Recommended study materials - Kaplan Schweser or another source?

CFA General
#1

I will be sitting for the June 2015 Level 1 exam. Does anyone have recommendations for me regarding supplementary study materials, i.e. Kaplan Schweser, AnalystNotes or another source? Any advice/guidance would be appreciated.

I have been told to review the Institute’s materials very carefully and to give this priority, but would like to augment this strategy with a third-party.

Thank you.

#2

I went through all three levels using Schweser’s Premium package. Never cracked CFAI books for L1, and only for EOC questions for Levels 2 and 3.

#3

Stick to Schweser. Why mess with a winning formula for tens of thousands of people?

#4

Thank you for the advice. I also hear that AnalystNotes was helpful. Do you have insight on this resource, or even others besides Kaplan Schweser?

#5

AnalystForum is also helpful if you stick to the level forums. If you end up in the Water Cooler, you’re no longer being productive.

#6

Please stick to schweser and do only Eocs from CFAI texts.

#7
#8

i agree with whatever you said

#9

^ You should make it a habit :wink:

#10

I was planning to study from the original CFAI books for L2, what’s wrong with them?

#11

For level 1 you can suffice with Schweser alone. For levels II and III, and in my opinion, you need to go through the CFAI material to increase your chances of passing (Scheweser does not fully cover the material for these levels and you won’t be able to dodge the tricky questions on the exam with the knowledge gained from schweser). People who have gone through level III PM session for this year will know what I mean.

#12

Disagree; tons of us here passed all 3 levels using Shwesser alone. Everybody that uses materials from company X and then fails level Y, will loudly proclaim that company X’s materials are insufficient for passing level Y.

#13

You are assuming that the approach of questions for CFA exams in recent periods has not changed to be more broad and intelligent for the same amount of difficulty, Something I’m sure Schweser would miss occasionally.

#14

I have not stated that one cannot pass the CFA level II or III exams with schweser alone, all I said is that it “increases” the chances of passing when one goes the path of CFAI books rather than some third party material.

Similarly, when one passes CFA level II or III exam using solely third party material it does not mean in any way that the third party material is sufficient to pass. It could simply mean that the exam in that particular year was focused towards areas that were actually properly covered by these third party materials, or that the candidate could be well versed within the investment universe that all he needed was a simple schweser/stella notebook to pass, or it could just be pure luck!

All in all, I assume it is safe to say that studying the CFAI material will increase one’s chances of passing CFA level II or III exam versus simply buying third party notes.

#15

I will be preparing for the June 2015 or December 2015 Lv. 1 (still undecided). It seems like an equal divide between Schweser and Elan followers. I like the idea of using TimePrep with the Schweser guides, but I’ve been reading awesome reviews about Elan.

Can anybody comment on the Elan Guides curriculum? Thanks :slight_smile:

#16

The only complementary material you need is Schweser. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel.