Okay… I’m about to start cracking open the books and I was wondering what everyone’s take is on the CFAI materials. I noticed that the volumes are quite a bit thicker than Schweser would be. I haven’t yet ordered Schweser or started studying but plan on doing so next week. What is everyone’s feeling about this? I passed L1 and L2 using strictly Schweser materials, although like many, struggled through the Treynor-Black PM questions. Really looking for a lot of feedback on this from those who are currently using the CFAI materials and who used Schweser/Stalla or other provider notes in previous years. P.S - Anyone here who has this year’s Schweser Level 3, can you kindly let me know how many pages are in each volume… Just want to make a slight comparison. Thanks. Thanks PJStyles
I’m using Schweser for the most part. Four of the books are right around 200 pages and one is 270 pages. Don’t forget that includes practice questions and answers so the actual reading is considerably less. I will hit the CFAI books to do all the questions in them, plus read some of the sections that are very high probability to hit the exam. I had 4 buddies take Level 3 last year and all of them passed using a study pattern very similar to this.
The Schweser material seems lighter for L3. 3 out of the 5 books are barely 200 pages long.
Noticed too that schweser books are thinner… Compared even to our previous level 2 books. Not complaining though… When i got the cfai books, i really wanted to read those only and side step schweser. However, after a few reads, felt that i’m just not used to them. Too much info and i can’t feel the focus of the reading. Decided to resume with schweser but i’ll do the end section questions from the cfai books…
My issue with the CFAI books is that there is a bit of a lack of focus in ceretain areas. For example in one of the bahavioral finance sections on prospect theory there are mathematical equations. Do we need to know those equations? Of course not. But they are just presented I think to reinforce the “bigger” concept. I used Schewer alone for 1,2 and 3. I failed 3 in June, so I’m guessing either I didn’t fully get the picture from the notes or something else. I’ll hedge by reading all of the CFAI materials this year. It’ll be tough to slog through it all but we’ll all do our best.
come on guys, we’re suppose to be helping eachother out, but I didn’t get any replies to my question on another thread. So I will ask it again since this thread is relevant. Of the CR readings, which areas are must reads for the exam and which ones are sufficient with Schweser. I got through derivatives and it was brutal, and that was with using Schweser. I can’t imagine what it would be like to read the CR material on that SS. Point is, I don’t think reading derivatives from the CR will help you any more than Schweser, however I think areas like Behavioral Finance the CR is a must.
you likely didn’t get a reply because in order to answer your question one would have to have read either the entire CFAI texts or the entire schweser and even then it is hard to determine until AFTER the exam what would have been the best ‘text’ to study from…
after taking the level 3 exam this year…i wud advice u guys to study from the CFA materials…i used only schweser and a lil bit of stalla…but me and many other ppl felt that they wud have been better workin with the cfa material…i did manage to pass but i guess it was a close call…i think one can expect 10% higher if he were to study from the cfa material
CFAI material more verbose, but also more comprehensive, and you get a better sense of the emphasis of material. Schweser nice for review, but slogging through CFAI I think you get more of it.
the cfai books have pretty pictures.
Definitely CFAI stuff is huge, but after passing LII with it I cannot feel any comfort going through the notes
I’ll go with the same method that worked for L1 and L2 and which Big Babbu suggests for L3: read schweser and do all the problems, read “important” CFAI chapters, and perform all CFAI problems. I’ll also throw in a good deal of schweser qbank questions and watch the CD’s once through. After this approach, I don’t think there will be anything on the exam that I won’t be familiar with.
DirtyZ Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’ll go with the same method that worked for L1 > and L2 and which Big Babbu suggests for L3: read > schweser and do all the problems, read “important” > CFAI chapters, and perform all CFAI problems. > I’ll also throw in a good deal of schweser qbank > questions and watch the CD’s once through. After > this approach, I don’t think there will be > anything on the exam that I won’t be familiar > with. Sounds like a good plan. So the question is: What topics need to be reinforced by CFAI texts? I truthfully have no clue what topics are certain to appear on the exam. I guessed wrong in several instances on LII.
formulating IPS is certain to be on the exam and book two of the CFAI texts i would read for sure. (maybe exclude behaviour finance fromt he CFAI book two and use schweser for that section)… ya…that sounds good.
I have just started reading CFAI materials after passing levels 1 and 2 by using only schweser and one thing i have noticed immediately is that CFAI is much more comprehensive and descriptive than Schweser. The problem is that i find it very hard to stay focused and glean the relevant information out of pages and pages of info. From the past exams at level 1 and 2 i can say that reading volumes and volumes of descriptive information would not have done me much good. after all how much would one remember after 2-3 months time? what is important is to acquire essential knowledge and skills to be able to quickly and efficiently answer the questions on the exam. of course if one does not have any time constraints then reading through CFAI materials is a great idea, but for most of us time is severely limited so Schweser might be a much more efficient tool. That being said i will give it a try with CFAI for the next week or so but in all likelihood will switch to Schweser. Of course I am speaking from a perspective of someone who has never taken level III so i might be totally off the tangent here… any feedback?
sorry to be swamping the boards but I can’t help but notice how much better and more interesting to read CFAI materials are! Schweser is just bare bones of fact and logic but CFAI reads more like a collection of essays in a scientific journal ( i am on book 2 right now). In terms of efficiency for passing the test I am not convinced that CFAI is any better, but in terms of delivery and level of discourse Schweser and CFAI is like night and day.
CFAI materials are great. I love them. The problem with CFAI materials is that it is a little difficult to figure out if you’re focusing on the material in the right priority (i.e. what’s most likely to be tested vs. what is an interesting bit that might or might not be there). The test providers have years of experience in this, and although they don’t always get it right (Treynor Black, L2, anyone?), they have a better shot than I do. I have read some of the CFAI materials and when I get my Stalla stuff, I will have to decide which order to go through them. I am thinking to do Stalla first, with the idea that the CFAI reading will go a bit faster after having some basic familiarity with the material.
The CFAI texts are too long - it takes them 10 pages to express what schweser does in 1-2 pages. I’ve read 6-7 of the CFAI readings and the overlapping Schweser readings, and Schweser hits 95%+ of the key concepts. I’ll reiterate that I’m sticking with schweser readings and then devoting a lot of time to questions (schweser, CFAI, qbank). If you can remember the “laundry lists”, then this test will become infinitely easier.
expat in dublin Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > sorry to be swamping the boards but I can’t help > but notice how much better and more interesting to > read CFAI materials are! Schweser is just bare > bones of fact and logic but CFAI reads more like a > collection of essays in a scientific journal ( i > am on book 2 right now). In terms of efficiency > for passing the test I am not convinced that CFAI > is any better, but in terms of delivery and level > of discourse Schweser and CFAI is like night and > day. I am loving the CFAI material. This is the first time I get to actually see them and reading them is just a lot of fun. I am still mainly using Scheweser to study though, but will try to read them over the next 3 month, if not, then in the summer.
soooooooo tough to juggle between cfai and schweser notes - agree with everyone’s views, above, …I’ll never get through everything at this rate … the cfai notes are great but sooooo detailed and repetitive in places and schweser is to the point but misses on the nuances … what is one to do? uggg … I wish want to ace this exam good and proper