Paying it forward

CFA Level III
#1

Hi all,

Long time reader, first time poster.

I took the Level I exam in December 2014, and got the great news yesterday, making it 3 in a row. Congrats to all who passed, commiseration to those who weren’t successful - this time.

Rather than regurgitate, I just wanted to leave some L3 advice links for those next up that I found a useful source of information and perspective when I was setting out my study plan last year:

http://www.analystforum.com/forums/cfa-forums/cfa-level-iii-forum/91345342

http://www.analystforum.com/forums/cfa-forums/cfa-level-iii-forum/91314226

http://www.analystforum.com/forums/cfa-forums/cfa-level-iii-forum/91314266​

http://www.analystforum.com/forums/cfa-forums/cfa-general-discussion/91345400

http://www.analystforum.com/forums/cfa-forums/cfa-level-iii-forum/91349744

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiHJI1kjHiI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWTMycg9f4I

With that done, I’ll briefly summarise a couple of my main pieces of advice anyway:

  • Each to their own, and it depends on your own learning style, and how much context/exposition you require, but in my personal experience, Schweser did prove to be enough. What you maybe lose in summarising the official curriculum, you gain in getting around it quicker and seeing the wood from the trees. 90-95% of the exam had been sufficiently covered I thought
  • That said, I supplemented with CFAI BB and EOC, for extra safety
  • PRACTICE AM EXAMS EARLY AND OFTEN. New format, get familiar with it. Most importantly, it’s short answer constructed response, not ‘essay’
  • BUT DON’T NEGLECT PM PRACTICE (sorry for shouting!). It’s easy to take PM for granted, but it’s the other half of the exam, and I found it to be more granular than the AM. Doing lots of short MCQ helped me with embedding the concepts more fully
  • As for score target, obviously you should always aim for 100 in AM and in PM, and nothing less. But to at least achieve that 70 average at a minimum, tactically I’d suggest you want to shoot for no less than 60 in AM and 80 in PM

Well, that’s all folks. Feels great to be done with this finally! It was a tough 18 months, oftentimes excruciating, but ultimately always rewarding. Reading these forums gave me a sense of a peer group in the same boat that helped keep me motivated and on target. Best of luck to future candidates. You’re almost there, just one last big effort required.

#2

Trevor McKenney: I think some people are too scared, or something. I guess it’s hard for people who are so used to things the way they are - even if they’re bad - to change. 'Cause they kind of give up. And when they do, everybody kind of loses.

#PayItForward

#3

Good advice, WBH, I agree with every point. Actually I keep writing “essay”, but of course you’re right with the short answer constructed response and that’s an important distinction to understand as a L3 candidate. On exam day I wrote quite short bullet points and had enough time in the AM, then until results came out I was nervous that maybe my answers weren’t enough to get most of the points. But I scored >70% in all but 3 questions in the AM, which proves to me that the short bullet points really work as long as your answer is on point.