Hey everyone, Welcome to your last weekend of studying for Level 3- hopefully your last Memorial Day weekend spent studying for this test- ever. As you enter the last few days, I wanted to share with you my experience with this exam. I have failed Level 3 two times, so perhaps you’ll dismiss this advice thinking that could never happen to you. But it could. I failed band 8 two times. The first time, I chalked up to not understanding the material well enough. But the second time I walked in there, I had really spent serious time with the material and had done everything humanely possible to pass. And yet I failed. What I want to share with you is: 1. No matter what- don’t let your nerves get to you. I am convinced I failed because I was too nervous- the test had taken on a disproportionate weight in my mind. I changed 11 answers in the afternoon session because I kept rethinking them. 2. Relax your way through the exam and take the time to really read questions, digest them, and think them through. A lot of questions seem harder than they actually are if you just step back and really process them. A rushed mind, a nervous mind, will jump to try and find the answer too quickly. If you look at the fixed income question in the AM last year, the one where you had to match the duration and the PV of the old/new portfolio and find the correct bond to purchase to rebalance- it was not a hard question if you took time to think it through. What made it seem hard to me in the moment- was that I got too nervous thinking- “I’ve never seen this before, what are they asking?!” I totally punted that question. And it wasn’t really that hard in retrospect. CFAI loves to ask questions in new ways that you will swear you’ve never seen before. Just step back in that moment, think about the curriculum, and then apply what you know in the best way possible. As for me, I’ve studied hard again, and I fully plan on walking in there on June 4th and giving the CFAI the sound spanking they deserve for failing me band 8 two times. I’m ready to finish what I started with them!
good feedback
Chu’ch n Tabernacle Smokin , thanks for sharing
good luck.
Couldn’t agree more. I’m not studying late on Friday or bringing my notes with my to the exam.
i would take it tomorrow if i could, agree. let’s do this. i don’t care if it is in a foreign language, i find a way to pass this year.
goal this week is lots n lots of sleep exercise and light revision…def not studying late friday
My goal is to take it easy. Having a clean brain come exam day can’t be discounted, although CFAi could find a formula to attempt it with a caveat explaining the 100,000 times in practice it doesn’t hold true.
clear brain <> empty brain hopefully
You guys have passed 2 levels so the afternoon session format should be familiar. What is new thus provides a challenge is the morning session. Here are a few of key learnings I remember: - Expect to get hammered in the morning session. At least, it has been like that in the last few years. Don’t get discouraged, especially don’t allow it to influence your PM session. + You will have extremely short time because of the stress, confusion,… + For those whose English is not their mother tongue, write concisely and clearly. Bullet points are preferred. In my opinion: Use the EXACT CFAI terminology to make sure you get the full credits. + Think that everyone deals with the same stress/time shortage. It may help relax you a bit. - Spend time to get familiar with the lay out of the exam book: where are you supposed to write the answers: sometime it is blank space below the question, sometime it is in a reserved space (if I remember it correctly). Very confusing, not help if you are under stress. + There were people who missed the last one or two questions at the very back of the book since they did not see them. I nearly missed the last question since I did look past the blank pages. + There were people wasting valuable time (got extra stress) recopying answers to the ‘correct’ answer space since they wrote their answers in the ‘wrong’ space, even though it may not be necessary to do so. - Stick to your time schedule. Spend too much time on one question may mean that you give away some easy questions which you don’t get to at the back of the book.
Thanks for the brilliant advices…
smokin’hot, can you elaborate on what constitutes a lot of time? Did you go 300+ hours? And are you currently working in finance? Just trying to get a total perspective. Was there something specific that made you nervous?
big ML- a lot of time, definitely 300 plus hours, every single damn exam that exists with no score below 70%- I read CFAI, did EOC- I really was THE textbook perfectly studied candidate. I just got nervous on the actual exam because I had made passing mean so much in my mind-getting my charter was overweighted in terms of real importance. Life does go on, even if you fail. Sweaty hands, heart racing = not good for test taking. I have ten years experience, on the PM side working in a private bank and at a hedge fund. Right now, I’m not working because my husband got an expat assignment and I’m 8 months pregnant. I’m really relaxed this time around, being pregnant actually helps to keep it all in perspective I don’t want to stress out and go into early labor, LOL
jeeze, this thread is putting a freakin knot in my stomach. Im going to grade my last practice exam,hit some formulas, then go watch hangover two. Last year, I got so nervous for level 2, that I took a wrong turn on tge way to the exam on a road ive been traveling on since I was a little kid. Seriously relaxing is the best advice ever right now
Just a word of advice, which may seem cliche, but it helps me. Don’t second guess your first answer, on those questions where you are reasonably comfortable. There is a difference between knowing that you are definitely taking a wild ass guess, and having a deliberate and reasonable process for choosing an answer. Come back to the questions you guessed on if you have time. Do NOT come back to the ones where you were “kind of uncertain”, leave them be.
"Don’t second guess your first answer, on those questions where you are reasonably comfortable. There is a difference between knowing that you are definitely taking a wild ass guess, and having a deliberate and reasonable process for choosing an answer. " The way I look at it: I WILL change an answer if I reread the question and consider my second interpretation far better than my first. This happens a good bit for me - on the vignettes, sometimes I miss something on the first or second reading and then after working my answers or when double checking have an “aha!” moment. Also, if I have extra time at the end, I will at times attempt to derive an equation that I’ve forgotten the specifics for but remember the idea. I remember in level II on some IRP economics questions that really saved me. (i.e. have better information now than before? Change the answer!) I WILL NOT change an answer if I am working from the same interpretation and just am uncertain as to which answer to pick. In this case, it’s just not worth the stress and the time to go back and forth between answers. (i.e. working from the same information? Let it be)
A few points I’d like to add, for what they’re worth. I haven’t taken level 3 yet, but these apply to all levels of them. -this may not be for everyone, but keep track of questions as you’re going through them, and skip the ones you don’t know what they’re talking about. I’ve looked at questions and understood none of it the first time, and gone back and nailed the question the second, as you understand what they are actually asking. Only do this if you’re organized about it, i.e. keeping track of which were skipped, and how long you need to do them though. It doesn’t work for everyone, but I’ve had success with it. -get some rest the last couple days, and go in fresh. I just multiplied 8.8 * 2 in my head and got 16.6. Also, do all math on your calculator!
smokin’hot, thanks for the response. Congrats on the pregnancy. My wife gave birth to our first on March 11. So, I guess the takeaway is don’t panic. I’ve managed to stay pretty calm to this point despite my scores not coming in as high as I would like. Then again, they never have beforehand. Just going to continue knocking out practice exams and mocks. Spending a little extra time on swaps and currency hedging as those seem to be my consistant weak areas. Overall, I hope my experience shines through as I have been a PM for over a decade working with both institutions and wealthy families.