CardShark Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Let’s not forget about doing the old exam essays > too… My personal opinion is that the older written exams are best saved for late April and May, after you’ve gone through the curriculum and had some time to review. Do them under timed conditions, simulating the exam experience as much as possible (perhaps even drinking WAY too much water before you get started, which is unfortunately what I did for the real thing in 2008). The L3 morning section is a different animal in terms of the test-taking. It’s not just about the material, it’s about how you negotiate a tricky exam under the pressure of time. And it’s extremely helpful to gather the old exams and compare them side-by-side: what patterns are evident in the questions? What patterns are evident in the answers? That kind of study helped me greatly with the IPS questions, which I aced and ended up saving me, because I fell apart in the morning’s second half.
@ frisian Thanks for the tips. On top of the pressure, my handwriting looks like a drunken coked out second graders. Part of my prep is to literally practice my penmanship. Kind of sucks.
pupdawg82 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > yes but heard it is almost 2 times tougher than > L2. Any repeaters concur with this? Why do think there was a big drop in pass rates for L3 in past couple of years, high of 76% in just 2006 to just 59% in June 2009?
49% my dear
derswap07 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > 49% my dear that’s right, that’s even worse…
less material. or at least fewer pages. but on L2, i felt like i had 65% of the material really down cold. easy calculations take up a ton of pages in L2. not the case with L3. i mean, if they wanted to be dickkkks, they could probably do an exam just on GIPS that’s harder than all of L2. and that’s just one of tons of sections. obviously they don’t test GIPs that comprehensively but you’re never really sure.
Hey Kids! Late to the show this year, ordered my books this morning. Nice to see some familiar handles from lev2 made it through.
half way through, realizing it is totally different animal… If level 2 is about calculation, level 3 is comprehensive reading and connect all the dots in different sessions together. I have trouble linking repeating materials, need to read again for sure.
I agree with Kevin - I think that you need to deeply understand Sessions 4 & 5 and understand how everything else is related to those areas (risk management, capital market expectations on FI & Equity, etc). 4 & 5 lightly touch on everything else in the material such as risk management, GIPS is to track and monitor performance, Equity and FI is to form capital market expectations. But I think it all falls under the framework of the investment process. Start with Constraints: Time Horizon Taxes Liquidity Legal/Regulatory Unique Circumstances and use that to formulate: Risk (ability to bear, attitude towards) - here is where all the Behavioral fits Based on this you formulate a strategic allocation but you cant do that without capital market expectations and understanding the investments themselves including risk reducing derivatives (that one makes me chuckle a bit), you can also deviate and have a tactical asset allocation as well and all of this has to be done in a total optimized portfolio setting. You then report (GIPS) and monitor and rebalance. On some occasions you might take profits when rebalancing or distributing assets (this is where taxes and estate planning come in). I think that this is the glue that everything is about and while 40-50% of the exam could be portfolio management (4&5), rest assured that all these other topics could easily be hidden in there. Just my .02. So far I have read most of the material once, lightly just to be familiar and get a frame work and am doing the stalla CD, EOC questions as well as taking way more notes (on relationships like above). I am really trying to understand the material and not too worried about formulas. I am following the Stalla class schedule and have already gone up to study session 5. But as I move on I keep on reviewing and trying to keep everything in context. My attitude, like the last two exams, is that if you know the material and study a boat load you will pass. There is a correlation between hard work and passing. I think since this exam is more contextual than quantitative, that is especially true here. You wont flunk here because you forgot to calculate a swap or cant do a tax formula. You will not pass if you dont understand why you need to use a swap and what the tax implications of a decision could be.