Hi, my first post here :). I am in final year of under degree in Math/Stats (economics minor). (Not sure if it would help me in this exam). I signed up for June/10 exam last month and was wondering if you guys could provide me with some input. I would really appreciate it. 
like Schweser or Stall or just CFAI ? There are so many resources and I just don’t know where to start or what is reliable :S. I glanced over material and my main worry is Accounting part, since I don’t have prior background. Should I just stick to CFAI material ? Thanks a lot in advance
CFAI if you are free 24/7 otherwise go with Scheweser. Much more to the point and does a great job preparing you for L1 Schweser books + Qbank + mock exams = a guaranteed pass in L1
I agree with ZeroBonus. With your stats background, book 1 will be a piece of cake for you. Lucky for you it is worth 27% of the exam, but that includes a section on Ethics, and dont think for a second that ethics is about being ‘nice’. You might need to rely on the CFAI texts if you dont have a background in accounting/finance…you will definitely be needing that to familiarize yourself with the basics. Maybe some extra courses at college will help, and then you can register for L1
thanks guys!! Yes, I took finance class as my elective in my second year and somewhat familiar with npv, annuities etc. I am just concerned about the accounting part, since I haven’t done anything related to it. Maybe I’ll just do FSA part from CFAI and rest from Schweser’s material.
I agree with zerobonus and sunusg up to a point; however, Schweser does not cover everything. I would still use the CFAI text and use Schweser as supplement. That was my approach and I will let you know next month whether the strategy pays off. The exam this December referenced alot of inlformation from the text that was not in Schweser; however, Schweser covers 70% of the curriculum, the minimum you need to pass the exam.
There is a whole book dedicated to accounting, and it is 20% of the exam. You will definitely have to be familiar with the basics of accounting. You need to know your way around financial statements, if you can navigate those easily, it is much easier (or rather it makes it possible) for you to grasp the content in the CFAI textbooks.
Q bank + Schweser Notes + Exams doesn’t guarantee a pass. Trust me. I did every fricking q bank question, and the CFA ones are on a whole new level. The only way to pass it, like agjamesnewyork said, is to read the CFAI and know it cold. Only way to guarantee a pass, and still there are gonna be 10-15 questions which are like wtf is that. Schweser simply isn’t extensive enough. If I had to do it again, I would go with Elan, who I hear is great, or just man up, and comb through the CFAI materials.
I must say though, I took one financial accounting class in college and found it to be a breeze (thanks to a very clear and organized lecturer). But when I got to the FA sections of the CFAI texts, I almost died. Since you have no FA background, would suggest you beef up that section with study material from other providers… Think CFAI should cover the rest quite adequately for you, if you have the time to read it all 
hueler, reading it all is when the pain begins. id rather stay constipated for six months than read those books. it is just too much information, and whoever knows it cold is really smart by my standards. dbfinley, CFAI does say that nobody gets a 100%, and we shouldn’t expect to know every question on the exam…so that is a relief
sundusg_ Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > hueler, reading it all is when the pain begins. id > rather stay constipated for six months than read > those books. it is just too much information, and > whoever knows it cold is really smart by my > standards. > > dbfinley, CFAI does say that nobody gets a 100%, > and we shouldn’t expect to know every question on > the exam…so that is a relief I somehow convinced myself to have some patience and read almost all of it last year, except for a few FA at the back where I just gave up and ran out of time. Suprisingly I did okay for FA (50-70%). But I did feel quite good when I was able to answer the obscure questions. This year, not so much. Definitely felt a bit shaky on what Schweser didn’t include (or maybe they did and I didn’t take notice? Bleargh.)
No hueler, Schweser just wasn’t enough this year, which is funny because I think it probably was enough for the June. CFAI just looking to take another 1000 bucks from us, by asking such obscure crap
by the way, i havent given credit to schwesers secret sauce yet. i didnt even touch it except on the night before the exam, when i was too nervous to look at the ‘real’ material. and secret sauce had alot of concise last minute refresher points, and coincidentally they were in the exam too so i was just in luck
thanks for all inputs I think I should stick with CFAI and in addition do EOC problems and Practice test volume 1 from Kaplan (since I already got hold of Kaplan 2009 material)
dont forget volume 2, but lets scare you with that later
I don’t know why people thought the exam was hard? I personally looked only at Schweser notes and I still feel confident about it
ZeroBonus Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I don’t know why people thought the exam was hard? > I personally looked only at Schweser notes and I > still feel confident about it Hahah, see the nycanalyst thread, don’t be surprised when you get a failing score.
> http://www.analystforum.com/phorums/read.php?12,57 > 3010,573010#msg-573010 > > http://www.analystforum.com/phorums/read.php?12,59 > 6582,596582#msg-596582
dbfinely, ur pretty anti-schweser eh? And whats the point of posting links to these threads? Or telling ZeroBonus that he might get a failing score? Just coz they said they used schweser? If you bombed the exam don’t spell doom for the rest of us. Cheer up mate.
Not spelling doom, just giving friendly advice to people on the forum. I wish I had known before using Schweser. Just my 2 cents alphaboy, you can use whatever you want. Good luck mate!
dbfinley Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Not spelling doom, just giving friendly advice to > people on the forum. I wish I had known before > using Schweser. Just my 2 cents alphaboy, you can > use whatever you want. Good luck mate! Dude its not my fault that I found the exam easy using Schweser and you didn’t. May be I can remember what I read better than you can? Ever thought of the idea that Schweser had the answer to 95% of the questions on the test and you just failed to remember the material? You are the ONLY person on this forum who keeps on complaining about how Schweser failed to cover many of the questions on the exam, while there are many people on this forum alone who have passed L1 using only Schweser material and based on how well I think I did, I will be one of those many come January. Stop telling (more like scarying) new members information that is completely untrue. Schweser is and will always be more than enough to pass L1. You are the outlier here mate.