Help wanted: Schweser vs Elan Guides!

CFA Level I
#1

Hey everyone, this is Maggie. My first post here. I’m happy to tell you I have gotten Access scholarship from CFA Institute for June level one exams. This has been a huge help as i have financial constraints. So I’d like to know about these third party preparatory provides (for e.g., kaplan schweser and elan guides). Do they offer any kind of scholarships as well? If they do then that would be great as I might be able to save some more bucks.

Please also comment on the quality of each of their products. It would be especially nice if those who have had experience with both can comment on their quality.

Thank you!

#2

Seen both of them. Elan is by far the better product. Why?

  1. The Elan Questions are much more like those provided by the CFA Instititute in their materials i.e. closer to how the CFAI presents questions.

  2. The Elan 11th Hour guide is more detailed than the Schweser Secret Sauce. Provided you have done all the questions for each reading after reading it and going over them until you get above 70%, the 11th Hour guide will be all you need as a reference point during your review. Only when you cannot answer something from the 11th Hour Guide when going through questions will you need to look back at the notes (and this doesn’t happen often).

  3. The notes for both companies are very similar. Schweser’s are ever so slightly better than the Elan notes but this is only because the Elan notes have the odd spelling mistake (maybe one letter wrong once every 100 pages or so). The spelling mistakes are barely noticeable and don’t undermine the quality of the notes as learning material.

  4. The videos - both the companies provide videos. Having gone through the Level 1 experience recently I must say that you do not need these. I bought the Elan videos though because they are more in depth than Schweser’s. Elans videos effectively teach you the material from scratch, whereas Schweser’s are more of a recap for once you have finished a reading (in my opinion a complete waste of time). As i say, you don’t really need the videos but if you must go with one package I would advise the Elan videos as they are just more detailed. Some will say they are overkill but to be honest if you undestand the notes then videos in general are just a waste of time.

Hope this helps.

Note: Elan have brought on Peter Olinto as one of their new instructors. He was previously with Stalla and is held in very high regard by many here on Analyst Forum. I do not know if he will be involved in the lecture videos for the Level 1 material in 2013 (it may be worth your time emailing them and asking), but if he is then getting the videos may be a great idea. From what I have heard from others here on AF he makes the lectures very memorable and an enjoyable experience.

#3

Just found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npooTYvLHq0

It might be worth your time…

#4

So I actually started watching that video and I just took the exam and used Schweser. I wasn’t going to criticize much because I did rely on Schweser pretty much completely for this entire program, and I haven’t found out if I passed yet. However, I did pay them money and I find it way too important to not say this:

Other then Andy Holmes, the instructors at Schweser are absolutely terrible. It got to the point that I actually was dreading reviewing the videos and even just skipped a couple because I read the notes.

Doug Van Eaton is absolutely aggravating, and there were a couple times where I’m pretty sure he was just reading a script because he had some very awkward pauses, would lean forward and I think click the mouse, and then 3 seconds later start talking again. I never want to watch his face again. It was of no help either because he literally just read off of the slide and never added his two cents or anything.

Jon Bone looks like a hot mess. He sweats the whole time, smacks his lips, and is one of these people that thinks if you just read the slides but use great inflection at certain points it makes you a great presenter. No, you’re still just reading off of the slides and the slides are just highlights from the notes. There was NO POINT in watching either of these two fools.

Andy Holmes was amazing. He knows his stuff and ad-libbed, gave examples beyond what the slide said, and was funny too. There is one part when discussing FRAs that he says the following:

“Where candidates tend to get messed up is right here…they are good up until this point but then when it comes to discounting it back they just forget…or say ‘i dunno, i’m tired’, well, if you’re gonna be tired then you might as well not even do this problem because youre not gonna get any credit for it” - I about shot my drink out my nose.

I know this sounds silly but when you’re taking on this long journey for 6 months and you’re relying on help and you pay good money for help you expect good quality instruction that is lively and meaningful. I’ve seen clips of Peter Olinto and obviously everyone raves about him. I just watched the video above and he seems like an Andy Holmes type, and he and the other guy split the entire curriculum. I would do a little more investigation on the other guy to see if he’s even half as good as Peter, and if he is I would take Elan hands down.

Sorry to turn my back on you Schweser, but I gave good money and was disappointed.

#5

Hi pdub.

I have to agree with you on all of those comments about Schweser. I watched quite a lot of the videos by Schweser because I felt that the Elan videos were too long for many of the topics I had already read and it was overkill.

Van Eaton - i felt like this guy didn’t really enjoy what he was doing at all.

Jon Bone - quite possibly the most irritating lecturer I have ever had. I can’t quite put my finger on why I feel like this but I just couldn’t stand the guy. Might have just been because I felt videos in general on FRA were really boring once I had already read the notes.

As for the Elan videos. Peter Olinto wasn’t involved in the CFA prep for 2012. After watching some videos of him on youtube though for CPA he seems awesome (see below):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2U8rsaWFNM

As for the other chap at Elan (the guy who did the videos this year) I felt he was alright. He was very thorough and wasn’t irritating. He wasn’t offputting to look at like Jon Bone and his constant sweating but that’s because he wasn’t actually in any of the videos. He just did voiceovers of the slides that were being shown.

Based on the video in my previous post it looks like Elan have completely changed their lecture videos for next year and you actually get to see the lecturer in the corner like Schweser. I think they can only be an improvement on Schweser to be quite honest.

#6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=nt0gfzXiPIY

The guy is a legend! Can’t wait to sign up for Elan again now!! cheeky

#7

How about JUST the curriculum, not videos. Which provider is better?

#8

I don’t know how much it reflects on Elan’s notes, but I used Schweser and downloaded elan’s free L1 formula sheet, and there was at least one typo in there for a formula (can’t remember which one unfortunately, it was in one of the later sections) that was completely missing brackets, which made the entire thing wrong. Have been skeptical towards Elan ever since.

#9

Hey Guys,

I used Elan Notes Mocks, Questions and 11th hour.

The questions and mocks are a bit more difficult and higher level than Kaplan and CFAI materials which helped me feel really well prepared.

Thought that 11th hour was a great resource and I read it both after I finished the curriculum for the first time and I read it in my freetime during the week before the test, trying to grab some of those little tidbits for the out of te blue type questions on the exam.

I think the notes are very solid and I plan to use them exclusively for Level II and not read the CFA curriculum. I read the CFA materials first for level I but am now worried that this was overkill and really felt that the elan guides had all the important info without distracting you from the big details.

#10

i cant speak to that because all i had was schweser…truthfully…i felt as though i had about 70% of the exam under control…so you could say schweser did an adequate job…it was definitely fine from a quantitative perspective…more of the theoretical basis was lacking, which is what i hear is good about elan

#11

I used Elan Guides videos for my level I exam and I was happy with them. I am using them for Level II right now

The ‘other guy’ (BTW his name is Basit Shajani) did all their videos and I really liked them. As mentioned, he teaches everything from scratch, so it was really good for me as I am too tired to read when I come home from work, but find it easier to watch a lecture for an hour or so. If you watch all his videos, reading the study guide is very quick as you have already understood all the stuff. He goes through each and every example in the videos as well.

Being someone who is new to the material, his videos were a huge help. I can understand why some might find them to be ‘overkill’ as they are indeed very detailed, but the study guides would suffice for those people anyway. There are some samples of his videos on YouTube- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8El1iKy25u8

Funny thing: When they announced that Peter Olinto was joining them I was worried because I really liked their Level I vidoes and was hoping their Level II videos would be done by the same guy in the same style. I didn’t know who Peter Olinto was, but judging by the comments from older candidates on the Level II forum, Peter Olinto is quite the celebrity of the CPA/CFA world. I have been using both instructors’ videos for Level II for a month now.

So far I would say that Peter Olinto is definitely more engaging. the star of the show, very knowledgable and very funny. He is amazing at holding your attention. He teaches straight out of the pdfs and scribbles stuff in the margins. I have only seen a couple of his videos till now and am looking forward to more of the same.

Basit Shajani is like a geek, knows his stuff inside out and teaches every little detail. He spends time deriving things and explaining them in depth so it can be boring if you already know it. He makes sure you know your stuff, and I appreciate that, but he is not as lively as Peter Olinto.

FYI: You can’t see either of them in the videos. It’s just a white screen with content on it and them writing stuff on it.

To the OP: In short, Elan is a good option. Check out the videos on YouTube and in their free trial and decide whether you need the videos. Otherwise, get their Essential package. I only used the curriculum for the EOC questions and summaries and relied primarily on Elan’s materials.

I have never used Schweser so I can’t comment on them.

#12

This is good to know. Thanks Brightstar smiley Fingers crossed I will be joining you for level 2!

#13

Thumbs up for Elan as well. I really enjoyed their materials. I haven’t used the Schweser materials so can’t comment there. My only critique is that their mocks were too hard and I felt that what they were testing you on wasn’t representative on what would be on the exam. I really liked their questions though and the difficulty of those was a lot more realistic

#14

Hehe, I liked the video review earlier. Especially since I actually agree that Jon Bone was freaking boring and added no value at all. His accent was annoying but I got used to that rather quickly. I actually like Doug van Eaton. Must be me. I am sure I am just as much of an oddball as him…But calling him aggravating is a bit too much… He shouldn’t have gotten so many topics to present - but you can’t really blame him for that. He’s just doing his job :slight_smile:

Holmes is a good guy. Smart, increadibly good. I am glad he did the Ethics part. The guy lost quite some weight from Ethics to Derivatives…

Too bad Olinto wasn’t on for the last Schweser Package. Hope he takes some on from Bone and Eaton.

#15

FYI google for schweser or elan coupons before buying. I got $60ish off my elan order with a coupon from bionic turtle

#16

Lol he can’t. He is with Elan Guides.

#17

I don’t think Doug van Eaton was aggravating at all.

I actually like the dude. He presented the Quants material in a way that made it easy for me to follow along. I also, for some reason, like his odd pauses. More like, he lets the material sink in before he continues. His presentation on probability and Bayes theory helped me see those topics in such a simplified manner that i had absolutely no problem solving questions on them, and this is especially important for me given I have always had problems wrapping my head around those topics.

Jon Bone isn’t one of my favourite. I don’t like the fact that he just reads off the same slides that are right in front of you, which contributes very little and in other cases, makes the topic even more boring that it should be.

Andy Holmes is absolutely fantastic.

#18

There was a thread on here about Jone Bone and his unbearable ‘lip-smacking’. Makes me want to watch his videos just to see how terrible he is. Couldn’t find any samples online.

#19

Very informative thread. I wonder why nobody compared their study notes. Some say they are similiar, but I respectfully beg to differ. I have observed Elan’s team doing a way better job specially on the toughest readings compared to Schweser- who just tend to gloss over vital details. Just read the IS-LM framework from Schweser first and then read it from Elan. There’s a hell of a difference in the depth of coverage! OP: I got a discount for Elan because I received a CFAI scholarship. You should reach out to them asking if it is still available.

#20

Hey thanks guys. I have been using elan for like a week now and i’m finding them as good as their reviews. Their customer service was also very great. They commended me on securing the scholarhship and offered me a very good deal on their ultimate preparation package. I really gotta nail this exam now! :wink: