Level III - Most difficult topic ?

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Zlack

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For Level II I thought the most difficult parts were Time Series Analysis, a few Fixed Income readings, some SWAP calculations and Pension accounting (pensions weren’t really difficult, I just fell asleep every time I started studying it until last week when I forced myself to learn it).
For Level III I dont find anything really difficult after I have spent some time just flipping pages. It feels more like stuff that is quite easy to learn if you just give it some time. Am I wrong?
What is the most difficult reading for Level III?
 
L3 is deceptively easy. The hardest part is the testing format: AM written
Although if I had to pick one, I’d say commodities, only because I think the CFAI did a poor job explaining it. The Scheweser books did a much better job
 
Level 1: easy topics, easy exam
Level 2: difficult topics, difficult exam
Level 3: easy topics, fiendish exam
 
Commodities, I agree. The whole story with lending pencils (or something), the way it was explained.. horrible!
 
Yea I also hated the lending pencil’s story. I don’t want a 10 page hypothetical pencil producing/lending/storage bullsh*t story.
Just jump into the real thing and explain it to me.
 
cirkon wrote:
Commodities, I agree. The whole story with lending pencils (or something), the way it was explained.. horrible!
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It was not explained at all by CFAI - it was taken as an excerpt from a textbook. I have the one - it is really terrible to read and get it right. There is a lot of more friendly readable books on derivatives in the market.
The most humble part of the curriculum i believe is Performance Evaluation and GIPS. We were lucky enough not to be tested widely on the topics.
 
^ It doesn’t matter if it was taken from a textbook, it was chosen to be a vital part of the CFAI curriculum.
 
GIPS was annoying, not so much difficult, but there is so much of it to learn for so little marks on the exam.
 
ua_bender wrote:
cirkon wrote:
Commodities, I agree. The whole story with lending pencils (or something), the way it was explained.. horrible!
Click to expand...
The most humble part of the curriculum i believe is Performance Evaluation and GIPS. We were lucky enough not to be tested widely on the topics.
Click to expand...
I liked GIPS. In fact I was pretty surprised how smoothly it went for me after I struggled so heavily with soft dollars and ROS in level II… But macro performance attribution required really a bit of effort to comprehend - I needed to intensively produce computations on my own to arrive at CFAI’s figures…….
 
For me, the hardest section was derivatives, and also that section on estate planning.
 
Found orienting from L2 to L3 very difficult. L3 requires a different frame of mind, I felt so. Once I got into the groove didn’t find much problem. Smooth sailing. Happy to see others struggled with ‘pencil’ so I am not alone. I missed not having FSA in L3 :) GIPS somehow pisses everyone off isn’t it.
 
waiguy wrote:
Found orienting from L2 to L3 very difficult. L3 requires a different frame of mind, I felt so. Once I got into the groove didn’t find much problem. Smooth sailing. Happy to see others struggled with ‘pencil’ so I am not alone. I missed not having FSA in L3 :) GIPS somehow pisses everyone off isn’t it.
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And, what was the most difficult part for you then?
 
hardest part about level 3 was practicing two types of tests. Essay and Mulitple choice AM/PM. The key to passing is crushing the PM section and holding your own on the essays, i.e. greater than 70 on 2 or 3 sections.
 
I agree Waiguy.
Not having Accounting on the exam def hurt. That was my strong suit.
 
Swaps, and some of the international investing were particularly difficult.
Behavioral was not difficult, but deceptive at times.
GIPS was just a PITA to memorize.
 
corporate governance….. and agree about behavioral finance but having multiple frameworks with different terminologies was hard to keep track of, and annoying. also found the international investing section to be a little annoying but I recognize it’s important and actually like it. PENCILS, arghhhhhhhhhhhhh
 
JP_RL_CFA wrote:
hardest part about level 3 was practicing two types of tests. Essay and Mulitple choice AM/PM. The key to passing is crushing the PM section and holding your own on the essays, i.e. greater than 70 on 2 or 3 sections.
Click to expand...
Totally agree. I think I did better last year on the a.m. section (band 5) but owned the afternoon this year (no sections below 50%).
 
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