I switch from Kaplan to LevelUP Boot camp (videos and class) after failing band 8 last year. Marc’s videos and material he gives you is priceless. Honestly I wish he produced material for level 2. Nothing can replace the CFA curriculum that he goes through in detail.
if you had put in the hours, your time spent might not have been efficient, good to see where you spent your time on.
My recipe is simply drilling past year’s papers. I probably did it 4 times over, stretching back to as far as 2006.
Schweser for themes/concepts, CFAI for practice. I also found gostudy to be incredible value and really useful for refreshing/distilling dense topics.
CFAI EOC, TT, and BB’s - a lot of folks throw these around but can’t stress enough this is where the money is. They all need to be done at least once and revisited often within the last two weeks.
Mocks are great practice but you need to KNOW the material to execute, efficiencies are gained when you don’t have to waste time trying to figuring things out in the moment. Hope this helps.
I’m also dumbfounded at my matrix… as i put in a lot of effort… did everything that everyone is suggesting here… i did all the BB’s twice and EOC’s 3 times and gave 2006-2016 mocks twice… i felt like i knew the curriculum inside out… and i probably left 5-10 points worth blank in AM and wrote at least something in others for partial credit… Band 7… and it really hurts and at least i would have convinced myself if i got band 10 that it was my sheer luck that got in my way… but turns out its more than that… unless i didn’t write the proper responses in the right boxes… who knows…but this fall is only going to make me stronger… keep the goal alive ladies and gentlemen… for tomorrow will be another day
btw… VW Jetty i surely thought you would make, sorry to see you didn’t make it.
Similar scores 5/4/1 and PM 3/4/2 and same band 8.
I knew I blew my chances in the 2nd hour of the morning exam when I was struggling with inability to speed up and get the individual / institutional questions. After that I bounced back in the second half big time but asset allocation and performance evaluation dragged me right back (as per results today - on the exam day, it looked ok)
In hindsight, it was lack of practice and similar study pattern to L1 and L2 that did me in. I was aware of it heading into the exam but thought I could pull it off, but i fumbled big time early on. Next year, its all about practice and ensuring i get asset allocation and capital market expectations right.
I did some deep reflection today and realized something. For level 3 I wrote no notes, I read,understood and used videos and 11th hour to rehash. Came out semi confident and gutted today with band 4. I realized I understood everything at a superficial level but ask me to explain it clearly to someone and I couldn’t. Not next year, I’m not taking this shit again.
I’m in the same boat as you guys…1st attempt Band 6 , 2nd attempt Band 10…dunno…will give this 1 last try.
You need to write a lot to practice it. And be VERY critical at self-grading. Cause I know how it is. Sometimes it feels like ‘close enough, I should count that point’, but it s not as simple.
Thanks for the comments guys. Yeah I was pretty blown all day at work. Especially since all my co-workers knew how much time and effort I put into this thing for the last two years. I’ll be around this forum though. Will need to look into this level up camp ppl rave about. I guess I have a bit of loyalty bias towards Kaplan since they were my go to provider in the previous levels. I’ve seen people pass with Kaplan but just not with great matrixes so I’m inclined to change both my study regiment and my study aid.
Talked to to mom and pops today, they know the disappointment. I guess they have it bad bc there’s nothing they can do to make it better. But tomorrow is another day. And for those of retakes we got time and experience on our hands. As well as some solid advice.
Jetty–you are a trooper; I’m running through the gamut of emotions right now and you are already standing strong ready to tackle this beast next year once and for all.
It’s one thing to fail, knowing that you did not truly give it your all…I feel for everyone who has actually put in the time and effort to pass this exam and came up short, feeling dumbfounded at their matrices and wondering what else they can do.
I guess the sooner you can get past this failure and get head-strong for all of the sacrifices you’ll need to make for next year the better.
I’m just not there yet.
Solid comments all. definitely was feeling crazy discouraged yesterday, after reading through the thread, I’m ready to get back to work in the next few months and finish this once and for all. I was band 5: 6/2/2 AM & 2/5/2 PM. definitely felt better leaving the exam than opening the CFA email yesterday. I’ve heard the talk about Level up and will definitely look further into as i remember Marc from Schweser a few years back in Level 2 and thought he killed it and was super helpful.
love the support, Thanks!