I just found out from my employer that I need to take the series 3 exam asap. I am not thrilled about this given the fact that I just sat for level 3 cfa. I am curious if anyone can help fill me in on realistic difficulty of the series 3 exam and how much prep is required. To give you some background I have passed level 1 and level 2 of cfa exams on first attempt. Do you think I could just wing this test?
^Doubtful that you could walk into almost any test and pass it with zero study. You probably need at least some familiarity with the subject matter.
in a word no.
buy the books (there are two) here http://www.theifm.org/education/series3info.php
the regulation part - just read through all the rules & reg, perhaps take some notes. 2hrs
for the calculation part - there are 230pages in the book. there are some cfai topics (e.g. proxy hedge / cross hedge ), but there are more regs, stuff about settlement. but the calcs are all very simple. so it’s light, you could study on the train/bus. min 10hrs here. 20hrs if you do the EOCs.
ifm is the best?