I failed L2 and I am devastated. planning to read CFAI texts for next year. Need your honest suggestion.
use cfai honestly
I’ve never opened a CFAI text and I passed L1 and L2. Everyone is different and everyone has different methods of retention. Do whatever is best for how you learn. For me it is videos and tons of questions. For someone else it is reading. If you really need to read 329023902390239023490 pages, then the CFAI text is better.
I used Schweser last year and failed. I used CFAI texts only this year and passed. End of Chapter (EOC) questions in CFAI are crucial.
Do the end of chapter questions at a minimum. There are folks that can pass without touching the CFAI materials, but why take the risk?
i used schweser for both I and II and passed both. However, that really is just a base for all the other preparation i did which included several classes/review courses, countless questions from multiple sources and the end of the chapter questions from cfai. long story short, for me, the cfa texts are not a good use of time when i find it much more helpful to cover the same material, albeit in less detail with schweser, and then devote a ton more time to reviewing the material, answering questions, etc.
CFAI all the way.
I passed L2 without doing EOC questions but barely. I will definitely be doing EOC for L3.
themangoman Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I failed L2 and I am devastated. planning to read > CFAI texts for next year. Need your honest > suggestion. So you did not read CFAI text this year? That was a mistake. That is important to your success. Just think, your competition is reading it.
I would be interested in seeing the % pass rate for those that used CFAi exclusively, schwes only, and a mixture. I think I leaned on the schwes more than I should have, and it came back to bite me in the a**. In hindsight I should have continued with reading and re-reading official text and working all EOC’s 4-5x, possibly more on some sections. The cd/online classes are decent just to try and and get some very broad level overview type stuff that can easily escape someone doing all self study, but I will leave it alone this go round. Of course it’s highly subjective, there will probably be a deluge of posts after this stating they passed with schweser only. For me as a retaker, I’m going to go with CFAi only this time, hopefully there will just be be some core stuff that eluded me in the 2010 sitting and a little more peripheral trivia that I can pick up to roll on over the high water mark in June 2011.
CFAI texts. I used them both exclusively for L1 and L2, passed both on first try. There are number of reasons to use CFAI over the others, but at the end of the day, if you are going to study - why not use the books written by the people who wrote the exam? Easy choice to me, definitely use CFAI next time.
Used CFAI text extensively to learn…relied on Schweser for review. Thats the opposite of what I did for L1. L2 - pass
schweser only. pass. one attempt
I think the safest best is to use CFA and do all the EOCs and use Schweser to facilitate review. I used only CFA for level I and passed first time. For Level II, I read all the CFA material and then purchased the Schweser to help me shortcut review. I didn’t do all the EOCs in CFA, which I truly thought was my undoing at the actual exam. Luckily I passed, but for Level III, I plan to read through all CFA once, do all EOCs and use Schweser to supplement.
I think if you have Schweser Video CDs, then you should be fine without CFAI. But use CFAI if you have enough time.
ONLY SCHWESER. Got less than 50 in Quants and Alternative Investments. But I put in a lot of hours… so, do your time.
> Schweser or CFA text - honest suggestions please? Yes. [Don’t you love Boolean algebra?] 
Passed using CFAI for both L1 (2 months preparation) and L2 (3 months preparation) It’s a lot of material, some parts less interesting than others, but so is a desk full of Ks, Qs, 8s, proxies, etc.
Schweser only for readings, but sometimes I would check things I still didn’t get in CFAI. EOCs are key, not just the mc ones but all of them, really hammers it in. I don’t like the CFAI texts because they just seem way too wordy
Used only Schweser for L2, and passed with >70% on all topics. For L1, i passed with >70% on all topics as well. But, i seriously felt that i over-studied for L1. Read about 75% of the CFAI text for L1, before i gave up and switched to Schweser. Reading the CFAI text was an overkill. I think its very possible to pass L2 just using Schweser, but its important to thoroughly understand all the concepts and memorize all formulas.