Schweser or CFA institute?

Hi, I was just wondering whic out of the two is better to prepare for the CFA exam. Schweser notes have gain a lot of popularity recently and are very helpful and easy to understand. Can someone please update me as to what is the right way to go with the preparation. Thanks Sali

both…they compliment each other quite well

CFAI is good if you need to revisit the fundamentals while Schweser is good for exam oriented preparation - LOS specific multiple choice question. As Bluey said they are complimentary not mutually exclusive events!

well i dont know if i passed yet. but i had been advised against cfai. aparently its too much and you can get caught up in the minutia(spelling?) anyway, i did shwesser it was good. cds and video helped a lot. i also did other things i joined analyst notes. chep!. only $65. and bought other material. i think the main thing is to not put all your eggs in one basket. look to many sources. the most important thing is though. study. study hard. and don’t ever underestimate this f 'ing test. cuz if you do, nomatter what readings you read… you will fail. there isn’t an easy way to do this.

A coworker here passed all 3 levels first time only using Schweser and putting in 250 hours per test, except Level 3 where he studied about 200 hours.

it’s not a question of CFAI or Schweser (or Stalla, etc). I can only comment on Schweser (not Stalla or the others). I bought Schweser Pro Qbank ($249 from memory) - not all the other materials like secret sauce, videos, exam books, etc. Some comments: - To cover the subject you generally need to work through the CFAI readings. If you already good at certain areas (accounting or econ or stats, etc) then you can skip the CFA readings and just use Schweser for the LOS and practice questions. - you may think you know a topic, but you need to learn how CFA asks questions. That’s the trick. Schweser can help you with this. - I found several things which were not mentioned in Schweser but turned up on either the exam or in the CFA practice exams. Use practice exams (CFA, Boston) to tell you where you have gaps, then go back to the CFA readings. - You will need to learn 100+ formulas. Schweser gives them to you onen by one and then after each one it throws a dozen exam-type questions at you so you know how to use them from every angle. Which is fine up to a point. Pretty soon your brain gets full and you can no longer rote learn any more formulas without going mad. Schweser doesn’t tell you how the formula was derived or where it came from. To really understand your stuff you really need to know this - so you go back to the CFA readings. - practice Exams - I spent months doing the Schweser quizzes and exams, then got a big shock when I did the Boston practice exam. The CFA practice exams ($50 a pop) were the best - exactly the same style and coverage as the real thing - and a couple of questions came up word for word - which was a nice surprise Bottom line - for me, Schweser was good, but no substitute. The good news is that you have plenty of time till june cheers…

Null, I agree with your assessment. I found the Schweser Book 6 exams to be much different than the actual exam. I studied strickly from Schweser and I believe if I have to rewrite L1, I’m going to use both CFAI and Schweser. I was schocked that I used my calculator less than a dozen times on the exam when all through scheswer, their questions destroyed my batteries.

Dear maxhiggins, Hi! May I know your real name? Which country are you now? Any personal email to reach you? Thanks. Best regards. Kam