I used kaplan every step of the way only. Failed level 3 once. I owe that to not grasping how to solve the AM questions. Did there biweekly class n grasped it n got 90th percentile for am. In my opinion aim to finish reading a month before the exam and then start working past papers. Whilst reading do cfai and kaplan quizzes. Work end of chapter questions. So the content remains fresh up until the exam day. One month of practice papers will get u ready plus quizzes for topics u don’t get fully. I supplemented with YouTube and or google
read the CFAI books first to get a feel for the material. afterwards schweser plus make your own notes while doing questions, then back to CFAI and do all the blue boxes and questions. next up essay prep, mocks and work on trouble spots.
i created a calculation cheat sheet that i used to memorize. between this and nailing ethics was the key to me being one and done. level 3 was also the only time i did a mock, did 2 of them a week and a half before the exam. felt like i had no idea what i was doing and nailed over 80% on PM
It’s interesting so many say read the cfai books as from what I have seen, all the prep providers tell you to answer the am with bullet points and abbreviations to save time so why would knowing the cfai exact wording help in any way. Surely you are actually better off knowing the abbreviations and condensed versions ?
As to which books to read first, I’d start with Harry Potter.
That way, when you get to the curriculum and realize that you’ll need a miracle to pass, you have a leg up.
Prisoner of Azkaban is on my night stand…
The L3 curriculum is actually pretty interesting. It will take you 3-4 months to cover the CFA material so you need to start early.
I was always more of a Lord of the Rings type of guy
My plan : CFAI from sept to dec, kaplan in feb and march then april and may for exams and review
How about which topic to start first? Says Book 1 Ethics or Book 2, etc …
I don’t see any reason to hussle up the order of the books, but as the topics are not connected in terms of exam questions, if you want to there’s no reason not to. Only thing I did myself is reread Ethics in the end. I found it useful to have this topic area fresh in mind given all the nuances and details. Regarding the how many times did you read and what books did you read: I used only Kaplan and skimmed through a small portion of it instead of actually reading. I see way more value in actual practice (mocks, EOCs (for this I DID use CFAI books) and CFAI Qbank)
Here’s my 2 cents: I think at this point of life all of us have read and studied so much (for CFA or college courses) that everyone has some sort of idea how they learn and what’s the best way to study for them. I don’t think there is some “one-size-fits-all” approach and I find it a bit useless to compare your own studying methods/habits to someone else’s.
I’m studying in order of CFAI curriculum .