also Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > By the time you spend that amount preparing, it > wouldn’t really matter what you used. For “start > in March, and also take a week off RIGHT before > the exam” strategy any prep kit will be bad. What is wrong with this strategy? That’s still 3 months of prep. If you back out 80 hours for the off week, you have 170/12 = ~14 hours per week. That is easily doable.
First of all, 80 hours a week? That’s just not possible to actually spend 80 hours studying. Second, nothing wrong with the strategy in general, but I think again the books don’t really matter, either you can survive the pressure or you don’t.
I don’t agree. 80 / 7 = 11.4 hours per day. 24 - 11.4 - 8 (sleep) = 4.6 hours a day for non-studying. That is plenty of time to eat, shower, walk around the block, etc. If you can’t put in a hard 11 hour day 7 days in a row, you might not be cut out for finance. I’m not trying to be a jerk, that’s just how it is in this industry.
bromion Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I don’t agree. 80 / 7 = 11.4 hours per day. 24 - > 11.4 - 8 (sleep) = 4.6 hours a day for > non-studying. That is plenty of time to eat, > shower, walk around the block, etc. If you can’t > put in a hard 11 hour day 7 days in a row, you > might not be cut out for finance. I’m not trying > to be a jerk, that’s just how it is in this > industry. But most of finance won’t be as mind numbingly boring as cfa material 
Schweser’s materials are like the HGH of CFA study materials, except they’re legal, so you’re only cheating yourself if you DON’T use them.
for level 1 i thought schweser was amazing. there’s no way i needed the CFAI textbooks. i also put in enough time but. however, i used the stalla video for FSA only. for level 2 i thought schweser was absolutely horrible if used alone. i failed. i was very disappointed in incompleteness of the notes. i was very ready but i think i was very ready to take a schweser CFA exam. i also had a bad exam day. one has to quickly realize that schweser notes work great when used in conjunction with the CFAI texts. sure you can pass the tests with schweser only as many people have, but you run a great risk. the 2nd time around i used both the schweser notes and the CFAI texts. of course i had my previous year’s knowledge but i passed and felt that i was better prepared. i used schweser 85% of the time but that 15% of CFAI really helped me. for level 3 now that i will start earlier, i am gonna make more use of the CFAI texts.
Slash: when (month) did you start studying for L2 your first time around?
also Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > By the time you spend that amount preparing, it > wouldn’t really matter what you used. For “start > in March, and also take a week off RIGHT before > the exam” strategy any prep kit will be bad. That is pretty much exactly what my prep strategy was for L3 this year (I assume you mean “take a week off work right before the exam”. I used Schweser materials exclusively and got a 73% score by the 40/60/80 method.
cjones65 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Slash: when (month) did you start studying for L2 > your first time around? i started on feb 1st as i got my results from the dec exam on jan 17. i wouldn’t recommend starting that late if you have an opportunity to start earlier.
I passed all three lvls basically only using schweser and some cfai material. I think i used schweser since the alternative was just not realistic, I mean just to read through the 2500 pages of CFAI material would take 167 hrs and CFAI claims you should study 250 hrs for the exam, it’s just not realistic, to understand all those readings well enough to pass the exam you would have to at least read through them twice and take really good notes which would take much longer then 250 hrs. I mean I would like to use the CFAI material but it’s just not realistic for me. And the readings are pretty dense for lvl III I read through the notes probably 2.5 times but felt I gained very little from it.
you will pass the exam (maybe) with schweser only, but you will never have a full grasp of the material.
^^^Agreed but even with CFAI you will never have a full grasp of the material but yes you probably would have more of a grasp with the CFAI over schweser but not by much. Depending on how many times you go over the CFAI material.
I am 100% with you on that, but it should be clear that Schweser is great as a supplement to the curriculum- not a replacement. Studying the Schweser notes without working the CFAI practice problems is like taking a lot of HGH without going to the gym or batting practice afterwards. You need both to be truly successful.