I didn’t do the questions in order. I flipped through all of them, then did the ones I was most confident/comfortable with. I saved the tricky ones for last rather than to waste time answering them.
Agree with a lot of the above. Do past morning exams. Specifically 2009 - 2019.
Here’s what i’ll add:
The first time you do a past exam, read the question, try to think what the answer should be, but don’t write your answer down. Then look at the answer right away and write it down. Basically, the first time you do questions, the goal is to learn not to test yourself. No reason to waste time trying to figure out the answer. Do this for each question. Do one paper (year) a day.
Then the next day, before you do the next paper, go through your answers from the previous day. Then do the next paper using the same process above. Do this for all years (2009 to 2019).
When you’ve done all the years once, go back to the first one (2009). Now this time do them the regular way without looking at the answers. Each time revisiting the previous paper’s answers before doing the next paper. Rinse and repeat.
Dedicate the entire month of May to this process. Do the past AM papers as many times as you can. Forget the PM exam for the month of May. Trust me. 10th percentile for afternoon exam is approx 52%, you’re not going to fail the PM. You’ll do PM practice in June.
PS only thing that past years don’t help you much with is Fixed Income and Equity because the curriculum changed so much. Cover these in April and again in June. May is for AM exam.
Good luck!
after feb, all the time except my working hrs
Yeah. Even I did the same.
@Bayan: suggest you write at the top right of your AM answer sheet the time allotted to a particular question. So say starting at 9am, if the question says 23 minutes, ideally u should be done by 9:20. No matter what happens, you HAVE to move on to the next favourite question at 9:20. Also, I did not go through questions 1 to 10 in order. I attempted a question in between, then other questions from same topic and then next favourite topic and so on. Sometimes, the most tricky questions are stacked at the beginning to derail candidates’ time management. So go with more tools and be prepared to face these challenges that CFAI might throw at you.
Wow, how you didn’t get crazy with going around from question to question in no particular oder? I’d have been crazy!
Thank you these are perfect tips for me I didn’t apply any of them last time so I was failed
100% agree with this strategy. Time management is crucial to success in the Level 3 AM session. I remember someone on this forum suggesting writing the time you need to be done by, or something like that, and I did it and it helped keep me on track.
Also definitely do the questions in whatever order you want. I started with the topics I’m most familiar with. I took it in 2018 and the exam had a first question that would have really derailed me if I started with it (I saw the question about an hour in, said “nope” and moved on to part B). Starting in your comfort zone gets you to build momentum and confidence, which is very helpful in the morning session.
If you want to learn how to answer essays, you can send me a PM and I can show you how I answer them with one of my old mocks – graded by Bill. Then you can see what may be the expecation to get credits.
1 Like
I sent pm for you thank you very much
Bullet points and short answer to the point. Ironically do anything but write an essay!