Failed Lv 3 for the second time with a score of 9

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gzcavalier

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I just cant hold up my tears when I found out my score in startbucks this morning. It is my second attempt and I got a score of 8 last year. This year I felt much prepared with reading CFAI curriculum and doing plenty of pratise exam. I only used schweser note last year. What I should do next year? I am feeling old with multiple attempts on CFA (didn’t pass lv 1 or lv2 on my first attempt….)
 
Dont leave this.. I also failed L1/2 on my first attempt and cleared L3 this time on my 3rd Attempt.
 
You are right there. You are a handful of points away from a pass. I was that way last year and it’s very tough to swallow especially after I blew many easy points and changed answers to wrong ones in the PM. It is disappointing now but when you conquer it then it will be really sweet. My advice is to really master the subject areas. The individual and Institutional are very key, and repetition. You are so close it’s just a matter of having a few more right answers
 
Are you giving it your all?
Failing with 500+ hours of studying is a lot different than studying for 150 hours and being upset that you didn’t pass. Disclaimer: I’m in the latter camp.
 
I am in the same train. What’s there after passing. On heinsight I feel I should have done mba. Lost 4 years
 
give yourself a goooooood hardddddddd cry…
after that, rise and conquer this god damn cfa next year
 
Yep, sure did. Band 10 last year. Band 9 this year. I have no idea what happened. I walked out of the exam on cloud nine thinking that I was finally done. I was the most confident out of anyone that I talked to. My intuition has never been wrong when it comes to CFA exams. Trust me, I feel like the biggest dumb@ss of all time. I almost fell over yesterday when I read the results email because I was so shocked and caught off guard.
My AM breakdown was atrocious. I was pretty confident that I would see 2 50-70s & 9 >70s for the AM. Boy was I wrong. Even though I know I’ll be gifting the CFAI a 99% profit margin on a retab I will probably do it anyway so I can put my mind at ease. Maybe I can count it as a “gift” on my tax return….
There is one question in particular that I remember verbatim that I know I nailed every point on, but I received <50 on it. It was a question that would have had a decent amount of partial credit available as well. Seeing the <50 makes no sense to me.
I’m sure CPK can relate. I thought the 2013 exam was very difficult…Band 10. I thought this exam was much easier….Band 9. Go figure.
 
I will say that I got >70 on all Essay Questions after the first five. I got either <51 or >50<70 on the first five essay questions. I don’t remember thinking the first five were that tough so I find it kind of strange. I wrote the first five questions very long with probably quite a bit of fluff mixed in with what I believed were the correct answers. After I noticed I was running short on time, I went straight to short bullets and as you see scored above 70 on all of last 2/3 of AM.
Does anybody think that the graders just prefer short answers and punish people who write a lot of fluff mixed in with the correct answers? I am also wondering if graders count the fluff as an answer (wrong one) and stop reading your paragraphs before they get to the meat (i.e., correct answers) of your writing.
 
It seems obvious that bullet points are preferred to dense paragraphs. Put yourself in the shoes of the graders, people. No one cares about your beautiful prose on the CFA exams when the majority of the testers aren’t even native English speakers.
 
I feel you. It is emotionally tough to accept especially you falied on the boardline. It is a band 9 for me as well. Give it a hard cry, pick up your sword again and slaughter the L3 beast. I will fight on your side next year and I am sure we will survive.
Below is my timeline in the program so far:
2010 - passed L 1 ( probably I was still in school)
2011 - falied L 2 ( first job and was definitely not on study mode)
2012 - passed L2 ( fantastic, and rewared myself a 3-week trip in Europe)
2013 - falied L 3 ( got a new job, had to dealt with crappy office politics and took care of personal stuff, so literally no prep. for the exam and ended up with band 2)
2014 - falied L3 again ( band 9, shoot, but I am happy that I married the girl I love)
2015 - Sat, Jun 6, 2015 DAY OF GLORIOUS FIGHT
Life is not about wating for the storm to pass, it is about learning how to dance in the rain. If you are passionate about something, pursue it, no matter what anyone else thinks. That’s how dreams are achieved. Good luck,!
 
I am in the same situation.
I failed with band 9 last year, thinking L3 might be easier with the higher pass rate, despite putting in 300+ hours of study.
I was so annoyed with myself I really worked hard this year, to come away with the same result!
I felt well prepared, lack of sleep and knowing I needed to pass this time didn’t help, but I felt the exam was fair and I almost enjoyed the afternoon…or so I thought!
This time I also found 4 of the morning session under 50% with 4 >70%.
With a fixed income background I have somehow managed <50% both occasions. When the past paper became available I reviewed the FI question from last year, I thought it was straightforward (even easy) and I just don’t understand how I got < 50% ?
I think MajorNYC may be on to something with the waffle and padding in our responses before they get to the meat?
I am keen to learn from my mistakes, without any transparency on what is required it is certainly difficult., at the end of the day CFA is a business.
It’s a good thing that in the real world the investment process is far more transarent to investors than it is to CFA candidates!
 
Keep trying! I passed L1 & L2 on the first tries. Failed L3 4X (Band 0, Band 4, Band 9, Band 9) and finally passed. Focus and practice worked best! It feels good to be a charterholder now. :)
 
texasexes wrote:
Keep trying! I passed L1 & L2 on the first tries. Failed L3 4X (Band 0, Band 4, Band 9, Band 9) and finally passed. Focus and practice worked best! It feels good to be a charterholder now. :)
Click to expand...

Respect!
 
…I am not the only one that crying out for band 10 on my second attempt this year at age 32.
After exam I felt this year should be my final one sitting in the cfa exam room. I was thinking how I curled up and down on the desk in my small room reading curriculums and doing past exam papers…I believed that I master most LOS (responding from the scores both from the practice and the exam) and was confident when I walked in and out of the exam room.
Yet the result really hurts…especially when I found individual and institutional wealth management sections are in the lower ranges. How can a L3 candidate not know those two sections are the key? I prepared I learnt I did my best I felt good but I failed…I plan to file a retab. If the retab is not turning good, I will keep trying for the next attempt at age 33. I will fight and I wish everyone in this thread good luck for the next year. I believe finally finally our hard work and preserverance will pay.
 
Chuckrox8 wrote:
Yep, sure did. Band 10 last year. Band 9 this year. I have no idea what happened. I walked out of the exam on cloud nine thinking that I was finally done. I was the most confident out of anyone that I talked to. My intuition has never been wrong when it comes to CFA exams. Trust me, I feel like the biggest dumb@ss of all time. I almost fell over yesterday when I read the results email because I was so shocked and caught off guard.
My AM breakdown was atrocious. I was pretty confident that I would see 2 50-70s & 9 >70s for the AM. Boy was I wrong. Even though I know I’ll be gifting the CFAI a 99% profit margin on a retab I will probably do it anyway so I can put my mind at ease. Maybe I can count it as a “gift” on my tax return….
There is one question in particular that I remember verbatim that I know I nailed every point on, but I received <50 on it. It was a question that would have had a decent amount of partial credit available as well. Seeing the <50 makes no sense to me.
I’m sure CPK can relate. I thought the 2013 exam was very difficult…Band 10. I thought this exam was much easier….Band 9. Go figure.
Click to expand...
This is the WTF moment I talked about right after the exam. I was in your exact same shoes last year. I was 100% confident I passed, but failed band 7.
 
Damn i feel for you guys so close yet so far…
I failed Level 2 twice and cleared level 3 on first attempt this year thank God.
The reason i think i passed is beacuse I did O & A levels which is grade 9-12 from UK and over there the exams are all level 3 format
e.g You write in the exam they give you appendices and exhibits and you circle and write short answers.
Even though did those 9 years ago till i faced something similar in level 3 AM it tremendously helped me
 
I think it’s extremely important to keep your written answers in bullet points as opposed to paragraphs, especially when the questions indicate how many points it wants you to explain. I recall getting a bit concerned about how short my answers were in the AM. I wrote probably just one page at most for many questions despite we are given many more pages for answers. I ended up scoring all above 70% except 4 sections which were between 50-70%.
I also wasn’t very confident about my morning session either unlike many on this forum, but maybe that’s just due to me generally being more reserved.
 
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