I’m studying the CFAI materials. I am on Book 3 Analysis and reporting. I have been on this volume over a week. Does anyone else find that they are reading what seems like a straightforward concept, then the example comes and you don’t know what they are talking about when they move to an example? I am not a dumb person, but it’s like they are teaching me basic math in the text and asking me to do trigonometry with the info a sentence later. Any ideas? Do notes like Schweser make the concepts more easily understandable?
Well, it should take you more than a week per book. I have been following the rule of 1 study session per week. But, that’s not really your question. I’m preparing for my first run at Level I in December and I used the CFAI materials for Quant and Econ, and I just switched to Schweser for FRA. I like both in their own ways - CFAI is more verbose and provides examples, while Schweser condenses it down and gets through it more quickly. I must admit, if anything, I occasionally feel the way you described more so with the Schweser notes - they illustrate a seemingly simple concept and then ask you to solve a very intricate example without much explanation. I did not really feel that way with CFAI, as I thought they eased you into most topics with thorough explanation. Based on what you said in your OP, the only thing I can think of is to try slowing it down a little and reading each example more carefully (I think 1 week per book is way too fast), but you should already be doing that.
Schweser justs cuts out all the fat. It gives you all the info you need without all the wording poppycock. Yes, I said poppycock. This has been said time and time again on the forum, but I would definitely only reference the CFAI books if you’re confused about a topic and you want more clarity. This also depends on your background however. If you’re coming from outside the financial world completely, then it might be more useful/helpful to read CFAI. Personally I think CFAI books waste too much time. I never opened one of them for the June exam, and passed. Although I would definitely recommend you reading the CFAI material for the Ethics. Schweser just brushes over the LOSs and even says to use the Institute’s books for that subject. And keep reviewing. If you’re on the 3rd book, pause, and then go back to the first and second book to review a little bit. Otherwise you’ll read through all the books, get to the end, and have no idea what the hell you read in the 1st book.