely as L2…so that the end of the readings you have many more unrelated areas to know. You’ll start realizing this when you start the practice tests…so if you start practice tests early enough (2 months should be more than sufficient) you’ll have time to adjust as necessary. If you start feeling like the material is easy just remember…the L3 pass rate is generally around 50%. And that’s 50% of a group that has proven to be motivated, intelligent, and have good study habits.

good point around pass rate. Surprisng that only 50% passes - considering these people have manged L1 & L2. It must be differnt nature of the exam - writing down answer vs. picking 1 out ot 3 asnwers, writing, time management etc. that trips people up.

[perdition]

Tks for the heads up… That is a great insight.

I am about to sign up fo L3.

The am session sounds like the decider, is it known how much weighting is given to the morning vs afternoon session?

I have heard tales of candidates breezing through the pm, with a relief that all is over…seems unlikely?

[cpk123]

180 points in the AM, 180 points in the PM.

So what do you mean about weighting?

There is a score you get (absolute) which is then curved / straightened whatever - and then a decision made on pass vs. fail. It remains the same as at all other levels. Get a good score and you will pass.

That is all I can say.

And there is something i wanted to add.

1. There is a high price on “how much you know” and “how easily you are able to recall connected parts of the curriculum”.

2. This however could end up being counterproductive. You may know a lot - write a lot in the AM - and not have enough time to finish the AM - and leave points on the table.

[Markowhat]

Thanks for all of the insight, guys. I just registered for L3 and was wondering if there is any concensus on the best third party study materials provider for this level? I have used Schweser for L1 and L2 but was pretty disappointed with the L2 materials (although I guess I passed, so what the hell am I complaining about).

I’m sure there are other posts on this already, but can anyone help me out?

[perdition]

Tks for the response cpk123, I had no idea about the split between am/pm, hence my question…Every day is a school day with the CFA and now I feel slightly wiser…cheers!

[Hank_Moody]

We were all green at one time.

Focus on learning the material first. Then deal with stategizing the morning exam in the final couple months. There’s no way to prepare for that this far out.

In terms of strategizing, there’ll be a number of folks here who will help you understand the frame of mind you need to have. Then be sure to do all five CFAI prior exams. Yes, all five, or more if you can find them. Study those answer keys and note that there’s a lot of debate around here (and inconsistencies across the years) as to how certain things get handled. Then realize that there’s no way to truly become a master at this game.

@perdition

Tks for the response cpk123, I had no idea about the split between am/pm, hence my question…Every day is a school day with the CFA and now I feel slightly wiser…cheers!

[1recho]

Seems to be too many guys from Afghanistan, was it the first choice in Countries when you create the AF profile?

I don’t think trimonious said “my way or highway” so ua_bender’s objections hold very little relevance.

[Chimmers]

I’m not sure why we’ve stopped celebrating the level 2 pass and people are buying books already. I reckon create a link to this and keep celebrating until it’s time to study again. It’s been two days since the results came out and when you get deep into the curriculum then you’ll wish you had partied more at this time. Thx Trimonius…hero, legend, but above all, a gentlemen.