I probably used a few more study resources than most while studying for the level 3 exam so figured I would summarise my experience with them to help future candidates.
For reference here are my 40/60/80 scores for the exam:
You scored higher than 97% of all Level III results in our database
· Your 40/60/80 score is: 74.1%
· Your minimum score is: 67.8%
· Your maximum score is: 91.4%
Microsoft Excel
I like structure in my life and excel was a really useful tool to come up with and keep track of my study schedule. We’re all meant to be training to be analysts and should be able to create something that perfectly fits how we study. This is a screenshot of mine:
http://i59.tinypic.com/muznth.jpg
I weighted each of the topics and then worked out start dates and end dates based on going through all the material by the end of April. The plan for each topic was to do Schweser video > Schweser notes > CFA blue box > Schweser Qs and then CFA Qs and this was a useful way of keeping track what I had done for each topic.
Happy to email this to anyone that wants it but you should really just create your own, it doesn’t take long.
Sch** weser Videos**
I’ve watched these for every level. I’m a firm believer that it’s easier to learn things by engaging as many parts of your brain as possible. This is why I like to watch the videos as well as read the books. Probably not necessary for most people but I found the Schweser videos were generally of good quality although I did miss Jonathan Bone <3
I kept track of how many hours of video there were in my study plan and last year there was about 50 hours so I’ll leave it to you guys to figure out if you can fit this into your study routine.
Schweser Notes
I see a lot of comments saying that you need to use the CFA text if you want to pass level 3. I don’t think this is true. My strategy for level 3 was to get through all the material with time to spare so I could put a lot of time into doing practice papers for the morning session. The Schweser notes are great for this but do need to be supplemented in a few spots (I’ll come to this in a bit).
Schweser QBank
Didn’t find it to be very good. The interface is really good and its cool that you can see how the percentage of candidates that got each question right but I found the questions to be too basic and I wasn’t learning enough for the time invested.
Schweser Mocks
Really useful for PM not worth the time for AM. If you’re doing PM make sure you have access to the web interface to check how well you did relative to all the other candidates. Its gives you a really useful breakdown. A lot of people say the Schweser PM is too easy compared to the real exam, which is probably true, but if youre outscoring the majority of candidates then you’ll be in good shape.
AM mocks are just not in the same format as the official CFA exams. Not worth doing given how many actual past papers are out there.
CFA Curriculum
Although I didn’t do any of the readings from the book the curriculum is still needed for the blue boxes and EOCs. I did most of them twice. The first time I went through them I marked the ones that I thought would be useful to do and then in the final month went back and redid all of the questions that I marked.
CFA Past Exams
Do these. As many as you can. If you look hard enough on the internet you can find them going back to like 2001. I did them going back to 2006 and there was only a handful of questions that were no longer relevant. If you’re well prepared you can easily spot which questions you don’t need to do.
Finquiz
Firstly, if you’re going to buy anything from Finquiz then wait until they have a sale or an offer which they have frequently. Secondly, the majority of the material is a waste of time apart from the smart summaries. The smart summaries are a fucking awesome complement to studying with Schweser notes. Once I was done with Schweser notes I went through all of the smart summaries and looked for anything that didn’t look familiar. When I found something I then went to the CFA curriculum to study it. It was a great way on ensuring that I knew the whole curriculum.
Anki
I’ve created flash cards for each level but this was the first time I went digital. This app is awesome. It’s set up so that it automatically shows you cards you are less familiar with more often than ones that you always get right.
Again I’m happy to share my deck if people are interested but I firmly believe that you gain a lot from creating your own. Mine will have some weird shorthand that I’ve created myself in a few spots…
These notes got a bit of hype towards exam day last year. They were good notes but probably only worth it if you’re not feeling very prepared in that final month and need to cram as much as you can. Definitely don’t need these if you have the finquiz smart summaries.
Some of the most useful videos that I found on the internet for describing how exactly you need to answer morning session questions. Went through stuff like what kind of style to write it, managing time, how to answer IPS questions etc. What was really useful was a video series that they had which went through each question in a mock. Highly recommend although it does look like they’re in the process of relaunching the site.
Mock Exchange
Final bit of advice is that marking your own morning session mocks is hard. I exchanged a few mocks with someone I randomly contacted on here and found it to be a really useful experience. Not only do you get a second set of eyes on your answers but you also get to see how someone else answered the questions.
