How is Level III different from Level II ? Advice from alumni

ltj wrote:
I think I even saw you write that you were going to reach out to a moderator because people who passed wouldn’t “get off the board”. How did that go for you?
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It was joke but I noticed that you have a problem recognizing when something was irony and when I am serious. Well, that’s not only you. I am not American so have a quite different mentality. I am serious while sharing my experience about curriculum material but not while responding on all those silly questions and situations.
 
ltj wrote:
LOL. Right. How many topics have you whined in at this point because people weren’t talking about the things you wanted them to? I think I even saw you write that you were going to reach out to a moderator because people who passed wouldn’t “get off the board”. How did that go for you?
The OP asked for advice from people who have already passed, not candidates like yourself. If the advice doesn’t line up with what you want to read, go find a new topic to s***post in. Understanding the AM session as early as possible is a really effective way to prepare for L3. Sorry!
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+1.
Thanks for your feedback on level 3, it’s very useful.
 
It was way harder for me than Level II.
I passed the Level II exam comfortably with a juicy margin. I worked even harder for Level III and ended up with a tiny cushion.
Why did I pass? I focused on the multiple choice questions for a long time and delivered a rock solid performance in the PM session.
Why did I almost fail? I did way too little AM mocks (did about 7) and did not learn properly from them i.e. organize them by topic and find the common grounds and pitfalls. I should have started earlier with them, didn’t touch them in a serious manner until 3 weeks prior to the exam. Btw Irfanullah has a fantastic thread here that details which past questions are still relevant. And surprisingly its not many of the old questions that have become irrelevant - so you could theoretically do some 15 mocks which result in a minimum of 10 questions per topic from past exams! Nothing beats that in my opinion.
My advice: be prepared to work harder than for Level II. Work more AM mocks, timed, and grade them conservatively. Do all of the PM questions that the CFAI has out there (EOC, Qbank, mock exams) multiple times. Do a thorough review of Ethics and start early with the crazy GIPS standards & AMC (I did this by listening to the Schweser Videos over and over during my workout). Start early. Good luck.
 
I would be cautious in L3 because the answers are much less black and white like in L2. don’t let the “plain English” throw you off. read carefully at what questions are asked
 
I have found it much harder than L2 as well (haven’t passed L3 yet). I would warn against overconfidence more than anything. L1 and L2 are nearly entirely objective. If you know the material, you can pass the exam on those…not so on L3.
L3 is much more subjective. You can know the material inside and out and still fail. You have to know the material…AND…know how to take the exam. Just mastering the content is not enough necessarily in L3.
 
What a great discussion. You guys have truly pointed out on being grilled in the AM session. So, now the question really is…What process to follow to master the AM session. Curriculum, Videos, Mocks!
Thank you all
 
Flashback wrote:
^^ Why you just cannot stop complaining as an old lady?
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you are for sure the most annoying poster on all of analyst forum, tied with Peter and Vicky. That’s commendable.
Anyway, to answer OPs question, and to dispel the other guy’s retort about “forum liquidity”(?) or whatever you mentioned, successful studying for level 3 is relatively the same yr over yr and yes, it’s best found via the search function.
The consensus among passers is the same:
1.) read the material
2.) do practice problems
3.) write as many AM tests as you can
4.) DO THE CFA TOPIC TESTS ON THE SITE, ALL OF THEM, REPEATEDLY
It’s literally that simple. Speaking from my own experience, a pass in 18 months and finishing the AM of Level 3 close to an hour early, that was the preparation I used. Time mgmt should not be an issue with any small amount of practice.
So.much.time. is wasted on AF trying to study studying, or trick the system, or w/e. It is a waste. The steps are clear and laid out before you
 
Gram wrote:
What a great discussion. You guys have truly pointed out on being grilled in the AM session. So, now the question really is…What process to follow to master the AM session. Curriculum, Videos, Mocks!
Thank you all
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The process is to read, do practice problems, then just jump right into the mocks. Read the full questions carefully, understand the command words, focus on the process. There is no other trick to it.
 
The problem I found I think is that I found the material at level 3 a lot easier to understand and read, however the format of the exam for me was way more difficult than level 2. That balanced out to me failing level 3 as I completely flunked the AM. I think people have covered this sufficiently, but I would emphasise that there might be a point when reading through the material that you think this might be a breeze, whatever you do don’t take this for granted. You may (or will) complete the material a lot quicker and understand the concepts in greater detail but you need to spend way longer doing mocks and preparing for the AM exam than any of the other levels. I did 2013-2015 AM papers and the 6 Schweser mocks and still didn’t grasp the AM.
 
Professor_of_Hamburg wrote:
you are for sure the most annoying poster on all of analyst forum, tied with Peter and Vicky. That’s commendable.
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Fine. This should be achieved by hard work as well. But who are Peter and Vicky?
 
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