Starting Prep

To those out there who have started studying. I moved into a new city last month and have not had any time to study. I have to begin studying immediately and am kind of tensed with the curriculum. I have also heard that the topics are dry compared to level 2 and require a lot of retention skills.

I know with the right effort Level 3 should be possible. But wanted a guidance to prepare better, since im workin, i would have around an hour to hour and a half on weekdays and possibly 10-12 hours on a combined basis on weekends. So that should make. How should I break my preparation/revision keeping the next 4 months in mind. Which subjects would be the best ones to start with. I typically leave ethics for the last month and use tests to get acquainted to the common types of questions.

Please guide.

Sincerely,

TDK88

Dear Dark Knight,

Find below the schedule I’m following with my Level III group. I’m essentially following the sequence in the curriculum except doing Ethics at the end… along the lines of what you are thinking.

You can follow my sequence but obviously you only have half the time (compared to what I have on my schedule).

Make sure you do the curriculum examples and practice problems. Try to be done with the course by early May so you have at least 3 week to do a lot of practice problems.

Also, take a look at the CFA Institute mock exam to get a sense for how you should respond to the essay questions.

You can email me if you have further questions.

|
| |
|

Study Session

|

Planned Dates

| Quiz |
| 3. Behavioral Finance | 3-Nov to 10-Nov |

17-Dec

|
| 4. Private Wealth Management | 13-Nov to 28-Nov |
| 5. Portfolio Management for Individual Investors | 1-Dec to 8-Dec |
| 6. Capital Market Expectations in Portfolio Management | 11-Dec to 15-Dec |

14-Jan

|
| 7. Economic Concepts for Asset Valuation | 18-Dec to 22-Dec |
| 8. Asset Allocation | 5-Jan to 12-Jan |
| 9. Management of Passive and Active Fixed Income Portfolios | 19-Jan to 26-Jan |

4-Feb

|
| 10. Portfolio Management of Global Bonds and Fixed Income Derivatives | 29-Jan to 2-Feb |
| 11. Equity Portfolio Management | 5-Feb to 9-Feb |

25-Feb

|
| 12. Equity Portfolio Management | 12-Feb to 19-Feb |
| 13. Alternative Investments for Portfolio Management | 23-Feb to 2-Mar |

25-Mar

|
| 14. Risk Management | 5-Mar to 12-Mar |
| 15. Risk Management Applications of Derivatives | 16-Mar to 23-Mar |
| 16. Execution of Portfolio Decisions; Monitoring and Rebalancing | 26-Mar to 2-Apr |

29-Apr

|
| 17. Performance Attribution and Evaluation | 6-Apr to 13-Apr |
| 18. Global Investment Performance Standards | 16-Apr to 23-Apr |
| 2. Ethics and Professional Standards in Practice | 27-Apr to 30-Apr | |
| Practice, Practice, Practice | 1-May to 31-May |