Question for you level 2 folks.

Hey guys, I am still working on level 1. I have a quick question that I can never seem to get answered in the level 1 forums. Is the Schweser Qbank an adequate gauge of preparation for Level 1? Does it parallel the difficulty of the actual L1 exam, or is it significantly easier?

Q bank, I have HEARD (I have not used it ever, might buy it for level 2), is not hard enough. I did questions in all 6 books of CFAI cirruc and found that to be representative of level 1 in june 08

They are easier but good for practice. I will most likely get it again this year but I will also doing all of the questions from the CFAI texts this year as well.

The schweser questions are more straight forward than the actual test but they were very useful in helping me retain a lot of the information I studied. best, TheChad

I studied Level I exclusively from Schweser books, i.e. notes, exercises and mock exams. It prepared me very well for the exam.

Q-banks is excellent for Level I, not as good for Level II.

it is the best review, and some question were very similar to the exam

Agree with maratikus L1 good preparation. Do a much better job for standalone questions. L2 not so good. Poor to fair for Vignette style.

Schweser Book 6 (Prac Exam Volume 1) is a fair representation of the real exam. Book 7 (Prac Exam Volume 2) is more calculation-based so more time-consuming and the problems are indeed a bit more challenging. I thought Qbank was somewhat aligned with the real exam questions; maybe a tad bit easier. Hope that helps. As far as doing problems, I tend to diversify, using multiple sources. I thought the 7-city ones are pretty crappy. Haven’t really tried Stella ones yet though; I had some other random ones (but forgot the names) and thought they were ok. Overall, I thought Book 6 was the best.

not what you asked… but i thought book 6 of schweser is much more challenging than cfa exam. exam has some tough questions but i didn’t really find them challenging (more like “i don’t know”, “i don’t know” for the two part qualitative questions… but calculation questions were generally reallly easy)

i passed lvl 1 on 1st attempt, i studied solely on schweser notes , didn’t touch the official curriculum at all, the book 6 from schweser is like the actual exam (perhaps a bit easier) , book 7 is harder than the actual exam. schweser is very good at preparing u in a short time

I passed L1 first attempt in June 2008. Q-Bank is all right for when you just finish a reading and want to to know how much you retained. BUT it is not even close to the actual exam!! They are usually waaayy too easy (even the “hard” ones, I think), and don’t come close to actual CFA. Great practice is Schweser Exam Book 2. It is harder than the actual CFA, and sometimes obscure and mind numbing and annoying- but if you can get through that with a decent score, you should be set. Just don’t go by your Q-Bank score.

Whatever you use, CFAI questions, qbank, practice exams, other prep providers, my advice is the same… Take the review seriously and use all you have availible in the time you have to study. My pitch is Qbank gives you a chance to target a topic and get solid expanations behind their answers.

The Q-bank is great. Honestly, rip through as many problems as you in there. The hardest level of problems in the Q-bank are wordier but on par w/the real deal in terms of difficulty. But the easier ones are great practice, too.