I wonder how many people studied just from Schweser, and actually did the paper well. I for one was cursing the books through the exam.. What with the swap duration calculations and the way too simple practice exams.. I was so shocked that I could not finish the paper when I always had ample time in the schweser sample exams.. Too late a realization, but should have studied from CFAI text.. And I have to admit, they have great material (atleast the few sections that I read..)…. just should have known better..
well.. next time..
I dont agree at all. after L2 many said schweser sucked and i passed with schweser. this year you could get 95% plus just using schweser.
There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it - Oscar Wilde
I disagree – I felt Schweser did an excellent job. The problem with the exam not its content; it was too many questions in the morning and too little time, which was exacerbated by the difficult-to-use layout.
schweser >>>>>>>> cfai
schweser’s study guides covered most of the material.
it was the schweser exam book (book 6, AM) that was awful, especially with their interpretations. especially the one where they mention that someone who depends entirely on his portfolio for income has below average risk, which is false if you look at past CFA exams.
I may do Schwesser next year if I have to retake. I’ve been a Stalla guy, but if I need to review (as opposed to learn for the first time), Schwesser might be better.
Or maybe I’d just stick to the CFAI texts.
You want a quote? Haven’t I written enough already???
bchadwick Wrote:
——————————————————-
> I may do Schwesser next year if I have to retake.
> I’ve been a Stalla guy, but if I need to review
> (as opposed to learn for the first time),
> Schwesser might be better.
>
> Or maybe I’d just stick to the CFAI texts.
bchadwick… you are going to pass!
the cfa material was awful. i read it for gips, PM and a couple of other sections i felt week on and every time i felt i wasted my time and wished i just used schweser.
Gotta stick up for Schweser here this year. They did a good job.
I just wasn’t able to got my knowledge out quick enough.
Nothing on the test was surprising though.
I think their coverage of the material was a great first read.
I did all the curriculum end of chapter questions. And then looked at the CFAI books to fill in the blanks.
I thought the written questions in Book 6 & 7 were a waste of time.
I thought Schweser was prtety good as well…
they did cover 90%-95% of the stuff tested in the exam…
If you can study for 60ish% of the time yet get 90% of the questions…I think thats a good deal!
I think they did a good job. All the information was there. I might recommend some presentational changes, but otherwise I’m a happy customer. I never even opened the curriculm.
I have only used Schweser for all 3 levels, and having passed L1 and L2, I now think that Schweser prepared me extremely well for L3. I found Schweser’s practice exams to be substantially harder than the CFA exam itself. I would not hesitate to recommend Schweser materials.
I agree that schweser did poorly. I even took the 3 day class. At the end, we were left with more questions than answers too. The schweser notes seemed to dumb down the topics, while the CFAI readings/questions were a lot harder.
However, I think Schweser is the ‘best’ summary available. I have used stalla and schweser for level3. I think schweser is better. With that said, I think Schweser over-simplifies a lot of stuff. On topics like VWAP, CSR, swaps, etc., there was only light coverage.
This has been my 7th time taking Level 3 exam alone. I used schweser for 6 years. One year I only used Stalla. Once upon a time, a candidate could easily pass with the schweser notes alone. But, that changed about 3 years ago. This year, I focused more on the readings… I think I did the best I ever did. Hopefully, I can finally past and realized the return of a decade of studying.
sh34
Same here. Although I didn’t have enough time to do all the practice exams, I can’t blame Schweser for that.
newsmaker Wrote:
——————————————————-
> I have only used Schweser for all 3 levels, and
> having passed L1 and L2, I now think that Schweser
> prepared me extremely well for L3. I found
> Schweser’s practice exams to be substantially
> harder than the CFA exam itself. I would not
> hesitate to recommend Schweser materials.
Big Babbu Wrote:
——————————————————-
> Gotta stick up for Schweser here this year. They
> did a good job.
> I just wasn’t able to got my knowledge out quick
> enough.
> Nothing on the test was surprising though.
thts exactly how i felt ..the only surprise to me was the commodities Q which I think did not get too much coverage in Schweser ..
\\\"Sometimes the Bird sometimes the statue \\\"
I went through both the CFA texts and Schweser, and I do think that Schweser provides an invaluable service in summarizing content directly beneath the LOS. Flipping back and forth between the books, I was able to get a better sense of the curriculum in context.
But if I have to take this again next year, I will 1) probably not pay as much attention to the IPS, as I don’t think those were my problems and the concepts won’t change and 2) I will not pay attention to whatever Schweser thinks about calculations that will or won’t be on the test. If I had put a little bit more practice into currency futures and commodities arbitrage, I’d be feeling pretty confident right now.
Schweser did a very good job. I used it for all 3.
I thought Schweser was actually very good for this exam. I staretd using both Schweser and CFA but because of time and family constraints, I had to switch just to Schweser. Their Secret Sauce was especially helpful I thought.
Another vote for using Schweser almost exclusively. (disclaimer, i did use the CFAI text for some fixed income stuff as well as their mock and sample exams.)
I’ve used Schweser now for all three levels.
IMO, the goal for many is not to master every minute detail of the curriculum but to pass and that’s exactly what they prepare you for.
frisian, I agree with you. the notes could have been a bit more thorough in currency futures, commodities, and perhaps even swaps but overall it was an efficient way to study.
Having said all that, I’m not sure whether or not I passed but my lack of preparation had nothing to do with them.
I can’t complain about the schweser texts; but the practice exams & Qbank are another matter.
Written exams were easily completed & marked in well under 3 hours; whereas I couldn’t even get to the last 2 questions on the AM exam. Schweser PM - finished & reviewed & scoring 85-90% in about 1hr:15. Exam - over 2 hrs to finish (not including review), and many more that I ultimately had to guess on.
I accept blame for a bit of overconfidence (I should have known to manage my time better); BUT, the biggest reason for my overconfidence was how easy the practice exams were.
I dont know how CFAI expects us to use the CFAI material, I mean they claim on their website that you need to study for about 200 hours, the CFAI books were what 2000-2500 pages if you are reading 15 pages an hour it would take 150 hrs just to read through the material, tell me who can pass with reading through it once and having 50 hrs for review. I mean c’mon CFAI it is unrealistic.
I failed using primarily schweser and 400 hours of study time in 2005. I passed (nearly everyone did) in 2006 with texts + schweser and 400 hours study time in 2006.
1. Schweser is half price the second time you use them.
2. I think Schweser is great. However, the end of SS questions suck big time. They are just too easy and typically they only give you one hard question.
Hopefully you guys make it through this year. If not, then my suggestion is to use schweser, yet do every fricken question in the text books over and over and over again. I did. I have check marks in the books next to the questions. I don’t know if I advocate actually reading the text books. Schweser does a pretty darn good job answering every SS question. I read all of the text books in 2006 after reading the schweser guides and found it was a waste of time. The end of chapter questions were not a waste of time. Are they as difficult as the exam? No. Exam questions span across many sections, while the textbook questions are pretty isolated and easy to read. Yet, by doing them over and over and over again, you understand them. You start to think how CFAI can tie them together.
JacksonSF,
If I didn’t pass, you just summed up pretty much my exact strategy for next year.
I wanted to get through the CFAI text questions, but just didn’t have time to get through hardly any of them.
And honestly, I don’t know if it would have helped. Maybe it would have magically made me write quicker :-)
But yeah, if I have to redo next year, one thing I will be working on is speed of processing, and trying not to make too many stupid mistakes when picking up the pace.
Big Babbu Wrote:
——————————————————-
> > But yeah, if I have to redo next year, one thing I
> will be working on is speed of processing, and
> trying not to make too many stupid mistakes when
> picking up the pace.
but speed of processing was just a problem this year. if you had taken any other exam from the Institute prior to this year you wouldn’t have had a time issue. I bet you next year’s exam won’t be as long.
former trader Wrote:
——————————————————-
> but speed of processing was just a problem this
> year. if you had taken any other exam from the
> Institute prior to this year you wouldn’t have had
> a time issue. I bet you next year’s exam won’t be
> as long.
completely agree. other years were definetly shorter.
I think Schweser notes does a good job.
It is better for us if they don’t improve their notes, questions, practice exams, Qbanks, etc.
The more Schweser improves them, the harder the CFA Institute needs to make the exams.
I think Schweser did a very good job.
Schweser was solid, but you just can’t rely on them 100%. i went with a 65/35% Schweser/CFAI material approach. Schweser delivered a focused approach, but you always have to supplement their rudimentary examples witih depth and that’s where the CFAI materials kick in.
best approach in my opinion is to at the very least do CFAI end of chapter problems and even chapter examples. that along with schweser should be enough.
There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it - Oscar Wilde
yeah, good call on using those CFAI examples. you almost have to just refer to CFAI problems during your review. cheers to finally being done!
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