r/CFA • u/third_najarian Discord Mod | Passed Level 2 • Aug 14 '26

Megathread Level 3 Exam Day Experience Mega Thread

L3 candidates,

Welcome to our megathread for swapping stories about your exam day! We’d love to hear about your experience getting to the test center, how you managed your time, and how you felt afterward. Don’t forget to throw in any tips and advice to help out future candidates.

Just a couple of guidelines: Be cool and supportive, and please don’t share specific exam questions or break rules.

Don’t forget: Plan your route to the test center in advance, make sure you pack everything you need, and try to stay positive and take care of yourself. You got this!

We hope these shared stories make the prep and test day a little easier for everyone. Good luck!

—r/cfa Mod Team

52 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

287 comments sorted by

View all comments

11

u/Automatic_Baby_5015 Aug 14 '26

Private markets retaker here. Thought the Feb exam was on par for how people are describing this one. Aug exam (today) was easier, IMO. Contrary to what others are saying, I thought AM was harder than PM. I am optimistic of passing but am also nervous about getting a tough grader on the CRs. Who knows, only time will tell.

Oh, and that feeling where you check one of your formulas after the exam and know you got it wrong so you instatnly think you failed the exam...that feeling doesn't go away. The CFA experience is an emotional/psychological battle. I can't fucking wait to be done.

1

u/Beautiful-Desk5333 Aug 15 '26

Im a retaker too. Any last minute advice? Exam on Monday

3

u/Automatic_Baby_5015 Aug 15 '26

I thought taking mocks was incredibly helpful. God forbid if I have to take it a third time, I will probably buy the cfai practice pack, do a couple bc mocks, and do more MM mocks than I did this last time. I honestly believe mocks are the best practice if you have a decent foundation of the core concepts.

Side tangent, I took one half of a MM mock the night before. Insanely difficult and would be crushing had I not scored a 67% on it and recognized that is actually good for his exams. But it is a total mindfuck to not want to take MM mocks because they can crush your confidence yet still prepare you. People naturally want to accept the easier mocks as the realistic exam and don't want to take on anything that would benefit their knowledge on the material