Why isn't the CFAI curriculum enough?

I received my curriculum from CFAI today. My plan was to study from this material alone. Is that recommended? Is it necessary to purchase the additional study material because of the question banks?

If you know everything that’s in the books you’re fine for the exam. I use the Schweser material because I feel it’s an extra method to test myself and make sure that I know the stuff. Also, I find the Schweser study notes often more to the point which saves me time. In the end it’s a matter of preference.

The CFAI curriculum is more than enough; that’s the point of buying Schweser or Stella (they’re “cliff notes” of the curriculum). If you have the time and inclination to study from the voluminous CFA texts, knock yourself out.

sometimes you just cant understand what they are trying to say or what you should take out of the reading, thats where Schweser comes in

I used both Schweser and CFAI. CFAI was worthless, so much fluff. I am awaiting results but I averaged mid to high 70s on practice tests and don’t feel I could have done that well by relying on CFAI materials. I feel that I could have matched my performance on pratice tests with Schweser alone. The practice tests I took were both book 6 and CFAI. What helped me most in learning and retaining the material was working Schweser Q-bank practice questions. End of chapter questions in CFAI curriculum are extremely wordy and you get bogged down in so many irrelevant details that distract you from the concepts you are trying to learn.