Passed the L3! Your content has been super helpful throughout all 3 levels. Thank you! I highly recommend your channel to any CFA candidates!!
@loymd123 жыл бұрын
AJ, you provide a great service please keep it up. Today I am happy to report I Passed L3 Nov21, my first L3 attempt (after covid deferring from Jun19 L2 pass). L3 was my first CBT exam. Without prior L3, and/or CBT, exam experience, my feedback may be not helpful. I’ll just say I left each of the CFA level 1-3 exams feeling like I failed (but ultimately passed). These exams are hard. Hand written or typed. CBT or Paper. They are hard exams. Study hard. If you want it, you’ll get it.
@straighttalks-ajsrmek3233 жыл бұрын
Congratulations on passing!!!
@ganageasG3 жыл бұрын
Took the Nov Level 3 exam and unfortunately did not pass. You are spot on with your assumptions in your video... and as one of the comments pointed out, the difficulty came from the fact that the test was full of questions taken from footnotes vs testing core knowledge esp in the AM portion
@jonathanvandalen94853 жыл бұрын
It was brutal… hated this am questions
@abhishekbhadauria90793 жыл бұрын
I took the November Level III 2021 exam and did not pass. I passed my Level II, exam in May 2021. I felt well prepared when I walked into the exam and had an average score of over 70% in curriculum practice questions and between 65%-70% across five mock exams that I took. If anybody noticed, the pass rate has fallen from an average of 55% to a dramatic 42% and this has occurred since 2021 which is when CBT testing for Level III was first introduced. I found it as one of the biggest detractors and would attribute it as a major reason in bringing down my productivity in the exam for the following reasons: I did not see any index which is normally presented on the first page of the question paper, indicating the question number, topic and allocated points; so it was really difficult to navigate around and identify your strong areas to attempt first and budget time. Secondly, the software did not allow to highlight text within the vignette; only the text in the question could be highlighted. This was not the case in online CFA practice questions on the institute website or Schweser mock which provides the closest imitation to the CFA Institute software. The institute should consider providing more resources to practice on computer, using the same software they use for the main exam, if they are to test only via CBT going forward. Practicing and taking mocks on paper and then writing the main exam on computer does not help at all. It only gives a false sense of security. Finishing the constructed response section on time has become only more challenging due to these factors. To add to the misery, you have to bear with the noise of people typing all around you while wearing a mask throughout the exam (a consequential byproduct). As such, it is highly advisable to carry a pair of ear plugs. End of rant!!
@ksingh17433 жыл бұрын
How did you appear for level2 in May ? In which city you sat fir the test?
@sandy7t3 жыл бұрын
Great video AJ. You are doing great work here so props for that. I took L3 in Nov '21 and passed. Got awarded my Charter yesterday as I had done the prerequisite work already in anticipation. This was my second attempt at L3. I had missed out narrowly in June 2019, then the pandemic came and so much changed in my life and with the CFA Program itself. Let me offer some perspective now that I'm on the other side. To anyone that didn't pass yesterday - man don't beat yourself up over this, this is as hard as it gets. The fact that you are already at L3 is an achievement in itself. Real talk - I was just bemused by that AM session. Too many strange questions that make you second guess yourself. I think they have a new set of question writers and it shows. The questions seemed very different in style from the CFAI website questions, past year AM exams that have been made public by CFAI, and the Mark Meldrum mocks I took. The fact that your are now doing this on a computer (my first CFA computer based exam) throws another curve ball to add to it all. To anyone reading who will be taking L3 in the future - here is what might work well based on my personal experience. First principles thinking. Know your stuff and put down something intelligent for these written response questions. You won't need to type a whole lot so that's the good part. I remember doing a lot of math in the AM session. Work fast and try to attempt every single question. I finished about 12 minutes before the close of AM session and went back and took care of 2-3 questions that I had left in the first go around. Absolutely, do not wage a personal war with any question. If it doesn't come to you immediately just move on. You are playing a numbers game. The PM session always seems easier than the AM. Special thanks to Dr. Mark Meldrum - he is the man. I used his prep material exclusively for L3. I work in M&A with demanding work hours and simply do not have the patience to read CFAI books. They are great but they assume you know very little. If that's not you then go with MM. I attended his mock exam live sessions. His advise was very valuable. Love his market commentary as well and look forward to his videos.
@thiagoedirley3 жыл бұрын
A very comforting video for someone that is going to take the may level III exam this year! rsrs
@damianrawle3 жыл бұрын
I finally cracked it with this exam, my third attempt. I can only speak for myself, and maybe it’s just that I was much better prepared this time, but I would say that the AM section was not overly difficult, but I felt that there were some very trivial points that were needed for the PM exam, and given the higher potential for sampling error with fewer questions, combined with the trivial points on the PM, that would explain the lower MPS for me. Reading through the Reddit after sitting, it sounded like there were two different versions of the exam based purely on AM/PM sentiment, so I’d be keen to see if that had any weight behind it. Hard without being able to discuss topics though. Probably just people with different strengths but hey, it got me thinking.
@straighttalks-ajsrmek3233 жыл бұрын
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
@zaffguy013 жыл бұрын
I failed twice the cbt and this is my opinion: sth definitely broken in the way they grade. No way I couldn't strike ~50% while doing 70-80% in mocks and finishing pm 20 mins earlier. Other than that, they never test the core knowledge now. Most questions like they were taken from the footnotes in the textbooks and assigned unjustified high % of the total score. It's like you play a stupid tv quiz. This doesn't feel fair and professional
@pputra9143 жыл бұрын
I don’t know how you study but when I took L3 in May they definitely tested core knowledge of the readings. There were only 1 question that were only explained very briefly in the material, all the others were explained at length and tested multiple times if you took their Qbank/mocks. In fact I thought the exam was slightly easier than I expected.
@mattg41153 жыл бұрын
I got fortunate and got to finish the program 11 months. Definitely believe that this one was the hardest ever lol
@ScandalSheet133 жыл бұрын
Took and passed the November 2021 Level III exam. I am VERY shocked at the pass rate and MPS estimate. I actually thought the AM session was fair (but obviously still more difficult than PM). The single biggest advice I can give is: Do not get bogged down and waste time on any one question. Flag the question as soon as you think you will need/want more time on it and come back at the end. I absolutely skipped around on the morning questions and it helped tremendously. Crushing questions in sequence built confidence and I was pleasantly surprised how little was unanswered/flagged when I reached the end.
@Benyp73 жыл бұрын
Thank you! This is very useful information. What would recommend is best way to prepare for the exams? I.e. CFA eoc questions, mocks, written mocks, exam provider q banks etc?
@ScandalSheet133 жыл бұрын
@@Benyp7 I didnt change my approach much from level 2 to level 3(at least not as significantly as from level 1 to level 2). id quickly read the curriculum while ignoring pictures/blue boxes. then id go back and review pictures and blue boxes. then drill EOCs. bought a 3rd party note provider(dont believe there is pedagogical benefit to writing your own? at least not relative to time spent). then id move to CFAI LES for repetitive qbank, flashcards etc. id do a spaced sequencing strategy so you keep older material in your consciousness. you might do well on a subject immediately after reading but in 3 weeks can you do just as well? full disclosure: I used Kaplan Schweser for level 2 and MM for level 3
@1234doawee3 жыл бұрын
Agree with this
@lade_edal3 жыл бұрын
Haha I had the same. I didn’t write a thing for 15 minutes as I didn’t like the look of any questions. Eventually I decided to pick the one I looked most comfortable with, then the next etc. Before I knew I was done with still like half an hour left. The exam was foul though, there were too many questions that weren’t clear. But I’ll take my pass.
@bluehorseshoe4443 жыл бұрын
@@ScandalSheet13 Good move switching to MM... I stuck with Kaplan for L3 because it was so good for L2... walked into the exam feeling very confident given my prep and walked out feeling like I got completely blindsighted.
@youhuizhang14473 жыл бұрын
I took the one he said--L 3 in Nov 2021. Tough and more AM questions than we expected! When the AM used to be 3 hr, the max # questions were 11. But this time, when the AM was only 2 hr and 15 min, there were still 11 questions!!! Does not make sense. Am I wrong here?
@timothybecker83603 жыл бұрын
Hi Aj, over the course of my journey through the CFA program, I have consistely come back to videos talking about pass rates, study tips, general discussions on the exams, etc. I sat for the Nov-21 exam and passed :) since almost all of the videos out there are related to taking the exams, I think it would be really interesting to hear about what you did after getting the charter (eg. salary raises and bargaining power with the charter, participating in your CFA society, networking and just overall general topics/discussion on life after the exams). PS. The mps estimate was revised upward after you posted this video. To give some thoughts in response to what you talk about in this video, this was my first CBT exam. I thought, the AM portion was relatively difficult because of having to type out my work and answers. For me at least, it's much easier to write on paper my calculations, small extra notes, etc. So I had to really to try to keep that to a minimum so that I wasn't wasting time writing things twice, once on paper then typing out. I managed to pass, but was almost certain I failed when walking out of the exam because I left some amswers blank on the AM because I ran out of time. The PM went incredibly smoothly for me and had 30-45min of extra time. After taking the exam and going to reddit, I felt like I had it much better than others though because I got a pencil and paper to make notes, while some people on reddit commented they got a hand held white board and marker (in some cases a difficult to use marker with standard large felt tip) to do their calculations. I also feel like there just wasn't a way to get a complete practice exam because a CBT testing center is just a different environment than timing yourself with a paper practice exam (eg. maneuvering through the testing program). In response to some of your other videos on pass rates for the most recent exams, in my opinion, because of the cbt format coupled with deferrals (3 deferrals from june-2020 to Nov 2021 in my case), I can easily see how the pass rates declined because it was tremendously hard to keep up with studying and motivated. Knowing that I wouldn't have to take the exam for several months made it very easy to take study breaks. I also really wanted to take a break because I initially began preparing for the exam in Dec 2019. If my exam was deferred a much shorter time such as a couple weeks, then that would've been a very different story. After taking breaks between these deferrals (since no one wants to study for this exam for however many months straight with general uncertainty if you'd even be able to take the exam on your next scheduled date), I would get back to studying by doing higher level reviews but you miss/forget necessary details of what you studied in depth back a long time ago. Going back to do practice questions becomes nearly as difficult as if you hadn't studied at all and have to really re-study as of you're studying for the first time
@straighttalks-ajsrmek3233 жыл бұрын
Hey Timothy, I do have a couple videos about what I am doing with the charter now! And I think you are right about the pass rates.
@harrystead28543 жыл бұрын
I did the level 3 November exam and passed - Personally found the exam ridiculously difficult and was convinced I had failed!
@Bluemoonrealtygroup06172 жыл бұрын
For those who passed, it would be helpful to know which third-party study course you used. There is a history of addressing this issue on Reddit, but updated opinions would be helpful since the Institute seems to be evolving on the areas they test. Like, footnotes.
@gregashcroft58223 жыл бұрын
AJ, I passed this L3 exam and intend on taking the CFP exam via the challenge course. I know you did this. Can I get in touch with you to discuss what preparation you recommend?
@straighttalks-ajsrmek3233 жыл бұрын
I will email you back shortly!
@connormurphy69473 жыл бұрын
took it in May and passed, definitely noticed on my AM practice test that the shorter version created more of a time constraint, previously had always finished with at least an hour per section, but ran out of time on my practice test. fortunately learned from that and finished the exam in time, but barely.
@megs2710able2 жыл бұрын
One more thing about the Nov 21 level 3 exam AM session . There were 11 questions and only 2 hours 12 min to answer them. Not 3 hours when we had paper based essay exams. That can also explain the record low pass rates for CFA level 3 exams since 2021.
@Andy-no9zl3 жыл бұрын
I took the L3 exam. I walked out of the exam pretty confidently but still failed. Don't know what to do!
@cantbearsed4443 жыл бұрын
Sat the November 2021 exam, passed. Walked out of that exam literally googling my resit options for the coming year. Was definitely a crapshoot and some questions I looked at and though wait where did I see this? i went through the majority of the content in detail via CFAI books and Mark Meldrum.
@straighttalks-ajsrmek3233 жыл бұрын
Well congratulations on passing!!!
@wajhizack73273 жыл бұрын
I passed on 3 attempt. Hardest exam i sat. PM was not doable at all NOV 21 level 3.
@mohamedal-ghazali91903 жыл бұрын
Mr.srmek I'd like to ask you about CFA level one deferral, so my cusion was change his mind about writing the exam next may , so he'd like to defer to the next exam window, so how could he possibly do it?!
@KDiLeo13 жыл бұрын
I was scoring consistent 68-72 on my mock exams, probably got an equivalent of a "Band 8" today on my second attempt. My PM mock sections were high too. I think you are right, something is severely wrong with the AM grading. You're telling me, after a full nights sleep and taking L3 earlier in the year, I scored 20 points lower on exam day? I don't know what to do.
@straighttalks-ajsrmek3233 жыл бұрын
All you can do is keep at it. You passed L2, you can pass L3.
@KDiLeo13 жыл бұрын
@@straighttalks-ajsrmek323 I appreciate the video. I am unsure if I should register for May or wait until August and have the extra data point of May to evaluate what's going on. I hope 2021 was a guinea pig year and they fix it moving forward.
@Andy-no9zl3 жыл бұрын
I feel the same way. Must have done the CFA Qbank 5 times and had scored relatively high too. I'm pretty confident that I understand the material. Walked out of the exam confidently and found out I failed.
@abcchanaskh20063 жыл бұрын
Could I know if there is no partial credit for CBT but that exists for paper test? thanks
@itsaryanguptaaa3 жыл бұрын
Hey AJ will the live sessions be recorded after they are done as I'm in India and it will be way too early in the morning for thesessions to attend
@straighttalks-ajsrmek3233 жыл бұрын
Yes they will be recorded!
@itsaryanguptaaa3 жыл бұрын
@Straight Talks - AJ Srmek Hi AJ, I had registered for your class on Lighthall but could not attend due to the time difference here in India, but I'm trying to find the recording but it is not available on Lighthall can you help? I want to see it
@rvaremoval94153 жыл бұрын
What about the validity of 300 hours MPS?
@kennethkn63593 жыл бұрын
Seems CFAI doesn't care the impact of CBT exam on how to score the keyboard typed answers. PM is totally unfair as some topics are based on sub sections or footnotes on curriculum instead of the core content. This is the worse exam experience that I have ever had
@dmitryvyacheslavov38613 жыл бұрын
Passed on 1st attempt, but... I felt really dumb reading questions and answering them. Was doubted I passed.
@lucianoisaias3133 жыл бұрын
Hey AJ I took the L3 in May and failed by a hair. Took again in November and passed. My 2c: the May exam was pretty fair, the content that was tested was really in line with CFA questions and third party providers. It annoyed the hell out of me when I saw that low % of approvals. Then the November exam came and it was, imho, completely insane. Really really hard. I left the room absolutely convinced that I had failed with flying colors. Even though I was in the CFA Program for almost 5 years (damn deferrals) I was absolutely ready to give it up. I felt totally cheated: first try on L3 (May) was fair exam but lowest ever % approved. Second try (Nov) was an inexcusably difficult. Hard questions on obscure topics, core topics undertested or not tested at all. IMHO, you're not far off in your assessment.
@straighttalks-ajsrmek3233 жыл бұрын
Wow, nice job sticking it out!
@1234doawee3 жыл бұрын
I passed level 3 and I see alot of people talking about how they didnt test the core content. I dont think you can view anything like that, each LOS is fair game right? I think the key is to have a decent understanding of everything. Fewer holes in your knowledge the better.
@MrManisangsu3 жыл бұрын
I wrote and passed it. Due to covid deferrals i must have spent 4x times studying. I think one of the reasons is the bb+ eoc + cfa online qb + some mocks - this approach doesn't work anymore. It will leave you thoroughly unprepared for the exams , based on my experience
@albano29103 жыл бұрын
so...what do you suggest to do? just reading CFAI books?
@MrManisangsu3 жыл бұрын
@@albano2910 i am saying doing bb/eoc/ qb etc is necessary but not sufficient. One needs to be thorough with the text , because there may be several small items not tested in eoc etc .but be tested in exams. Perhaps that is what has also made it tricky in the current times
@mohamedal-ghazali91903 жыл бұрын
I think level 3 required a galditor to be be passed
@i1234569876543 жыл бұрын
don't forget to say to like and subscribe at the end of every video!
@straighttalks-ajsrmek3233 жыл бұрын
Oh right! Haha I forgot this time.
@NicBob893 жыл бұрын
What does “difficulty” mean? They give questions where they don’t cover properly in the CFA content. Obviously it will then be difficult. Their objective isn’t for you to learn the core content they are teaching, it’s to build a brand that is regarded as prestigious by making it difficult to pass. If you have to teach someone a process at work, you expect them to do it correctly after showing them how, that is not the case here.
@1234doawee3 жыл бұрын
Not sure whether there was different exams for different people but every question was directly from thw content in mine. Every single one.
@NicBob893 жыл бұрын
@@1234doawee Core content. I mean it's there - but fringe.
@hardy21753 жыл бұрын
Sometimes core means whatever I read.
@NicBob892 жыл бұрын
@@hardy2175 I regard it as what they have asked me questions on. If they are going to test me on a topic, I would like them to give me questions that are similar in nature. This whole idea of "thinking out of the box" should not be considered, because it has nothing to do with teaching the material that they supposedly want you to know. Think about it.. when you teach someone a process at work before you go on leave, do you show them exactly what they should do, or do you ask them to refer to a 100 page manual and then send them on a quest to figure it out while you go off on holiday and sip pina colladas and the business is burning down?
@firstclass47383 жыл бұрын
I passed the Nov 21 L3 Exam... My PM was miles harder than AM. The AM was very doable.
@MoeKhan3 жыл бұрын
Toon that exam and failed dismally after having studied the hardest I have ever for any of the levels. Consistently scored over 70 percent on the online Qs and mocks - my test center was horrible too btw. No Aircon - no paper to write on except a flimsy plastic covered board with a faded marker - anyone else in Jhb experience this???
@Andy-no9zl3 жыл бұрын
Same here. Scored well on Q bank and walked out pretty confident. But failed
@jmak93762 жыл бұрын
Same here, I got a flimsy board and marker
@JohnSmith-bm6zg3 жыл бұрын
CFA 3 is like the Navy Seals Buds course for finance dorks
@straighttalks-ajsrmek3233 жыл бұрын
Lol
@lade_edal3 жыл бұрын
I passed. BUT, as I commented on one your recent videos, I am sticking to my guns and calling foul on the exam. The vignettes were all fine, nothing overly complicated. But the quality of questions was awful. They were ambiguous, unclear and in some cases contained grammatical errors of a type I would not expect in a professional exam. I was shocked it passed quality control. So while I am relieved to have passed all exams first time, it is relief I feel rather than a sense of achievement as unfortunately I do not respect the CFA institute and the program, for the poor quality of this exam and their awful handling of the pandemic.
@ksingh17433 жыл бұрын
True, I cleared level 2 and I too found the questions ambiguous.
@chiragsinghyadav3 жыл бұрын
I’m a level 1 aspirant and this gives me anxiety
@straighttalks-ajsrmek3233 жыл бұрын
You can do it if you put in the time and work!
@albano29103 жыл бұрын
300 h revised the MPS to 58% +/- 3% margin error
@straighttalks-ajsrmek3233 жыл бұрын
Ahhh, thank you for pointing this out.
@TheRealBigPlayas3 жыл бұрын
I definitely feel the AM wasn't very hard. The PM was killer. Oversl the exam was harder than any other cfai exam I seen
@francescodonati2783 жыл бұрын
totally agree. I had the same feeling
@NishantGandhi73 жыл бұрын
your graphs are so misleading. Starts at 35%.
@TheRealBigPlayas3 жыл бұрын
I passed. Three for three.
@_her_70513 жыл бұрын
Congratulations 🎉
@straighttalks-ajsrmek3233 жыл бұрын
You're a realbigplaya
@TheRealBigPlayas3 жыл бұрын
@@straighttalks-ajsrmek323 I don't feel like an expert analyst just yet. Looking forward to the guaranteed returns from subscribing
@straighttalks-ajsrmek3233 жыл бұрын
@@TheRealBigPlayas Lol
@Arcaviiouse3 жыл бұрын
What was the demographic of this level 3 exam? Could it also be an option that there were more esl candidates given india being deferred?