hello fellow 3’ers, silly question here. although i registered for the exam back in september, i haven’t started studying because, i admit, i’m one lazy mofo. some background: i passed level 1 in dec 2008 with approx 150 hours of study time, passed level 2 in june 2009 with approx 200 hours of study time, and FFAILED level 3 (band 8) in june 2010 with approx 300 hours of study time. if the most i could study is 100 hours a month starting today (300 total), does your gut feeling tell you that those 300 hours would go to waste since i did the same thing last year and failed? what do you think, guys? 
also, i know all of you nerds (joking) have finished reading the curriculum for the 6th time (not joking), but if you were me (god forbid!), would you even consider reading the curriculum, or just go with schweser and past exams? since this is a real silly question, i don’t expect a serious answer, but i’d greatly appreciate it if you took it a bit seriously =D good luck to you all! xT
if you already have the foundation of level III from last yr, i think you would be fine studying 300 hrs this yr. but i have no idea what i’m talking about as i haven’t taken this exam yet.
Thanks for the reply BA!
Well, you already know the material, and you have seen the exam format, which trips up many L3 candidates. So why not.
Hi, I am wondering why you failed level 3 when you studied more than for level 2. Is level 3 that more difficult? That’s what making me nervous…
xT, Yeah, i would like to know why you failed your L3? Was it the materials you used? Was it focusing on the wrong topic? Was there too many qualitative questions which you did not memorise?
i did a horrible job during the morning portion of the exam. failed individual/institutional PM miserably. managed to do better in the afternoon but couldn’t make up for the big f- up i did in the morning. most of my afternoon sections were >70%, while a lot of my morning sections were <50%. to me, level 3 was definitely more difficult because those silly test makers try their hardest to throw in curve balls and not to make the exams straightforward. then again, i’ve always been much better at multiple choice questions to begin with, so some of you might actually find level 3 easier than i. one more thing, i’ve never opened the curriculum since level 1. schweser was enough for me for levels 1 and 2, but for level 3 i guess i was getting a bit too cocky. hope this helps. thanks and good luck, xT
So the morning essay was the killer.
Thanks for sharing this, very helpful.
It is the opaqueness and generality of the test question content / format / context that fells most folks at level III - along with the time dimension and morning format. The Level III material is unquestionably less rigorous (and more interesting I think) than Level II but the answers often require interpretive judgement calls.
I think you can do it! you have a good foundation and im sure a run through of the material and it will be quite fresh in your mind - leaving a good amount of time for practice which should hopefully seal the deal! then again advice from me is not very valuable given i am just about to crack open page 1book 1 (schweser) tonight! 91 days with 48 chapters to read - the game begins! good luck!
Thanks for the responses guys! by the way, i started studying this Monday, the 7th. i’m using the 2010 schweser and curriculum. apart from slight changes in equity market valuation and GIPS, does anyone know of any other changes from 2010 to 2011? Thanks and good luck! xT
me in similar position, 3 study session down. starting ss4 on 12th march, but giving up alcohol will help me focus and at worst save me enough money to pay for repeat.
Lucai Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > me in similar position, 3 study session down. > starting ss4 on 12th march, but giving up alcohol > will help me focus > and at worst save me enough money to pay for > repeat. good luck! i started studying 1/2/11 and gave up booze as well. lasted up till last night and started hitting the rocks again. but limiting myself to no more than 2 drinks on any given day.