Counting the days in (days in settlement period/360) is proving to be most challenging.
30 days has september, april june and november.
Reading 30. Interest rate options.
So annoying.
If you think the hardest part of L3 is remembering how many days are in each month, I want your brain… Or maybe this is the first reading you’ve done!
Do you have to subtract an hour for March and add an hour for October (or November), unless you’re in Arizona?
How much difference would it make in calculation if you counted 31 days instead of 30?
Hardest part of L3 so far? Sticking to a study routine. Holidays aren’t helping.
i really have to laugh…
but honestly, i don’t think they ever ask any question that precisely on the exam and give you an actual date (settlement date April 25th…), they almost always just say expiring in 30 days, or 60 days or whatever. And i never had a question where i need to know the leap years either.
LOL
Hardest part of Level 3? Fatigue.
After two years of this crap (closer to five for me, as this came immediately after an MBA and the CPA exams), I was really really really tired of studying for exams. I just didn’t want to do it anymore.
It’s so close but still so long to go kind of feeling for me.
I do know i need to pass it but it is so random and so hard to be confident no matter how much i study… i am so glad i got through.
Thank God for that. i remember one of the blue box examples in CFAI text for level II had calculations that accounted for the year in question being a leap year. don’t remember which topic.
Navigating the “grey” is the hardest part of Level III!
I agree with Nana’s reply, above.
The exam is usually very straightforward. They won’t tell you that today is December 17 and the option expires on April 29th, and you have to calculate the days between the two. This is cumbersome, annoying, time-consuming, and not in keeping with the “conceptual” nature of the CFA exam.
google “knuckles months trick” to instantly memorize the number of days in each month 
Use your tools. Don’t know about the TI, but the HP has a function that calculates the exact number of days between 2 dates.
TI does - “Date” function, and includes ACT and 360 conventions. Enter the date as MM.DDYY [enter], which is weird as balls.
Awesome. Googled ti ba ii plus date function. Works like a charm.
Thanks!!
You guys are thinking waaay too much about this crap.
It’s not going to be an issue.
I said it already, but they have too much time to waste… wait till may and they will freak out “how come i spent 2 days on figuring out the date function on my calculator!!!”
I’ve probably spent a combined ten minutes thinking about this and have already read through volumes 2-5 of CFAI text.
Volume 6 is up next, before starting my real deal studying in January.
I was just pointing out a simple bit of silliness in the reading.
Good for you!!!
That’s a lot of material to get through, you are ahead of the game~