Instructor Marc LeFebvre: Dallas (DFW) 5-Day Seminar or BOS/SFO/LA 3-Day Workshop?

I live in Toronto and will write the Level 3 exam here in June.

I am disappointed about being unable to register for the Creighton 4-day bootcamp. I discovered it too late, which is due to the fact that I made my decision about writing this exam very late into the game. I am disapointed because the Creighton bootcamp is all about the instructor, Marc LeFebvre, who is variously termed “genius… beast… Michael Jordan… the man…” by those who have attended. Further, I’ve read comments here on AF by Charterholders and CFA Level III passers about his instruction that go like, “most organized, helpful & relevant [of all L3 prep].”

So, I’m sold on Mr. LeFebvre and have decided to sign up for one of these two courses (that he instructs): (1) Schweser 3-day workshops in Boston (May 4-6) / San Fransisco (Apr 27-29) / LA (May 18-20), in each of which he is the sole instructor. (2) Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) 5-day intensive, approx half of which is taught by Marc: he covers SS4-8, 13, 16 & 17. For purposes of making comparison later in this piece, I’ll call the sum of these study sessions Marc’s “specialty areas.” This is based on the assumption that Schweser consistently places him to teach these particular Study Sessions for a reason, the reason being that he does them very well. The other half of the DFW 5-day is taught by Greg Filbeck, who has received lukewarm (at best) reviews here on AF for his work as presenter of the Schweser recorded video instruction, while the reviews for his in-class instruction are mixed, suggesting he is at best “average” as a live instructor. -------------------- -------------------- COMPARISON DFW 5-Day (Instruction time is ~4.25 days as the 5th day, Friday, wraps up by noon): - Course fee: $1,100 (includes breakfast M-F & lunch M-Th) - Instructor split: Marc 50%, Greg 40%, Third Dude 10% - Total instruction time: 36 hours - Marc Instruction time - Only does “Specialty Areas (see desc. above):” ~19 hours Link to overview: http://www.schweser.com/cfa/instruction/5day_seminar.php?new_level=cfa3 Link to schedule: http://www.schweser.com/downloads/syllabi/2012_cfa_iii_dfw_intensive_review.pdf

BOS/SFO/LA 3-Day: - Course fee: $500 (course only) - Instructor split: Marc 100% - Total instruction time = Marc instruction time: “20+ hours” - Time spent by Marc on “Specialty Areas (see desc. above):” 11.75 hours Link to overview: http://www.schweser.com/cfa/instruction/3day_seminar.php?new_level=cfa3 Link to schedule: http://www.schweser.com/downloads/syllabi/schweser_cfa_3_day_exam_workshop_schedule_level_iii.pdf -------------------- --------------------

BOTTOM LINE DFW 5-Day Marc teaches his “specialty areas” for ~19 hours. The rest is taught mostly by Greg for ~15 hours.

BOS/SFO/LA 3-Day Marc teaches his “specialty” areas for ~ 12 hours (that’s 7 hours, or 50%, less than the corresponding tally at DFW 5-day). Marc teaches his “non specialty areas” for areas for ~ 8 hours. Question: To use a sports analogy, in order to maximize the benefit to my exam prep, am I better off looking at Marc as: (A) a specialist “big hitter” who does some stuff exceptionally well (=> choose DFW 5-day seminar) or (B) an effective “all-rounder” - while he does have strengths & weaknesses, their distribution is sufficiently even (=>choose 3-day workshop)? Whew! I sincerely hope this makes sense and gets you guys thinking, and that it hasn’t been a royal exercise in overthinking. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

I did the Level 2 Dallas course last year - thought it was well organized. I went really for the John Harris instruction (even though he just did 1 of the 5 days), which was totally worth it. That guy saved me on accting. Greg and Marc taught other parts of the class, and they both seemed to know their stuff, but I thought both were only OK. Marc did make a comment to the L2 class that L3 is really his specialty area.

I also did a 3-day class for level I two years before, which I thought was worthless. Even with how easy the level 1 material is, 3-days is just not enough time to do a deep review.

One thing I will say is that the professors hung around during breaks / after sessions to answer questions at the 5-day last year. Marc was nice enought to spend some time answering my equity valuation q’s last year.

Anyway, I’ll be back at the 5 day course this year just because I think compressing the review too much really limits its effectiveness. Even if Filibeck is only OK, he will still be hitting all the talking points. And Marc should have plenty of time to dig into his areas.

greg filbeck is adequate. marc is a CFA allstar. he will dunk on you.

ftwcfa: Thanks for responding. Perhaps you are right that the 3-day class compresses the review too much and limits its effectiveness. I’ll factor this into my decision. Also, it’s good to know that somebody here has signed up for the 5-day. I’ll post here once I’ve made a decision.

Prophets: Thanks. Any take on the two options? Have you attended a Marc class previously; will you attend this time around?

i’m going out to creighton in may. i signed up early.

i just know of marc because 1) people have been talking about him on these forums for years 2) i know one of his current students in the masters finance & portfolio mgmt program at creighton and 3) i’ve also seen his schweser L3 videos. marc is probably the best guy to go to on the L3 material. but i don’t think greg filbeck or others like bruce kuhlman are bad necessary.

the thing about marc and why he is better is because 1) he’s actually worked at a bank and managed money. he’s not some theoretical academic spouting off formulas. he can relate material to actual experience/examples and 2) his personality is superior. marc is not mr. entertainment, but no one wants to sit through boring material with someone who is boring themselves. that is usually the problem with most of the people who teach this crap.

in a nutshell, id probably do DFW because its more time. more time = more study.