Thoughts on L3 exam+ experience/suggested improvement for CBT format for L3

I took exam yesterday. Here are my toughs -

AM was very much time pressing, difficult with a few vague questions. I took L3 in 2019 and also did 5 few mocks and i know time management is important but for yesterdays exam, I don’t think it was fair to keep AM with that kind of time crunch (just very extreme) because its hard to read, understand, think response and type it out within just a couple of minutes, its just unrealistic. Anyone can easily fell in traps they keep because you don’t have time to even read properly. I believe 30 minutes more would do justice (at least its not going to be unreasonable). Even if i know half of question in advance just 2 hours and 12 minutes would be significantly less time given list of topics they test. Overall felt like it was more of pressurizing candidate by giving very very less time rather than actually testing the knowledge.

PM - Was reasonable. Not that difficult. Enough time. A few traps. I think its important to do comprehensive study and consistent practice because you need to recall concept/formula withing a few seconds.

AM + PM combined they tested much less of syllabus than what i experienced in L1, L2 and 2019 L3. To me that’s not a good testing. earlier 3+3 hours was more representative of syllabus.

CBT - Biggest frustrating part is no names of topics in index (just numbers) - If i had to take any specific topic first then i have to click and get in different numbers to see which topics are being asked which was pretty annoying, i had to change my strategy immediately.

For a few calculation question they just need final number, no credits for formula or steps. Either all or none which to me is not fair. They put so much time pressure doing 1 step wrong out of say 10 steps can cause lot of damage.

For me, If i am thinking answers then typing is slow for me but its relatively easy to write down while still think. But that’s just me i guess.

Not a big deal but % completion on top was kind of misleading at first glance. It showed like close to half when i was about to finish AM i believe because reminder was PM but i was afraid to see that i am close to finishing AM and progress % in very low later on i realized that rest of PM…

30 minutes break was joke, its just gone too fast.10-12 minutes to sign out, sign in, security check in, open locker to get your bag for snack etc left with another 10-15 Just use bathroom, grab water and eat a bar. My eyes were burning in break and after exam because starring CONTINUOUSLY at screen. I think 45 minutes would ideal so one can grab a coffee or so that eyes can breath as well.

Exam grading - Its tough to imagine how its going to be fair. Hard to achieve standardization given multiple locations and probably different types of question paper. More clarity around grading process would be helpful to build trust of fair grading.

Even though i found a few traps and probably i saved myself but its hard to even think back which answer could have gone wrong because i dint have enough time to read the questions. Hard to predict the result for me - won’t be surprise if i pass but surely will be very happy and relieved. i ll say its a flip of coin… lets see…

Good luck for results and all the best for those are still dint take the exam yet!

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I totally agree.

It is unacceptable that the CFAI changed the exam to the worse (representativeness, factor luck plays much more important role, no partial credit in AM for calculations, no overview of topics as in paper, no points per question, different questions per person, typos, multiple choice in AM etc.). They didn’t even provide a CBT mock in advance.

Let’s hope they do factor in all those issues when the institute sets the mps… it was brutal even though I’m a re-taker from December

In addition they so not provide the solution, so you cannot understand your errors.

yeh, I feel the same… I felt the test doesn’t represent the syllabus well.

I don’t think extra study time would help me to prepare better for the exam…

For me it was a great experience. I studied with mark meldrum materials. I did level 1 in 2018, level 2 in 2019 and then both of caia exams in 2020. Then I registered for this exam CFA Level 3 on december of last year and I am pretty sure I gave it more than 300 hours. I was concerned about many candidates having studied for more than a year.
The CBT was great as you could read the questions in parallel to the vignettes / essays. I did around 6 AM mocks and 4 PM mocks. Never I could actually finish the AM sessions in the allowed time so it was stressfull. But the actual exam was quite different as I did not feel that time pressure in any way. I do feel that CBT was necessary already and I feel the transition was great as the platform was quite easy to understand. The only thing I do not feel well with is the long time until results are ready, but a break was long due for me