For those of you who just passed Level 3, or have experience with the materials, please let us know what your experience was, what you loved about a provider, hated - and what providers you think are worth it.
Thanks!
CFAI text books. Hands down the best prep source that I used to pass.
I’d highly recommend checking out the FinQuiz Smart Summaries. They’re awesome for your final review.
Just passed on my 2nd try (band 7 last yr).
1st try: Started in Mid Jan, full CFAI curriculum+ BB and EOC Qs + Schweser Mocks plus all CFAI Mocks and online Qs. Note: curriculum took so damn long that I started my mocks in May. Only got to finish Schweser book 1. Mocks in total: 3 (2011-2013) CFAI AM past papers, 2 CFAI PM Mocks, 3 Am and PM Schweser Mocks and that was it. So 6 AM and 5 PM Mocks total.
2nd attempt: Finquiz notes plus all CFAI BB and EOC Qs. But I did read most of the Individual and Institutional Port Mgmt CFAI curriculum again. Thanks to the Finquiz notes I had much more time for Mocks this time around. Did 2005-2014 CFAI past AM + 3 CFAI PM Mocks (two from this year and one from last year) + Schweser Book 1 and 2 (6PM mocks only, no AM). In total 10 AM past CFAI papers + 9PM Mocks. Plus I had the time to redo BB and EOC Qs on my weak areas which was priceless.
Funny enough, my AM (7 < 50) score didn’t improve that much but my PM (7> 70 including ethics) carried me through. For me the Schweser PM Mocks were key. Some of those were very challenging. You had to go through a couple of hoops to get the points. I found the actual CFA PM to be considerably easier than most of Schweser’s Mocks.
It’s been said ad anauseam but your L3 odds get a hell of a lot better if you take care of the PM.
Caveat: Not sure FinQuiz notes would work if you never read the curriculum.
Later
It depends on your style and time. if you have time to study before your exams CFAI books are the way to go. You will do everything: BB, EOCs, Practice Qs etc.
If you do not have time like most of us with a some combinationn of work, wife , kids, extended families etc then throw in Schweser etc. The thing is that they are (mostly) sumaries of the CFAI books. Please if you do choose to go this route, make sure that you look through BF, PM (I&I) from the CFAI book.
My 2c
Konvexity for mocks/sectional tests
CFAI text books!
I just did the Schweser notes, and EOC questions for couple of topics where I felt Schweser did not provide enough practice. In the end Schweser and EOC questions are what carried me through at each level.
CFAI text books are great, if you have more time. For me, they often made me loose focus because of the amount of reading required to get through each topic.
I stuck with CFAI notes and Arif video’s, his video’s are top notch and he also has some really representative quizzes which I thought helped me pass.
Each year I learned with the original books. passed L1, did L2 twice and after failing L3 the second time, I changed to Schweser. I would do it again as I did not feel getting lost now and waisting too much time. A great benefit for me was Schweser Q Bank. I solved as many exercises as possible whenever I found time to do it (did it at least twice for every question). It helped me a lot. Additionally I spent much time with http://financialexamhelp123.com/.
Yup gr8 videos
CFAI text books supplemented by Schweser.
Schweser is all I used…I don’t think I opened a CFAI book for any of the three tests.
Every level I used SchweserNotes + Schweser Mocks + CFAI Mock.
There were very few questions across all three levels that I felt like I hadn’t seen.
The material of L3 is not very long. I used only CFAI books.
There is not so much too gain from 3rd parties. But, they are also good.
I think it is a matter of personal taste. Don’t worry about it.
If you read (whichever) and PRACTICE MOCKS you will pass.
My problem with the practice mocks is getting the AM answers into the bullet point / short answer format people say is best here.
When I look at the CFAI model answers - they are great, but very long. Schweser’s practice test answers are more concise - but I’m not sure they’re concise enough for test day.
Is there any provider whose model answers are a realistic example of what we can write on exam day?
I have not seen any realistic examples. But you will get the “ideia” correcting them.
Double tap. Two shots at the chest and move on.
Realise that this is not a writing contest.
I was uneasy too on how to correct AM, but with practice you will calibrate your gauge.
I’m looking forward to seeing the Level III study guides from Wiley.
CFAI text books supplemented with Shweser books and Arif’s videos. Make you sure you have your own notes and flash cards. go over all EOC questions in the CFAI book at least twice, Blue Boxes (aka Grey boxes now). and CFA offical past exams ( get as much as you can, i would suggest from 2007 onwards), CFAI Mocks.
I think those are enough…
Here’s how I did my study:
Watch Schweser video and make flash cards.
Review Schweser Notes and do examples and EOC.
Hit the CFAI blue boxes and EOC questions. Write down formulas on formula sheet. Keep rewriting these until end.
Read CFAI materials in weak areas.
Repeat questions with Q Bank supplementing.
Seminar/Bootcamp. I did both LevelUp with Marc Lefebvre and Schweser’s 3-day online to supplement.
Hit the CFAI AM questions (last 10 years or so) really hard. Didn’t do any Prep Provider AM mock exams, but did a bunch of the PM mocks. I found the AM questions from prep providers to be radically different quality-wise than the CFAI ones. So I stuck with those. Marc’s LevelUp bootcamp organizes the prior years’ AM CFAI questions by study session, but he’s taken out the irrelevant questions. IMO that was a huge time-saver, and worth his fee right there.
What if we’re a person who studies adn reviews with flashcards? Any suggestions as to what is the best out there?