Poll: which study session you find most challenging

M

maxmeomeo

New member
Joined
Jun 18, 2026
Messages
0
Reaction score
0
Hi All,
Just to understand the common problems Level 3 candidate may find, what are the most difficult and challenging study session/ reading you think?
And how do you plan to attack those areas?
To me everytime I see fix incomed or derivatives, my heart skips a beat because i know im gonna mess those question…sigh..
 
If you’re comparing the weight of the material on the exam to its “level of detail” in the CFAI textbook, I think GIPS is one of the harder sections to study in LIII.
 
No im not asking about the weight, just the part you find most struggling :)
I agree that GIPS is boring, but I dont really prioritize it so..almost to ignore it haha
 
Asset Allocation (1 & 2) from the CFAI text.
Followed closely by Fixed income
 
Capital market expectations. I don’t know why, but the concepts seem less intuitive to me than most other sections.
 
AA and CME were actually my favorite subjects. I think GIPS followed by fixed income
 
Ethical and Professional Standards 10-15
Fixed Income 10-20
Portfolio Management and Wealth Planning 40-55
Everything else 5-15
Portfolio rebalancing, trading costs are tough for me and the option payoffs when they give you a reverse butterfly etc. But based on the above 2015 weighting from the CFA website, I think our focus should primarily be on portfolio concepts and fixed income. Ethics third and everything else (derivatives, risk management, alternatives) with less weight.
Not so much ‘gaming’ the exam, but allocating time to things that we know are going to be tested heavily.
Thoughts?
 
I agree, to me the cost of study the calculation of option is too high, while the potential benefit is low. Hence i decide to learn the chart, understand the logic and ignore the calculation part
 
  • Currency stuff…still gotta review that and I never mastered it at level 2 (thank god we have a fe2 weeks!!)
  • CME - the formulas and their written questions were a pain (still gotta review, yes)
  • Finally, the Efficient Frontier crap was just a pain. I get instability issues, etc, but I need to go back and memorize it all
  • Otherwise, it’s just memorizing Ethics in extra detail so that I remember the information incase there’s a written piece on it with the new weighting, and practicing how to respond to the behavioral questions
I haven’t found any of it to be nearly as challenging as level 2, not even close. There’s nothing in here that doesn’t make simple and intuitive sense once you read through it. All my written answers that I miss are because of not remember a definition or something, never because I’m genuinely confused with a piece of the material. I’m actually beginning to gain a little confidence going into test day right now, and I think as long as I keep practicing the written material and perfecting my ability to execute the information in my head properly I think it will be ok.
People who don’t do well are obviously the ones who just don’t practice writing enough IMO.
 
arigolden wrote:
Ethical and Professional Standards 10-15
Fixed Income 10-20
Portfolio Management and Wealth Planning 40-55
Everything else 5-15
Portfolio rebalancing, trading costs are tough for me and the option payoffs when they give you a reverse butterfly etc. But based on the above 2015 weighting from the CFA website, I think our focus should primarily be on portfolio concepts and fixed income. Ethics third and everything else (derivatives, risk management, alternatives) with less weight.
Not so much ‘gaming’ the exam, but allocating time to things that we know are going to be tested heavily.
Thoughts?
Click to expand...
couldn’t agree more. And in fact I think you can get more granular. Within derivatives for example it’s pretty obvious you need to know using futures to adjust beta or duration more than a specific option strategy etc…
 
I think the Swaps reading section in Derivatives is the most difficult material for me in Level III. Some of those BB examples at the end of that chapter get really hairy.
Overall, I think Fixed Income is the most difficult topic.
Getting the CFAI guideline answers for Return and Risk Objectives is quite challenging for the IPS questions, even if the material itself doesn’t feel too difficult.
Level III is a different animal compared to Level II, even if I think the Level II material was as difficult, if not more.
 
Honestly, I dont find any of the topics to be “difficult” compared to Level II when I had to constantly reread/redo practice problems multiple times to really grasp on the concepts (option valuations, the whole damn section on financial statements, and many other minor readings).
However, it does require one to step outside of the normal multiple choice setting for the AM portion and it is quite uncomfortable even taunting to some, including me. Fortunately, we have past AM mocks to practice with which allow us to take a sneak peak of what to expect. So….
DO YOUR MOCKS!!!!
 
If they really wanted to get tough on GIPS, they could insure evrerone got below 50%. With the prior to Jan 1, 2000, after Jan 1 2006, after Jan 1, 2011. It they get specific enough with that bulls**t, no one will score well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top