I’m not sure where this view started. I certainly heard it when I started studying for the CFA exams. All I know is anyone who says Level 3 is easier than Level 2 never studied for and sat for the Level 3 exam. If I were to guess, it probably started with the viewpoint that the Level 3 material is easier than the Level 2 material (I would generally tend to agree with this) and this was extrapolated into the exam itself (I would not agree with this).
For me, I did put more hours in to Level 3 than any previous levels, in part for the reason you mentioned (really wanting to go one and done) but mainly due to the variability and uncertainty of the AM session. As we all know well by now, the AM session is mainly what drives success and failure at Level 3. It’s the wildcard in the deck. Since most of us are probably the type that prefers to limit outcome variability, more preparation is a way to deal with that.
was told by a respected source that, 300-350 hours on average and that there has been study done the more hours is associated with higher failure rate.
For all those countless hours we spent …for all that we gave up over the years… for all friends/family members we pissed off because we couldn’t join them to a movie etc. etc… was it enough? We will know soon…
Around 400 hours and have spent at least 100 hours on mock exams - did 11 am mock exams. Felt pretty well on am session, however, my experience with CFAI, that can be overconfidence and nothing else.
i never kept exact number of hours… probably closer to 250 each year…
my experience has been that the hours are “back end heavy”… every year I take the last week off from work and put in like 12 hour days… those 60-70 hours are typically the most productive…