Before all the passers take off...

Level II is the beast, if you passed that one you will pass Level III eventually if you give it enough time and effort.
Level III is a tough exam with highly qualfied candidates, and there is a thin thin line between pass and fail for many candidates.
If you are Band 7-10, you are so closing to passing you might have failed because you had bad luck with the material being tested (weak areas) or your guessing skills on that particular day might have been bad. Maybe you should have passed on a normal test, or a normal day, and you were just 1 standard deviation away from your standard performance.
 
It’s my second attempt for Level 3, I passed on my first attempt for the Leve 1 and 2 exams. My conclusion:
If have already read CFA curriculum, the do not read it the second time. For my first attempt, I used CFA cirriculum (completed the material twice), Schweser Qbank, Schweser practice questions and mock exams. I failed.
For my second attempt, I used Schweser Videos, not even notes. I found it useless to read the material one more time. DO NOT READ A LOT! You will jam your brain. There is so much informatino a brain can memorize. Therefore, do not overload it with lots of reading. Instead, use Schweser videos. They clearly explain concepts in a well organized manner. After each reading, I completed the Schweser Qbank. During the last two months, I stopped using Videos and used only the Schweser Practice Exams, CFA mock exams and the CFA practice exam (40$ a piece). I know it sounds a lot, but I spent relatively less time preparing for the Level 3 exam. The videos saved me substantial amount of time.
The Qbank questions and practice exams help you summarize materials. Otherwise you will enter the exam not knowing what the hell you read. Schweser practice exams are well organized and pretty much cover all topics.
Hope you find my advice helpful. Do not let your guards down, I mean it. I thought about giving up last year. Ironically, I started preparing earlier (in November) and like I said, I really didn’t spend a lot of time studying. I just wanted to take my time while studying and enjoy the experience. You will probably have to spend about 1000$ for the Schweser materials, but for me it was worth it. It’s not about money, it is also about time and health that you spend while studying. Good luck! Do not let this result disappoint you!
 
Thanks! It’s great to hear a lot of people passed on the 2nd attempt.
It sounds like I need to really hit the mocks next time. I did all the EOC questions from Schweser and CFAI ~3 times but only one mock exam. I wasn’t prepared for the essay format and it sunk me. I ended up in band 7.
 
Interestinginly I passed L3 on first attempt, took multiple attempts to pass L1 and L2
 
Zlack wrote:If you are Band 7-10, you are so closing to passing you might have failed because you had bad luck with the material being tested (weak areas) or your guessing skills on that particular day might have been bad. Maybe you should have passed on a normal test, or a normal day, and you were just 1 standard deviation away from your standard performance.
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Last year I failed at band 6, this year at band 9 :(. I had a feeling already sitting at the exam this year that the exam almost deliberately tested my weak areas. There were areas, which I endlessly repeated studying at home only for them not to be present on the exam. Better luck next year, I guess.
 
2012 - band 8
2013 - Pass
Blue boxes are very important, particularly for the AM as flowbe209 pointed out. I did blue boxes and EOC questions MULTIPLE times. For me, this is where I began to feel that I was mastering much of the material. Doing a ton of practice exams helped reinforce my strong areas and just as importantly it highlighted my weak areas.
There’s no 1 right away to attack this for everyone. Everyone is different. But that said, for candidates who have the time to put in the work I think reading through the CFA texts, doing their BBoxes and EOCs and then doing a ton of practice exams is a sure fire way to master this stuff. I felt I did this and walked out of the exam feeeling like I crushed it and today confirmed that.
 
i used Schweser material only and passed
it ‘s definitely not enough to help you get all >70%, but enough to help you pass
 
Passed level I and II in first attempt, and with pretty decent grades too, and was hoping to pass this time as well but didn’t. Very confused and disappointed as I feel I did everything, CFAI material, EOC Qs, blue box Qs, and mocks (in which I did quite well too).
I didn’t seem to do well in am section in particular portfolio. Its one thing to fail having not worked hard, another to have worked hard, felt good about the exam and then get this email. My responses were brief and to the point (from my perspective anyways) so I finished in time and felt good (as opposed to iffy) about it. Basically I must have completely missed the boat on those portfolio essay Qs. So yes, definitely looking for some solid advice here.
 
lvl 1 2010 pass
lvl 2 2011 pass
lvl 3 2012 result voided
lvl3 2013 took back what’s mine and passed
 
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