In my opinion, the morning session is sprint and not time management. The activity of watching the clock and monitoring progress may be a waste of time. Just focus on the text, knowing that you will not likely finish. Athletes who run don’t monitor time when running. They just run till they cross the line.
Morning Session: Sprint vs time management
- Thread starter Victory90
- Start date
S2000magician
New member
- Jun 18, 2026
- 0
- 0
Respectfully, I disagree.
The objective is to earn as many points as you can, which generally means attempting to answer the greatest number of questions.
If you don’t monitor your time, you may languish on one question too long, and sacrifice points on others that you could have earned had you moved on.
On any given question you need to work as quickly as you can, but you simply cannot afford to put your head down and ignore the clock. That’s asking for failure.
The objective is to earn as many points as you can, which generally means attempting to answer the greatest number of questions.
If you don’t monitor your time, you may languish on one question too long, and sacrifice points on others that you could have earned had you moved on.
On any given question you need to work as quickly as you can, but you simply cannot afford to put your head down and ignore the clock. That’s asking for failure.
There are lot of people who finish the AM much before as well. So assuming that I wont likely finish, is already handing over the advantage to the rest.
I agree with Magician here, key is to collect as many points as possible. Without a look at the clock and knowing how much time to spend on each question, its very difficult.
Unless you have plenty of excess time (which doen’t seem to be the case for the vast majority of folks on the L3 exam), time management is hugely important. The exam is an optimization problem - get maximum points by choosing the order an manner of how you answr the questions. Each question limits how many points you can get on it, so you have to be brutal in knowing when to move on.
Knowing that you’ve got plenty of time at the halfway point leads to diferent strategies than knowing you’re behind.
Knowing that you’ve got plenty of time at the halfway point leads to diferent strategies than knowing you’re behind.
Topperharley
New member
- Jun 18, 2026
- 0
- 0
I must disagree as well. If I took your approach and did not look at the time, I would have only gotten thru about 7 or 8 questions.
And further, athletes running a race is not at all a relevant comparison imo.
And further, athletes running a race is not at all a relevant comparison imo.
Rogue Trader
New member
- Jun 18, 2026
- 0
- 0
Completely disagree.. I always check every one hour- that at least i’ve done 4 AM questions on average depends on each question points. There were candidates who left 2 full questions blank in the AM and passed the exam, its not about finishing on time its the maximum point you can get from each allocated time.. The reason on why i succeed L3 is time management.
I agree that someone shouldn’t expect leave questions blank in the AM. Not a good game plan.
I do think that the AM is probably incredibly challenging if English is not your first language. I found finishing the AM w/in 3 hours difficult, and I grew up reading, writing and speaking English. Major props to those able to score well in the AM if English isn’t your first language.
Regardless of language, practicing the old AM exams is incredibly important prep for Level III. Anyone that doesn’t take advantage of the CFAI providing those exams is at a material disadvantage.
I do think that the AM is probably incredibly challenging if English is not your first language. I found finishing the AM w/in 3 hours difficult, and I grew up reading, writing and speaking English. Major props to those able to score well in the AM if English isn’t your first language.
Regardless of language, practicing the old AM exams is incredibly important prep for Level III. Anyone that doesn’t take advantage of the CFAI providing those exams is at a material disadvantage.
- Thread starter
- #11
I do think that the AM is probably incredibly challenging if English is not your first language.
Agreed. I should have mentioned in the initial post that English is not my first language. I am from Benin but born and grew up in Togo, before moving to Benin and eventually in North America. I knew it was not likely that I finish. My assumption was this: Monitoring clock and progress might take 1 minute per question or 11 points for the 11 questions, given 1 minute = 1 point. However, after finishing 6 questions, I did monitor progress and noticed I had approximately 1 hour for 5 questions. Eventually, I left 1 section blank, skipped parts of some sections. Overall, 2 sections blank. Would I do better if I had monitored progress? Maybe yes. Would I have enough points to compensate the 11 minutes spent in the monitoring activity? Probability not, because this activity could be a source of lack of concentration and of agitation when realizing I was behind.
Maybe I am wrong because many of the posts above came from Charterholders, who have a different opinion than mine. Time management worked for them and I cannot say there is a herding bias after Magician’s post.
Agreed. I should have mentioned in the initial post that English is not my first language. I am from Benin but born and grew up in Togo, before moving to Benin and eventually in North America. I knew it was not likely that I finish. My assumption was this: Monitoring clock and progress might take 1 minute per question or 11 points for the 11 questions, given 1 minute = 1 point. However, after finishing 6 questions, I did monitor progress and noticed I had approximately 1 hour for 5 questions. Eventually, I left 1 section blank, skipped parts of some sections. Overall, 2 sections blank. Would I do better if I had monitored progress? Maybe yes. Would I have enough points to compensate the 11 minutes spent in the monitoring activity? Probability not, because this activity could be a source of lack of concentration and of agitation when realizing I was behind.
Maybe I am wrong because many of the posts above came from Charterholders, who have a different opinion than mine. Time management worked for them and I cannot say there is a herding bias after Magician’s post.
I write down the exact time I need to end each question, and I follow it.
This year, I needed about 30 more minutes to be complete. I would have been 1 hour behind, if I didn’t do the tracking.
My strategy is to destroy the first 8 questions, no matter what topics are covered. Cut the crap on the last 2-3. Do some damage control at the end, answer as much as I can, and get good points.
Last year, I couldn’t finish 2014 AM, and when I practiced it this year, again, it was too long.
When practicing anything before 2014, I finished 30 minutes early, every time.
The last 2 tests were too f-ing long.
This year, I needed about 30 more minutes to be complete. I would have been 1 hour behind, if I didn’t do the tracking.
My strategy is to destroy the first 8 questions, no matter what topics are covered. Cut the crap on the last 2-3. Do some damage control at the end, answer as much as I can, and get good points.
Last year, I couldn’t finish 2014 AM, and when I practiced it this year, again, it was too long.
When practicing anything before 2014, I finished 30 minutes early, every time.
The last 2 tests were too f-ing long.
Time management is crucial.
Just as Magician said, you want to collect as many points as you can in the shortest amount of time. This leads to a stragety of which you should
Just as Magician said, you want to collect as many points as you can in the shortest amount of time. This leads to a stragety of which you should
- spend just enough time to answer questions you know
- save questions you are unsure or dont know last
- 1st pass - questions that I know how to answer right away
- 2nd pass - more time consuming questions that I’m unsure of but kinda have an idea of how to think my way through
- 3rd pass - fill in the blanks