Couple of important things before you start:
· Level3 is almost a clean new slate coming from Level2. Topics & coverage is very different from Level2 (unlike Level 2 which can be seen in lots of places as extension of Level1).
· Level3 is mostly catered to putting you in the shoes of a portfolio/Wealth manager. What skills & knowledge would you require to manage clients money.
Preliminaries:
Its alwyz advisable to start early but like most of us finding time and motivation before new year is alwyz difficult. I did my Level 3 preparation in 3 & ½ months starting from mid Feb but honestly if you can start in Jan, you will save yourself lots of anxiety in the end. I did my studies in following four phases:
I tried to squeeze everything in around 105 days. If you have more time give more time to Phase 4 and do more revision and qes papers (remember what I said about getting bigger picture and practicing exams).
Time (Days)
Phase 1 CFAI Curriculum read 60
Phase 2 CFAI Curriculum EOC Question 25
Phase 3 CFAI Topic wise qes on website 10
Phase 4 Last year’s actual qes paper 10
Total 105
Phase 1: CFAI Curriculum read – 60 days
Quite a few ppl opinion is that for Level3, external study notes provider are not good/sufficient. So I didn’t bother to give myself chance to make that mistake. Schweser videos are very good for some topics. You can first see the video to get the summary of important things in the chapter and then read the CFAI curriculum. There are almost 1500 pages in curriculum to go through (leaving ETHICS) i.e. around 25 pages per day. I paced myself evenly. Choose what suits you. For level3, I relied on reading online on vital source and highlighting anything I want to read/remember during phase 2 . I will generally copy the condensed note into word document. A chapter of 75-100 CFAI pages will condense to say 20 pages. After phase1, your confidence will built as you have covered the curriculum once. I didn’t cover ETHICS from curriculum as I was relying on my Level2 knowledge.
Phase 2: CFAI Curriculum EOC Question
I will go through curriculum once more. This time just reading from my condensed notes (20 pages above) and condensing it further to just say 2 or 3 pages (key facts I want to revise before exam). I will do the End of chapter qes. Please note EOC Qes essentially tells you what you shouldn’t have missed from chapters & what will probably come across in the exams. There are lots of dry chapters with too many facts and not very clear what should be the taken away eg GIPS. EOC helps to identify what is definitely you need to know. Ethics is one topic where EOC are very crucial. Curriculum is just too vast on ETHICS. However, when doing qes you will realize where the qes setter comes from and how by elimination of ans (which generally all looks correct) you can hone to the right ans. I scored >70% in ETHICS which I am very proud of becoz honestly speaking once you get the hang of qes setter mind set, are very easy to nail and essentially low hanging fruits which you won’t get wrong.
Phase 3: CFAI Topic wise qes on website
Revision becomes easier & faster now with the help of condensed notes (2 or 3 pages per topic). CFAI website under “your study resources” section have qes from groups of topics. I will revise the group of topics (my 2 or 3 pages above, which is very quick to revise 10 mins each max) & attempt these qes. The qes are in the exam format with couple of topics combines and helps you make those linkage between chapters. By this time you should be able to see how the various topics connect.
Phase 4: Last year’s actual qes paper
You have already revised curriculum thrice by now (with better efficiency each time), time to attempt actual last year exam qes paper. For AM essay type exams it’s must to actually write the ans down and then mark yourself against the actual ans given by CFAI. Do as many as time permits you to do. I was only able to do 2 AM and 1 PM and wish I could have done more. This is also the time to iron anything that you don’t fully understand. Use Internet, forums etc to clear some obscure topics (corner portfolio, duration management etc).
Phase 5: Actual exam
Relax. You have done all the hard work in the right manner and that should take you through.
Some exms strategies:
Finally, when I cleared my Level2, I came to forum to seek advice and there was lots of good one. Thankful for that & returning part of it here. You select the recipe and make your own dish as different things work for different people.
· Level3 is almost a clean new slate coming from Level2. Topics & coverage is very different from Level2 (unlike Level 2 which can be seen in lots of places as extension of Level1).
· Level3 is mostly catered to putting you in the shoes of a portfolio/Wealth manager. What skills & knowledge would you require to manage clients money.
- Starting with understanding clients behavior biases & constraints. Having the knowledge of functioning of capital markets (Economy in general) how to do asset allocation (Different asset classes knowhow: Equity, Fixed Income & alternative investment). Once asset allocation is done, how to monitor and risk manage on continuous basis. Finally, Evaluating portfolio performance & standard around performance presentation to clients (GIPS). And before I forget alwyz being Ethical in dealing with clients. That’s essentially how level3 is structured.
- In Level3, CFAI don’t want to make you an investment analyst (those skills were already imparted in Level1 & Level2). Level3 is more about getting the bigger picture and able to connect various pieces together. In essence once you know the fundamentals it’s just about common sense. I think this might be the missing piece of puzzle why even after grilling & passing through level 1 & Level2 and knowing level3 won’t be easy, passing rate is still 54%.
Preliminaries:
Its alwyz advisable to start early but like most of us finding time and motivation before new year is alwyz difficult. I did my Level 3 preparation in 3 & ½ months starting from mid Feb but honestly if you can start in Jan, you will save yourself lots of anxiety in the end. I did my studies in following four phases:
I tried to squeeze everything in around 105 days. If you have more time give more time to Phase 4 and do more revision and qes papers (remember what I said about getting bigger picture and practicing exams).
Time (Days)
Phase 1 CFAI Curriculum read 60
Phase 2 CFAI Curriculum EOC Question 25
Phase 3 CFAI Topic wise qes on website 10
Phase 4 Last year’s actual qes paper 10
Total 105
Phase 1: CFAI Curriculum read – 60 days
Quite a few ppl opinion is that for Level3, external study notes provider are not good/sufficient. So I didn’t bother to give myself chance to make that mistake. Schweser videos are very good for some topics. You can first see the video to get the summary of important things in the chapter and then read the CFAI curriculum. There are almost 1500 pages in curriculum to go through (leaving ETHICS) i.e. around 25 pages per day. I paced myself evenly. Choose what suits you. For level3, I relied on reading online on vital source and highlighting anything I want to read/remember during phase 2 . I will generally copy the condensed note into word document. A chapter of 75-100 CFAI pages will condense to say 20 pages. After phase1, your confidence will built as you have covered the curriculum once. I didn’t cover ETHICS from curriculum as I was relying on my Level2 knowledge.
Phase 2: CFAI Curriculum EOC Question
I will go through curriculum once more. This time just reading from my condensed notes (20 pages above) and condensing it further to just say 2 or 3 pages (key facts I want to revise before exam). I will do the End of chapter qes. Please note EOC Qes essentially tells you what you shouldn’t have missed from chapters & what will probably come across in the exams. There are lots of dry chapters with too many facts and not very clear what should be the taken away eg GIPS. EOC helps to identify what is definitely you need to know. Ethics is one topic where EOC are very crucial. Curriculum is just too vast on ETHICS. However, when doing qes you will realize where the qes setter comes from and how by elimination of ans (which generally all looks correct) you can hone to the right ans. I scored >70% in ETHICS which I am very proud of becoz honestly speaking once you get the hang of qes setter mind set, are very easy to nail and essentially low hanging fruits which you won’t get wrong.
Phase 3: CFAI Topic wise qes on website
Revision becomes easier & faster now with the help of condensed notes (2 or 3 pages per topic). CFAI website under “your study resources” section have qes from groups of topics. I will revise the group of topics (my 2 or 3 pages above, which is very quick to revise 10 mins each max) & attempt these qes. The qes are in the exam format with couple of topics combines and helps you make those linkage between chapters. By this time you should be able to see how the various topics connect.
Phase 4: Last year’s actual qes paper
You have already revised curriculum thrice by now (with better efficiency each time), time to attempt actual last year exam qes paper. For AM essay type exams it’s must to actually write the ans down and then mark yourself against the actual ans given by CFAI. Do as many as time permits you to do. I was only able to do 2 AM and 1 PM and wish I could have done more. This is also the time to iron anything that you don’t fully understand. Use Internet, forums etc to clear some obscure topics (corner portfolio, duration management etc).
Phase 5: Actual exam
Relax. You have done all the hard work in the right manner and that should take you through.
Some exms strategies:
- For AM pace yourself well. Don’t feel compelled to ans a qes only becoz you have read the qes but don’t know how to ans. Try to do qes in area you know well. Risk management was my strength, so I picked those qes first. Nail these low hanging fruits as it builds the confidence up.
- No matter how much you are prepared there will alwyz be some curve balls. You will just score a zero if you just goof around. If you don’t know the ans, move on and come back in the end to give your best.
- Read the instruction carefully. If it ask you to first circle the incorrect ans out of 3 and provide reasoning in box on the right of it, Do that (don’t choose the correct ans as that was not asked & you will not be rewarded for it).
- For AM: We all have different background and have mastery in certain topics. People generally have a habit of over spending time and writing more on topics we know well. Please note there are no extra marks for proving to the examiner that you are the master of that subject. I generally ans in bullet points. Give the ans,quick and fast and move on.
- For PM qes snippets, I generally read one qes at a time, then go back to read snippets, ans the qes and so on.The qes and snippets are generally sequential in nature. You don’t need to read the whole snippets before you can ans the first qes. This saves a lot of time and generally very fast.
- For AM: I will generally read the qes first as it gives me brief overview of what information I am actually looking for. I will underline key facts which could be used in answering. This helps save time when answering.
Finally, when I cleared my Level2, I came to forum to seek advice and there was lots of good one. Thankful for that & returning part of it here. You select the recipe and make your own dish as different things work for different people.