CFA Level 3 advice for repeaters

Question

Failed CFA Level 3 (ended at band 8) and getting ready to hit the books again in a month.  I used CFAI materials and Schweser last time but could manage only 3 practice exams for Level 3 (vs the 10 I took for Level 1 and 2 both of which I passed in the first attempt).  I didn't get to use any of the 6 Schweser 2016 practice exams.  Wanted advice on whether I will need to buy the 2017 practice exams?  I heard that most of the questions in these practice exams get repeated year over year.  Given that there is only one reading that has changed in the syllabus I am thinking of just using the 2017 CFAI material and supplementing that with the 2016 Schweser notes and the 2016 Schweser practice exams.

gansub · Answer

Thanks for your comments.  My plan is to review the detailed notes I had made last year a couple of times and start doing one AM practice exam a week from Oct '16.  I have the last 15 years of CFAI AM exams, plus 5 FinQuiz AM exams.  Will save the full AM+PM exams for Feb-Mar 2017 onwards.

CFA_anon · Answer

Here's my two cents:What (in my measure) helped me "get over the hump" to pass was (1)working curriculum problems while doing the readings, then (2) taking 3 mock exams (use the CFAI mocks), but take them multiple times (so 9 timed attempts total). The object is not to "cover content," as there is less content and more nuance. If you have made it to level 3, learning content is not the issue. Taking the mocks multiple times allows you get SOME coverage of topics (notably several IPS problems, some of the more Equity and FI PM problems, performance measurement, behavioral, etc...But you are only "going in blind" the first time you take the exams. Your scores will likely be low. BUT when you take the SAME exams the 2nd (or 3rd!) times, you scores will improve, and you will have practiced the process of extracting and synthesizing the information. Most people at level 3 need to study HOW to take the exam as much as the content. That's why most people fail I believe. If you can isolate the actual exam structure by using the same cases/data (each time trying to gain more and more points- you should be getting 90%+ on the morning section even with hard grading by the 3rd time).When I showed up on exam day, I had the frameworks in my head as to what was the required information, exceptions to watch out for, and the DEPTH to which I had to explain responses, and it helped so much. I finished the morning section 45 mins early and crushed it on results day. Note: I graded the following way-If you had a section where partial credit would be awarded, you either got all points or none. Missing one part, or not using the nomenclature of the CFAI material meant 0 points. If you are getting 90s on the mocks with this method, you should be set for exam day.