2022-01-12T05:00:00Z → 2022-01-12T05:00:00Z Join our Ask Me Anything with Marc LeFebvre, CFA, founder of LevelUp BootCamps (www.levelupbootcamps.com).
Find out why LevelUp candidates pass the first time, ask the tough questions while you prepare to take your CFA Level III Exam.
Learn about LevelUp’s JumpStart Videos, Weekly Problem Solving Workshops (new), and the LevelUp BootCamps. Premium tools you need to take - and pass - your CFA Levell III Exam the first (and only) time.
Marc, thanks for joining us today for an Ask Me Anything on the Level III CFA exam!
Always thrilled to help out and do what I can to help any candidate pass the now more challenging CFA Exam.
Hi Marc, thanks to your help, i managed to pass the May 2021 Level 3 exam. The CFA journey took its toll on me so was lying low and recuperating since August when the results were declared. Now back rejuvenated in the new year.
I hear from other candidates, CFAI is asking lots of trivia questions specially in their PM section? What are your insights for the November exam for the next batch of candidates?
Lots o’reasons and I don’t mean Covid fatigue reasons, that’s nonsense. Massive curriculum updates, review provider notes have been woefully short in covering the material, the nature of the exam being more breadth and not depth…and I think there is another contributing factor…
Thats a great way of phrasing it…trivia questions…aka nonsense questions. Not the body of knowledge but just obscure questions to see if you read the curriculum. Not all but a lot more than the past.
Hi Marc,
What can I expect to get from the LevelUp Bootcamp? Would you recommend doing just a bootcamp or do you recommend purchasing the videos as well? How can I better prepare ahead of the live bootcamp to make sure I am getting the most out of it?
Thanks!
Congratulations on passing the exam…that is AWESOME!
Well the candidate that simply uses the BootCamp without the One & Done® videos as a warm up and prep for the bootcamp is like a thirsty candidate standing in front of a fire hose when the fire department turns the water on. You want to be prepared in advance and the videos do just that. Otherwise there is a whole lotta catching up to do between the bootcamp and the exam and you do not want that.
What do you think is the most important factor for success on the Level 3 CFA Exam? Has this changed at all with the re-structure of the CFA program over the last few years?
The structure has changed and more importantly what worked in L1 and L2 doesn’t work at L3. L3 candidates will say you really have to get into the curriculum and dig deep into the material. L3 is far more comprehensive and the wide net that the questions come from. My objective is always to get the candidate into the curriculum and help teach and identify those areas they will ask on the exam. After 27 years doing this I have a pretty good track record.
THE most important thing the L3 candidate can do is stay inside the CFA curriculum, don’t go to review notes or q-banks but to work the CFA material.
Thank you!
In terms of the ‘order’ of studying the sections of the curriculum. Some say to start with the hardest section then move to the easier ones, but that seems subjective. What recommendations do you have for study order? Does it matter where I start first?
Marc - can you talk a little more about the exam and how doing it on the computer has or has not changed the test?
Thats a great question. For as long as the CFA Exam has been around they had you start with Ben Fin then Private Wealth then Institution and CME, AA and so on. Now they place the Private wealth and Institutions as the end of the study guide. I think that is flawed. I’d start with the Wealth and Institutional investor since those topics are so large on the exam weighting. Then move to the harder topics like Fixed Income and Derivative.
Lots o’reasons and I don’t mean Covid fatigue reasons, that’s nonsense. Massive curriculum updates, review provider notes have been woefully short in covering the material, the nature of the exam being more breadth and not depth…and I think there is another contributing factor…
Hi Marc, would you elaborate on the contribution factor you mention?
The CBT has changed the length of the exam from 2 x 3 hours to 2 x 2 hours and 15 min. Also the essay in the first portion has gotten shorter in the solutions you provide, more tight and succinct. It also seems that the exam is more about breath of coverage of topics and not so much deep dive into the really hard problems.
Also, I’ve been looking at your website and saw you are now offering a problem solving workshop. What can I expect to gain from those and would it be too late to sign up? I saw it had started already. Thanks for all the answers!
Sure another contributing factor is the use by candidates of the old essay exams. Those old exams used by CFAI USED to be great prep resources but with the massive curriculum changes in the past three years much of those exams are misleading. For example…the old curriculum covered Singer Terharr and it was a 2018 exam question. but the new 2019 CME update changed the way ST was covered, there are two Sharpe ratios where the old material only presented one Sharpe ratio. Thus the encouragement by some review providers and use by the naive candidate has likely led to many incorrect answers on the exam. I used those exams for decades and I know them like my BFF but they are NOT helpful any longer based on the new curriculum updates. We have to retool and change our approach.
The problem solving workshop is recorded and available until your exam window so catching up is easy. I dig into the problems found in the CFA readings, we discuss (key “we both discuss”) how the question should be solved, how to answer with min time and max points, what are the trips and mistakes candidates can make and how can CFAI ask the question differently. I create a mosaic of questions to focus on in the class based on what I see from where the hints are by CFAI as to what they want to test. Candidates tell me it was instrumental for them passing the exams.
