Is Reading 28 the consensus hardest in level 3? I haven’t looked at any practice or prior exams… Do swaps come up in the AM section? is it likely to be covered as a full items set in PM? On the same topic… are there any readings that are generally not given much weight on the actual exam? For example reading 19- Indexes and Benchmarks looks very easy and I wouldn’t expect much importance given to it…
no one reading is either important or unimportant - given the nature of the exam and questions.
Swaps - there were a couple of AM questions - way back in the past. In the recent past - there have been no AM questions on that section after 2007.
In the PM - there is a possibility of questions being asked - and you never know what has come up in past exams ever.
I would not recommend skipping over Indexes and Benchmarks.
Yes, my problem with swaps even if I spent 50 hours on that reading… I’d be lucky to do do better than 4/6 on an item set… Indexes and Benchmarks seem fairly easy to “master”
I would like to believe the CFA Institute loves swaps 
You’re welcome to throw up with any issue that you find difficult about swaps,
to the forum.
No one will suggest you to skip either Swaps or Benchmarks.
( I would like like to believe the institute does not hate any topic in particular,
regardsless of whether any candidate finds it easy or otherwise :) )
If they don’t ask any questions about it on the actual exam, it isn’t important at all.
If they ask a question about it on the actual exam, it’s really, really important.
Which error would you rather make?
^ALL, please heed the Magician. Focus on getting through all the material with an emphasis on uncerstanding and quality over quantity as you progress. Begin writing out responses as early as possible, and above all stop looking for shortcuts that involve de-emphasizing any one or more readings - it’s a waste of energy that you’ll need during your last (hopefully) CFA marathon!
Plug: http://www.analystforum.com/forums/cfa-forums/cfa-level-iii-forum/91345342