Those who studied mainly from Schweser material

I have a query from those who mainly used Schweser materials for study (of course, supplementing with curriculum). How do you think the Schweser notes and practice exams prepared you for the exam? I heard it still does not cover full extent of curriculum. Which areas does Schweser covers well and in which areas they are lacking? Kindly guide. Thanks.

I only used Schweser material. I took notes and practiced with the Q-bank and the mocks. I can honestly say that there was only one question in the exam I had no clue. No clue in the sense that I could not remember seeing this phrasing/term/concept in the curriculum. In other words, I believe Schweser prepared me well but ask me again when results are out :slight_smile:

Thanks MichelT for your response. Wishing that you succeed in the exam with flying colors.

I also only used the Schweser material for most of my studying. I would use the CFAI for topics where I was confused and needed more of an in depth explanation but 90% was with Schweser notes, Q-bank, and mock scores.

Like MichelT said, even though the results are not out I can say that Schweser Notes, Q-bank, and Mock exams prepared me extremely well. I’ve seen a lot of people on here bash Schweser for Level 2 and said it didn’t prepare them… Not true at all in my opinion. I couldn’t image only studying from CFAI it is way overkill.

Thanks josh_16 for your guidance. Wishing you all the best …

I agree with the other posters so far. Schweser material was very helpful to me in preparing. I started with the Secret Sauce and used the flashcards (making notes on the Secret Sauce to condense the ideas even more and then underlining and making notes in the flashcards). I went back to the actual Schweser books for certain topics or concepts I felt weren’t treated well enough (like ROS). Probably read less than 1/5 - 1/3 of the actual Schweser book material. I also did practice problems and 3 of the Schweser mocks getting 68-92% on the 1/2 exams (but more like 75-85 when you looked at AM and PM combined) so I knew going in that if the mocks were indicative of actual, an ‘easy’ morning could be followed by a ‘hard’ afternoon or vice versa. There is so much material on Level II that unless you know it all about the same, you are likely to see a high variance. By the end, my Qbank showed 40% of the questions answered, so that was in the red, but my average correct was 79 or 80 (and slowly trending up) so that was yellow.

Overall I felt very prepared for the exam relative to the time I spent (which to me is a critical measure). I never cracked the CFAI material. I would have if I felt the Schweser wasn’t giving me what I needed. So far, everything I was confused on or got tricked on on the exam, I can attribute to not having learned or remembered something or just making a dumb mistake, not the inadequacy of the Schweser material.

Oh yeah, and the quick sheet was invaluable (with generous additional notes in the case of Level II; didn’t need as many for Level I)

Unless I got tricked a lot, I passed. Definitely found the AM to be easier than the PM which seems a high % of people found. But on the PM, once I went back to check my work, I realized I was overreacting to stuff I didn’t know 100% and underreacting to stuff I knew well, so it was harder for me than the AM, but not as bad as my perception the first time through.

Thanks Candidcam for your elaborate comments. Would certainly be useful. Wishing you all the best.

The books are very useful.

There are a few items where it is not sufficiently clear/precise (and where I went back to the CFAI content). You can identify it by taking the CFAI topic tests. If you “discover” a concept, then you know there is a point you missed.

Thanks Exam_Taker_Unprepared for your useful guidance. All the best for your success in exam.

I used Schweser in 2015 and I was a band 5.

In 2016 I used CFAI and was a band 9. My 40/60/80 score for the exam based on my score matrix was 64%

I primarily used Schweser across LI, LII, and LIII, as well. I utilized the Notes, Secret Sauce, Weekly Class, & all 6 Mocks. Supplemented about 25-30% with CFAI material and prior AM’s back to 2007. I’d say 90ish % of material was very well covered in Notes and through class. The extraneous 10% or so was just more deep dive stuff that the actual curriculum expanded upon in ways that Schweser did not. Obviously, a key point of Scwheser’s method is to make you study more efficiently; that’s apparent in the sheer reduction of pages vs. actual CFAI materials. However, as a result of this slimming down, i do think there are some esoteric points that get left by the way side that could (and do) show up across the exams, which is the price candidates pay in order to tighten up their study routine. I don’t think there are any material gaps, per se; just slight omissions that may or may not come to nip you on d-day. Regardless, if you go through the material, Schweser will prepare you to pass…you just might suffer from slight anxiety leading up to results given those one-off questions that were slightly foreign at the time.

Here’s to hoping it pays off for those of us who chose to go this route. Best of luck to everyone!

I used all Schweser, including live classes and secret sauce. It does cover almost everything you need for the exam, but focuses so much on calculation-based issues, so if your qualitative knowledge isn’t up to snuff, the real exam might steamroll you (this is a widely-held opinion).

Anyway, from what I hear, it’s really Schweser for CFA Level III that misses on some things that CFAI doesn’t cover. Again, just hearing that through the grape vine.

I honestly don’t believe people studied hard enough if you got a band 5 and then got band 9. Sorry if that comes across as condescending but that’s my opinion. I didn’t major in finance in college and have self-taught this material to myself. I started too late this year for level 2 this year but was able to get through most of the material and I thought the exam was a fair representation of what the test providers made it out to be. In fact, the questions were more straightforward than what I was anticipating.

You can’t blame the test provider to do all the heavy lifting…you’ve got to put in the countless hours.

Thanks guys for your comments and guidance. Wishing all success in exams

In 2016 I used only fitch learning and practice papers from Schweser and CFAI and failed band 10. I used CFAI exclusively this year for learning and Schweser practice papers to supplement CFA mocks and felt better prepared. I read the CFAI books cover to cover from Jan - March, then went back and did all the EOC questions before just doing mocks in May (both Schweser and CFAI). Obviously don’t know if I have passed yet but I do think there is some truth in the mantra that all of the questions will come from the CFAI syllabus somewhere.

dont’ have much to add, but I’m also a big fan of Kaplan. Crushed level 1 using Kaplan exclusively (other than CFAI TT and Mock), for level 2 I did supplement with CFAI material but still primarily used Kaplan. Obviously dont’ have level 2 results yet but i felt well prepared and if I didn’t pass it’s because i missed the ball on brushing up on ethics during the last week (although I still think I’m >70% on the exam and everyone seems to have had trouble with ethics this year so I’m quite hopeful).

Only issue to keep in mind is that the Qbank is primarily stand alone questions as opposed to item sets. Might be worthwhile to buy a couple extra mocks from another provider (boston society was not good imo) to get some more item set practice.

Kaplan is like reading the notes from the guy in class who writes with a style that’s concise and to-the-point. It’s really nice to get the main concepts before diving into the CFAI quagmire of readings, which I think are the weakest part of the program. I like the exam books too, great explanations… but I don’t rely solely on Kaplan, rather a mix, doing EOC’s and CFAI mocks.

Thanks friends for the valuable comments. Wishing the best to all of you.

My strategy was:

  1. read Kaplan notes and do Kaplan end of chapter problems, correct as you go along. Also would note I would read for understanding instead of rushing or mass memorizing. Did NOT read from CFAI other than ethics.

  2. CFAI blue box problems and EOC problems. I’d also read the end of chapter summary for CFAI. I only did the blue box problems that were multiple choice (if I fail I’ll do all of them next time)

  3. drill 60 question q bank quiz at the end of the week for the stuff I covered.

  4. once I finished a whole area (i.e. all of Corp Finance, etc) I’d make note cards. I’d also periodically reread the Kaplan quicksheet for stuff I haven’t touched for a while and drill note cards. A couple of times I’d do 120 question q bank quizzes to review areas I hadn’t touched in a while as well.

  5. once I finished all the reading I basically took the last month before the exam to do mocks (timed under exam like conditions), grade mocks, and CFAI topic tests. I did 4 Kaplan mocks and the CFAI one. I’ll admit I didn’t have enough time to do all of the TTS so if I fail that’s one area I’ll adjust.

I felt Kaplan prepared me well and nothing I saw on the exam was a complete mystery although some questions on the test really showed how much CFAI was willing to go into the weeds on certain more obscure areas… those are the questions I wasn’t confident on in my answers.

Spent about 380 hours studying starting Jan 1 of this year and overall felt pretty good about the exam. Moral of the story: Kaplan is great but I wouldn’t rely on it by itself. It allows you to get through the reading in an efficient/accessible way to start hammering practice.

I used Schweser for Lv1 and Lv2 so far and am happy with it. I agree with what the previous posters have said and I look at it as a sort of Cliff notes version of the CFA material. That said, I did take time to at least read through the CFAI material once as well as do the blue box questions and the end of chapter questions. CFAI material does go more in depth into things, almost ad nauseam if you ask me. I do find the Schweser mock exams to not be as good as the CFAI version. The Schweser ones seem a bit more wordy and a little easier but you get 6 of those versus only 1 from CFA…