I don’t post much, but I’ve been around for a while. Having passed L1 and L2 many years ago, I became stuck on L3 for a while. I did attempt a couple of times but failed mainly due to not being prepared enough. The number of hours studied were roughly there, but I picked the wrong prep provider and study strategy both times.
Anyways, I finally passed L3 this year and I wanted to pass on whatever advice I could before leaving this forum.
LevelUP with Marc hands down the greatest help that I received to re-orienting myself to a completely different study approach as opposed to before. BOTH his Bootcamp and JumpStart Videos were invaluable, as well as his personalized support (i.e. answering emails and questions almost on a daily basis). It’s crucial not just to study, but study the right way and allocate the right amount to time to readings and problems etc.
Bill Campbell (S2000magician) practice exams are a wonderful compliment to reinforce your knowledge and get the timing right for the exam. By far the questions there are the most well-crafted and relevant for the exam. Although, the format for the exam is very different now, these will still help you.
No matter how much you study - whether it’s 300 hours or 900 hours, you will never truly feel 100% prepared for the exam - so (sounds obvious) but try to study and practice as much as possible - but focus more on studying and practicing the “blueboxes” in the curriculum and then do a few good practice exams (5 or 6) should be enough.
I know this advice is around on the forum, but I felt I had to put in my 2 cents as my long-time CFA journey comes to a successful close!
Let me describe my experience with L3.
First of all I have already tried in 2019 but failed, unfortunately by result was almost touching the MPS (I have married in march, terminated an MBA in June etc…needed to weeks more of study)
Then I have applied in 2020 but the exam was cancelled either in June or December, finally I have tried and passed in June 21!
Books:
CFAI (physical): good option but time consuming, I had to make my own notes
Kaplan: used and satisfied for L1 and L2, but for L3 for me is not sufficient alone. It has been good for catch up the ideas or for specific chapters (derivatives, alternative investment) due to the length of the CFA books
Mocks/Qbanks:
CFAI - Qbank: this is the most important source together with the blue boxes
CFAI - Mocks and old exams: the 2020 mock was ridiculous, but it was good to understand how to approach the exam. For the old exams I have eliminated the not applicable questions and the aggregated the applicable question for subject. I think this is a powerful resource for practicing
Bill Campbell - Mocks: I loved his mocks, very helpful for understating the better way to answer and very complete. In addition: (1) is a way to learn the bullet point approach (2) Bill is available for any question
Kaplan - Qbank and Mocks: I like the Qbank in particular the ethics section. The Mocks are ok but not impressive
Fitch - Qbank: very complete, for me very useful considering the price (50 USD if not wrong)
Bloomberg - Mocks: I did not like their site, not easy for me to memorize and you can only print the questions. The mocks are very complete, although some questions are not applicable (I also find something wrong or questionable at least). Their support team has been very weak with me
Additional Material:
Bill Campbell Survivor’s Guide: useful guide for understanding the command words
Level 3 Key answers to old exams: I think it is a valid help to understand the bullet point approach (as for Bill Campell), helping to go faster trough the old exams answers (gaining time you may reperform more time).
In my opinion the point is: muscle memory, don’t skip anything, remember all the formulas and practice practice practice.