I got my charter. I have friends who passed with most of the providers mentioned above. My conclusion is that the key to pass is how well you understand key concepts inside and out when being asked in different ways, which require learning the contents and then practice as much as you could. I think the MM course is pretty well rounded by providing the content and practice at a very reasonable price (long videos, short final review videos, question bank, end of chapter questions videos, past exams modified, and his own mock exams).
Besides studying with MM, I also used Levelup full course, bootcamp, and problem solving. I liked the bootcamp the most. The full course videos were a little bit too long to watch for some people. I think the problem solving workshop was more for those who got the bootcamp only. For people who got the full course, the problem solving workshop (going through the same blue boxes and white texts per topic) was a little bit redundant in my opinion. I liked Levelup’s slidebook. My only issue was that the hard copy slidebook was sent to us early and it didn’t get updated at all throughout the program. So when we came to the intensive final review bootcamp, Marc shared the most updated slidebook on the screen. It didn’t match the old version that everyone had. Since the bootcamp was very fast pace, it was extremely difficult to update our old slidebook on the fly. After paying USD $1,999, I expected to have the most updated slidebook on hand at all time, or at the minimum, right before the bootcamp. If we could get an electronic version, it would be fine too, as long as it was the most current version. Other than that, the slidebook was awesome. Some people felt it overwhelming because there were a lot going on on a page, but I was totally fine with it.
I understand that Marc advised us not to do CFAI questions in the ecosystem and mock exams. He also mentioned that 100% focusing on the curriculum (bluebox, white text, exhibits, footnotes) should be more than enough to pass. I don’t want to disagree with Marc cos he knows what he’s doing. But for candidates, I think it’s very important to do practice questions to see how questions can be asked in a different way to reinforce learning. If anyone wants to see exam like questions, s/he must do past exam questions (if you could find them online) and mocks exams, such as Bill Campbell’s. Just redoing the curriculum blue boxes 5 times doesn’t help much incrementally. So I deviated from Marc’s approach and did lots of modified past exams and mock exams. Besides BC’s mocks, MM mocks were very good too (and they were free with the course) He had videos of how he solved the question. (Not just providing a grading rubrics) I found it extremely helpful to see how MM solved the AM questions. His writing techniques helped me greatly to pass the AM. In addition, BC’s grading session was extremely helpful. You rather want BC to grade your mock and pinpoint your weaknesses than being graded the actual exam twice!
I am glad that my cfa journey is over. Big thanks to the hard work of all my instructors. Cheers!
I never signed up for the Problem Solving Workshop as I knew I wouldn’t have time and ultimately there is point when you have to put your head down and learn the material for yourself so you can perform on exam day. One thing I didn’t mention was that if you get through the Blueboxes, White Text and EOCs 5 times and want mock exams then Marc mentioned that Bill Campbell’s are the ones you should choose, I did not use them myself but they are updated in line with new curriculum and have good reviews.
unfortunately memorization will not work, you need to understand the curriculum questions in order to pass. Marc’s videos go through all the blueboxes, as I mentioned before I didn’t have time to go through videos but for BBs I didn’t understand post bootcamp I would refer to his videos which usually helped me understand in an efficient manner. Of course its almost impossible to be perfect at everything and will have some weak areas but equally you don’t need to be perfect to pass the exam. If you have tough time understanding concepts then I would give yourself more time and do it in August, signing up for May exam may cause you to rush and not spend requisite time doing topics. Levelup is not cheap so you want to get most value from it.
His bootcamp is a four day intense (approx. 10-12 hours each day) process going through all the material, they’re usually held 2 months before exam so would be late march for the May exam … but you really need to try and go through the blueboxes and relevant curriculum before attending otherwise it will be too much for you. For Aug exam I imagine it would be held in late June but confirm all dates (and that its still done via webinar) with Marc.
If budget restraint then I would say Bootcamp only and do it for Aug exam BUT you MUST spend time between now and the late June bootcamp going through blueboxes and EOCs several times The videos are good but are approx. 80 hours in total which you can double when using to study - he covers same stuff in bootcamp albeit at a much (much) faster pace and uploads bootcamp videos a few days later for you to refer back to.
His whole approach is covering bluebox and white text (you cover EOCs yourself) because as he says the exam questions are taken directly from the curriculum, which is where a lot of third party providers fall short as they don’t update material properly each year and some like schweser cut out ~30% , hence his rationale for doing them 4/5 times to prepare for exam, he does highlight important points in bluebox and curriculum that he believes is important for exam. The Bill Campbell exams he mentioned also are updated for curriculum so would be best exam practise provider.
Separately, when you get hold of him you can devise a strategy, for example if you think you can get through Bluebox and EOCs 2/3 times before March bootcamp but still prefer to sign up for August exam to give yourself more time to prepare and have the bootcamp videos to refer back to for longer , I believe that would be fine as we had people in our bootcamp who were planning to do exam in May 2022 – again check with Marc (you can call him directly )
Thank you.
I recommend Mark Meldrum, but to be clear it should be complementary to CFAI text to fill in the gaps.
There are areas where the curriculum is not very clear and MM’s videos makes a great job in those areas (Asset allocation ,is a great example). I also like the platform he provides for the mock exams , to get a real feel of the exams.
The CFAI LES and mocks : On these i have a rather interesting take. Throughout my practice i found both of these problematic and esp the AM mock felt like a waste of time ( i gave up half way) .
There are several questions in the LES , which are ambiguous and difficult to answer correctly.
On hindsight however , with the experience of attempting the actual exam , i am not too sure if these are a bug or a feature . There are lot of subjectiveness at this level (which is true for any higher study) , and (though desirable) , all of that cannot be eliminated from the testing. It may serve well to get used to these. After all a realistic expectation must be set , and that cannot be scoring a 85%-90% imo.
Thanks for sharing your experience with MM and LevelUp!
For Nov 2021, I have used MM materials as well quite extensively and fall short by slight margin from MPS (not close but near). From my
own experience, MM videos is good but he seems to left out some LOS or briefly touch. His EOC explanation are good on filling up some gaps as mentioned. But somehow, it lack abit of comprehensiveness for some of the concepts and tell us to refer to the curriculum. I also make my own notes as well as noting points from his videos to complement his PowerPoint slides which I printed out for all topics. He did a good job in simplifying certain calculations. However, I missed out on his mock exam though which I am considering in my next run.
Thanks alot GG228 once again in sharing more with your personal experience with Marc! Really clear a lot of doubts and anxiety especially the cost with LevelUp is not cheap.
I have, in fact, emailed Marc and left my questions on his website as well with regards to his videos and bootcamps last week but unfortunately, I have yet to heard back from him so far. I can’t really call him up as I based in other side of the globe. Kindof disappointing though.
did not pass … need one help . if someone has already registered for 2022 then :
What are the curriculum changes that have happened since 2020/2021 ? I know curriculum changes were freezed in 2021. Just need a summary information across all 6 volumes
total number of readings dropped
total number of readings added
I cannot see this information on cfa site before registration. Before registering, It will help me to estimate what effort I will need to put again and so decide accordingly. If someone has already registered for 2022 then please provide
thank you very much.
I have some vbk files on my system which used to be provided before when we used to access on vitalsource bookshelf. How can i convert these to pdf ? The updated software of vitalsource bookshelf does not allow viewing of vbk files from local on windows 10. i want to have previous level books as pdf just for my records.
Marc is usually pretty responsive but he’s likely to be pretty snowed as he will likely fielding a lot of candidates similar to you who are interested in his course - I think the post results period is one of his busiest. Once that clears he normal response rate should return.
Appreciate you’re on a different time zone but maybe you can purchase a cheap telephone card that allows you to call internationally? Better to get your answers quickly so you can make your decision.
Best of luck with it all, whichever way you decide to go.
that was fast! how many days after submission of the application did they give you the charter? Also do they actually email your references for a recommendation?
Thanks for your kind advice. When you mention that Marc’s advice of getting over the BB/white text for at least 4-5 times, how does it work? Do we complete covering all the readings at first, then we repeat the whole process of covering them again for next 4 rounds? Or do we tackle a single reading’s BB/white text/EOC, and then we go back and cover them again for 3-4 more time. Until we feel that we have ‘master’ the reading, we proceed the same process for remaining reading.if Marc’s approach is referring to the former, won’t we tend to forget the stuff that we did at the beginning? If it’s the latter, won’t it be slow in the process of covering them within next 6 months?
Just trying to have a feel whether either methods works. Thanks in advance again!
I failed L3 the first time with Levelup. I did Blue Box questions, White Texts, and EOC 5 times as Marc recommended. My issue was that the package didn’t include any test banks or practice questions. When I showed up in the CBT exam, I didn’t feel that I was able to solve the problems even when I was very familiar with the topic. The CBT exam questions were quite different than the BB, or I should say BB questions are not quite exam-like. My friends who loved Levelup before told me that they got a package of all exam questions organized by topic. I was told that old exam questions weren’t available anymore. It was a big disappointment. I think the Institute didn’t allow it anymore, but I think Marc could have modified the past exam questions just like Mark Meldrum did, so that we can still practice exam-like questions. Since Marc only teaches L3, we would have thought that he had more time to do so, but I totally understand that Marc is a one-man team.
After failing L3 with Marc, I switched to Mark Meldrum and passed. The key difference was that I took advantage of all his mock exams, watched his mock exam videos regardless I got the answer right or wrong. I found it useful to watch Mark Meldrum’s videos at a fast speed as my final review. I was able to solve 90+% of the problems in the exam, which was more than enough for me to pass. I felt that trying to learn 100% of the curriculum and trying to cover everything isn’t the best way to study for this exam cos most of us aren’t full time students and we don’t have unlimited time to study. I also felt more confident in essay writing by following Mark’s writing techniques.
I also did Mark Meldrum’s personal grading session. My assigned grader (not Mark) was OK. He did what he was supposed to do. I preferred Bill’s grading though. He was more friendly and approachable. He graded Mark’s mock for me and he didn’t get mad at all. He helped me improve my essay writing skill.
If I had to take L3 exam again. I would go with Mark Meldrum and Bill’s grading.
It varies but a rule of thumb; do BB, white text and EOCs at least twice before bootcamp where you will use in conjunction with curriculum (i.e. do them as you read each chapter) and really understand the ones you didn’t get correct. Post bootcamp , as I mentioned previously do the BB, white text and EOCs at least twice and only use curriculum for those you really do not understand - you wont have time to go through all curriculum again post bootcamp.
You need to perform an honest audit of your Nov 2021 results and see where you’re genuinely strong and weak, for those where strong you may be able to go straight into the blueboxes which will save you time.
If you really feel you want Exam practise then Bill Campbell’s have best review.
Ultimately, whether you use Levelup or otherwise you need to go through BB, white text and EOCs in official curriculum in order to pass. If Marc still hasn’t come back to you, I would call him ASAP to devise the best strategy, he is best placed to advise at this point.
Sorry to hear that man. If you’re giving the 4th attempt, I suggest doing ONLY the curriculum. I failed my first attempt in 2019 by 2 questions from the looks of it. Stuck to the curriculum this time and passed in November. The real exams have been testing a lot of remote stuff that’s not really being covered with 3rd party prep providers. Read the curriculum like it’s the Bible and you’ll pass. Best of luck!
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