Hey Guys, Nice to be back in the saddle. This is not my first time writing the level 3, but I am not a quitter so I am making every effort to ensure I pass level 3 this year. I am starting earlier than usual, I started reading the Secret Sauce from a previous year in September and am now reading the main readings. I find them extremely easy to read compared to Schweser which can sometimes be extremely boring. The question is, if I give myself enough time to read the main textbooks by Christmas, and have them read atleast one more time by the exam, do I need the Schweser notes? I will probably use Schweser to use their previous exams and the computer programs for study questions, as well as the new secret sauce, but is it worth reading the condensed writings if I give myself alot of time and chug through it for about 2 hours a day for 8 months? Thanks, your support is much appreciated. I wish the best of luck for all of you this year.
Hi best of luck. I answered this on another post but for your convenience: use the CFAI materials. They have everything you need. By all means practice with third party exams etc but in my opinion you should do your main studying with the CFAI books. Like you I had to do Level 3 more than once. I made the mistake of using Schweser materials (got books, CD-ROMs, quizzes you name it) and it didn’t work out for me. Plus I found the Schweser customer service most unhelpful. When I used the CFAI materials exclusively, I passed. This may not be everyone’s experience but this is what worked for me. Best of luck.
for a given time constraint i would go with schweser. saves you time reading which in my opinion is better invested in doin’ practice problems. just from a marginal perspective… but this definitly also means to do CFAI EOC. every question you can get. if you have a lot of time and you are more interested in the educational value, go for the main books. but don’t loose sight of passing. had quite a few courses at university in which i was interested a lot but ended up weaker than others because i lost a bit the target to nail down the exam while reading and not doing problems.
This is also not my 1st time and I am also debating between how much Text and how much Schweser. I can do text only and spent necessary amount of time to cover all but then wondering if I am going to loose the focus on the exam. Last time I felt I knew the material but somehow did not practice enough or stratigize for the exam point of view. My problem is if I do text only then how to review the curriculum when you reread or in the last few days because review would be a key to reinforce and rereading the text seems too much of lots things when the exam does not require to write so much. I did not take much notes before and debating if I should do it this time and how or reread through Schweser for review. I have family and kids and its hard to reenergize for taking the exam again and again however willing to do anything to get it over this time. Best of luck to all of you and I appreciate others input.
@Peterstepon If you go through all the practice exams of schweser for 2010 (2 volumes) you’ll see that there are subjects not completely covered by schweser, even some formulas were missing. One of them was evaluation of an asset to be included or not included in a portfolio based on Sharpe and variance measures. And that subject WAS ON THE PM EXAM this year! So I was really happy to have gone an extra mile. So I would suggest you use at least a combination of the two. EOC of the curriculum are much better for some readings than schweser’s. I solved all schweser text + 2 volumes pr.ex. + live mock exam of schweser (helped me with timing) + some EOC of CFAI + some chapters of CFAI books. Passed this year. Actually, if you search the forum, there was a similar thread where people shared their experience about materials they used and whether they passed. Do a search for the current year.
Schweser addresses every LOS. Are they going to cover every possible item? No way, but what makes you think you would catch it by going over the entire CFAI books? My combination will be as follows: CFAI for ethics and IPS; Schweser for balance.
I’m going to do exactly was goesto11 said. I used Schweser on LI and LII, but for ethics which I read in the CFAI. On heavily weighted sections I would do CFAI EoC to supplement Schweser EoC. In general anything that is subjective or very wordy (IPS/Ethics), I resort to CFAI, all else schweser.
bills Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > My problem is if I do text only > then how to review the curriculum when you reread > or in the last few days because review would be a > key to reinforce and rereading the text seems too > much of lots things when the exam does not require > to write so much. > What I did was read the text (i.e. CFAI materials) and take practice exams. Based on the exams I would make a note of where I did poorly and then review that area in detail from the main CFAI materials. I did about five practice exams.
markCFAIL Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’m going to do exactly was goesto11 said. I used > Schweser on LI and LII, but for ethics which I > read in the CFAI. On heavily weighted sections I > would do CFAI EoC to supplement Schweser EoC. In > general anything that is subjective or very wordy > (IPS/Ethics), I resort to CFAI, all else schweser. Oddly for ethics on my 2round of level 2. I ditched CFAI and went completely with schweser b/c it was so much shorter. After going through that and taking notes, I can’t recall ever not getting below a 4/6 on ethics during my practice exams. Totally crushed it on the real deal too. This could obviously be biased b/c it was my 2nd round and my study habits were improved, but I felt like I understood more b/c there was less fluff to deal with.
each to his or her own. There is no right or wrong way. Some have passed with all Schweser, some with all CFAI, and some with a combination of both. Do what worked for you in LI and LII (except Qbank which is pointless in LIII)
newsuper Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > each to his or her own. There is no right or wrong > way. Some have passed with all Schweser, some with > all CFAI, and some with a combination of both. > > Do what worked for you in LI and LII (except Qbank > which is pointless in LIII) Why is the QBank worthless? I would imagine for the morning session, but the afternoon session as well?
goes to eleven Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Schweser addresses every LOS. Are they going to > cover every possible item? No way, but what makes > you think you would catch it by going over the > entire CFAI books? My combination will be as > follows: CFAI for ethics and IPS; Schweser for > balance. +1…I’m sticking with what worked in L1 & L2, which was pretty much exclusively Schweser for reading, and only using CFAI for Ethics or other subjective chapters (parts of corp finance) and all EOC ?s.
CFABLACKBELT Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Why is the QBank worthless? I would imagine for > the morning session, but the afternoon session as > well? QBank was pretty much worthless in Level II also. In fact, I think it might actually make you worse off as it might make you think you know more than you actually do. I would think Qbank for L3 would be even worse.
I guess I’m one of the few QBank supporters here. I learn best by doing - not reading. For level II I was done with it by May, at which point I moved onto mock exams. Obviously EOC’s and text examples are more useful, but the QBank can be a valuable tool if used in a correct context. The bottom line - there are no subsititutes for time. If you put in an ample amount of time and effort, the tools you use become less significant. The QBank works well in my position because doing questions and seeing quantifiable improvement keeps me infront of the books and away from the tv, internet, pub, etc. Everyone’s different, though.