Anyone is planning to use Mark Meldrum for level 3?

CFA Level III
#1

I used Mark Meldrum for level 2, I know many candidates praise him, and I believe he is fairly good, but I personally don’t feel that satisfied.

I found his notes to be pointless (I felt the the notes could only be understood by the person who wrote them, they didn’t provide comprehensive information), unless I have the video in front of me, I can’t read the notes on their own and understand what’s going on.

The videos were good, but I didn’t like it when he argued (ranted) about irrelevant things in between, specially that my time is very tight, but that was not a big issue.

The mock exams were a joke! Like literally a joke! They were full of mistakes, in answers and questions, he would silently correct and re-upload them as if I am expected to re-download every few minutes and see what has been corrected!! It was a waste of time in May, when the exam was around the corner and I needed reliable materials to review and practice from. It was extra annoying that when I posted questions about the mistakes I found (i was genuinely in doubt whether there was a mistake or it was just me who got something wrong), he’d ignore the questions, probably because he had corrected the mistakes in the version uploaded, but do I have to re-download the version every-time I come across a mistake? Am I expected to? Do I have time for this in MAY? Shouldn’t he feel responsible to announce it somehow so no candidate will rely on WRONG info?

I was planning to register with him for level 3, but I changed my mind during May solely because of the mocks, yet I am in doubt if he is still better than others.

Right now, I am not sure which provider to use IF I am not going to use Mark’s materials in level 3. I’d appreciate it if others could share their plan, those who will attempt level 3 in 2020, please let me know what provider you are planning to use and let me know of your experience with them, what you liked best, what you did not like. No provider is perfect, but there are “important things” that I look for in a provider, the mock exams and practice questions are a deal breaker for me, so i would like to hear about the pros and cons when you suggest a provider to see if the cons are something I can move past.

#2

Yeah, the notes were a joke. You kind of have to keep those in front of you when watching the videos and add stuff to them to ‘‘connect the dots’’. Personally I found the mocks for LIII excellent, but I think they were written by someone else than the one who wrote the LII ones. The online quizzes were very low quality.

#3

I didn’t read a single word you wrote. So just use www.chalkandboard.org

#4

I used MM for L2 as well. Notes were indeed a joke. Very hard to search topics in the review phase because they are unreadable and you can’t use ctrl + f.

Also the mocks contained many mistakes.

Videos are good and I will use it again for Level 3. Maybe supplemented with LevelUp.

#5

The main point of MM’s teaching style is he teaches you to fish, he does not just teach you to pass the exam . I love the way he approaches curriculum materials.

Anyway, MM for videos + Schweser for notes = Great Combination. His mock exams for LIII is excellent.

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” [William Arthur Ward] Therefore, MM is the great teacher I have ever had in my life.

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#6

I used him for all levels but never actually used his prepared notes though. I read the CFAI books and learned from his videos and made my own notes instead. May sound counterproductive since I basically just wrote down the same stuff he prepared in his ppt notes, but something about thinking about it while watching his explanations in the video and writing them down myself really helped cement things in my head. His question banks were not so great (but I personally felt CFAI question banks were sufficient so I didn’t mind) but his Level 3 mocks this year were very good. For me, the learning how to fish analogy was what I was really paying for and the other stuff he provided was just extra. I haven’t used other providers so I’m sure they could also teach you to learn how to fish, but MM does it very well (for me) and without a doubt gives the most bang for your buck.

#7

Watching his videos at 1.5x during review was worth every penny

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#8

I used Mark Meldrum videos for level III exam this year. Studied curriculum books and supplemented difficult to understand concepts with his videos. Walked out of exam room with confidence but only time will tell…

#9

I totally agree with you guys on the lack of a proper set of written notes. I used him for L2. Personally found his mocks ok (even if I had to refer to the errata which keep on getting updated).

I THINK he is not doing mocks/questions anymore (or at least making no promises for updating the mocks/questions) this year?

For those who used MM for level 3 how did you guys get over the ‘lack of written notes’ situation apart from making your own notes? In the final 1.5 months for L2 I got an old copy of 11th hour guide and used that as a base lol. Then supplemented this with whatever I found useful from MM vids.

Has anyone used the secret sauce/11th hour guide for L3? Would the same approach work?

#10

I’m not going to COMPLETELY beat the dead horse here, but I resonate with a lot of what others have to say. I went to Marky Mark for L2 because of the content of his videos, and having that as supplemental material to Kaplan and CFAI. Those three combined will give you enough perspective on the material to be pretty much an expert. And to my perspective, for that, the price for Mark’s materials right.

The notes are not good, the mocks for L2 were bad (he outsourced them), but the videos, both main and review are top notch. I’m definitely going ot use him for L3.

#11

For level 2 I studied the curriculum very seriously, took many many mocks, came to this forum with some questions which most were answered by magician, and passed.