In addition to all the usual revision stuff before - I wrote down maybe 5 or 6 pages with key formulae (last couple of chapter especially), but also with key words and phrases. I also photocopied bits of schweser I found useful - eg. summary of IPS - which I added a few things to - and attribution.
I think another post mentioned it, but I think it’s important to use key CFA jargon wherever you can. eg. “Generate a return sufficient to…” or “using a discount rate determined from asset-liability matching studies”. These sort of phrases you can pick up from CFA and Schweser and I think it helps to compile these types of phrases as you go through questions and read good answers. I would flick over these few pages every day for about 15 mins in the last week or two and it meant when I came to answer AM questions, I had a few choices phrases I would be able to drop in here and there. Aside from sounding clear and like a solid answer, it probably helped me with timing… I suffered badly with regards to timing in the exam (despite this usually not being a problem for me) and the fact that I had a ready made sentence (or part of) certainly helped me.
Used Schweser for Level 3. They provide an immense amount of information (aside from their notes, they have additional videos, slides, notes and a nice level 1&2 refresher book).
Also the faculty / staff wil respond to technical questions you have as well.
Will it work for you? well no it depends on you. The size of the schweser books comes pretty close to 2/3rds the size of the CFA texts themselves, but I found it at least did focus me a bit more on specific topics. Yes the CFA texts probably provide a better education overall but unless if you are not working time is an issue, Schweser helped me a lot (even though I still ended up puting over 400 hours in).
1/2/3 done! Don’t recommend starting L1 in dec and L2 in June… most stressful year of my life.
Schweser notes for going through the material: It is not perfect and if you have time, stay away from it and use the actual CFAI material. My problem was that I started too late to use CFAI entirely
Made detailed personal notes, sometimes going over 10-15 pages per study session: Very imp, these notes are the only thing I referenced back to in the last week or so.
Schweser 13 week online course taught by Marc LaFabre: Very helpful in keeping you on track, and Marc will help you get your arms around any material that doesn’t look intuitive to you
CFAI EOC and Blue Boxes(Very Imp): Crucial piece of material
Creighton Bootcamp-Priceless, best 4 days of CFA prep
Also, one more point, I got the e-book version of the CFAI material, in hindsight, paper is the way to go. It is much easier to go through the blue boxes etc. with the paper books
For L3 I watched a few Schweser videos as well and they do help to a certain extent.
Also doing the past exams AM section is a MUST for all L3 takers (available for free for all L3 candidates on their website). If you do those and review your answers with the ones CFAI accepted, you won’t have trouble answering the AM portion.
I used Schweser for L3, and like other have mentioned, I typed my own notes based on the Schweser readings, specifying each LOS. Then I’d do the EOC and blue box problems from CFAI text. I didn’t really start studying in earnest until March, so I simply didn’t have the time to read through the CFAI text. Granted, I think I barely passed, but I think Schweser was pretty useful. I wish I had spent a little more time on the CFAI mock/practice exams to get a better feel for how the AM session is graded.
Curriculum book example question 2 ~ 3 times + chapter end question 70%
Curriculum contents (the one seems important) reading
I did and paased
I think Schweser has the most of necessary things
& The curriculum books are the one CFAI makes
You can learn gist of theories with Schweser and re-check and get used to the theroies again with confidence that ‘I did with CFAI material’ with Curriculum books. Especially concentrated on doing questions.
Yes. I used Schweser but only the notes. I still looked at the text as I needed to and studies some parts the old fashion way by referencing the text. The Schweser Notes were used primrily to go over stuff I already know and use at work. For brand new concepts or something completely foreign, I had to read the text and do problems.
I don’t like Schweser tests. Unnecessarily hard and somewhat detailed and focused on a single area. But CFA questions are also very hard but cover many concepts and LOS at once in a single question.
Schweser doesn’t help you synthesize. CFA wants you to synthesize and think about many LOS at once.
I used Schweser a lot. I found that their practice exams were very helpful in that they showed you a minimum of what needed to be written in order to get points.
Also, the QBank was extremely helpful to me despite the many people who seem to find it useful. I went through as many questions as possible with the goal of finishing the entire QBank. I think I came within a few questions of getting that done, if memory serves. Anyway, the important part for me was printing out any questions that gave me trouble and putting them in a review folder. Every week I would go through those. Once I felt that I had mastered the question I would throw away the page. The last week I was left with a stack of questions I found really hard and thus got incorrect several times. I tried to widdle away that stack between practice exams. At the very least, this took away a lot of the anxiety that can arise when you see a question you struggled with on the actual exam.
I used Schweser for all levels and they helped a lot. It was the only practice material I used (aside from CFAI textbooks). I passed by using all the material and going over it many many times. I did all 2’500 Qbank mutiple choice questions offered by Schweser as well as the 25 or so essay questions. Schweser is amazing for the multiple choice. During the exam, after having done 2’500 multiple choice practice questions, I noticed MANY similarities and answering questions was a quick and confident experience. I got <70% in 7/9 sections, 50-70% in 1/9 sections, and <50% in 1/9 sections. I am very pleased with the afternoon performance.
The morning portion was right down the middle - some above 50%, some below 50%. The powerful thing about Schweser for the essay portion is being able to dig down to the sections you are not doing particularly well in and get better at it. After doing that and digging down to a weak section, I would add to my notes those concepts I did not retain in the sections I was weak in. Schweser helped me identify weak areas and gave me the material to add to my notes. No matter what I made sure to know Ethics cold cold cold. I made it a way of thinking because I knew Ethics is a critical factor in deciding close passes & fails. Schweser had a lot of practice questions as well as detailed text about ethics - I think they are aware of this.
So far, I’ve covered almost the entire curriculum in the Schweser notes, and answered plenty of questions in their QBank. From what I can tell, Schweser covers all the material, but isn’t as wordy or annoying as the official curriculum. FWIW, I plan to go through the Schweser once, then go through the official curriculum once, then answer as many questions as I can for the last couple of months.