More fodder for CFAI v. Schweser debate

I was thinking about doing this… now that I’ve come to realize I most likely won’t have time to read both sets completely. What if I used CFAI for the conceptual wordy stuff, like explanations, and Schweser for the quantitative stuff, like anything with “calculate” in the LOS. I found that CFAI has better explanations since it’s all new to me, but Schweser gives better direct practice and more narrowing down of the equations we have to learn… If I don’t understand I can always refer to CFAI texts, or read Schweser if CFAI is unclear, but still make the CFAI- qualitative, Schweser- Quantitative my basic asset allocation. Anyone who’s taken the real L2 exam before should put in your 2 cents, it’d be appreciated.

I’m a selller as you just added a big operational complexity to your studying.

I’d herd on Joey’s sale. First, the CFA material isn’t organized like the Schweser stuff (i.e. LOS followed by the relevant material). So, there are search costs. Also, there are a lot of cases where you understand the CONCEPTUAL material by doing the calculations. Welcome to the “I don;t have time” club. It’s crowded, but there’s always room for one more.

Seriously. Why not just study Schweser, know that well, and get 75%+ on the practice tests? Not to be too judgmental, but you sound really, really anal. Do you make your bed every morning before work? I’m just curious…

No, I just don’t have a life :frowning: And I never make my bed. I was just in a general state of confusion when I received both sets of books, since I only used the Schweser books last time. But actually your plan sounds quite good. However, there are no search costs, I was talking about entire readings. For example, for quant sections I’d use the Schweser books and for Econ (which is mostly wordy stuff) I’d use the CFAI books. I’d never pick out individual LOS’s from each book, that’s just gross. I just meant if a good amount of LOS’s from a reading say “calculate” I’d use only Schweser for that whole reading. And I plan on doing the practice tests from both companies. So I just wanted feedback on whether people agreed that Schweser books are better for math-heavy chapters and CFAI books are better for concept-heavy chapters.

just use schweser to save time. anything you feel you need more then use cfai materials. dont waste your time @rsing about. get your head down and make some progress. trust me, its all about building confidence and ticking boxes at this stage

I think I have the same question – when I read the CFAI material , I find it much more well presented and it gives you a good solid understanding… Schweser just seems to rush things a little sometimes though they are very good at presenting the material is a focussed manner. Anyone here who is actually reading the CFAI material for certain topics and the schweser material for the other topics? It would be great if you could mention which source you used for each topic and the amount of time it took for each?

I will use CFAI for Fixed Income and Derivatives since I failed those on level 1. But other than that Schweser all the way. I think the key to success is do all the practice exams in front of you the final 4-6 weeks and make the necessary revisions. I think I have a total of 11 tests. Plus do all the Q-bank to supplement. Hopefully you will understand what you are doing wrong after that.