CFAI material enough for level III?

Hi Guys,

In level II I studied a mix of both CFAI material and Schweser notes. Should I do the same for level III or CFAI material is enough?

Appreciate your help.

Regards,

CFAI material has always been enough for any Level. The debate has always been in regards to whether the prep providers’ materials were sufficient past L1. You will get mixed opinions on the latter, with no clear answer, as everyones experience differs

If you have time and stamina to study for 9 months then you can study from CFAI which itself would cover ‘everything’, if not then go for Schweser.

Keep in mind that none of us know if we passed yet, so there should be an asterisk next to everyone’s advise. That being said, I used only CFAI curriculum and thought it covered everything very thoroughly and it wasn’t overly challenging to follow. I personally thought the Schweser mocks were garbage.

ask again on the 09/08

Wait until 8/8 for advice please. We are a little focused on other things right now

Yup we are busy creating our ‘tell’ thread the most posted ever. That is our parting gift.

I felt CFAI text is better for LIII (i only read Schweser for L1,2). However, i realised this quite late in my reading journey. But sadly the ‘tough’ concepts that are well explained by CFAI are hardly in actual/mock tests commensurate to the time spent. If i have to do it again then it would be CFAI sprinkled with Schweser and not the other way round.

Use the CFAI books for Level 3. More specifically, I highly recommend using LevelUp Bootcamps and videos. Marc TEACHES directly from the curriculum. If you want to learn the material and be as prepared as possible to pass the exam- go to LevelUp.

For LI & LII i used CFAI almost exclusively as I liked the added color. For L3 the material is so dry and boring i had to use schweser a lot.

Hi,

With the L3 result out…Congratulations to all who have passed…and good luck for re-taker next year…

Re-posting this for your opinion…

Thank you,

Peter

Hi Guys,

In level II I studied a mix of both CFAI material and Schweser notes. Should I do the same for level III or CFAI material is enough?

Appreciate your help.

Regards,

I use CFAI material for Level3 more than anything compared with 1 and 2. I read a lot of it and I think CFAI does a good and comprehensive job explaning things and giving examples.

Only use the CFA material- L3’s material is much shorter than level 1 & 2, no excuse to try and take a “short cut” with 3rd party. CFAI tests from the material and there is no substitute for that, 3rd party material can be outdated, incorrect or both. Just hammer blue boxes and previous year AM tests over and over and over.

I can understand where you’re coming from if we’re only considering using the “study notes” from a prep provider while ignoring CFAI materials. You can’t get by with reading the condensed versions presented by prep providers at L3 (then again, I don’t think you could at L2 either.)

That being said- in terms of a full prep package (video lectures, mock exams, secret sauce, live mock) I felt like Schweser was absolutely worth it as a supplement the CFAI materials. I also wouldn’t consider it a shortcut- it goes without saying that it has to be combined with official CFAI materials/EOC/mocks, and I feel like as a whole my study plan was above and beyond what one could accomplish with only CFAI materials. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the package I used and I imagine at least some other successful candidates would agree.

I used CFAI exclusively and learned to grade my own papers strategically.

I skipped schweser as it was a $5,000 cost outlay. I wasn’t going to drop a bomb on their material if it was nearly as thick as CFAI’s. I got their secret sauce and quicksheet from a friend as supplements. Manual flash cards are too slow, use the chegg app instead.

I ran the entire CFAI material once. Never gone back to redo as it was not time efficient. Google and youtube are my friends. As well as AF.

If anything, past year papers are key to completing this journey. I skip all other test provider’s mock exams as some were unrealistically too hard or easy. CFAI’s middle ground is better to ensure you are familiar with the way questions are asked.