some truth in those deep words Bucephalus…
Hank Moody Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Wow, thank you Bucephalus for that warm welcome! I > can see that passing Level III has been a humbling > experience for you. > +1 > Bucephalus Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > > > > And you will never be a decent analyst either > as > > most insightful analysts calls are based on > much > > less info than you have to answer your own > > question.
Use eraserable ink pens !! They help a lot !!
> Wow, thank you Bucephalus for that warm welcome! I can see that passing Level III has been a > humbling experience for you. Yep. Seriously, you’ve passed two levels, studied for hundreds of hours and passed and you still need to know if Schweser or Stalla is better? You surely should know what works for you by now. In every firm I have worked in, questions like that would be given short thrift and asking them would not reflect well on you. That many others ask the same banal question is no excuse.
In most places I have worked (investment firms) the phrase “leave your ego at the door” is often cited at analysts who are over confident. A second opinion always helps to frame one’s own view. I have never been in an asset allocation meeting where other views/questions are given short shrift, even if at first glance they seem irrelevant. Another well quoted phrase, “we are given two ears and one mouth; use them proportionately.”
Passed June 2011 L3. Wrote L3 in 2010 and flunked with a band 5 , which was a huge shock I had to admit. The Band 5 was not because I did not know the material - but simply because I got sidetracked by the structure of the exam and lost track of time. A key lesson for newbies is that this exam is 70% preparation in terms of knowing the stuff and 30% knowing the structure of the exam and your condition during the exam. Make sure you are familiar with the structure of the exam. For materials I used CFA texts exclusively for L3 but Schweser exclusively for L1 and L2. Use Qbank only for learning the material but do not for one second think the qbank reflects the structure of questions on the actual exam. Drill down on EOC questions in CFA texts. For me its been a great journey as I wrote L1 in 2005 and flunked, wrote again in 2007 and passed with all greater than 70%, wrote L2 in 2008 and passed and wrote L3 in 2010 and flunked and eventually passed in 2011. To all newbies wish you the best in 2012
BiPolarBoyBoston Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > May - Do 2003-2011 pratice tests and refresh > subjects. Also do the PM samples from last year. Where did you find the old practice test ?
matthanuf06 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Also one thing I would recommend to everyone, take > a week or so off before the exam, and cram big > time. Shove as much as you can into your brain. > Also what helped me tremendously is creating my > own “quicksheet”, basically I’d write down > everything I thought was pretty important > (formulas and high level qual stuff) on like 4-6 > pieces of paper. You can review and pound through > that real quick and it’ll help drill any formula > and key definition/list into your head. > This. Taking three days off before the exam and turning your apartment into a “sensory isolation chamber” really helps the information crystallize. I’m also a fan of making your own notes and review packet - the process of creating it will greatly help your understanding.
I used CFAI books. Schweser practice tests were very very useful for me- especially for the morning session. And all the morning sections from past years at the CFA institute site. Q bank, so useful for L1 and L2, definitely is a waste of time for me at Level 3.
Not exactly correct. Because Level III is different, the prep providers may have different strengths and weaknesses relative to the other levels. Schweser was quite strong at Level II, but that doesn’t mean anything about Level III. As for your somewhat arrogant comment about the firms you’ve worked for, I have the good fortune of already operating a successful investment advisory practice, and I’ve been a finance and accounting professional probably since before you were in diapers. Believe me when I say that people with your attitude wouldn’t get past the first cut, with my firm, or my clients. Bucephalus Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Seriously, you’ve passed two levels, studied for > hundreds of hours and passed and you still need to > know if Schweser or Stalla is better? You surely > should know what works for you by now. >
Loup_Fenrir Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > BiPolarBoyBoston Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > > > > May - Do 2003-2011 pratice tests and refresh > > subjects. Also do the PM samples from last year. > > > Where did you find the old practice test ? When/where are these tests available?
Tips: 1. Download the 2008 exam now before it disappears from the CFA website when the 2011 exam appears. 2. When taking the exam, always start with the question, and then quickly scan through vignette to find the relevant info to answer the question. You should be spending as little time as possible reading the question and much more time answering it. I would say the breakdown should be maybe 5-15% time reading or thinking about it/ 85-95% just answering. The drawback is that you could misread the question or miss important information buried somewhere in the question in a tricky way, but at least from the past few years worth of sample exams and this year’s exam, that hasn’t really been the case. I’m a very fast reader because of my scanning ability, and I finished the morning and afternoon sections each with about 40 minutes left, though I went back and reviewed my answers for the rest of the time. Morning results: (>70% on 6/9 sections). Also - the better you learn the material, the faster you will get because you will develop “question intuition”. Anyhow - I think that developing speed is an area where one can make a lot of improvement. For the 2011 exam, morning and afternoon, I don’t think I read a vignette completely through. It just wasn’t necessary, from what I recall. They do throw in a fair amount of useless extra details, and you shouldn’t be wasting any time at all reading those. 3. Create a lot of electronic flashcards with your own questions. Each flashcard should contain a chunk-size bit of material that you can absorb at a glance. Get the electronic version of the curriculum and copy and paste material from the Ebooks directly into your flashcard program. If you have enough material on your flashcards, you should never have to waste time reading through the curriculum sequentially. Schweser might be a better way to go - but you would have to “crack” their pdf books to get the copy and paste ability, which I don’t endorse of course. Way faster than reading and typing from the books. Create flashcards with sample problems copied and pasted from the EOC and within the sections. You want to use these cards to develop your ability to recall material without the benefit of multiple choice answers.
guys my 2 cents for L3…It doesn’t matter how many hours you spend, what matters is what you are spending those hours on… for L3, its a must that you do ALL EOC questions,some of them show up in the exam…You should keep practicing them until you master them… second, you should do all the past AM exams that are available… These two things are a must and will help you cross over the passing line… good luck