With the level III behind me, thought I may as well share the file I used to track my progress and keep a sense of urgency about the multi-month process and not get too frustrated when work would push around my study schedule. I analyzed this sheet every day, and I found this to be a good tool to think through an approach and track progress. I failed level III once, which is the CFA Level III - 2013 tab. I was totally distracted closer to the exam in 2013, which is why . Starting early is pointless by the way…
Random tips:
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I would definetly compare the new material added and what was dropped Y/Y, and focus on the new material towards the exam as it will certainly be covered.
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Track what you find difficult, which is what that heat map of colors indicates.
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The last month should basically be entirely exams and targeted reviews (I used QBanks as a review tool - worked well to prepare me this year - I did not use it in my first attempt).
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Look at the material as ~18 study sessions (SS), not 300 LOS’s, which is the way some people look at it and get frustrated. Though I would acknoledge that reading the LOS description can tell you whether you need to care about a crazy formula or just understand how it’s applied.
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Group LOS’s together.
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Finquiz is pretty decent for refrence materials and articles. I used Passmax for level II which was helpful but useless for Level III (which is also partly why I failed, as I put my fate entirely in the programs hands -durr).
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An approach I found useful was to make notes on printed copies of the Scweiser end of study-session summaries, but read from the CFAI books. I only did one round of the CFAI questions, which I didnt really find helpful for studying for the test (gasp).
You can download it here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/108346345/CFA%20L3%20Study%20Schedule%202014%20-%20Public.xls