As the subject says, which is more effective to pass? CFA curriculum books or Schweser or both? And if both, who to start with first?
Depends on your time constraints. If you can start early I would suggest using CFAI text for easier topics first. Then when Schweser is released use that. Then go back to the CFAI Texts for the more diff topics. If you start around Jan Schweser alone can be enough but can have holes and leave chances to make mistakes on the exam. Do the EOC Qs from CFAI texts. Or you can use the CFAI texts alone or combined. I think as long as you put in the hours any of the above options are good for a pass.
I’d say use the search button. It’s your friend.
If you start studying now, read the CFA curriculum books. If you start studying next year, read Schweser Notes. Do lots of questions from the CFAI textbooks & Schweser’s QBank. I wish you the best and see ya in L3 forum next August!
I used CFA books and Schweser Practice Exam Vol 2 book for Level 1.
Didn’t open CFAI books, passed with all >70’s except 3 areas. I must say that I missed a few questions because I didn’t used CFAI books, but who cares.
For the exam I have never ever read any other book except the CFAI curriculum. For both the levels (1 and 2) it required patience. To me it is all good knowledge in those 6 books. And I did pass both the exams respectably. I have not worked in this domain so to me everything was a new learning. Just go through all the material once. If you do not understand some parts in the first reading do not panic. Just complete a SS and then give it a second read. And this time after covering the whole SS things will start making lot more sense and you will see how different readings are connected. The problems at the end of the chapters are really good. They were an eye-opener for me especially after reading the content in most of the tougher chapters. While reading the chapters I felt I understood everything completely and that feeling gets stronger because when you have the solutions in front of you it is easy to understand them. But while doing the problems I found that I had to really think through them. I could just dedicate 1 month for L2 prep. but I did spent 12 hrs every day on an average. And 5 days before the exam I scored 55% on the only mock I took. I messed up in the mock because I had no clue about the topics for most of the sets and in those last 5 days I covered all the remaining chapters. Bottomline: Read all the chapters from page to page. Another advantage of reading CFAI material I felt was that Economics, Derivatives, Portfolio Management were a breeze. If you read the material these topics were not so tough on the exam. FSA was almost like problems at the eoc. I scored <50% on one section … Corp Fin … and I feel the reason was that I did not read that book properly because I had that course in the MBA program. That is the only part of my result that upsets me. However, it implies that reading each page of the curriculum is so important. I loved reading the CFAI books. The chapters are well written and most of them are I presume somehow derived from the best books in each subject area. But I have seen people who did pass the exam after just reading Schweser stuff. I could not have done that because I have to read the topics in detail to really grasp them. So your choice depends on your way of studying. If you have time I will suggest that by March/April do read all the books once. That last month was comparable to hell for me. 90% of each day was studying, sleeping and eating. No fun, no chilling out with friends. Also, I noticed that there were people who were more calm few days before the the exam day because they did take lots of practice tests. So for practice tests I guess you can use Scheweser. No practice test can ask you questions that will be like those asked by CFAI on the D-day but giving these tests will make you more confident. That is what I perceive in retrospect and I will take them for Level 3. Good luck!!!
Thanks guys
Schweser for L2