Marc is a genius. I attended the level 3 LevelUp Bootcamp in Dubai for 4 days. That was so good, Marc showed us how the sessions interlinked. He simplified the difficult part of the syllabus, I still hear his examples echoed in my ears. The best part was going through the last 10 years IPS questions. The course was in April and we were left with plenty of time for revision. He provided us with last 10 years exams questions session by session which made it easier to cover a session during the revision phase. His focus material was so well done that tell you exactly what you need to do during the last 2 months prior to the exams. It made references to blue boxes, past exams questions, EOC questions, important readings in the CFA books and summary of the sessions. Marc was there throughout my studies, even raising my confidence on the eve of the exams and still supporting me on the eve of the results. Its been a long way for me, Level 1 in 2005, Level 2 in 2006 and finally One & Done in 2016.Thanks Marc for giving me my life back.
I’ll add my endorsement, I attended his Omaha workshop and only heard about the course because of reviews on this site. The review course itself was a good, quick, crash course but the most important two hours for me were when we did IPS drills in his IPS workbook with the systematic approach that he designed. What’s funny is that it really wasn’t needed that much during this year’s exam and it almost threw me off as I was sitting there trying to fit this year’s question into his format. Still, I had a ton of confidence on IPS questions as a result of that workbook and there were some sections where it did help.
The exam book providing an organized way of accessing prior exam questions going back to 2000 was invaluable. I did every single one at least twice and I did the fixed income questions three or four times and aced those sections on this year’s exam. If you can afford to attend one of his reviews, and are band 8 or above this year I think you’ll end up with a pass next year with adequate study and his way of focusing you on the correct things to worry about.
Edit to add: Oh yeah, and otherwise I never would have known about power poses, which I actually kind of did before both sessions of the exam.
So sad how people every year see this jewel of a review served up to them and still don’t take advantage of it. The only ‘knock’ on the course by naysayers is that you could use this time just to study harder on your own. No. Just NO! You study more intensively, more efficiently (being taught how to study the right things in the right way) than you ever would on your own or even in some study group. Then you carry those strategies forward after the course into the final key weeks. I have yet to read anywhere in this forum a comment by anyone who took the course and did not feel it was their absolute best preparation
I also recommend Marc’s bootcamp. Before you go, read every single blue box question. You WILL pass.
i came across the course but a little late into my already established routine & given that it costs a dollar or two on top of what ive invested i rationalized it wasn’t worth it for me…good to see it was worthwhile and can serve as food for thought for others…
I used only Schweser notes and mocks. No need to waste money on unnecessary third-party preps. Just go with Schweser.
^No need to waste money on third-party preps? What do you think Schweser is?
#facepalm
The same here. LevelUp was the reason why I passed. Helped me focus on what was critical, and helped manage my time and effort, which is super important for this type of exam. The help I received from Marc, in light of my passing e-mail this morning, is invaluable.
The same here. LevelUp was the reason why I passed. Helped me focus on what was critical, and helped manage my time and effort, which is super important for this type of exam. The help I received from Marc, in light of my passing e-mail this morning, is invaluable.
“Unnecessary” third-party preps. To each his own but in my view, you can easily pass just with Schweser and mocking till you drop.
The Schweser L3 videos by this Marc LeFevre guy (probably spelled that wrong) , in my humble opinion, are less than impressive…monotonous, dreary and unengaging. I’m surprised his course gets such good reviews…he must be a different entity in person I guess.
david herrington (sp?) from schweser on the other hand (class and videos), and how he always emphasized the KISS mantra (beating the exam & not knowing everything in the curriculum) was worth it for me
The actual instruction wasn’t all that helpful to me as I was a retaker who had read through the curriculum twice over two years by that point. The only thing listening to instruction did for me was re-emphasize that there was a lot of BS that I had read that I didn’t remember. Like I said above, what’s helpful is his method to going through IPS questions, specifically a system for doing the return calculations and for identifying the data they are looking for and how to spot the tricks they give you on the exam. The second helpful item is that he has every morning exam question from exams going back to the year 2000 organized by study session. Sure, you can find all the old exams on your own but you would have to then whittle them down to what’s still relevant and they would not be organized by study session. That exam book was hugely helpful.
Is it possible to pass without this study session? Sure, plenty of people do every single year. Is it possible to pass just with Schweser? Of course it is. If you’re not the smartest effing person in the world though, stuff like this is very helpful. I have a CFA charterholder friend who can do long division in his head (think something like 367/55) to the last decimal point on a calculator within 5 seconds…he didn’t need this course to pass. We’re all not that lucky.
Marc is the best period. His slide deck is all I used to study the last 6 weeks after attending his bootcamp in NYC and I would not have passed without him. Quite simply, Level 3 is a different beast and you need to understand HOW to study for it. Of course there will be people that passed without him but he was essential in my preparation.
a necessary third party provider?
Passed L3 in the first try. I attended LevelUp Bootcamp in San Franc. 5 sections under 50% in AM and 1 section under 50% in PM. So I barely passed it I believe. But in my opinion, the bootcamp made the difference between band 10 and pass for me. I recommend Marc LevelUp Bootcamp it if you have time and sources.
I had him for several semesters of undergrad and found him to be far from your description. Maybe there is a meaningful difference between those videos and his live course.
I was in Dubai bootcamp with Shakeel and I only knew he passed by reading this thread. Congrats. I passed too. I am a retaker who was band 9 in 2015. English is my second language and the morning session of the exam for me was the most challenging part of the program if not in my entire education. The failure was so painful and my scores in the morning (in 2015) was so weak and I did poorly ( less than 50% ) in all questions related to IPS. I used schweser in 2015. I didn’t want to fail again and I used schweser ( only because i was given a 50% discount ), Irfanullah and wiley for the 2016 exam. Being honest, I used them until the Bootcamp started ( early April ) and focused on the material provided by Marc for the rest of time until the exam. I strongly believe that if I had Marc’s material prior to paying for other providers, I wouldn’t have wasted more money and I would have focused on his material and the CFA books.
The main advantage of Marc’s material is the focus and the emphasis on the big picture. The notes summarizes the CFA curriculum without ignoring any valuable information. He doesn’t miss any important notes hidden in the CFA books as schweser and others do. He focuses in key concepts, key words and smooth flow of information so that your ability to recall information is much higher than schweser or other providers which throw a lot of information that makes sense early January and doesn’t in late May when I have to comprehend a whole curriculum. The set of previous am exams cements concepts and the short but efficient notes and methods for IPS return calculation was much more focused, time efficient and to the point when compared to other providers. I should note that the I attribute part of 2015 failure to the time I wasted trying to figure out how to start the return question in the exam wasting 20 minutes by using schweser way of tackling return questions. In 2016, I didn’t fail any IPS question scoring above 70 in two of them and only 1 question was below 50% in the entire exam. Marc’s material emphasizes the key word the CFA exam grader needed ( I confirmed by going back to the previous guideline answers). The crash course focused on preparation, the big picture, linkage of the material, IPS return calculation and most importantly mistakes that candidates make in the exams. Finally, the focus material turns the focus into the main concepts and the relevant questions to have practice in every major concept from EOCs, BBs or previous essay exams. Joining Bootcamp Dubai was the best decision I have made in this program and no regrets. I love Marc and dedicate my success to him and wish him the best.
I would also point out that a lot of work has to be done by the candidate to pass and the course provides all tools that can be combined with BBs, EOC and question bank to end the daunting CFA journey in one attempt.
Thank God he made it to Dubai and Thank God for this success.
You can easily pass just with CFAI
^^‘easily pass’
To each their own, obviously. However, those who take Marc are licking their chops at the prospect of a whole cohort of ‘self-study’ candidates only doing CFAI or Schweser. More fodder for the bottom half of the curve! Yes, please ONLY do that stuff and don’t , in your dismissive arrogance, take advantage of a great and dedicated practitioner. I always wondered who populated the 47% who fail, and now I know.