Is Schweser enough?

Hi - I am taking Level 1 in September and how so far read through the Schweser books and answered all of the questions. I am also doing a course with 7City. Do you think Scwheser + course will be enough? What else are you guys doing by way of preparation? Do you know where we can get more practice questions/mock exams? Cheers

I’d be keen to get more practice questions. I’ve read the study notes now three times. First pass to see the material. Second to understand the concepts. Third to really get the detail. I think that’s enough. I think this will be easy. Certainly with 7 city you should have more than enough. I think you just got to read, read, read, and clearly understand all the definitions and characteristics of everything. I could pass the Schweser practice exams right now I think. If you do find any good practice stuff let me know. I would like to see someone else practice exam.

I am also using the Schweser notes and online Schweser class. I have yet to start the book on Private Equity, but I read all the material from the old exam (march 2009) and it seems similar; bought the Schweser books to fill in the blanks. I am also looking for more practice questions. I would like to know what is everyone’s study habits? (hours, days, etc.,)

What book on Private Equity?

I originally read the “Handbook of Alternative Assets” by Mark Anson which was required reading for the 2009 exam (which I never took) and now getting ready to start reading Book 2 of the Schweser notes which focuses on Commodities & Managed Futures, Private Equity and Credit Derivatives.

got it. thought you meant a separate CAIA curriculum book (not Schweser notes).

As for me - I have read through all of the Schweser material and have done all of the questions in the book. After reading each of the 7 sessions, I also created a QBank mini-quiz of about 25-30 questions (more for hedge funds since QBank is full of them) to make sure that I got and retained most of the concepts. Once I finished the above, but before formally reviewing anything I had previously read, I created a QBank test of 100 questions of CAIA weighting. I wanted to see if I was retaining info from stuff I hadn’t seen in awhile. That’s pretty much where I’m at now… I’m now going to go back and review the reading again where I think I’m weak (although happy to note that I did fine on my 100 question test). I didn’t do a good job of committing equations to memory, which I will be sure to do. However, the material does not seem to be very quantitative at all so I will focus on memorizing definitions and really getting the concepts down.

mc123 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > As for me - I have read through all of the > Schweser material and have done all of the > questions in the book. After reading each of the > 7 sessions, I also created a QBank mini-quiz of > about 25-30 questions (more for hedge funds since > QBank is full of them) to make sure that I got and > retained most of the concepts. > > Once I finished the above, but before formally > reviewing anything I had previously read, I > created a QBank test of 100 questions of CAIA > weighting. I wanted to see if I was retaining > info from stuff I hadn’t seen in awhile. > > That’s pretty much where I’m at now… I’m now > going to go back and review the reading again > where I think I’m weak (although happy to note > that I did fine on my 100 question test). I > didn’t do a good job of committing equations to > memory, which I will be sure to do. However, the > material does not seem to be very quantitative at > all so I will focus on memorizing definitions and > really getting the concepts down. +1 on this I haven’t really done much with the qbank yet. But I’m actually think of cooling off a little. I think I’m a little overprepared at this point. I’ll ramp up my efforts towards the end of August, memorize equations, and drill problems.

Yesterday morning I made up a mock exam of 80 questions on the first 4 sections and got a 78. Not too happy about that. I usually study 5:30-7 in the morning but now going to try and squeeze in another hour some time after work.

I’m feeling the same, ChickenTikka. But I am a little worried I’m underestimating the actual exam…

I don’t think they afford to fail people that put in a reasonable effort. This thing is very fledgling. It needs bodies. Whats the pass rating? Something like 75 percent right?

Thanks for your insight guys, I’m pretty concerned that the schweser questions seem too easy and i’m luring myself in to a false sense of security. I’ve just taken cfa l2 and although I passed, alternative investments was my worse score and I did think I was pretty good at it! I’m just going to keep doing loads of questions and memorize the formulae and hope that gets me through :slight_smile:

Yep, Know the definitions of all the vocab. Know the categories and characteristics of all the different types of investments. Get a decent grip on their distributions, variance, skew, kurtosis. Sure, memorize the equations. If that doesn’t get it done than I’m not seeing what would. And I won’t shed a tear if I fail in that case.

Just plunked down the $1400 today for the exam, wanted to go out with co-workers but feel this pressing feeling that I must study now that they have my money! lol.