I know this has been posted numerous times on the forum but had a little difficulty finding updated information this year. Furthermore I was a little surprised that there weren’t more posts throughout 2012 commenting on his classes throughout the country.
Although at this point in the game it is too late for any Level 2 Candidates I wanted to just reiterate how worthwhile his class is. Two days of intensive accounting that really focuses on understanding the core concepts as opposed to memorizing and guessing. My studying to date has included reading most of the material/watching the schweser lectures and doing EOC questions. The one section that I completely skipped up to this point had been the FRA material.
After hearing good things about his classes I decided to gamble and skip this entire section completely until the NYC class (4/20-4/21). I am glad I did this as the review (tiring at times to listen to 8 hours of accounting) was exactly what any candidate would need to focus their study efforts on this section. I really feel as if I have a strong understanding of the basic concepts and with the practice questions that I received at the seminar can tighten up any loose ends before the exam. Furthermore his workbook is so concise and focused – I’ve seen Stalla, Schweser, Elan, and every iteration of their study notes, 11th hour, secret sauce etc – the material that John Harris gives out at the seminar is really the most impressive display of taking an entire CFAI book and boiling it down to about 80-100 pages of notes and an equivalent amount of practice questions. I have not cracked the Schweser book for this topic - and outside of some additional EOC questions from the CFA books will study exclusively from the material I received at the workshop.
If you could find a “John Harris” for each individual section of the exam you could really get a decent understanding of the entire curriculum in about 2 weeks. The point of that comment being that while I enjoyed and found the schweser videos helpful they really don’t even come close to holding a candle to the accounting workshop/I wish they had individualized specialists that just focused on sections intensively – I know it would mean a larger staff but think it would pay dividends to candidates. I would even be willing to pay additional money to Schweser for a second set of Videos that supplemented the basic tutorials they already have for each section – just a thought.
Regardless I know my opinion probably isn’t worth much but wanted to create an updated “placeholder” for future candidates that search the forum. Good luck to everyone.