Yeah you did, it was inevitable 
âItâs what you do that defines youâ
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Hi GG228,
Congrats on clearing the final hurdle!
Unfortunately for me, I din clear it this time. Could you share more on which material do you purchase fr LevelUp? Do you just get both the videos and attend the bootcamp? And whatâs the key difference that you feel that Marcâs materials that make the difference? I am still undecided whether to sign up for May or Aug if I were to purchase the videos and bootcamp.
Thanks
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Congrats to everyone who made it through! All the hard work paid off and youâre finished 
Did not pass, and wasnât even close. Feels awful lol.
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Hi J,
Congrats on passing!
For the prep provider you mentioned-D3, could you mind sharing more the it in terms of the support and the materials you have purchased? Does it come with any mock exams or any advice or tips provided in tackling AM section? Lastly, could you share on the cost as well?
Thanks
Finally passed after taking level 3 three time. Donât give up.
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Passed! First-time re-taker, delayed due to pandemic, failed last May, pushed hard all the way to November test date and passed. Thanks go out to everyone on this forum and especially S2000 Magician for his awesome knowledge, intellect and wisdom
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Congratulations, Aenginwm!
I appreciate your kind words.
Hi Maxirun
For the first attempt I did not manage to put in adequate time due to external factors.
For the second attempt I read the kaplan schweser notes/text books and felt I had a general good grasp on topics, in terms of revision for the final few weeks and channelling my focus for exam I did all the 2013-2018 past AM exams (focusing on the questions that Schweser mentioned were still relevant) and the Schweser mocks exams several times per Schweser advice but this did NOT prepare me sufficiently for the May 2021 exam and I failed. Coming out of exam I did not feel I performed terribly but equally I felt it wasnât sufficient to pass and I was correct when I saw my score. I did look at EOCs albeit briefly but not really bluebox questions.
For third attempt, I had a unique situation as was between jobs so could study full-time for the exam. I decided to purchase both the Videos and Bootcamp from LevelUp but given I was starting on on Aug 20th and bootcamp was around Sept 23rd it soon became evident that I wouldnât get through the videos and bluebox examples before bootcamp. I think I only went through the Behavioural and CME videos before solely focusing on blueboxes ahead of bootcamp and even then I didnât manage to get through all of the topics before the bootcamp, I recall derivatives, equity, trading and performance evaluation were the ones I did not do prior to bootcamp. I had good amount of knowledge on certain topics like Fixed Income , Private Wealth Management, Institutional so this helped me later on.
Marc provides a slidebook and focus material. The slidebook he uses in conjunction with the CFA curriculum in his videos and bootcamp and it summaries the curriculum and lists exactly where a bluebox is used for a particular topic â its his main reference. The focus material is perhaps the most comprehensive guide Iâve ever seen it really does a great job of providing a mapping guide for each topic and where they have Bluebox, white text and/or EOCs â he mentioned he may remove this however so please check with him. Ultimately the only questions you should do are those in the CFA curriculum, nothing else.
I would generally advise people to do it in August rather than May because even though i was studying for it full-time for those 3 months, it really is a lot of material to cover and Marc advises covering Bluebox and White text examples 4/5 times ahead of exam, he advised not to focus on EOCs too heavily post bootcamp but I however did do EOCs too and managed to cover everything around 3/4 times â post bootcamp you really want to be just be doing these in conjunction with slide book and only referring to curriculum where you donât understand topic ( I occasionally referred to relevant section of videos too), the time for covering the curriculum in general is over âŚ
Even then, coming out of the exam I knew I had a chance to pass but equally I knew I didnât nail it either (covering 5 times would of made me more comfortable), given they did not provide a score breakdown I cannot see how well I did. What I would say is that I recall some of the people who passed in May 2021 using the Schweser books and then Bluebox and EOCs in CFA curriculum independently mentioned that they benefited from having lockdown for covid and 2020 exam cancelled as it meant they were able to go over the material many more times before completing it in 2021 which is where I think you would benefit from using LevelUp as Marc covers alot of the confusion in CFA curriculum in his videos and bootcamps and highlights key tricks or things you may otherwise overlook. BTW, the bootcamp is four very long and intense days, take good notes.
Lastly always look out for the CFA errata updates on a monthly basis, you are responsible for incorporating any changes in your revision and using the updates in the exam â large chunks were actually removed from curriculum for 2021 which saved some time in revision.
In summary Marcâs material is really good and probably the best resource out there but you must still put in the requisite amount of hours but using LevelUp gives you the best chance, I would shoot him an email and agree best strategy, heâs pretty responsive.
Congratulations, Maisha!
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Hi J,
Thanks for sharing your experience with D3!
I have browsed through the offical website and Gurmeet did drop me an emailas I am trying to access if his approach suit me, as well as the cost factor.
Anyway, greatly appreciate for your kind sharing of experience with D3.
Cheers!
Hi GG228
Thanks for sharing your experience with LevelUp!
Few more questions please:
1.umderstand that Marc has a new service-Problem Solving Workshop that is not included in the bundle of videos+bootcamp. Do you have any knowledge on that? Not sure what the difference between the workshop and bootcamp. I have emailed Marc but have yet to heard from him.
- For the material such as the videos, slide book etc, do you feel the concepts are explained in a much more simplified way? I have tried some of the prep provider mentioned in this forum and not all explained difficult concepts in a way that is easily understood, thus spending a great deal of time trying to understand using curriculum. I have used similar approach for Level 2 whereby I have a hard time understand certain topic or concepts and referred back to curriculum and most of the time, I managed to understand after reading the curriculum several times. However this approach doesnât seem to work for Level 3 and I have even tried to ask in this forum or Google for more info but somehow, I just canât get the concepts into my mind, thus resorted to rote memorisation at my best effort basis. And more often than not, these are the ones that likely to appear in actual exam which is kind of frustrating as most likely you will provide the memorised answer which is often not the stuff the actual questions are asking for, leading to precious points wasted.
If Marcâs materials dissect in the way that concepts are much more easily understandable that most candidates are able to absorb, that will be a huge support to supplement on the existing knowledge that we, re-takers gained from previous attempts.
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If there is a budget restraint and I could only get either videos or bootcamp, which item will you recommend?
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For the bootcamp, will Marc be sharing any method the approach of answering AM questions with CBT format?
Thank you once again.
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 Levelupâs slidebook. My only issue was that the hard copy slidebook was sent to us early and it didnât 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 didnât 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 donât want to disagree with Marc cos he knows what heâs doing. But for candidates, I think itâs 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 Campbellâs. Just redoing the curriculum blue boxes 5 times doesnât help much incrementally. So I deviated from Marcâs approach and did lots of modified past exams and mock exams. Besides BCâs 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, BCâs 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!
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Congratulations, charterholder!
Hi Maxirun
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I never signed up for the Problem Solving Workshop as I knew I wouldnât 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 didnât mention was that if you get through the Blueboxes, White Text and EOCs 5 times and want mock exams then Marc mentioned that Bill Campbellâs 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.
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unfortunately memorization will not work, you need to understand the curriculum questions in order to pass. Marcâs videos go through all the blueboxes, as I mentioned before I didnât have time to go through videos but for BBs I didnât 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 donât 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, theyâre 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.
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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.
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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 donât 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 â again check with Marc (you can call him directly )
Congrats, manisangsu.
Let me ask you some question, you recommended Mark Meldrum. and what about problems in Eco learning system, and Mock exam?
For me, Prbs in Eco learning system & Boston society Mock was pretty weird and not reliableâŚ
Iâm curiousâŚ
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 MMâs 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.
Hi cfa charter 2021,
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 canât 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