First of all, for those who have just begun studying, you should stop reading this thread, stop worrying you are too far behind, and just go back to catching up. I’m in a pretty good position, but I have limited flexibility to increase my study time as the exam approaches and I need to maximize the use of my time. In previous years I did the weekly Schweser class – this year I have not kept up with it (I did the first class just to kick things off in Jan, but quickly reverted to just doing a full read of the CFAI materials – something I generally did not do in the past). I have just completed the full CFAI material, including ALL of the end of chapter questions. I even did many of the text examples on my own while reviewing the answers – so I’m in decent shape I think. So I’m thinking that I should now try to go through all the Schweser Notes and start hitting the Q bank. I guess I should be able to breeze through the notes just enough to be able to make my note cards and start hitting the Qbank. I always liked the classes, but that would take up about 5 hours per week to catch back up on those. Not so sure I can afford that amount of time. For those who may have already completed the Schweser text, how long should I realistically expect it to take? I obviously have to have it complete by the third week of May to leave full exam review time… Any other suggestions?
plyon, I haven’t read any thing from CFAI text. I read most SS from Schweser (I still need to read 4.5 sessions in the first pass). Schweser goes down smoothly, especially if you already understand the concepts. I would say 3 weeks. If you plan to do the concept checkers also, add 2 weeks more. I am impressed at your progress. Keep it up. Cheers 
Do Q’s to keep things ‘fresh’ for a while. Then the last two or three weeks hit exam questions hard. I wouldn’t use them just yet, you want to use them closer to exam-day.
I noticed there aren’t many questions in the CFA text at all. How are you finding the q bank for level 3, and do you recommend it?
I’m in just about the same boat. Finished a passive read-through of the CFAI texts about a week and a half ago and now working through the Schweser notes. I’ve been making note cards and doing concept checkers as I go, targeting about 2 weeks per book, which seems doable so far. That should leave about a month to hit Q bank, old CFA exams, CFAI chapter-end questions, and Schweser exams.
since you’re using schweser as a review AFTER doing all the cfai questions, i’m guessing you will be able to breeze through it… If that is all your doing, i don’t think it is unrealistic to have it done by mid may. the schweser questions take a fraction of what the cfai curriculum questions require. or at least they did for me… how did you feel about the cfai questions? im having a hard time.
cfasf1 Wrote: > > the schweser questions take a fraction of what the > cfai curriculum questions require. or at least > they did for me… how did you feel about the cfai > questions? im having a hard time. I actually found them to be a bit easier than I thought they were at levels I & II. For LI and LII, I seem to remember not being able to do half of the CFAI questions. And I aced both of those exams. Of course, I have also put in a more careful reading of the CFAI text this year than anything I did in the past. I literally have not skipped a page. And like I said, I even worked through alot of the examples in the main body of the text on my own before attempting the questions at the end of each chapter. So put things in that context. If you remember the questions being easier at LI and LII, then that would surprise me. If they just seem really hard (or you didn’t reference them much for the previous levels, then I wouldn’t think much of it – although I would buckle down a bit and work through them as you look at the answers.).
anc417 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’m in just about the same boat. Finished a > passive read-through of the CFAI texts about a > week and a half ago and now working through the > Schweser notes. I’ve been making note cards and > doing concept checkers as I go, targeting about 2 > weeks per book, which seems doable so far. That > should leave about a month to hit Q bank, old CFA > exams, CFAI chapter-end questions, and Schweser > exams. Interestingly, I just did a rough page count on CFAI text versus Schweser. It’s about 2,100 pages for CFAI text (including the optional reading, but excluding the appendices with the answers to end-of-chapter questions), and a whopping 1,220 page for Schweser (which would include the answers to the concept checkers, as these immediately follow each section). Not as much a difference as I would have thought. At more than half the full number of pages in the actual text, it’s hard to think that Schweser could really be leaving anything out. Given that number of pages, I am going to have be quick about the Schweser thing and not daly much. If I think I’ve got it, I’ll scan ahead to the concept checkers just to keep the pace moving…
this was my fault for asking plyon how he felt when i was feeling discouraged. you’re going to slay this thing just like you did 1 and 2. hopefully i can do enough to pass. i guess i used to have trouble with level 2 text questions too… it’s just the short answer format that is getting to me. at least with mc you can guess. no where to hide here if you don’t know your sht.
I second that. I will have to change my name to ‘mcpass - essayfail’.