It’s very tempting to read over the prep notes rather than reading those huge mungus CFAI textbooks. I can finish reading prep notes in a month but to finish read CFAI books, at least 2 months, which means less time for review and practice questions. Since prep notes cover all the kep concepts anyway, you think I can pass exam as long as I thoroughly understand prep notes materials? What ya guys think?
didnt you ask a slightly different variation of this question already? few people can do it. if you are of the few then go for it. but the majority would probably fail. what is the opportunity cost?
Why would the majority of people fail? I’m pretty sure if you fail L1, it’s due to things other than your choice of study material.
I know many people who have passed on their first attempt using only prep materials. I used only Schweser (except for Ethics I read CFAI) and passed on my first try.
I used Stalla only. Didn’t read a single chapter from the CFAI books. The only thing I did from the CFAI books were some of the EOC multiple choice questions a couple weeks before the exam.
Yo flo7002, so you passed? During the exam, you didn’t feel like you missed anything?
100% yes…
Used Schweser Notes and Qbank exclusively, for 45 days of studying, and passed. I would not recommend using Schweser exclusively for the Ethics section as their question structure doesn’t align well to the real exam for that section. A mock exam will give you a good feel for this disparity. My thoughts are that using Schweser only, I covered probably 90% of the CFAI material, and mastered 95% of it, which exceeds the 70% threshold, and made it possible to do so in a short amount of time. Good luck, you can do it.
Oh, make sure you take lots of sample exams throughout your study period. I disagree with the notion of leaving them til the end. It gives you a better sense for what lies ahead, your comfort with the existing material, and the timing and depth of material.
I passed… I don’t remember seeing anything on the exam that I hadn’t seen before… Maybe a couple questions? I struggled with the quant sections the most, but that’s just because I didn’t put as much time for it as I should’ve and only had one statistics class in college a few years back. And I thought the FRA sections were really easy, but I have an accounting background. The biggest thing is to find the system that works for you. For me, I lose focus after reading a couple pages in the CFAI books, and I like to have concepts/formulas explained to me. That’s why I like the Stalla video lectures. Like others have said, it all works as long as you put in the hours… just depends on what you prefer and how you can learn best. Two things I would strongly encourage you to get, as you get closer to the exam are the Elan 11th hour review, and their mocks.
It might depends on your background but I would say Study notes + EOC questions + CFAI Mock is enought (for level 1)
i never looked at the CFAI books… ever. Passed with >70% in all sections expect derivatives. If anything, the actual exam was much easier than the Schweser tests i was taking as practice. The key to the Level I exam, i felt, was in knowing the details. Just having a good high level knowledge of the information and being sufficient in the calculatinos is not enough. There arent even that many calculations to do. Schweser is more than sufficient to get you a good score on level I, you just have to treat everything as though it is important. For instance, just reading technical analysis few times and understanding it is not enough… memorize all the contrarian techniques (just as an example). Know that the S&P 500 is a market weighted index (i think…). Again… just an example. success lies in knowing the details.
I used only Schweser notes to pass but its too too too risky to depend solely on Schweser notes. Many impt sections not covered in Schweser. Please use the CFAI books. It;s hard but it’s a must.
I passed Level I using Stalla and only looking at the CFAI materials for Ethics. It worked fine. I will use that same strategy for Level II.
CFA Level II is significantly more challenging, and you might want to read some of the CFAI texts. For Level I, just read the ethics section of the CFAI and read the Schweser stuff extensively, doing all the EOC questions in the CFAI books and reading any chapters in the CFAI where I bombed the EOCs. That’s what I did to pass, got all >70%.
Sounds like most of you are getting into the Prep Course trap if you intend to go the distance with all three levels. I recommend CFAI texts, Q-bank, and Practice exams, CFA Mock and Sample Exams.
If you need a process for going the CFA Texts…google this “My Recomended CFA Study Schedule” W