Hi all, Just thought of asking how useful did you guys find Schweser Q Bank for Level 2. Is it multiple choice or how does it compare and prepare for the real exam. Thanks S
Horrible. Total crap. Don’t waste your money.
Questions are based on the Level 1 format, but like anything, you need to practice to become proficient at something. By answering a ton of these questions, you have seen a lot of different variations on possible test questions. I think it’s worthwhile.
its good for a quick round of questions to wake you up, but I wouldnt base the score on anything as its very easy to get over 70% in then.
I thought the Q bank was useful. Guess I’ll find out in late August.
I was disappointed with Q-bank. I found it way more helpful for Level I than Level II.
I used it for 1 & 2 and found it just as useful the second time around. Yeah, lvl 2 asks questions in a different format, but the information you need to know is still the same as the questions in Schweser. No better prep than answering 2000 questions and getting full explanations on the ones you got wrong IMO.
Q Bank should never be used exclusively to prepare for the exam. It is a good way to review topics and understand specific areas, but you have to combine it with the actual Schweser practice tests, which are extremely hard, the BSAS test, and the CFA online sample and mock exams. Q Bank is too simplistic. It should be noted that they do have question sets (6 part questions) in addition to normal multiple choice. Personally, I think the best prep is done with the curriculum and the CFA online tests with a few Schweser tests mixed in to humble yourself.
The Q Bank was nothing like the real exam. The best practice you can get is from the end of reading questions. For Level 3 I will not buy the q bank.
I may sound a little harsh, but it is an understatement to say I was, overall, very underwhelmed with that product for Level 2. useful for some of the more qualatative sections, and I thought Fixed Income & quant questions on Qbank were very good. However, it was dreadful for FSA, equity, corporate finance, and PM, which comprises the bulk of the test. All their vignette style questions were waaaaaaaay too long, and the information was so scattered it was an excercise in futility to actually answer anything correct. There would be vignettes that would take me 10 minutes just to read (not overstating here at all) and about 1/2 of it would be worthless info, except they would bury data within the useless paragraphs. This is completely different from the CFAI, where everything is well thought out, stated briefly, data contained in a table, etc. I’m not spending my money on it again. I can honestly say that my performance on the exam would have been no different if I had never even glanced at Qbank this year, although I can see how it would be helpful for someone that wasn’t coming from a finance background to drill topics that came to me a lot quicker, and for some of the tougher quant sections and fixed income analytics. Overall, I give it a solid C-, and that is being more than fair from my perspective.
^Agreed. The vignettes for the end of session review were way too long and frustrating. The questions were difficult in a convoluted kind of way, nothing like the actual exam. Overall I would give Q-bank a b-. It is good for using repetition to drill home the concepts that one might be unfamiliar with. I would still rather use it to prepare for the exam than not thpugh, especially if the boss is paying for it.
I found it useful especially since I had few other options. It seemed widely used by the people of this board, given how questions from it were discussed a lot here. The question formats they used seem more convoluted than the real thing, though.
As the majority of Q bank questions are one off (not vignettes) its probably more useful for L1 than L2. However if you use Schweser and do their end of chapter questions (as oppossed to just the vignettes) it is effectively the same thing only with 1,000s more questions. It is also probably less useful than it was as you now have to buy the CFA books (as well as presumably having Schweser if you’re using Q bank) so you have additional questions anyway but to me it was great to drill topics and practice weak areas. I’ll definately buy it again next year.