“Be aware of this 40 year old men in our country.They suffer from mid life crisis and are always trying to be in the good books of young girls.” -Rahul Roy”
He got the age part right . Band 3. Now it is clear I flunked miserably. Wife expecting baby no 2 in sept. have a 4 year old daughter. Studying will be challenge. Now there are various posts on what to use how to study etc. Frankly it doesn’t matter what i use. practice is the key. i did practise but not enough i guess.
My journey so far
Dec 2010 :- L1 passed first attempt
June 2011:- L2 failed band 2. didn’t complete first read of the material
June 2012:- L2 band 8.
June 2013:- L2 passed
June 2014:- L3 Band 3
The scheduling of study time etc will be planned and implemented. .
Plan to start early. Use CFAI more and lots of practice exams. my scores
AM (8 below 50,1 51-70 and 2 above 70) .
PM which i thought was comparatively better than AM was as bad ( 4 below 50,2 51-70 and 2 above 70).
The scores indicate i simply had no clue on how to answer in AM and i didnt know the material well either as my PM scores indicate. So i have to not only get a good grasp of the material but also learn how to answer AM.
To be honest don’t even know what to ask those who have passed. Its like i know what/how/when to study. Just not getting it right.
Start early. Go over the material repeatedly until it sinks in. Aim to tread water in the AM – and then ace the PM. Mocks are overrated – use your time just to focus on learning the curriculum at a deep level.
First of all do not think about this results once you start your preparation (easier said than done though).
Just forget how much you practiced previous exams and mocks/samples of AM paper last time, just do them again (if possible get new printouts for doing so) and never compare with previous (last year’s) scores. Only consider this year’s performance to judge your level of preperation. Winning the AM means you will need to know (i) the material well (ii) be good in time management and last but not the least (iii) know what CFAI wants you to write to score so compare with their solutions on the site and redo the whole topic (and the paper after a gap) again. Without full confidence in (iii) you will see the same outcome again.
Start early, as whole of the material is old and will seem so familiar you will lose the momentum in the midway, then you will have to give yourself some break and continue after some time. Again, if possible, get new material as the old one must have been marked and pages bookmarked during last years preparation which will divert you attention while studying and may even distract you thinking of what you did last year.
Finally, do not read any topic on AF or listen to anything which motivates or suggests the failures to simply drop out saying CFA is not their cup of tea. There is no reason to feel discouraged by this year’s result, CFA is one of the toughest exam to overcome.It happens. Have confidence in yourself and have only one target for June 2015 to win this battle. Best of luck
I suggest referring to CFAI curriculum only where you have problems understanding a concept from notes. Spending more time on notes and practice will be a better investment
Surely you must have some knowledge about (from uni) how you best learn new information?
Some people just need to read it, some need to practical examples to get it, other need to hear it, or a combination of the three in some mix that suits you.
For example me I use videolectures to first hear it and get a general grasp, then I just do examples, this is when I usually get it. In a few cases its still unclear and then I need to consult the textbook. This is the most effecient way for me to learn new information. Find your way, its a lot of material so you need to do it effeciently.
I passed Level 3 with ~200 hours of study. But I should mention I could have used more hours, I was not confident I would pass. Probably a bit lucky getting an exam that suited me fairly well.
Would agree that it’s important for you to just find the best way of getting all of the CFAI curriculum inside your brain.
I would also urge you to use the CFAI curriculum textbooks as your main reading source.
I basically started around February this year, and ploughed my way through the curriculum textbooks, just reading through them and making sure I understood EVERYTHING in them (I had to quite often refer back to old CFAI textbooks/look online etc).
Once I had done that, I started practice papers - the AM practice papers are essential, especially reviewing your answers to them to see exactly how things like IPS questions should be answered - there are so many easy marks available for simple and obvious things!
Then really just went through the topics that cropped up from the practice papers, trying to wrote learn as much material as possible.
Seemed to just about do the trick, but the key is to find your best way of assimilating information!
Good luck bro, be strong, have no doubt you can do it.
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