I did 2007-2018 mocks, and reviewed all the answers in the CFAI solution set. That gave me an idea of what they’re looking for in terms of high-level content (but know that you’ll have to write a lot less than the solution set).
I passed because of my morning score. Afternoon score was lower than AM.
-All past exams to 2007-2018 twice. Some I didn’t timed as part of full mock and others I’d just do a question here or there in morning before work. Make it second nature to answer these questions.
-blue box in CFAI text
-Kaplan mind maps essays
-learn how to write in the “same language” as the CFAI responses by using their key words and phrases wherever possible
-focus on truly understanding the material
-make sure you practiced so much that you don’t leave a single point blank! Everyone seems to make this mistake. On test day you need to quickly budget your time - write down on case 1 “9:16” if it’s 16 minutes , then case 2 “9:38” if it’s 22 minutes, “10:08” for case 3 if it’s 20. I don’t care if you starts case 3 at 10:00 - you are writing 10:08 at the top of the page. This is key. On test day I found myself behind on question 3 and I started whizzing through after that. Otherwise I would’ve lost track and left half the test blank.
^ I realize this doesn’t answer your original question, but my point is IMO it’s not really about the providers and more about how you prep for essays
I’m similar to 125mph and on the 90th percentile for essays.
i started studying end of Jan.
i used videos only through Chalk and Board which took 6 weeks. I then re watched and found a lot of things I missed. Whilst I was re watching i did all EOC and most blue boxes.
then I started hitting mocks mid-May. I did 2007 - 2018 AM exams; the did IFT which has 3 full exam worth of materials; then I did Konvexity 3 MC exams and then CFAI MC exam. Then I redid 2007-2018 AM exams quickly and other exams the last three days: if I knew the answer and why I moved on, if I didn’t know or unsure i reviewed.
Like passing the other levels, when I put in a lot of effort through practice exams, it paid off.
I was in a similar boat last year, failed because I totally fucked up the AM session. This time around, 90th percentile score. For the AM session, the biggest constraint is time and to answer the questions in time, you need to know the material cold. So this time, I stuck to the CFAI book, CFAI EOCs, blue boxes, the online official question bank and mocks. I wrapped up most of my studying by mid May and focussed solely on the mocks. Like others have said, no shortcuts, do mocks mocks mocks. And when you do the mocks its best if you keep a note of time and keep things as close as possible to the real deal.
I used only Kaplan and old CFAI exams for morning. Felt under prepared for AM session. Ended up around 60 on AM and 90 on PM.
Would recommend spending time learning how to time, structure answers and work AM as efficiently as possible. It’s a completely different beast compared to item sets.