why still low pass rates on L3? I thought all the weak candidates were already weeded out with the hard ass level 2 exam With a 50% pass rate, how come there are people still failing this level? is the material harder? Is it because there are non-native English speakers? What if they did an analysis on which countries the level 3 candidates who passed came from, would the majority come from English speaking countries? I hope that troll itera doesnt derail this thread
no,
they just dont want 20k new charter per year. Level 3 def harder of them all. Morning session is the worst bitch I faced in yr.
I believe that the material at Level II is harder than the material at Level III, but the format of the morning session at Level III is harder than the format at Level II.
Level III candidates frequently cannot manage their time in the morning session. And when they do so poorly in the morning, they tend to lose focus for the afternoon. (It’s probably not an accident that the essay portion is given in the morning session, not the afternoon session.)
He is right. Level III material is not harder. People just don’t do their homework and learn how the essay section works.
Level III was the only exam I walked into confident. Not Level I or Level II. Do your homework and learn how to answer essays and you will pass.
In my opinion, level 2 - more difficult material. Level 3 - harder to pass.
there’s a thread out there that compares level 2 and 3 with analogies… don’t know how to find but pretty funny.
Things like:
Level 2: receiving oral
Level 3: receiving anal
I passed all three levels in a row, so here is my advice. Level 1: Straight Memorization Level 2: Heavy Quantitative Skills and Fundamental Understanding of Theory, Know all Assumptions and Nuances of Theories, Understand when to Use What Model, Why, and the Anomalies with each Theory. Understand the Fundamentals facilitates an easier path to memorizing and utilizing most equations. Should know the answer before running calculation. Level 3. Easy Material, but Must be able to utilize quickly fundamental knowledge to understand the question be asked. Once you know where the questions is going, must be able to quickly sift through the voluminous details to filter out the BS and utilize the correct the info. Once you have crossed those hurdles, the test makes you think in multiple dimensions and utilize spatial reasoning to come to the most reasonable answer. Then be able to succinctly articulate your answer, explain your rationale, and show your work. Hardest test of the three, and you must learn to take the test so take as many practice tests as early in the process as possible. Do not get to verbose in your answer, as it only eats up valuable time. Simply put; Level 1 = Memorization, Level 2= Quantitative and Fundamental Reasoning, Level 3 = Test your analytic thinking along with spatial reasoning skills. It is very important in Level 3 to have a good cross section of experience in economic theory, practical knowledge of high finance/investing, and confidence in your answer so that second guessing doesn’t slow you down. You flat out don’t have that much time to over think the questions or the grammatical of structure of your responses. There are a ton of topics that are in the curriculum that can eat of a large portion of your studying time that will not show up on the morning sections as experts could not answer the questions in the time given. Understand the concepts, know the fundamentals, and memorize the hedging techniques and equations. The CFA will get its points so let them have it.
The material in Level 2 is definitely harder. Level 3 tends to weed out people who have trouble thinking critically about how all the concepts fit together. It’s also the only level where I think actual on-the-job experience is likely to play a significant benefit (beyond the rote technical skills). For example, the exam could ask what the benefits of Monte Carlo simulation are over the variance-covariance method in calculating VaR - I’d rather rely on actual experience than what some review book said.
Spatial reasoning? This isn’t differential geometry.
one last thing on level 3. Completely understand the frameworks presented, and practice applying them to every possible situation you can imagine. Kartelite is correct in that practical experience is a huge advantage in passing level 3. It was the only test that i worried about passing post exam, but rocked a >70 on each section because my experience across a variety of topics (fund raising, quant, derivatives/hedging, and direct investment analysis across various asset classes) helped conceptualize the correct answer.
Personally, I believe it’s the result of increased reliance on study aids (Schweser) as a means to cut study time.
Why would that disproportionately affect Level III over Level II and Level I?
Schweser was great for study. If anything they give you too much material and not enough practice tests.
What’s the point of a third level if the pass rate is too high?
Agree, now that I’ve passed, I believe that they should make all the exams twice as hard.
And I hope we all realize that CFAI can keep the pass % it wants? I mean it can even have a pass % in mind and then come up with an MPS accordingly! Now that Ive not passed, I would like the pass % to be 100 next year 
Just speculation… Declining study time could affect all levels equally, while the characteristics often cited by CFAI (broader candidate pool, etc) affect L1 and L2 disproportionately. If CFAI uses modified Angoff scoring, what else could possibly explain declining pass rates at L3?
The simple answer is that the CFAI wants to limit the absolute number of new charter holders per year. The number of candidates is going up so in order to control the number of new charter holders the pass rates have gone down.
Another reason why L3 is harder–you’re totally burned out after Level 2. Level 2 is a test of your wits, while Level 3 is a test of your endurance AND your wits.
Unless you believe that CFAI is misrepresenting its scoring methodology, the idea of a threshold to limit incoming charterholders is utterly false.