I am a zero financial background, started prep just a week back. I have got schweser notes but see that a number of concepts/formulas in it are unexplained. When I saw a sample video of the session I studied, I found a number of details misssing from the notes. The video helped a much better understanding for the reading, though it might not be directly required to solve the questions - not very sure. I was thinking if it is worth getting the videos - hearing not so good comments about the audio thing in another post. Any reviews? Please suggest me what to do.
I can’t suggest you what you should do, but I may add that I was happy with the on-line program last spring (it was my second and successful attempt at passing Level I). I never considered getting the videos, only the on-line lectures. The lectures helped me to keep on track and not fall behind. If you have zero financial background (I have some such background) I belive you might want to get some sort of support for explaining things that one will later on take for granted. There is some sort of “Book -1” lining out basic concepts (I haven’t seen it and have not heard any positive reviews) but you might want to check it out for yourself to see whether it is of any use in your case. For instance if you have trouble knowing “debit” from “credit” or differentiate between “government bond” and “floating rate note” you might want to have something really, really basic on the side. That book - or some similar book - might be useful.
Thanks for the reply Wawa. You scared by talking about the various bonds - I dont know what they are given that we dont have many things of the kind in India! But as of now I am not sure how much time I am left with to go to the basics. Will surely consider your suggestion the moment I feel that my readings are going too slow bcoz of the basics at anytime.
amit_edge Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Thanks for the reply Wawa. > > You scared by talking about the various bonds - I > dont know what they are given that we dont have > many things of the kind in India! But as of now I > am not sure how much time I am left with to go to > the basics. > > Will surely consider your suggestion the moment I > feel that my readings are going too slow bcoz of > the basics at anytime. India is completely Equity driven, I got to know something of likes called a ‘Bond’ exists only when I moved out of India, before then, I just knew one bond with YTCall of 007 from the Hollywood. Amit, if you are planning to take L1, it’s a steep learning curve. I gave in around 600+ hours and still only 50% sure of the outcome. All the best buddy!!
Amit, if you’re in India, I feel you should really benefit from first checking out whether you can take the exam at all since there are some proceedings with a local institute going on there from what I gather by reading here. Don’t worry about the specific instruments; if you don’t have a financial background that would be explanation enough in any country for not knowing the difference between a “government bond” and a “floating rate note”. Check out if you can find something useful - there are many sources; Schweser/Stalla (and similar), the local book store at some nearby university giving classes in Business Administration and Economics, the main library in your nearest larger town, Amazon.com, … If you have the funds for it, and a fast internet connection (crucial, mind you), it could perhaps be worthwhile to consider taking some on-line classes to be able to keep the speed up when studying for the June exam. It’s so easy to fall behind. Haven’t seen the videos so I don’t know what they’re like.
I have been watching the videos and found them very useful, mostly because I am not the kind of person who can sit with a book. Being an engineer, I dont have a strong finance background except a few university courses and I cannot give much time either. So if you have can spare the money, I’d say videos are a good way to speed things up.
Wawa - yeah I know that there are some problems writing the test in india. But I am in UK now, and so its fine for me. I really really lack the basics and have to keep googling for things to understand each time I sit with the books - only to make studying so draining. I am not able to concentrate for more than an hour anyday. Will try out the videos, if they dont work - I will surely take some other help (like the ones you suggested) to speed up my preparations. Thanks again for your replies guys!