Anyone taking CAIA exam before CFA? Is CAIA textbook necessary when I have Schweser study materials?
Yes, but you need to be specific. Are you talking about any specific level? I decided to complete CAIA before CFA since I’m aiming for a hedge fund operations role… For L1 CAIA you can probably pass on study materials alone, assuming you have a decent test bank. L2 is another story. Hope that helps!
Yes, at least CAIA level 1. toHFanalyst, do you have any finance background? what do you mean on decent test bank? or anyone take CAIA & CFA at the same time? can it work?
I sat CAIA Level 1 in September and CFA 1 this december. There are a number of common areas for both: The Ethics and a lot of the Quant stuff are the same for both exams as both use the Standards of Practice Handbook. Also if you do CAIA Level 1, you will breeze through the Alternatives section for CFA Level 1. Other than those areas there is a big differnece between the work you need for the exams. CFA Level one is very broad in terms of topics that you need to cover, CAIA is more focused but has more depth in these topics. The question bank is important. CAIA textbooks don’t have end of chapter questions so you need a 3rd party supplier to test your knowledge. I used Uppermark QBank which had about 1300 multiple choice questions in it for Level 1 CAIA and I found this and excellent way of retaining information and a very realistic simulation of what to expect from the actual exam. Whatever you decide, good luck, taking on both qualifications is a big committment and will be no easy task, but if you put the work in you will get the results you want. I found both qualifications very interesting so far.
goaljs, I only have finance work background, but some particularly in hedge fund admin. I don’t have a finance degree if that is what you mean; i don’t even have any degree for that matter. Uppermark test bank was a good prep for easy answer questions (maybe 40-50% of exam) and also highlighting weak areas to work on. Others on this board have used Scheswer. I don’t think it matters much. What matters is that people recommend 80-85% on full mock exams to guarantee a 70% pass on the exam. If you wait long enough, packages are on deep discount in the last month prior to the exam. 3-4 weeks enough time to quiz your heart out! Hope that helps… Cheers,