I think Schweser is great for the exams but it really only gives you 85% of the material. So… to pass you would need to get about 82% (70/85) of the questions right of the material you studied. With the CFAI books, they take longer but really drill in the points much better. I would rather only have to get 70% of the CFAI material I studied rather than 82% of the Schweser material I studied. I failed last year using only the Schweser material (I used only the Schweser material for levels 1 and 2). This year I used the CFAI material and then reviewed with Schweser. I didn’t want to leave anything to chance but we’ll see what happens on results day…
I will use Schewser for the first round, and do EOC in CFAI to review. Once you understood something, the next step would be sharpen your skills and keep the materials fresh in your mind till the test day. The approach did help me pass level 1 and level 2 in first attemp. Why change it?
I’d heard that CFAI text is required for LII, so I’d started reading that. But then it’s just so lengthy and verbose and I got so lost that I finally did Schweser for LII along with CFAI EOC questions. What works for me are constant reviews, so I’m jst apprehensive that using CFAI might mean probably going thru the material once or twice max. with lower retention compared to Schweser. Basically, I guess it would be difficult for guys who’ve been using Schweser for LI & LII to switch to CFAI all of a sudden.
I think its most impt to go with what you are most comfortable with. I know of ppl who failed using CFAI books and ppl who passed just using schweser, so I think its really down to each individual.
I aced level 1 and 2 on the first attempts using only Schweser books and qBank. For level 3, I tried doing the same: 1) read the books 3 times 2) all end of section questions 3 times 3) over 3,000 qBank questions with my last 20 question sets of 60 questions each over 90% (88% for total 3,000) 4) 2-3 mock exams - CFAI 5) 2 sample exams - CFAI Yet, I’ve already started restudying the CFAI books as I did feel blindsided by Schweser. I guessed on perhaps 40% of the exam. My advice: 1) CFAI as main source, Schweser to clarify things (if they cover it) 2) Study the HELL out of fixed income
askajan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I aced level 1 and 2 on the first attempts using > only Schweser books and qBank. For level 3, I > tried doing the same: > > 1) read the books 3 times > 2) all end of section questions 3 times > 3) over 3,000 qBank questions with my last 20 > question sets of 60 questions each over 90% (88% > for total 3,000) > 4) 2-3 mock exams - CFAI > 5) 2 sample exams - CFAI > Did you do all the CFAI EOC’s as well? or did you just do the Schweser EOC’s? > Yet, I’ve already started restudying the CFAI > books as I did feel blindsided by Schweser. I > guessed on perhaps 40% of the exam. > > My advice: > > 1) CFAI as main source, Schweser to clarify > things (if they cover it) > 2) Study the HELL out of fixed income
Schweser is more than enough! We’ill see, I have results coming up in a week.
The main study material I used to prepare for the L3 exam was from Schweser and I agree with LaGrandeFinale that it is enough. Though for sure I will know coming Monday.
I relied on Schweser as my main study material last year … I guess it wasn’t good enough for me … TORA_TORA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The main study material I used to prepare for the > L3 exam was from Schweser and I agree with > LaGrandeFinale that it is enough. Though for sure > I will know coming Monday.
I used just schweser (didn’t even do the EOC problems in the CFAI text this year)… … as to whether it’s enough: we’ll find out in just under 5 days…
I’ve heard lots of people say Schweser wasn’t enough for LI or LII. I used CFAI for Level I and Schweser for Level II and killed both in one year. I’m glad I saw these comments. I am going to get Schweser but focus more on the CFAI than Level II. Also I want to retain Level III knowledge better than either of the first two.
I passed L1 12/2009 without opening the box on the CFAI books. Schweser all the way and 1 CFAI Mock lots of qbank and book 1 of the Schweser exam. I scored high. I passed L2 using only the EOC’s from about 80% of the readings i did not read CFAI. I used the CFAI Mocks and practice from every year I could find. I also used every level II question that Schweser had, all mocks and q-bank. I scored OK enough to pass but not >70 on all. My plan for LIII: Sorry but I’m here in 1 year and I tired to read CFAI but you have to be kidding me. For me L3 is going to be= Schweser Books, DVD’s and every question from every place I can find. I’m 25% through the 2010 Schweser Material I plan to be through the it with notes and note cards by mid next month I will use the CFAI for the new readings. Yes I’m nuts but I don’t bring a knife to gun fight, the cost of just failing by not putting in an extra 100 or 200 hours quite a bit more than getting it done the first time. Also after killing myself on L1 & L2 I’m actually bored at night so with 10 months to study I better get through.
Now that the result is out, I can let you know what I used to study for L3 and passed: - Schweser Notes (read it twice) - EOC questions on CFAI curriculum (I think this is very important). - All the practice questions I can find (mock, schweser practice, past exams) I didn’t read the curriculum; only used it as a reference for when there are things I don’t understand on Schweser.
Same as Linda although I never read a word of the curriculum, only the EOCs Did that for all 3 levels and it worked fine.
Schweser was an excellent complement for me. But I would never recommend Scweser by itself.
I used Schweser exclusively for Levels 1, 2, and 3. I also did their week long study seminar for all three. Passed all three consecutively. Didn’t touch CFAI for Level 3 at all. Level 1 and 2 I think I did some of the EOC problems. I thought about it the last week or two of Level 3 and then when I started looking at them I realized how much different the CFAI books are for L3 vs Schweser. They’re organized differently and the questions just seemed different. It actually scared me how different they were. Especially given that I noticed this at the last minute. Schweser got me 95% of the way there and let me focus on the core ideas vs wasting my time on the details that may be a question or two on the test. So much fluff in CFAI material.
I only used Schweser for all three levels, went 3/3. So yeah, if you know everything in Schweser you’ll be fine. In level three it’s also important to take the past AM exams, but don’t go too far back because the material changes every year.
For people that used Schweser only it seems that they only got about 1/2 less above 70. That to me is a risk I was not willing to take.
CFA Jay Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > For people that used Schweser only it seems that > they only got about 1/2 less above 70. That to me > is a risk I was not willing to take. 1/2 above 70% isn’t really borderline. If you look around at the scores on here, there’s a lot of passing with only a few >70%. 8 out of 16 at >70% seems to be pretty good. Keeping in mind that the majority of the rest need to be 50-70%.
Schweiser is Enough as long as u understand and comprehend what schweiser is trying to teach us. I never used any of the CFA material for level 1,2 or 3. though level 3 exam format is quite different and one needs to prepare for that.