L3 Retakers - how many hours are you targeting?

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For those of you who failed L3, what band did you fail and what are your study plans for this next try? For those of you who passed L3 on your second try, what was your study schedule (targeted hours)? Did you change any study habits that resulted in a pass?
I failed band 5 with 300 hours of studying, I’m targeting 200 hours minimum this time around.
 
I also did 12 mocks last year with a major focus on the am essays and was disappointed with my poor am results. Used bullet points to answer.
Just trying to gauge the incremental work planned by retakers
 
I passed level 3 last year on my second attempt but have never had a specific number of hours target. I think going back and focusing on the areas that you were weak at before is the key and its more about getting the concepts down instead of looking at hours spent on it. I spent a majority of my time focusing on the morning exam portion and doing as many mocks as possible. I continued to do them until I felt comfortable
 
Thanks for the response. Would you say you put more effort into the test the second time around or just incremental effort to get you over the hump?
 
You shouldn’t be trying to calculate the minimum amount of time to just squeak by – you should be working your arse off *right now* to make sure 2017 is the last time you’ll ever have to sit for this exam. (Seeing that you’re a Band 5er, you’ve got some work ahead.)
#One&Done
 
Hi da_mad_tiki,
I know you since L2. I don’t know whether it is appropriate to say ‘good to see you as OP’ or not as you couldn’t make it in 2016. Hope we both pass this time. I couldn’t give proper time to study properly last year and had just read the Schweser text without doing *any* mock and so as expected I failed miserably. I’ve started studying now and as it would be quicker to go through the readings this time, I would be focusing on doing all the mocks available out there. Just to make things challenging, I’ve also registered for CAIA L1 this march so full month of Feb will be devoted to it. I hope dedicated 4 months of study for any re-taker would suffice.
 
I failed Band 10. Oh man, I remember how I wasted the entire first hour trying to calm my nerve after my encounter with that shark of a first question on AM, lol.
Right now, I’m really split on if I should register. I’m moving to a different country this summer and have lots to take care of before that; it’ll be stressful physically and emotionally. Do you guys think I should wait a year?
 
Always skip the first question and come back to it later.
Too many people get caught up and ultimately spend too much time in that first IPS question, which leaves them trying to play catch-up for the rest of AM session.
#TrustYouMe
 
Yes that first Institutional IPS question caught me off guard. Got less than 50% on it. In fact, I got less than 50% on the first three questions, Fixed Income and Equity being the other two. Thank god I still passed though.
 
I’m not so sure IPS questions are always first, however I would agree to start on a low touch question that doesn’t require much reading, if possible. My head was spinning when I first opened the booklet and I skipped ahead to a few shorter sub-questions with lighter calcs to get some momentum.
 
Same the first question got me last yr. Mine turned out to be a band 7 fail unfortunately. Yet I dont think study hour is a good measure cox methink it all depends on how well one puts ones ans into words during the exam day (n not caught off guard by the unexpected.)
 
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