Hi, I am new to this forum. Just passed level 1 and now gearing up for level 2. I notice that most people seem to be using either Schweser or Stalla as their study aids. Has anyone heard of Allen Resources? tks
They are definitely second string although years ago I used their stuff and liked it. I like Stalla better than Schweser, but if you are going to participate on AF, it’s hard to get around all the questions from and about Schweser. If it was me, I would buy Schweser, borrow Stalla, and get any others only if you have money to burn.
Would you rather cross the country on a skateboard or in a Winnebago? I recommend against using Allen Resources unless you absolutely cannot afford Stalla or Schweser. I can post the gory details on my experience with AR if you need more information. I used CFAI texts & AR for L1 and CFAI texts & Schweser for L2.
Please do - gory details about nearly anything are good.
Okay, I didn’t want to use this forum as revenge for Allen Resources frustrating my L1 studies, but since Joey is insisting… I purchased AR primarily for the test bank software, and the AR’s test bank appeared to be more extensive because it has a greater number of questions than Schweser or Stalla. AR is also relatively cheap and offered the following year’s materials free for those who failed, which is an important benefit if you are using AR. Here are the issues I had with the test bank software: The online test bank appears to contain thousands of questions, but I only saw a few dozen of the same questions because those questions kept repeating. Although the software had an option to exclude repeated questions, the option never worked. After four weeks of calls to AR, they finally sent me the test bank CDs, but the CD test bank had the same problem as the online test bank, and I saw only the same questions. The questions were not quality reviewed. Some responses to the test bank questions were incorrect, which made me lose confidence in the responses to other questions. In addition, nearly every question contained grammatical or spelling errors. Some were just nonsensical. This may actually have been a benefit in that it made the CFA exam questions look well-written and straight-forward. But I would prefer a test bank where the questions have been reviewed at least once. Once I completed the L1 exam, Allen Resources solicited me to write questions for their test bank. I was under the impression from AR’s marketing materials that CFAs and PhDs were writing the questions, but that is not so. Level 1 candidates are actually writing the questions, which probably explains the quality issues. Some of the questions are dated and don’t relate to the current LOSs. It is pretty obvious with all AR products that the products are not updated. Rather, they are carry-over products from previous years. This leads me to the notes and videos. These products are also stale from prior years, and their quality is very poor. I watched ten minutes of the economics video, and witnessed the presenter set up the National Income model and, if I recall correctly, the Circular Flow model. These are very good to learn, but were not a part of the 2006 L1 curriculum. When I’m studying for the CFA, I just want to see topics that are eligible to appear on the exam. I also tried to watch the Ethics video and gave up after a few minutes. I think the low quality of the videos and presenters just didn’t inspire confidence that I would gain insight from them. The AR notes did cover every LOS. I stopped using the notes, however, when they calculated NOI for real estate by subtracting out depreciation. I think I need to have some confidence in the material I am studying, and an error like this is just too glaring. Depending on what you are expecting from the AR notes, you should be aware that the notes are very condensed. Don’t think of AR notes as being akin to Schweser notes. The purpose of the AR notes is just to respond directly to each LOS. I think that covers it. I bought the “Blue Chip System,” which was on sale for, I think, $400 due to the time proximity to the exam. Again, if that’s all the money you have, then buy it, but I would highly recommend spending the additional money for Stalla or Schweser.
NoExcuses Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Once I completed the L1 exam, Allen Resources > solicited me to write questions for their test > bank. I was under the impression from AR’s > marketing materials that CFAs and PhDs were > writing the questions, but that is not so. Level > 1 candidates are actually writing the questions, > which probably explains the quality issues. > OK - that offends me. Buy Schweser or Stalla. Both excellent products written by people with handsome paper on the wall.
My derivatives professor last year actually writes (or recently used to write) the derivatives questions on the actual CFA exam (no wonder I aced L1 derivatives…). I can’t imagine having random candidates writing those problems for practice.
I used Allen exclusively for Level I and Level II. I found alot of the problems described above but I really didn’t think the quality was that bad. I used Allen and Stalla for level III. Even though I think Allen is good, I think Stalla is better.
What about this Analyst Notes? they look quite chepa also - are they implementing a cost leadership strategy without compromising the quality??
Nope - the consensus here seems to be that analystnotes is really cheap but not nearly as good as schweser/stalla. If you need more questions to do, it’s really cheap…
Mukaranga do you work for them?
I got the AR videos since they were cheap and I din’t even finish watching them, they were unprofessional and some LOS’s were outdated. But thanks for reminding me about the money back guarantee, I failed and I don’t mind updating my library with a new set of free DVD’s. Ethics wasnt so bad and I ‘might’ (as I recall from my high school literature classes, might indicates a strong possibility of doubt) watch the DVD’s again
I would actually not recommend the AR to anyone- The professors dont follow the LOS’s, and more so they tend to get out of scope. A good example is the Ethics DVD, it was just a waste, a certain lady- cant remember her name, was just teaching the layman understanding, without reference to CFAI curriculum! It’s worth going to the Schwesser ones- i havent used stalla as yet!
Thanks all for your comments. I wondered what other people had to say about AR because I did use them for level 1 and although I passed I wasn´t very happy with AR. I also found many fundamental errors in their testbank question answers which I reported but never heard back from them. Also, their economics notes specifically were rather poor. I liked the concept of their testbank and also the guarantee. But I found that I was taking an AR practice exam in 2 hours and then when I tried a Schweser, I couldn´t answer many questions. I had 7 days left for the exam and I panicked. It was too late to switch to Schweser so I then bought the mock papers and notes from Analyst Notes.com which I must say, I found very useful last minute study. The Analyst Notes mock papers were very good and there is a general discussion on the questions which I found very useful. There is also a worldwide ranking. The questions were much harder than those of the actual CFA exam and hence I found the CFA exam easier than expected. The notes were also fine though I don´t think I would depend on them fully. I will use Schweser for Level 2.
yankees98a Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Mukaranga do you work for them? No!Do i sound like one?