I started last weekend. Was planning to start in early September but Schweser kept delaying release of ebooks. Found out it takes me 4 hrs to do one reading so hoping to do 8 hrs each weekend to finish all by December and start rereading notes in Jan.
Chil out. There are only 30 odd readings. You need only half the time of Level II preparation (60 readings). I think early Feb is the best time to start.
^ I’m going to start this weekend.
I highly disagree with “half the time of Level II”. You have to understand concepts in depth. If you start in Feb, you probably have to cram a little to read all 6 books. Will you have time for EoC’s and mocks after?
And I’d rather overprepare than underprepare just because we’re so close to passing. One more exam and we’re done.
+1.
Study the material from January-March (except Ethics and GIPS). Then focus on practicing essay exams and mcq from April-May.
Agree with these guys. Start in February.
January 4th or 11th
Start as early as possible. You might think January is okay. But what if you got busy at work, what if you had a personal emergency and lose few precious weeks of study time. And remember this exam is a BEAST and needs to have the respect of your time and dedication. So be ready for all eventualities. Just my two cents gents!
I tend to agree with injapan33 here.
Barely made the cut after putting in 400 quality hours over 6 months.
I urge you to start as early as possible and put in more efforts than planned. The competition level is the highest & the exam itself is probably the toughest to ace even with adaquate preparation.
Totally agreed. New CFA level 3 candidates need to get a sense how harsh the exam is graded. In level 2 you can pretty much expect a score proportional to the efforts you put in. Not level 3! According to David Hetherington (from Schweser video) the average score of each essay question is about 50 percent. But if you look at the past morning exams you will surely wonder how candidates scored so low on such straight-forward questions. Essays are graded hard! You just need to ace the afternoon session (80% correct) to compensate for the morning. It is difficult to score well in the essay even if you know the material and have managed your time well. It is just plain unpredictable. If you start on January you will likely score around 60 to 65 percent and your chance of passing will be no better than a toss-up.
3 months reading + 2 months practise
That is enough time with a full-time job.
I’m going to start in early January. That is what I did for level 1 + 2 and it worked out… I enjoy the holidays and new year without the misery of studying and then get to work. That gives me about 3 months of reading and 2 months for practice questions and mock exams.
People who say they will start studying in January…how many hours a day are guys estimating for yourself? I am just curious how so many people seem to manage with work.
5 months is probably insufficient for passing level 3 with a comfortable margin. Book 6 of the curriculum is going to give you a nasty surprise - lots of quantitative stuff to pick your brain. If you give yourself 2 months to just practice (which you should), that leaves you just 3 months to understand and memorize the materials. Okay, you may be able to go through the stuff at least once within an intense 3-month schedule. But will you have time to go thru it twice?
The actual exam will not hit everything you are supposed to study for. Instead, it picks out like 40% (just a rough guess) of all LOS and test them in depth. So you can’t just rely on nailing down the general concept without mastering the tiny details. Look, I cannot reveal the actual exam questions but some of them are just there to nit-pick you on really unimportant, you-either-know-it-or-you-don’t details. And guess what? Each multiple choice question is worth 3 points - enough to change your exam outcome. Compare them to the 3 point essay sub-questions that are so hard to get right…Can you really afford not to go thru the whole curriculum twice is my question to you.
Understand that 90% of you will struggle with the essays, and will end up score less essay points than you expect. (Don’t take my words for it, just Google CFA level 3 MPS and you will see the statistics). The PM section will be your saving grace. It is the only reliable source of exam points. If you memorize all the details you will score well on PM multiple choices, enough to to offset that 55%-60% performance which the average candidate attains on his AM section.
Mid-January to early February. Two hours a day on weekdays, four hours a day on weekends. Has worked well for me so far.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it - 
lol
I did roughly the same for L1 (started beg Feb) & L2 (started beg Dec, but became serious beg Jan). Personally, started a bit earlier for L3 given its the last hurdle and competition is sharper…
I started Mid-Nov. You need to practice a lot and I agree that the last 3 SS’s are a pain in the *ss.
I started this past week. I’m planning on covering CFAI readings by end of January, mostly because I expect to have a lot less time to dedicate to studying next spring. Plus, I can’t remember the last time I sat for an essay exam. A.M. is going to be a challenge for me.