Best Question Bank Software

CFA Level I
#1

I failed level 1 in June 2013. I work in invst mgmt and have brutal work hours (avg week 60-80). I know I didnt study close to enough. From collegues I know that the key (so they say) its practice questions, so I am looking for a good question bank to use to study for the June 2014 test.

I used Kaplan (Schweser) and Allen Resources Question Bank and Material. I liked that with Kaplan I could see my score per LOS, but I found the questions were perhaps too easy when compared to the test.

Allen Resources was good with the amount of questions, but I routinely got the same questions, and I didn’t have a way to filter the questions to be from my worse areas. I tend to study in between meetings, at lunch and after work so full length test are hard for me to do unless spread out of several days.

Does anyone have a question bank that they recomend over Kaplan and Allen Resources? I looked at Stalla mobile, but don’t like that I cannot print or use a computer. Web based would be best so I can I leave up on one of my screens at work during the day. I cannot download on to work servers. Also, I have heard from coworkers that Kaplan is not good for Level II. I would prefer that what I use for Level I and Level II be the same.

Any help or input would be greatly appreciated.

#2

It varies person to person but I used Schweser for L1&2 and passed both 1st attempt (used QBank for review for both). I believe you can filter the Schweser QBank by difficulty if I’m not mistaken.

#3

The Schweser qbank constituted a large part of my prep for level 1 and I found it to be extremely useful.

I don’t have a basis for comparison with other question banks but virtually every level 1 candidate i met used it extensively.

For Level 2 the qbank is dreadful though. apparently it’s even worse for Level 3

#4

Did you try adjusting the difficulty on the Schweser Q-Bank? Q-Bank has easy, intermediate, and advanced difficulty options you can choose from. You can also select only questions you got wrong, etc… I thought many of the intermediate, and most of the advanced difficulty Schweser Q-bank questions were very representative of the exam, if not, harder than the exam.

#5

I would not say the qbank for L2 is dreadful…it should not be a main study source but you should use it when you identify weak areas either from mock exams or doing EOC’s. It is good to drill concepts and memorize formulas from practice.

#6

I’m not sure if I ever saw that ability. Was this on the online version or the cd rom? I used the online.

I may need to contact Kaplan and ask since I don’t have access anymore.

Thanks for your input. I definitely thought Kaplan was better for screening questions by type. The difficultly function will definitely help.

#7

fair point, i’m prone to hyperbole.

It is useful for drilling concepts for level 2 and i did use the hard questions for fra and derivatives and occasionally for drilling individual LOS. the item sets schweser create are truly dreadful though.

#8

i used to online version and you can select the difficulty level when you create a topic quiz. there’s a drop down menu with additional options and there are tick boxes for easy intermediate and hard.