Was just looking over my Schweser notebooks and noted that on the back cover it states: “The Essential Complement”. This got me thinking whether this is a caveat put out by Schweser to cover themselves for candidates who fail and attempt to place blame with them. Which begs the question, what are the pass rates for those candidates that rely solely on Schweser vs. the CFAI materials? After reading the first CFAI Lvl 1 book (ethics & quant) I can’t imagine going through another CFAI book which is why I’ve switched over to Schweser which seems to hit the topics one needs to know and moves on. I do have some concern that Schweser may gloss over the topics but at the same time the CFAI books go into the much detail which just wears you down. Thoughts?
I believe that all of the prep providers that are listed on the CFAI website (including Schweser, Stalla, Elan, etc) have signed an agreement with the CFAI that prevents them from promoting their products as a substitute for the CFAI materials, prevents them from advertising customer pass rates, etc. http://www.cfainstitute.org/partners/examprep/Documents/cfa_prep_provider_guidelines_manual.pdf
I’m not sure which level you are on but I’ll guess level one. Schweser is fine for level one. It’s pretty fairly tuned because most people only take level one and there is a higher market demand for the materials. Once you move on to level two I’d highly advise reading CFAI source materials.
I agree, I just flat out do not trust schweser past level 1 as a sole study prover. I think Scheweser is great for getting you about 70 percent of the core material cheaply and succinctly. After that though they do not concern themselves with the detail in the CFAI text nor presenting questions of the same level of difficulty. For this reason I recommend that anyone past level 1, read schweser first, answer their questinons. Once you are comfortable with that you can go to the CFAI text EOC’s and see what you missed. There will be lots of stuff that you never heard of. Also Schweser has this tendency to call things differently than the CFAI text which can be tricky too. I really do not recommend that anyone sit for level 2 or 3 without having looked at the CFAI EOC’s and Mocks in detail.
That said I would also like to note that I don’t think I ever could have passed any level of the program with just the CFAI books. They are clunky, wordy, and just too volumous to teach you effectively.
Ditto on most of the comments: -Schweser/Stalla is probably the only thing needed for Level I -Level II I’m only using Schweser as a way to skim the material. Once September rolls around I’ll probably use CFAI texts to really “get” the material and use Schweser mock exams for practice.
Prior to 2008 the curriculum was not included with the registration and I knew no one that purchased both. Schweser is fine to pass all three exams.
The recipe for most people I know who took the exams (also my recipe) was soley schweser for L1 and L2 and schweser + the CFAI texts for the portfolio management sections on L3. Passed in 2009.
Watson, CFA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Prior to 2008 the curriculum was not included with > the registration and I knew no one that purchased > both. Schweser is fine to pass all three exams. Historical indicators are not necessarily good indicators of future performance Watson. The game might have changed!
el duque Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Ditto on most of the comments: > > -Schweser/Stalla is probably the only thing needed > for Level I > > -Level II I’m only using Schweser as a way to skim > the material. Once September rolls around I’ll > probably use CFAI texts to really “get” the > material and use Schweser mock exams for practice. Damn dude… you are already hitting the Schweser materials for the june 2012 exam? They are not even available yet…that is insane. i hope you don’t burn yourself out. enjoy your summer and then get geared up.