CFA Level III Schweser textbooks

Hello,

I just received access to the 5 textbooks provided by Kaplan Schweser for the CFA Level III exam, and I am very surprised to notice that there are “only” around 1200 pages, where level I had around 1500 and level II had around 1400.

Is there less material in level III, or is it simply much more summarized than other levels ?

Welcome. This is the first step to deception, If you make Schwesers your benchmark to know the volume and content. Dont get me wrong. We all study Schwesers. But they are like the most briefest allover. If you can live with that. Good enough.

To be honest I don’t really make Schwesers my benchmark to know the volume, which is why I asked my question. The thing is that there were about 100 pages less in Schwesers for level II than for level I, but I thought level II was much more summarized. I was just wondering if it was also the case for level III, or if there was significantly less material.

Anyway it will probably take me just as much time to study the 1200 pages from level III than it took me to study the 1400 pages from level II, as I guess the material is more complicated.

Now even though Schwesers notes are summarized I still do believe that they represent a huge portion of the curriculum. I passed levels 1 and 2 with a good score, which makes me believe that I had a very good overall understanding of the whole curriculum.

I used Schweser all 3 levels and I have to say, level III did the poorest job. A lot of details (which were actually tested) were not mentioned in the Schweser books. They are a good summary but there is no alternative of reading the CFAI books at least 1 time and make notes in your Schweser book where things are missing.

These are bad news… I actually never used the CFAI books for levels I and II, and I can’t figure out how I can read 3500 pages and still remember the first 1500 ones…

I usually read the Schweser notes once, then a second time during the 2 weeks before the exam, and that’s alright. But if I have to read 3500 more pages on top of that I’d better start now…

Of course with the essay questions I understand that the Schweser notes may not be sufficient, as the understanding needs to be much deeper in order to answer them…

You don’t have to remember them all, you just need to make marks in the Schweser notes which parts of the CFAI books you need to read as extra info (this is what I did).

Also, but this is pure personal, buy the Finquiz mock exams. They are very cheap (and yes full of typo’s), but the quality is nowhere found.

Read the curriculum and use LevelUp videos and the accompanying slidebook. I am not the biggest fan of the LevelUp Bootcamps (see my reviews elsewhere on this forum), but the videos and slidebook are great.

Maverick,

Did you read the CFAI books first then watch videos or vice versa?

I started off watching the videos then read the text, but switched to reading the text first then videos. I felt like when I watched the videos first I’d have to refer back to the text and it was slow and choppy watching the videos. When I read the text first, I worked through the problems, which I think is stickier learning, then I was watched the videos to reinforce key areas, which further increased retention.

I personally didn’t read a single page from the textbook and passed all 3 levels by solely using schweser except lv3, i combined it with MM video. It works fine for me, I learned just enough to pass.

I passed CFA level 2 exam in 2012.

I had a baby and because of some family issues, I could not complete the level 3 exam.I wrote the Level3 exam in 2015 but could not clear it. Now I am planning to appear for level3 2020. Now I am very much desperate to clear this exam. I am not working till the exam is one.

First i am planning to complete CFA curriculum books and then go for schweser.

Can you please provide some suggestions.

Thanks in Advance

Hi which part of the world you are in, now ?

Concept-wise, I think L3 really has less material. The harder part is really learning how to use the concepts to answer the essay portion.