I am sitting for Level 1 in Dec. in HK. I have been studying from my Schweser notes and now I am running into problems in the Quant section. Needless to say, I do not have stats background …so its all new to me. In order to avoid last minute horrors and to really understand the material well, should I invest in the Stalla CD package? I have heard that Stalla CDs are very helpful because Peter Olinto explains the material really well. Since I am in HK, I cannot attend live classes. Please help…
It’s still early, so don’t panic. I’d move on to Economics, study that, and then come back and look at stats again. Every time you look at it you’ll learn more and more, so when you feel stuck, make a note of it, and then move on. You can get the CD’s but I’ve never found that stuff helpful personally.
I assume you have also reviewed the Quant section in the actual CFAI curriculum?
The Stalla CD’s were worth it to me. There are many on the board that don’t need them/find them not useful, but the CD’s really filled in the gaps for me and made me confident on exam day. Peter Olinto is particularly good in the quant section. As others have said, don’t spend too much time here though. Lots of other material to cover.
Read over Quant in the CFAI curriculum before you spend more money.
Thanks guys. I will try the CFAI books. I haven’t hit them as yet. Just been going through the Schweser notes. Jcaseyjones: Do the CDs show how he approaches the problems or do they just show him talking? The Schweser CDs are useless. Its like the instructor is reading from the book or something.
If you get bogged down by some concepts, just post them here. I am sure someone reading your question would have understood that concept well. Currently, all who took L1 in Jun are still in this forum. After the results, you could post your questions in L2 forum too. Just a suggestion.
sstella, if the Schweser and CFA text doesn’t do anything for you, try finding videos on YouTube on the topics. There’s a load of them on there if you’re the visual-learner type.
sstella, yes, problems are worked. each lesson has many questions throughout that you’re supposed to answer. you try on your own, then you click a button and he explains how to work it from start to finish. in addition to learning how to work that type of problem, he also gives some pretty good general test taking tips. as i mentioned, lots of folks on the board don’t think they’re worth the price (the videos are not cheap), but if you don’t do this all day as a career, it’s nice to have a voice explain it to you in plain terms. i would echo the comments on using other free online aids. youtube is great, particularly the vids by bionic turtle (he has great quant videos as well as videos on equity valuation and lots more). you won’t find all topics covered, but a lot are there.