All - I was hoping to begin a conversation about best possible review methods. I have sat for Level III twice before but failed both times (first time expectedly, second time unexpectedly). Just finished reading the CFAI books, and am now beginning review. I want to make sure I best utilize my review time so I never have to go through this again. How are you all going about your reviews? I would like to go through section by section, reviewing important concepts and doing practice problems, but I’m afraid that, if not planned properly, this could eat up valuable time. Also, what resources are you all utilizing to review? Any ideas/inputs would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Pants Cortez
bump, grind
were you taking enough leave before the exam before the past two LIII exams? why was the 2nd failure unexpected? AM session or PM session?
all AM session, was at 50-70 or over 70 in MC, just did terribly on the Essays. I think that’s what is hardest about Level III, grading your own Essay answers is such a subjective process… by what do you mean “taking enough leave”? enough review time or downtime between review and the actual test?
Same here my scores were terrible on AM, average and above average for PM. I still don’t know if I did the necessary to get different scores on AM this year.
Well, I did well on the AM but very poorly on PM. That costed me. How did you guys prepare for the PM? It totally killed me. I couldn’t remember the formulas and was confused about the q themselves. Any strategies ?
This thread scares me!
lvl3 repeater Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Same here my scores were terrible on AM, average > and above average for PM. I still don’t know if I > did the necessary to get different scores on AM > this year. I have the same experience here. AM is too subjective. You never know how you performed till you recieve your results
Shiver.
Pants Cortez: AM seems the killer session for most ppl last yr, guess PM will be the one makes the differences, above average PM is not good enough. I reckon PM is easier to manage, coz I can double check my calculation/reasoning against the choices (at least you won’t be too far away from what CFAI was asking about). For AM, sometimes there could be weird Qs that ppl would have no clue how to approach them, that when the panic kicks in and screw up the whole exam. I personally would focus heavily on PM and target 100%. AM just as important, but unfortunately just to hard figure out the right answer - aiming for an average score Do make sure to take enough time off from work before the exam…
Appreciate all the feedback. I suppose I just struggle with the fact that when you take practice tests, you know how you did with the PM, but the essays (eg AM) are so subjective in grading that it’s hard to get a good handle on it. What tools are you all utilizing to review? I am going through, reviewing Section by Section, reading the BSAS books, skimming the CFA books, and doing practice problems. Are any of you using the Schweser question bank? Those seem pretty easy, no? DC
my friends who passed scored almost everything below 50% for AM, PM everthing above 70%, they both passed. mine was terrible in AM, PM not very good, 70%, 50-70% and 50% beloe was Ethics, – a sure fail. so if it so hard to judge the AM, just try very best to score above 70% in PM. I used Sch Q, the simple ones are too simple. but the end of sesison pracitce exam can be a good pracitice, much tougher for me.
I am a repeater too, I guess the best way to practise AM session is the past AM question papers. Doing them in full, and comparing with CFAI answer keys to see whether we can capture the key issues in the suggested answers. Time management is also crucial for the AM session. Last june I missed the last question. For PM the sample exams on the CFAI website are the closest thing to the actual MCQ test.