Well this forum seems to be almost dead now but when I was a lowly first time L1 taker I’d come to the L3 forum and see people posting about passing and think “that will be me one day”.
So anyway, for old time’s sake, I am now a CFA Charterholder. Cheers!
Congratulations, Zarathustra22!
Thank you, good sir!
Congratulations!! Was it your first attempt? Could u please share some tips.
Yes, first attempt. Honestly there’s no real shortcut, it just involves practice and constantly going over something until you understand it. Also make sure you understand the command word in each question.
Congrats! It’s a big achievement!
I’m studying for Level 3 now and wanted to ask if you can share how you prepped for Level 3. How many hours did you put in (total and average per week)? What was your strategy for reviewing the earlier readings you’ve studied? Was doing the EOR problems, quizzes and mock exams sufficient to prep for constructed response problems or did you do anything else? On the exam, did you do the problems in the order they were given to you or did you focus on CR or multiple choice sets first?
Thank you in advance. I know these are pretty detailed questions and the last thing you probably want to do is relive your experience studying for the test. I’ve taken L3 10 years ago and failed (tried to cram in 1.5 months and it wasn’t enough). This year I’ve decided to take it again and hopefully finish it.
Hey there, thanks.
I started in October almost immediately after I got my L2 results. I would say I studied approx. 15 hours per week until January when it went up to approx. 20 hours per week until the exam. So probably somewhere in the 300 - 320 hour range total.
When I’d completed the initial studying and note taking I went back to the first topic I studied (fixed income) and did the end of chapter questions (which I’d already completed on the first pass but I wanted to see how much I could remember). Any questions I couldn’t answer I would go back through my notes and the curriculum until I could answer it.
I believe you only properly learn by doing something. If you just look up the answer and say “oh ok I understand now” it won’t stay in your brain very long.
For me personally, yes, the questions in the curriculum, CFA Q bank and mock exams were fine to prepare for the CR problems. However, I had read around before the exam to understand what the markers would be looking for.
No, I just went straight through the order the exam was presented in. Now that the CR and MCQ are jumbled up I think it would get a bit messy and time consuming to have to go back and read the vignette again. But that’s just my personal experience.
All the best for your studies!
Thank you, Zarathustra22! This is very helpful!
Congrats again!