Hey there. I´m not sure if topics are usually same in March and September?
Does it make sense to buy recent Schweser or Uppermark packages to prepare for September? Or will there be some changes? Thanks a lot.
They haven’t announced. If I were you I’d hold off. They could “fine tune” their curriculum but I also am betting they will update their materials. The CAIA textbook was for March had a million typos and wrong end-of-chapter answers, etc., so if they are smart they will update, and then the Test Prep folks will have to also tweak their materials. It’s an unknown at this point but if I were you I’d wait to see if they will bring out another edition for September.
Thank you. My plan was to have enough time to study not as intense in a short time as for CFA. But I get your point and it makes sense to wait. Didn’t know that there are so many script errors.
Honestly, I don’t think you’ll gain much by starting early. I think if you study early you will forget the details and end up studying it again anyway. CAIA has a wide breadth of materials but I don’t think you benefit starting any earlier than say mid-May. Just my thoughts as a CFA who went straight to Exam 2 in CAIA.
I will be right around 200-220 hours by the time I finish studying in March. That is enough, I wouldn’t advise anyone to study any more than that.
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Prep providers obviously struggled with the changes in the curriculum, making it necessary to improve for the Sept exam. Not only typos, but also wrong EoC answers etc.
I started reading the CAIA textbook, then switched to Schweser, now in the final review before doing practice exams (Schweser being delivered onl end of February…).
Marlowe: how ist it going with your studies? As a CFA Charterholder I also used the stackable credential program, exploring just a few overlap with CFA content. Do you use Qbank exams?
I totally agree that Schweser and UM have to do their homework. But topics should stay the same?
After this fresh makeover of the curriculum, I cannot imagine they’ll change it again within the next 6 months. It now includes a significant portion of ESG and some new current and integrated topics.
I get your point with starting early, before being aware of the curriculum changes, I bought used Schweser books for the March 2019 exam. Not the best fit, but helped gaining insight on the content.
Hey Bremen, yeah I am also doing CFA stackable, I wouldn’t even be doing it if I had to take both exams but it was enticing to go straight to 2, and frankly I thought it would be something to do this winter while we’re still under lockdown.
It’s going overall well, but some topics like Topic 2 I’m shaky in, and yes I use UpperMark and starting a few days ago I started doing the questions after having read all the materiel.
If I took it today I’d be borderline but I think I’ll get there as long as I keep hammering the Qs. it feels like we have more formulas to memorize, that is my biggest Gap at this point.
What do you think of the curriculum and how hard it is compared to CFA 1-3?
The quantity of stuff is less imho than for all CFA levels, which makes it easier, and I get the feeling I can rely on content I learned throughout my CFA studies (CPPI etc.). I did the whole Schweser Qbank (separated by topics) and scored appr. 87% on average. I’ll also have to memorize the formulas (expected life, growing annuities) and learn by heart the reporting stuff (weekly, monthly and so on), but with a little more than 3 weeks to go (online exam on March 16th), I hope it’ll work.