For what its worth, I didnt do any CFAI EOC’s and had no finance background. I did read every word of schweser, did all schweser practice tests and most importantly did all CFA mock exams. I passed all three levels first time.
If you are unsure of whether you can rely on just schewser then try this. Look at a CFA mock exam and try and answer every single question open book using Schweser. If you get more than 85%/90% then you can rely on Schweser!
I’ve relied on Schweser for all three levels. The trick is to do enough pass papers and start doing questions as soon as possible. Yes you’ll get a lot wrong at the start but that’s how you learn. My advice would be to not waste time reading the CFAI texts and use this time to do practice questions!!!
Can it be done with just schweser? experience says yes if youre in the 80th percentile and above in these topics and quantitative intelligence/problem solving.
If you can’t say yes, I recommend you have a real strategy using the combination of materials.
Try 90th percentile. In ballpark figures about 30% to 1/3 or so of takers pass Level I, and of those who do, about the same fraction pass Level II. For “quantitative intelligence/problem solving” in general, I was definitely there when I went to school; perhaps that is something you either have or you don’t, but I’ll be jiggered if there’s not a vested interest against a guy just plain studying hard enough and working through all the material to pass the exam—and yes, a real strategy with a combination of materials and ample opportunity to practice. Come on now, what’s that about “all the useless stuff in the readings you don’t need to know”? And videos? Sure they might be helpful for some people, but I imagine they must cost a buck or two if somebody comes out on a forum to hawk them this hard, and I’m not in the mood to buy all this paraphernalia from somebody who claims there are all kinds of substitutes for plain old hard work and preparation to pass an exam that happens to be both difficult and rigorous.
There’s something the CFAI calls the “Candidate Body of Knowledge” and it seem like the intention, anyway, is if you know this stuff and you have the “quantitative intelligence/problem solving” skills, then you pass the exam, and if not you fail. Practice, practice, practice is what it takes, and don’t listen to anybody who tries to make a big secret out of it and obfuscate the matter, “skipping this to save time to do that” etc.
I can’t tell if you’re agreeing or disagreeing, but for the record, I am one of those who actually reads the books and stick to cirriculum. If you put in the time and you have an excellent practical understanding of the problems and concepts (no hesitation in answering any question), chances are you’ve set yourself up to pass.
There are a lot of little tidbits of information that CFAI tests you in, and I would not be surprised if they put them in the exam just to smite you schweser and prep course users. Given that a number of questions on the exam will be conceptual, you are really at a disadvantage if your conceptual prep is all from Schweser, as they don’t cover those “useless pieces of information”. Now by the numbers, you are probably aiming for at minimum 5/6 per set for a solid pass, and if they even put 2 or 3 qualitative questions in there, you are most likely in trouble. Does it sound like its worth it pay money to put yourself at a disadvantage? You are pretty much reading off someone else’s notes, Notes in essence are vital points you want to remember after READING the source material, for me, notes only stick when you use your own.
Hi, I think there is no point in furthering this coversation. I gave my honest and sincere opinion and advice on “my experience” and advise on what worked for me in the hope that it may help someone. In case you failed to read in my post i also mentioned, everybody is different do what works for you and take anything useful from my experience. Or leave it all as you see fit.
For the record there are countless number of people on this forum and in general which swear by and pass all 3 exams using schweser only. I dont work for schweser and whether you pass or fail is not going to affect my life in any shape or form whatsoever and I only wrote this long post in the hope that it maybe usefull for someone.
Given this, saying that “It sounds like somebody is hawking test prep wares of dubious worth on a forum on the internet”. was not only very offensive but also very rude for someone who is offering his experience for free for the benifit of others (like many others on this forum who want to give something back from the benifit they recieved from this forum).
Well i will follow a mix of both cfa and scswer… Lets see how it goes. Did derivatives from scswer + arif irfnullah videos. Now will do Equity from CFA book + Arif irfanullah videos
I’m thinking schwesernotes and elan’s qbank (it does the vignette style questions right?). maybe throw in some arif irfanullah vid’s but I didn’t watch anything for level 1 so not sure how much I’d use them.
My .02: I used Schweser exclusively for Levels 1 and 2 (except for the EOC questions), and I thought it was more than enough. Schweser cuts out all of the “fluff” that CFAI gives, and still retains all the “big picture” points. So, while it does take some shortcuts, the cuts are the things that take a lot of brainpower to recall and offer very few points on the exam in return. On the Level 2 exam, there were a few questions that I did not see in Schweser (not that I forgot it–Schweser didn’t even bother to cover it at all). But these are few and far between. The time savings and brain savings more than made up for it. I will probably follow the same format for Level 3.
Planning on reading Schweser, will supplement with blue boxes from CFAI text and do the EOC questions. I am a retaker and have previously used CFAI exclusively which left very little time for a second pass of the material. With Schweser, it is easily doable to read the material, do CGAI EOC questions, take practice exams and do a second pass through the Schweser text, leaving the last couple weeks for mock exams and review.
If you look at the passing scores for the last Level II on this forum, I was actually suprised that quite a few people were passing just doing CFAI texts, mocks and no supplementary guides. In addition, all the advice I have gotten was to not get caught up so much on the schweser questions, but on the CFAI end of chapter questions.
The method as far as I know that Schweser and whomever makes their guides is they ask test takers what the questions are like on the test and formulate questions like that. If the material doesn’t change that’s fine, but it just seems more appropriate to focus on CFAI text since they are also making the test.
I don’t have 8 months to study therefore I’m using Schweser… you couldn’t pay me to read through CFAI material. I will read through some of the end of chapter questions for practice but that’s it. I know many people that have passed without ever opening a CFAI book and some people swear by them, its not a big deal - whatever works for you. Would also highly recommend the Standards of Professional Conduct Book for Ethics review. Do all the questions at the end. Read through a few times.
I come on this forum occasionally to see what people are thinking, and this thread caught my attention. I will be taking L3 in June, and having passed L1 and L2 on my first try i thought i would share a few brief thoughts. First, i have never opened a CFAI book…ever. Never did an EOC question or took a CFAI mock exam. I used Schweser materials only and can tell you that the study guides are more than enough to prepare you for the material you will be tested on. With that said, i did not put in nearly enough time on L2 and im pretty sure i squeaked through by the skin of my teeth. Regardless, the point is to pass these exams not to get a 100%. The bottom line is that the L2 curriculum is very difficult, but whether you learn from the CFAI texts or from Scheweser is irrelevant… you just need to know the concepts and the material. In my opinion studying from the CFAI texts would be a very inefficient way to go about it, but then again everyone is different. With that said, i will probably tank level 3 so take my advice for what its worth.
I don’t think Schweser is enough. I got rocked on the exam in 2010 as they had questions that was not covered by Schweser. I’m gonna read all the material from CFAI this time and focus on EOC questions and mocks…
I am the king of procrastination and thus only truly study with six weeks on the clock. (thus heavily relying on Shweser and revision books). Never had time to really go through the CFAI material.
Managed to pass the Schweser practice exams (~70%) but found the real exam questions a bit of a hit and miss and thus failed.
Personally, considering there is a one year wait between exams, there is no point chancing it and being equipped with the CFAI seems prudent. Saying that, spending more than 100 hours for studying will probably help alot too.
I’d really like to do two readthroughs of schweser this time, something I really wished I had done for L1.
1600 pages @ 10 pages/hr = 160 hrs reading 56 readings x 2 hrs/reading = 112 hrs EOC, concept checker, self test, etc 270 hours, which is a lot… For those who’ve done 2 read throughs in the past, whats the strategy? Just power through the first time, then do the practice questions the second time? Do all problems both times through? Regardless what I do, I need to be done with all the readings by May 1st… (and haven’t started yet…December writer)
Or would you read through the book, then read through it a second time doing the review then, before carrying on to the next book?