I just passed level 3 last June and am so proud of the accomplishment. I passed the 1st two no problem and failed level 3 once. The only reason I failed was because I didnt put enough time into it!!! My advice is this: 1) Study everything (don’t skip any subject because its too complicated or you believe it won’t be on the test because it will). If a subject is too hard re-read it over and over until you understand, even go to CFAI books if you have to. The more complicated the subject matter the more likely it will be on the test. 2) Schweser cannot cover everything. DO all questions in the end of each chapter in CFAI books. You will see material that you have never seen, it usually will be on the test. When you see that material review it thoroughly take notes etc… 3) Have no social life for 1 month - 1.5 months prior to the test. Don’t drink alcohol, go to bed early, watch movies or some other way to relax to take your mind off the exam when you are not studying. 4) Study ethics last (No point in reviewing early because you will just be wasting time). This is all short term memory. It will be fresh in your head if its the last topic you cover before you start taking practice tests. 5) Take all the practice tests you can, but don’t kill yourself to get them all done. It is more important to focus on the questions you got wrong and weakness areas than to take more practice tests. 6) THIS IS PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT—Make sure you understand each subject conceptually, CFA Institute knows you know how to do a calculation. You must know how items within a formula affect the result as well as why you are using those items to find the result. 7) Always try to see the big picture. How an LOS in equity can relate to economics or fixed income etc…CFA Institute loves to pull from different areas and tie it all together on the exams. There are no secrets just time and effort. I am more than happy to answer all your questions as I had someone who passed all 3 levels answer mine. I am just returning the favor. Good Luck!!!
Great post. Thanks. I’m planning to take L2 in 2011. Enrollment begins this summer, leaving me up to 11 months to prepare. From mid-February to mid-April, my work commitments will get in the way. Given a broad study window, but a two month virtual black-out, how do you recommend I plan out my studies? Incidentally, L2 vignettes make me a little nervous. Reading and digesting long stories under time pressure are not my strongest points.
I would not worry about the vignettes as I had the same concern. Usually the questions follow the paragraphs of the vignette. So all I did was read 1st & 2nd question, then start reading the vignette until I saw the answers, then read next two question and going back to the vignette etc… I actually thought that the vignette piece did not add difficulty whatsoever. Well since you cant study for those 2 months, then you have to start early. Make sure you have a very solid understanding of the material going into mid feb…And through mid feb to mid april make sure you take a couple hours a week just to refresh your memory so you dont lose it. Then mid april to the time of the test have no social life and just hit it hard. Try to take a week off work before the exam that will help bigtime if you are able to…I think you will be fine, but you need to keep the material fresh in your head so the last month before the exam you wont be wasting time re-learning the material. Also notecards will help when you are commuting to work or during downtime during the “blackout months”
ManvsCFA - THANK YOU for your post! Your timing is perfect since I found myself skipping sections that seem confusing (i.e. the Dupont Analysis of decomposing ROE) thinking I’ll come back to it later. I’m going to go back to Dupont tonight and master that concept!!
No problem (Dupont and equity valuation P/E etc…is extremely important in lvl 1!!!)…Glad I could help…Also something else came to mind Out of all the exams I did the best on level 1 for only one reason…because I didnt know what to expect, so I prepared for the worst. Sometimes being nervous is a good thing…I would rather study 50 hours too much and kill it than not enough and fail (nothing efficient about studying 150-200 hrs and failing when all you needed was an extra 50 hrs…which is waht happeend to me on lvl 3)…You all work in finance think opportunity cost.
That’s my plan. I’ll be starting mid-summer doing casual reading, then stepping up my work in the fall. I’m very disciplined (I spent 5 months on L1, studying every week and passed on the first attempt). My worry, though, is that I’ll forget things that I covered early on. For instance, on L1, I studied econ at the beginning, and almost all of that knowledge was completely lost by the time I got to the final month. ManVsCFA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Well since you cant study for those 2 months, then > you have to start early. Make sure you have a very > solid understanding of the material going into mid > feb…And through mid feb to mid april make sure > you take a couple hours a week just to refresh > your memory so you dont lose it.
thats why you need flashcards…to preserve that knowledge…
Congrats on passing Level 3! Your insight is very much appreciated, too. I didn’t study enough for the first time I took Level 1 last year, so now I’ve pretty much put my life on hold until June. I’ve been focusing more on questions and will take sample exams as the date approaches. I studied ethics so long ago that I will NEED to review it heavily in the final month, which is no problem bc like you said, it requires good short-term memory. Hope to hear more from you about tips to passing the exams, thanks!
ManVsCFA, Thank you for a great post. I initially planned to take L1 this June, but have been handed over two projects that are ‘hot plates’ - so I am going to be married to my laptop for the next couple of months. Since there is no point in spending over 1K when I know I can’t do justice, I decided to take L1 this December, followed by L2 in June next year. I don’t want to wait until next year to start preparing for L2 - so I was planning to go through L1 material first, and halfway through, start making myself familiar with the L2 LOS/study material, and switching back to L1 come October. Since L2 is built on L1, I don’t know if it is practical to attempt to focus on both at the same time, or when during the process I can at least think of understanding L2 material if I look at it. Any advice?
Appreciate the tips man. Great stuff. Thanks!
cv4cfa…I took lvl 1 in december and lvl 2 the following June and passed no problem. I do not recommend you start looking at the level 2 stuff until you pass lvl 1 because it wont get you closer to passing level 1 and you may fail level 1 and it was pointless to look at lvl 2 stuff. Just focus on level 1 and if you pass thew dive right into level 2. Your life will be miserable during this time but it will pay dividends later <1 year passing 2 tests is a good feeling. You are right that lvl 2 is expanded alot on level 1 but if you dont have a solid grasp on lvl 1 you will just confuse yourself. Again just focus on whats at hand.
ManVsCFA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > cv4cfa…I took lvl 1 in december and lvl 2 the > following June and passed no problem. I do not > recommend you start looking at the level 2 stuff > until you pass lvl 1 because it wont get you > closer to passing level 1 and you may fail level 1 > and it was pointless to look at lvl 2 stuff. > > Just focus on level 1 and if you pass thew dive > right into level 2. Your life will be miserable > during this time but it will pay dividends later > <1 year passing 2 tests is a good feeling. > > You are right that lvl 2 is expanded alot on level > 1 but if you dont have a solid grasp on lvl 1 you > will just confuse yourself. Again just focus on > whats at hand. Thanks for your advice. It makes sense. I was only worried that L2 may be too tough a nut to crack in 6 months. Hopefully a strong L1 foundation will see me through. Thanks again.
That December to June push is a hard one. It’s one of the reason’s I decided to skip this June for L2. Come this September when you realize that you’re in the final three months of preparation, you’re not going to want to look at L2 material because you’ll be so busy. Your best bet is to sign up for the L2 electronic text books at begin your studies right after the L1 exam. You’re going to be totally friggen exhausted, though. cv4cfa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > ManVsCFA, > > Thank you for a great post. I initially planned to > take L1 this June, but have been handed over two > projects that are ‘hot plates’ - so I am going to > be married to my laptop for the next couple of > months. Since there is no point in spending over > 1K when I know I can’t do justice, I decided to > take L1 this December, followed by L2 in June next > year. I don’t want to wait until next year to > start preparing for L2 - so I was planning to go > through L1 material first, and halfway through, > start making myself familiar with the L2 LOS/study > material, and switching back to L1 come October. > Since L2 is built on L1, I don’t know if it is > practical to attempt to focus on both at the same > time, or when during the process I can at least > think of understanding L2 material if I look at > it. Any advice?
Robert A Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > That December to June push is a hard one. It’s > one of the reason’s I decided to skip this June > for L2. Come this September when you realize that > you’re in the final three months of preparation, > you’re not going to want to look at L2 material > because you’ll be so busy. > > Your best bet is to sign up for the L2 electronic > text books at begin your studies right after the > L1 exam. You’re going to be totally friggen > exhausted, though. > > Thank you for the note, Robert. I was disappointed that I could not register for L1 this June as I had planned for it, as it would have given me a full year to prepare for L2. Since that plan did not work, I wanted to get an opinion of individuals who have completed both levels and see what is a reasonable level of effort expectation for the preparation of L2 - of course, I am cognizant of the fact that ultimately the result would depend on my time and effort whether I am told it is easy or hard.
Thank you for a great post. I am taking L2 this June. I mostly had in mind what you have suggested. But it is re-assuring to hear it from a successful candidate. Also, I am nervous too on vignettes. That is because I have not yet attempted any REAL practice questions. I am still reading thru text. But your suggestion on that helps a lot and makes me less nervous already.
ManVsCFA, congrats on passing L3. I have registered for Dec L1 exam. I dont have any finance background and I need your opinion on the order of sections to cover. i have almost finished Quant and putting the Ethics as the last section to study. for everything else, is there any specific order you can recommed? like is there any section related to Econ that I cant get a handle of because i havent studied Econ before that section? should i just follow the order of CFA sections/books? my thinking was that if i cover Quant and FRA first, i have more time to practice the concept and they will be the base for other sections. I appreciate any advice you may have on this.
Having passed L1, I can share a few pointers about study order. Econ and Ethics stand alone. Pick them up as you see fit (Ethics at the very end is best). After covering quant, go through FRA and learn it really well. After FRA, do equities (relatively easy) fixed income (more difficult) and corporate finance. Get to know WACC really well, and understand DuPont and how to deconstruct a balance sheet. It’s covered a lot on the exam. Then do portfolio management and corporate governance. Alternative investments and derivatives is somewhat a standalone section too, and can be done toward the end. Above all, make sure you really understand FRA. It’s so heavily weighted. Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > ManVsCFA, congrats on passing L3. > > I have registered for Dec L1 exam. I dont have any > finance background and I need your opinion on the > order of sections to cover. i have almost finished > Quant and putting the Ethics as the last section > to study. for everything else, is there any > specific order you can recommed? like is there any > section related to Econ that I cant get a handle > of because i havent studied Econ before that > section? should i just follow the order of CFA > sections/books? my thinking was that if i cover > Quant and FRA first, i have more time to practice > the concept and they will be the base for other > sections. I appreciate any advice you may have on > this.
Omid…I think Robert A’s line of thinking is appropriate but when I studied I always went in order, because at the end of the day the stuff you don’t understand will become clear as you move through the material and you can focus more on those sections as you get closer to the test. I don’t believe doing the harder sections first is always better because you want those fresh in your head closest to the test and what other people tell you is harder may not be as hard for you…I always read through the entire material twice before I even started to get down into the material that was more difficult for me.
There are harder parts and easier parts. At some point, you might feel way over your head, and other passages might be pure bathroom reading. There are some sections that build on one another and others that don’t. For instance, NPV and IRR, initially covered in quant, get repeated in corporate finance when you have to analyze projects. Moreover, FRA ends with ratio analysis, and ratios are repeated in the equity section (I think that’s where). Alternatively, there are sections on Modern Portfolio Theory, the Capital Market Line and the Security Market Line, all likely to be tested, but are not connected with any other sections. Go to this link, and see how the Los Angeles CFA Society organizes their review program. I went in this order because I took their class last fall. http://www.cfalacfareview.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3349
thanks guys, i really appreciate your advice.