So what did you guys think about the test?

CFA Level III
#101

Here are my thoughts on it: AM – I thought I actually killed the AM. I finished with over an hour to spare. The first question, unless everyone was on to something that I missed heinously, was relatively straightforward. True, it was dissimilar to mock questions for that portion of the cirriculum, but I didn’t think it was too bad and from what I recall was a straightforward application. There were a few sections in AM, including a highly commented upon “circle your choice” answer that it seems caused a lot of confusion. That I did dwell on, because the case facts seemed to suggest multiple outcomes there. Oh well. I did end up looking that answer up, and was wrong. I don’t think there was any AM question I was completely out to sea on.

My biggest regret is I fought my gut on several questions, as in, my gut said X but elements of the facts suggested Y, so I went with Y. I think if I do not pass, this will be why. Majorly disappointing. Most of the instances of this I subsequently looked up and I was wrong, should have went with gut.

PM – I used my PM scoring system. In mocks, I tally the number I “know” and the number I don’t, including educated guesses. If I “know” it, 100% confidence in the answer, then I give that an expectantcy of 80%, and if I guess, expectantcy of 40%. I did this on mocks and found I was actually close to 50% accurate on my guesses, and slightly higher than 80% on my “knows”. For PM, I “knew” 41 and made a tally by section totaling 19 “some amount of guess”. This implies 41*.8 + 19*.4 = 60% on PM as the low end. I finshed PM about an hour and a half early, but used the remaining time to go through some of my guesses. For those interested, this was my methodology at Level 2, see here -> http://www.analystforum.com/comment/91615846#comment-91615846 Its a good way to conservatively estimate the score, as another commentator suggested then if I reliably knew 68/120 with 10 lucky guesses, that was a pass and my actual scores with a 40/60/80 framework was 68-72. Anyway, I found PM to be exceedingly hard. I did all of the CFA topic tests multiple times – these are really the bst PM practice. I found the topic tests to involve harder concepts, but a more straightforward approach. The PM was easy concepts, but in a very tricky approach. There were several sections I spent *extra* time on studying, and I was disheartened to see “easy” questions on the exam, yet, for whatever unknowable reason, was having trouble solving them. There were absolutely a number of amazingly straightforward Q’s that actually had a big trick in PM. Level 1 I walked out of there sure I passed. L2, as can be gleaned from my comment, I was pretty dour on. That went ok. I am slightly more confident here than for Level 2, but I cant shake the feeling that fighting my gut will come back to haunt me. Guessing a high band :frowning:

#102

Also want to add, the exam center was relatively empty compared to L1 and L2, where it was completely full

#103

I wrote it in Zurich (anyone else?). I am still in bullet point mode:

  • They had metal detectors and security checks at the entrance this time

  • They were checking each and every wrist watch to check if it was a smart watch

  • My table was loose (cheap beer table) and squeaked non-stop – I shared it with a lefty, while I am right handed…

  • I don’t know which question you guys are talking about but I had one AM moment where I thought wow this is spot on but it’s actually the higher bound of the budget. Just hope I get enough partial credit here and there.

  • Morning was awful. I was behind relatively quickly and halfway through number 5 I realize that there is only 1 ½ hours left.

  • PM was ok, with some curve balls that I saw but was unable to hit. Good questions, but the kind of questions that I appreciate during my study sessions because they are though provoking. But heck not when you are fighting to stay alive. I was confident at 4/6 in average and 50/50 on the rest. I hope that with the traps I missed I will average 75%ish and make up for the f.ug up in AM.

  • I did about 7 AM mocks, some of them repeatedly. And went even further back on some key areas. This means I had done some 12-15 different questions on individual and institutional. And still I saw a good number of questions on the exam that I had not seen in a similar way.

I am likely a fail, because of AM. And I know what I did wrong. I should have practiced more AM mocks and learnt more from it, more from its model answers. I will take a different approach next year, with a more strategic take on the practice questions.

#104

I never drew arrows- so worried now. That’s quite annoying thinking about eg having three boxes when u only need to explain two wrong choices…if you put your justification in wrong box no marks? Ouch. A few of those mistakes and I failed for sure…didn’t have time to check and recheck answers I barely finished on time. AM was definitely way more subjective in nature than all mocks and past AM papers I did. As for PM even more worried that I missed a lot of things having read how others on here found it. I finished with almost an hour to spare and had time to check all answers, so I probably read questions at face value without picking up on the nuances. Changed about 6, probably incorrectly. Not feeling good after reading these posts, especially with that issue on AM where I’m not sure whether I wrote in the correct boxes now ;-(

#105

This. First question was brutal. I also spent like 32 minutes or something ridiculous on it. Threw my entire morning off (time-wise) and I also had to spend 2nd half rushing. Ended up taking for SURE 20 marks out of the 180 completely left empty. Terrible feeling. That being said I still think I did okay on it, and felt really good about the 2nd half. I’d lean towards a pass, but wouldn’t be surprised if I failed either. All in all, pleased with my performance.

#106

I wouldn’t worry about not drawing the arrows given that there are already 4 out of 4 of us that didn’t mark on the right row. I honestly did not get the, for example: 3 boxes when need to give 2 reasons, but now I do with this discussion. I just filled in the boxes from top to bottom labelling each row, for example if there are 3 choices and I circled the second one, I put in first row “1. …” and in second row “3. …”. If they are gonna give me wrong for that, that’s really pushing it given it’s the first time they have this format and the rows are labelled.

#107

When people say the first question do you mean the entire thing? Or just, like, part A? The reason I ask is that each entire question is what, 15-22 mins on average with like 3-9 per question? The rule of thumb is it should only take you half the time to actually do the answer, including thinking about it.

This isn’t a criticism like you should have known better, but it was something I learned in the mocks, that some questions I struggled with I made harder than they were, and the calcs were actually minimal. Whenever I see an 8 pointer or something I don’t know, it doesnt mean you wont get a 0, but it does mean that the overall “amount” of effort on that question isn’t more than 3-5 steps total, including writing the whole thing out.

I get the sense some people think these types of AM questions require more than in fact they do.

#108

when I was scoring practice item sets it was rare to get 5/6 and I did all the online topic tests plus 6 schweser exams… from what I remember about the exam, maybe 1-2 PM sets I felt good but the others could easily turn into a 3/6 or worst with a few bad guesses. With that said, it was the same thing at level 2 and I passed. In the AM there were more points that I felt confident about although I didn’t get to finish every sub question… overall a lot more “guessing” in PM but my AM score may have actually been better as I feel it was easier difficulty.

#109

I am a level III retaker. Band 9 last time. The only reason I could not clear last time was the fact that I had thought of completing 2 questions on the Portfolio Management - Individual (My strongest part) at last and missed completely on both of them. (How stupid of me). This time I had a strategy in place. The only reason we do not have a time check up in AM is the unequal distribution of marks across the 10 questions (unlike the PM). So we never know, having completed like 5 questions in 1.5 hours, that are we ahead of time or behind and it is this reason that most of us fumble.

This time I started with writing the cummulative time on top of each question before starting to even read the question. By this I know I need to finish that particular question till what time and that whether I am 5 minutes ahead OR behind the schedule.

eg if first three questions are assigned 24,17 adn 27 minutes respectively, I would write 24 besides question 1, 41 besides question 2 and 1.08 besides question 3. By this I have clear idea that I need to complete the question 3 by the end of 1 hour and 8 minutes and accordingly calculated whether I am behind or ahead of time. It really helped me this time and was able to complete the AM with 2 minutes to spare.

PM was definitely difficult than 2015 PM. Though did well but am more confident about AM this time.

Best of luck to everyone!!!

#110

There was a cosplay convention in dc during the test . saw some random butt cheeks

#111

Took it there too. It was AwesomeCon, and I peeped a few myself.

#112

Half the time??? No way. It depends on the calculation question though. If it asks you to calculate the pension minimum requirement, then it’s easy but if the calculation question involves forwards and swaps, then there is no way you would calculate it in 4 minutes if the time recommendation on it was 8 minutes.

#113

but it was mostly fat overgrown men in spandex

#114

Does anyone feel this way too?

Passed ethics, finished the written on time, maybe 35-40 in the PM correct.

Is that a pass you think? I don’t think I failed any written questions persay.

#115

From my previous experience and from reading others, I’ve found it’s dangerous to fell like you did better on the AM than the PM. Reason being, most people don’t end up doing as well on the AM as they thought they did. Obviously there are exceptions but it’s uncommon to score exceptionally well on AM.

Certainly not suggesting you did not pass and definitely hope you did! I just know I felt the same way last year and was band 10 ugh. Anyways, good luck and that would be quite the feat passing if your studying began only in April.

#116

First question threw me off…

Thought the AM was easier than previous exams, and pretty much inline with mocks - that’s probably why most people found the PM section more difficult because it was made to be.

I actually thought the PM was way easier relative to last year (band 9 retaker), and finished about two hours in…

Of course, where you think you may have done well, you may have missed something.

Now we all just have to sit tight and wait this out.

Best of luck to everyone!

#117

Btw guys… my AM first question does not necessarily mean your first question as well? I thought we have different set of question papers with same questions but in different order? Am i wrong?

#118

ayam worrriiieddddddddddddddddddddddddd

#119

Does any one have some worst possible scores last year at which people have passed Level 3? Hope it is not above 63-65%

#120

From what i have seen, worst maximum possible score that did past was 68%