Schweser Guides

Hi,

I started my preparation for CFA Level 1 just one week back and I’m already scared abt how many things we have to remember.

I was told that the CFA official books could be replaced by the schweser guides, but reading online I found out abt flaws that they have, like emphasizing the topics they think are more important.

I was thinking abt studying Ethics and FRA using the CFA books and the rest using schweser. What do you guys think? Is it a good strategy?

Thanks!!

I never looked at any outside study material, but I would recommend using the CFA books at least for ethics since the correct answer is whatever CFAI tells you is correct (that is, it’s not a right/wrong type question, and it depends on how well you know what CFAI is looking for). I studied the ethics section by reading all of the rules in the CFA book the day before the exam (my first time looking at ethics) so that I would have it fresh in my memory. Apparently it worked because I scored >70% on the ethics section. It’s simply a matter of applying their policies to a given situation.

Except for ethics… I personally think using the schweser books is more than sufficient… and time efficient for studying for Level 1… Ofcourse, as it has been said over and over again… CFA books end of chapter questions and mocks have to be done to be completely prepared… Good Luck

I used Schweser alone, never even opened the CFAI materials and I found them to be more than enough to pass the Level I exam. Kaplan does a good job of reminding you which areas are higher weighted, like Ethics, Q, FSA etc and those that are not (Deriv, AI). Keep this in mind as you study, you don’t want to spend the same amount of time on AI as you do on FSA or something comparable.