Hello all, I’ve passed both L1 and L2 using Schweser and felt the prep material prepared me well for both exams. Now I read a lot of conflicting views on using Schweser (or any other prep material) versus CFAI material for L3. I have to decide whether to order prep material or not in the coming 1-2 months and I could use some help. Is L3 só different that Schweser doesn’t prepare well enough? For L1 and L2 I thought CFAI material was very long andfelt Schweser materialw as more clear cut and understandable. Has that changed for L3? How much is the difference in pages anyway between the two?
I had used schweser for L1and L2 exclusively. But in L3 i was not getting the best answers in past AM mocks with just Schweser. So in some sections where the schweser material was skipping detail, i went to the cfai material, particularly economics, behavioral, alternatives and equity. And some sub sections here and there.
also at level3 i felt it is better to know cfai material because they sometimes ask very obscure topics and you need to know stuff in detail.
Very rightly said. Level 3 needs CFAI material for you to be near 100% prepared. But most candidates hardly have time so Schweser is very good to go through in first pass (as base material) and then refer to CFAI material for next passes (and while doing mocks/EOC) for stuff that are still not clear. I had to re-read a few chapters completely from CFAI and loved the way they have been written.
By the end of it, i was not referring to Schweser at all. It was only my notes and CFAI books. I had a late realisation that CFAI has done a much better job in explaining things. FYI, i did not even look at CFAI material for L1/2… not even EOC/BB.
for L3 only : one’s own notes are helpful…
Thanks all for the replies! kgsgp: So do you no how they compare in terms of total work load? And would it still be wise to buy mock exams from Schweser? As CFAI doesn’t have a lot available yearly, right?
I think you should use all the time you’ve spent posting these messages to study 
Total work load… Cant say as i used schweser as base and cfai as needed. It shd work for you.
Mock exams… definitely Yes.
For the last part… internet is your friend specially asian sites. It has all that u need and more.
If you have money, purchase Schweser the cheapest solution. You’ll get 3 Mocks as well. You can use Schweser as additional material for quick repeat once you absorb official material. I’d strongly recommend use only official material for practicing with exception of 3 Schweser Mocks which can be used along the official Mocks.
Schweser AM mocks are crap. They are not well written, and many questions are old cfai questions with name/data changed. Schweser PM is fine. Use old CFAI AM papers for exam practice. For PM, CFAI topic tests are really good.
+1
Schweser mocks over and over again. Nothing else.
I used Schweser for level 3. I passed. It is enough.
i did make my own notes though. It all fit in one spiral bound notebook though. Level 2 was almost 2 notebooks for me.
Same for me. I actually enjoyed the CFAI materials- they read very well and give a lot more context than study notes like Schweser do. That being said, they also have a lot of filler… I found that for some readings, kaplan was enough. For those where it wasn’t, I would just go back to CFAI.
gotta use what works best for you. as previously noted, many candidates are crunched for time and need more summarization material than novel-esque CFAI books. personally, i used the combination approach: relied heavily on Schweser for initial pass through, then bolstered understanding via CFAI curriculum. Alot of your prep depends on level of experience with certain topic areas, so in many instances, 3rd party stuff was more than sufficient for me. However, not all candidates are created equal; some will require more robust reviews of topics that they might be encountering for the very first time. That’s where each individual needs to decipher for themselves as to what amount of effort they need to affix to each area. Just my $0.02.
Schweser were enough for me to go 3/3. Hardly ever touched the curriculum. Significant reduction in reading and doesn’t get bogged down in details.
Analystdude - maybe I missed it, but there was a whole vignette in the PM (not sure how specific I can get, but the one that was “awkwardly titled” if you recall) that I do not believe was in the Schweser material. Definitely didn’t see it. Think i went 0/6 in that vignette which probably pushed me from being borderline pass / band 10 to the band 8 I received.
Do you recall seeing that vignette covered in the KS readings?
As for the AM sections, I’m still baffled on how I scored <50 in some of the Portfotlio Mgmt. sections (Individual, Institutional, Allocation) as I thought they were well covered by KS (at least no major differences noted when doing the past CFAI mocks) and found them to be straight forward on the exam.
CFAI is more painful, but you don’t want to give Level III at chance. Schweser you give some probability, but not certainty. So definitely use CFAI, specially for less quantitative more qualitative materials (e.g. behavioral finance).
cuda - if we are thinking of the same one i blanked it and found it later in schweser
There are 2 kind of candidates. Some with Finance major or really related workex. Others with no finance coursework or workex.
I belong to the first type and Schweser was fine with me.
If I belong to the second set, probably would need CFA material.