I was planning to use the 2011 Schweser notes to prepare for the 2012 Level III exam but am I correct in saying that it seems they’ve changed the curriculum quite a bit: http://www.finquiz.com/cfa_level_3_curriculum_changes_2011_2012 Do you think I can use the 2011 Schewser notes, or would they be outdated? Thanks!
Use common sense. For completely new sections, use cfai. For things that didn’t change, use Schweser. For small tinkerings, use ur own judgment.
You are probably going to fail if you relying only on Schweser so it really doesn’t matter.
If you actually peruse that link, you’ll see that not much has changed, and so you should be okay with old Schweser for the vast majority of the material. The exception is that Behavioral Finance has been completely reorganized. The gist of it is going to be very similar, but this is the only section where you’ll have to get new material. To my best figuring, the following 3 LOS have been removed: a) Evaluate the sensitivity of equity market value estimates to changes in assumptions. b) Explain the market opportunities that may be exploited to earn excess returns in derivative markets that are otherwise zero-sum games. c) Recommend and justify the risk exposures an analyst should report as part of an enterprise risk management system. …And these 2 LOS have been added: a) Critique the use of discounted dividend models and macroeconomic forecasts to estimate the intrinsic value of an equity market. b) Describe trading strategies of managed futures programs and the role of managed futures in a portfolio. So note how minor all these LOS are, how similar they are to the rest of the material anyway, and how much easier it would be to just learn the three unnecessary older sections with the gain of not worrying about what you can skip this year. In short, use the 2011 Schweser notes except for the behavoral finance section, and learn the 2 added LOS. Not bad at all.
I had exactly the same question. Thank you “cfathat” for asking and thank you all for answering especially “chaddy”. “ramsey8582” I was planning to use mostly schweser(2011)notes for my preparation and I am wondering why you seem to think that they are not good enough?
I’m glad they reorganized the behavioural finance section- I found last year it was poorly written.
+1 about the behavioral finance section, last years seemed so disjointed to me. I’ve heard that Schweser for level III is not very good and leaves out a lot of detail. I primarily use CFA texts with Schweser as a suppliment to help me focus on important topics and provide clues on how to answer specific questions - not as my main study source. Even with the little bit that I use Schweser I have seen areas where they lack seemingly important details, so I agree that Schweser should not be your only source for information at level III. I think Schweser looses a little of effectiveness at each level: Level I Schweser can be your only study source Level II Schweser can be used as a “primary” study source Level III Schweser should only be used as a suppliment