I took L1 a couple years ago. I used only Schweser and thought it was more than adequate to pass L1 very easily. L2 is where Schweser becomes not so useful, and after being on this forum for a couple years and reading a lot of posts, this seems to be the general consensus. Not to put anyone down, but L1 compared to L2 is really easy. L2 is probably 3X harder
I agree with spartan and mfin. Blaming the test providers for doing bad is not the way to go specially since there have been thousands of charterholders who have passed using only prep materials (Schweser being the most popular of them all).
Test preps are hand-holding tools to get you some discipline to understand the material. I don’t like them. I tried Stalla and they were ok, but to learn you have to read the stuff really well. I may not pass, but I undertsand the material.
Okay I am going to take a step back and reiterate some points that are being lost on most of you except for robjames it appears. First, I didn’t say I failed the exam. I think there is a pretty good chance I passed the exam, especially if there is a curve. By all accounts, the Schweser mocks are more difficult then the actual exam, and I got a 74% on my last mock so I am not extremely worried. Second, the overall point I was stressing which is being lost on everyone is that the Schweser books stressed *different concepts* more heavily than others, and the more heavily stressed concepts were, in my opinion, not tested heavily on the exam. Without violating CFA conduct policies, I can’t really go into detail about what was or was not tested on the exam. Suffice to say, the ‘blue boxes’ from the Schweser books rarely showed up on the exam while the fluff in between seemed to run rampant. By all accounts the exam was easier, and would have been easier if I knew to prep a certain way for it. If I have to retake in December, no doubt in my mind I will pass because the questions weren’t overly difficult, I just spent more time on the apparently irrelevant, albeit more important material.
Relax man! I have confidence u can pass!!! (based on what u described) My Kaplan’s experience: I studied for 3 weeks only and I passed CFA L1 Dec 2010 using Schweser notes alone. I did 10 mock exams and they were pretty useful. But I guess my overall score is <60% or even much lower because many questions came out look unfamiliar. (50% guessing for my case). There were many alien words I never seen in Schweser notes. I thought I would certainly flunk but I PASSED!!! No worries, U can do it! Btw Level II is much more difficult than L1. I shudder everytime I look at the formula sheet. I regret using Schweser notes for Level II seriously.
The exam is a lot easier that the Schweser tests. I think they try to over prepare you and make you learn everything. As I’ve always said, it’s quite easy to over-prepare for CFA 1 (the actual questions are pretty straightforward) in my opinion and get bogged down in the minutiae without seeing the bigger picture. So, with that said, I think you can argue that Schweser can leave you somewhat ‘unprepared’ (or perhaps leave you false expectations - that might be a better way to describe it?)
johnnyBuz Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Okay I am going to take a step back and reiterate > some points that are being lost on most of you > except for robjames it appears. > > First, I didn’t say I failed the exam. I think > there is a pretty good chance I passed the exam, > especially if there is a curve. By all accounts, > the Schweser mocks are more difficult then the > actual exam, and I got a 74% on my last mock so I > am not extremely worried. > > Second, the overall point I was stressing which is > being lost on everyone is that the Schweser books > stressed *different concepts* more heavily than > others, and the more heavily stressed concepts > were, in my opinion, not tested heavily on the > exam. Without violating CFA conduct policies, I > can’t really go into detail about what was or was > not tested on the exam. Suffice to say, the ‘blue > boxes’ from the Schweser books rarely showed up on > the exam while the fluff in between seemed to run > rampant. > > By all accounts the exam was easier, and would > have been easier if I knew to prep a certain way > for it. If I have to retake in December, no doubt > in my mind I will pass because the questions > weren’t overly difficult, I just spent more time > on the apparently irrelevant, albeit more > important material. Buz, I know exactly what you’re saying… and I actually feel the same way about Stalla.
False expectations is a good way to describe it. I’m not fretting over it and I’m not trying to start a pity-party here. Worst case scenario, I retake and pass in December. I know I knew enough to score high 60’s, so if lady luck is on my side I will have passed. I honestly cannot believe the doucheness of some of the posters on here though. Certified F’n A-holes is more like it. And thank you for the kind words as well Houjichasan.
A friend of mine took the Kaplan course and I had been asking him concepts the instructor deemed important. He was off target stating certain topics “won’t be asked so there is no need to look into them.” Terrible advice. Good thing I studied on my own thinking of what obscure questions my intermediate accounting II professor would ask if this was his exam. I understand time is valuable, but I really don’t know how you can go through this exam without reading the CFAI books once over. Good luck, hope you did pass.
I took Level I in 2009 and passed with flying colors after studying Schweser almost exclusively. HOWEVER - I also did ALL the end of chapter questions in the CFAI text. If you don’t do those, you deserve to fail in my opinion. Oh, also, if you are getting frustrated with Level I, don’t bother continuing. I studied the exact same way for Level II and got Band 6. Retook this year and we’ll see, but Level II is honestly at least twice as hard as Level I.
How rude and inconsiderate! Does it make you feel good to blast “You deserve to fail” ? @ johnnyBuz - Keep the Faith!
I think this thread has become battleground to take out frustration after the exam. I don’t know if this is going to make any difference as good number of people are still going to use Schweser as preparation material in spite of the fact that some people are expressing very negative views about them. Sorry for the long post but I am a big time advocate of using Schweser notes so deep emotions are reflected here. Based on my research with people who have passed all three levels in three successive attempts only with the help of Schweser, they say that Schweser mocks are of course not true representation of the real exam. It’s way too harder than other preparatory materials and actual CFAI exam but they do prepare you for the worst. Being over prepared using challenging materials like Schweser is better than being under prepared using other easier materials. CFAI doesn’t guarantee that exams are always going to be easier, harder, theoretical or calculation intensive. What if they had set the exam at par with Schweser standard and you had prepared using some other providers like Stella or Elan(Although I am not in a position to comment about other specific providers as I don’t have experience of using them but I heard they are easier than Schweser), you would have had no chance of passing the exam. With Schweser, at least you have some chance of passing the exam. Think about it from the perspective of preparatory material like Schweser, why has it been so successful and most popular in the past? Even if I was to design a preparatory material, I guess I would have followed the footsteps of Schweser only. There are several reasons for this first, if you try to cover every single terms and concepts from CFAI books, you will end up creating replica of CFAI books. Well, what is the use of preparatory material if it’s going to consume same time as CFAI books and going to as challenging. Second, good part of the exam is covered on calculations and preparing for calculations is much more easier than covering for every single theoretical concepts. Once you know the calculation, it’s all a matter of plugging in the values here and there and getting the result. Odds of getting calculation question correct is much higher than theoretical concepts. Because if you know the process of calculation and know the areas where you can make potential mistakes then there is no way you can get the question wrong. Some folks might disagree with this but if theoretical concepts were this easier than everyone would be scoring 18/18 on ethics. Right? But most of the people don’t. I think Schweser does a pretty good job of identifying and making you familiar with the potential mistakes you can make while calculating a value as long as you cover the material comprehensively. That said, I am not sure whether you guys have gone through line by line on Schweser material or not; I did, and I know they have disclaimer in the beginning itself that notes are just to assist in efficient learning. They can not be considered absolute benchmark for the preparation. In fact, Ethics section does say that they highly recommend using CFAI standard handbook which is downloadable from the CFAI site. How many of you really downloaded? About CFAI books, if you are sure that you have brain of Einstein and memory of Swami Vivekananda and can remember every single line just by studying using CFAI books then why have you even wasted money on preparatory material? I know I don’t have and I can’t remember so much of information just by going through the material. My brain reacts more when I do lot of practice questions and Qbank is a pretty solid option for that. I am pretty happy with what they have offered me. For the people who have below average intellect level like me, I think Schweser is a pretty good study material. And I feel I owe a lot to Kaplan and don’t care even if I fail in the exam this time. But I am pretty confident that if I work on my accuracy about getting 90-95% in Schweser mocks, practicing Qbank more(This time I could hardly use 15%) rather than lurking around and switching between materials, I would definitely pass in the December exam. However, before making any decision about any preparatory material, ask yourself how many hours can you really afford to spend for level 1, if it is going to be gamble like I did, planning on spending hardly 2 months for preparation, I would say preparation material like Schweser is one of the best choice available in the market because with CFAI books, in two months, you might not be able to finish 2 books with full understanding, forget about passing the exam!
Sgupta, I know we have a lot of time now the exam is over but damn that was a long post 
Anyway I agree with what you said But I also understand what Johnny means. I think the Schweser material does a great job in cutting the fluff and narrowing down the concepts which is easier to retain than the chunky cfa books. But the mocks its true that not only are they more difficult (which is good) but they are a bit different (bad). As I said before, the cfa exam was closer to its own mock and sample exam but I still found the Schweser mocks helpful. Johnny I’m sure you did well. We all came out a little frustrated I think. In my case, I felt like I shouldn’t have allowed to make any silly mistake after all the work I put in. But that’s not realistic of course. And anyone who tells a hard-working candidate who is anxiously waiting for 7 weeks to get those damn results that he or she deserves to fail should be in violation of the code of ethics!
We may be ‘douchebags’ for sounding harsh… but welcome to the real world… I like helping those who work hard, but not for people who are going to complain constantly or don’t use common sense. Finance is a stressful career, and if you don’t show results you’re out…that’s why I love it; good competition among those who love it too… Alot of you guys remind me of those students in university who would go complain to the professor that the exam was ‘not fair’ I love people who truly put the hard work and dedication in this designation…I don’t want slackers or morons to be able to pass… go ahead, trash talk to me all you want lol… after all, it is the internet
MFIN— Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > We may be ‘douchebags’ for sounding harsh… but > welcome to the real world… > I like helping those who work hard, but not for > people who are going to complain constantly or > don’t use common sense. > > Finance is a stressful career, and if you don’t > show results you’re out…that’s why I love it; > good competition among those who love it too… > > Alot of you guys remind me of those students in > university who would go complain to the professor > that the exam was ‘not fair’ > > I love people who truly put the hard work and > dedication in this designation…I don’t want > slackers or morons to be able to pass… > > go ahead, trash talk to me all you want lol… > after all, it is the internet Seriously, shut up. I just vomitted in my mouth a little bit as I was reading your post. Get a life.
haha I was hoping i’d get something like that… best of luck…
MFIN— Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > haha I was hoping i’d get something like that… > > best of luck… ooooh burn… you really showed me up there.
Believe it or not, I’m not interested in pointless arguments. You’ll agree with everything I said once you make it to level 2 and 3…
Believe it or not?.. Umm, I’ll choose not - I know this because you are checking this thread every 5 minutes for a response, aren’t you?
Indeed I am, but not to tell someone off lol just to see what is said anyway, i’ll log off…but my ‘douchebag’ toughts remain intact and you’ll experience much more of it if you get into finance