I’m going to take one of those weekly Level II courses that start in January. As far I know there are 3 orgainizations offering Level II courses in Boston, Schweser($999), Stalla($1190), and The Boston Security Analyst Society($1495). Anyone have some thoughts as to which one is the best?
That probably varies from year to year, depending on who is teaching the classes. I think Stalla has 1 prof for all the classes, while Schweser and BSAS use different profs depending on the subject. Schweser & BSAS both have a mix of univ. profs and industry practitioners, mostly univ profs with Schweser and mostly industry practitioners with BSAS. From what I’ve heard and experienced, all can be a bit uneven at times. Industry practitioners are really interesting for insight into how it works in the real world but can be a mixed bag for exam preparation if their presentation/pedagogical skills aren’t great or if they get carried away talking about their own work rather than what’s on the exam. BSAS gives you access to their past practice exams online; Schweser has a practice exam and also gives you access to the online weekly class with Tim Smaby. Personally, I think you get more bang for the buck with the Schweser class.
Thanks for the input, I’m going to wait a little longer before I sign up, still.
Shurmon, if you’d like more input, use the search function…your question has been asked here before…and you could see what other people have said…
I took the BSAS course this January-May. I personally thought that it was a rip off. I didn’t benefit one iota, and I didn’t meet anybody to network with. The professors were knowledgeable, but I totally found myself skipping classes as time went. Oh yeah, the courses were on Temple Street (or Winter Street), and parking was a problem for me. I’d always show up late for classes. What a rip off! However, the password/username for the courses is actually transferable. So a good idea is to share your membership. I noticed that this happened quite a bit!
I took the BSAS Level 1 courses and tought they were okay, but not great. The Quant, FSA, and Equity instructors were good, but the rest were very average to below average. I’d rather have mostly university professors versus industry experts because their teaching skills are far superior. I’m trying to decide between Schweser and BSAS for Level 2 (assuming I passed Level 1 in Dec.) go4it’s post indicates that Schweser has mostly university professors which makes me lean towards the Schweser classes. Additionaly, it appears the Schweser class is $500 less expensive compared to the BSAS classes. If anyone else has insight on comparing Schweser versus BSAS, that would be great. Also, I used the search function and found some old posts (from 2003) were candidates ripped on BSAS, which makes me wonder whether or not their program has improved…
I woud keep in mind that in order to benefit from these classes at all you have to put in some work on the material beforehand. There is nowhere near enough time for these classes to instruct you on all the little nuances of the material. I view them as a suppliment to my study regimen, not the primary source.
Wheather it’s the right decision or not, I’d like to take the BSAS because it seems like a good place to network and I like the idea of the instructors working in our field. My gut feeling is I agree with the above posts that the Schweser will be the best course. I took the Schweser 3 day crash course for level one and I thought the professor was really good and really knew what we needed to know for the exam. This professor was from Suffolk, real nice person also.
Don’t know how many are in the BSSA classes, but the Schweser classes are pretty large - typically over 50-60. And they have about the same mix as the BSSA ones - lots of people already in the game as well as those trying to break in. So, my guess is that the networking opponrtunities would be about the same.