Would appreciate some help coming to terms with failing the L3 this year. It was my first time and I thought I approached it the right way, starting in late November and going to a prep class weekly, as well as writing my own notes. Did multiple waves through the Scheweser books and then all questions from the CFAI books. The last week I took off and wrote 8 practice exams, scoring in the 60-70% range. This technique worked for Level II but for some reason I dropped the ball this time.
It may have had to do with the fact I went to India for 2 weeks in February, I worked a 50-70 hour/wk equity research job and switched jobs 3 weeks before June 1st exam. Not sure if these are excuses or actual issues which if resolved, would have clenched the exam.
My 40/60/80 score suggests 58%, versus the passing score of about 64%.
For next time I plan on starting in February, reading my written notes (Feb/March) and then reading the sections of the CFAI books (March) I did poorly in on the exam, which are pretty clear from below. In April I think just doing questions and re-reading constantly will be the right move. Have to hit 80% on the afternoon constantly.
Your method looks legit, but your timing may have been off in my opinion. 8 practice exams is a lot and doing them the final week is detrimental. Only because that’s alot of exam nuances to grasp and retain in a short time coupled with the exam stress on the final week. You really should have started doing mocks the first week in may or that last week in April. Doing two mocks a week and reviewing your mistakes may improve your info retention.
I ended up only doing 4 practice exams,CFA 2013 mock(spaced over 3 weeks), and felt comfortable on the actual exam.
Thanks for the feedback guys. I will start practice exams earlier. I think doing multiple waves of reading material is less help - It felt as though I couldnt remember anything I learned 2 months before the exam.
charmander87, I would have passed if I had the same results as your AM’s result. I killed the PM…, but strongly feel they mis-marked by PM for sure. I strongly believe they overlooked some of my answers in the AM.
My method was to read the curriculum until the middle of April and then spend 6-7 weeks doing questions. Did eight mock exams but probably did my first one 5-6 weeks before the exam.
Even with all that preparation, I don’t know if I could have coped with also changing jobs 3 weeks before exam day. That’s a supreme level of stress.
I think the breakdown CFAI gives should be sufficient to identify where you went wrong.
If you scored poorly in any particular topic area in both AM and PM, it shows you clearly need to brush up on that area. Pretty clear cut there.
If you score well in PM but not in AM for the same topics, it shows that you might have an improper grasp of how to answer the AM questions.
I started the practice exams about 3 weeks before. Did a full paper (AM and PM) every other day (Schweser and CFAI) and revising in between. I also didn’t go back earlier than 2008 for CFAI practice papers EXCEPT to look at IPS questions.
Just practice more of the EOC questions for both Schweser and CFAI. Don’t take the given answers as the ‘right’ way to do the question, try and figure out the logic behind them if any. I spent many hours boggling my mind at times as to why the answer was done in a certain way and that helped tremendously. Understanding why is better than just accepting it as the right way.
On a side note, I went into the exams with a fair amount of confidence but came out of the paper totally unsure of if I could even pass as many of the questions seemed ‘unfamiliar’ to me.
I scored a a 40/60/80 of about 76% in the end and was very suprised that I had managed to do so well (7/11 above 70% for AM and 6/8 above 70% PM, all the rest was 51-70%).
Just keep chugging along and discipline yourself and you will be fine! Don’t worry too much!
I started taking sample mocks and CFAI mocks 5 weeks before the exam date and did each mock/essay 3 times just to make sure I had a good grasp of what it is they were asking. I was lucky enough to get through level 3 on first take, but this is mostly thanks to PM.
I concur with andytrader, focus on Alternative Investments and start writing mocks/essay sooner than later!
i saw many refer to vidoe lessons (sch or arif) … i think i’ll add that this time. Failed with band 7 due to low score on AM. As re-reading takes fair bit of time, thinking to mix up reading/videos - so i can spend bit more time on EOC question/mock exams.
I think main reason i failed is because i crammed too much on last 2 months … so best to spread things out a bit and not overdo it on last week or so.
Your method looks legit, but your timing may have been off in my opinion. 8 practice exams is a lot and doing them the final week is detrimental. Only because that’s alot of exam nuances to grasp and retain in a short time coupled with the exam stress on the final week. You really should have started doing mocks the first week in may or that last week in April. Doing two mocks a week and reviewing your mistakes may improve your info retention.
I ended up only doing 4 practice exams,CFA 2013 mock(spaced over 3 weeks), and felt comfortable on the actual exam.
60 - 70% in practice exams won’t cut it…you need to consistently score above 70% to look any convincing. Keep studying hard until you can break into 70% effortlessly.