Hey Folks, First , Would like to wish you all best of Luck if you sat for Dec L1. Second, I am Sitting for L1 for the first time on June 08. I bought the Premium Package from Schweser (Which you get a choice of either a Weekly Online Classes with Live Questions & Answer OR Video CD’s & a book of all the SlidesCovered). I ordered the CD’s for Couple of reasons, 1- i like to own them just in case i do not pass in June & I need to sit for it again in Dec. 2-there are 4 different instructor teach the Currculum vs only one instructor for the Weekly Onlince Classes(The weekly online classes has a Unique Feature of the instructor email where you can email him with any question) I still have time to switch from one option to the other. is there anyone has tried both option & would like to give me a helpful feedback. I am really CONFUSED here !!! Thanks Everyone CaliCFA
Hi Cali, I used both and actually found them very helpful. I’m not the type who can read the same book 5 times over so I really liked having a couple of different looks at the material. I would say the CDs were more in depth than the online course, but I really liked having the classes to give structure to my schedule. I made it a point to get through the CDs, reading, and Q-bank before attending the class. Also, if you’re the type who likes to ask a lot of questions then having access to an instructor is great. Content-wise, though, I felt the CDs were good as an introduction to the material (because they give you more info) and the online class was better as a review (more overview, doesn’t go into as much detail). Using all of them was definitely overkill, but it made studying more enjoyable to me and I’d probably do the same for LII if I’m lucky enough to get there. Hope this helps!
I only had the classes, and I agree that is is boring to listen to the same instructor for months. The slides are helpful to make your own summary. I am living in europe so I only watched the courses through video. If you do not pass in June, you can still use your Schweser access for december. You get the access for 1 year. You only need to notify schweser that you will use it after the June session. I failed June 07 and retook it LVL1 in December.,
hi cali, fwiw, here’s what I did: 1. got the box of CFA stuff - 2. had a look inside - said “holy crap this is huge” - closed box and stared it in the corner for a couple of weeks 3. opened the box, read a few chapters - said “holy crap this is @%#&$$ huge!”- closed box and stared it in corner for another couple of weeks 4. signed up for a review course at the local CFA society (6 saturdays) - not bad but it assumes you’ve already done the material. Doesn’t teach you stuff, just review 5. went back and stared at box in corner 6. looked at 3rd party services - bought just the Schweser qbank pro online ($249 I think). Figured that the more I bought the more I had to go through, so less is more. 7. Started doing the Schweser online - averaged 1-2 LOS’s per day. After each LOS you do a dozen questions, then after each Reading you do a reading quizz. Then after each Session you do a Session exam. About 4 hours per LOS on average (including questions, quizzes and exams), so about 300 hours for all that. 8. 4 weeks before exam - spent a couple of weeks making up own practice exams from the qbank. very flexible, you can make up your own exams for different areas or the whole lot. getting consistently 80% to 85% - so far so good… 9. 3 weeks out - got hold of previous year’s Boston society practice exam. Said “holy crap - there’s a whole lot of stuff I’ve never heard of!” 10. Went over to box in corner - cleared the cobwebs and got the books out. 11. 2 weeks out - Did Boston society practice exam - got 73% - ok but not brilliant - back to the box again. Carpet starting to wear out between desk and box in corner. 12. 1 week out - did 3 of the CFA on-line exams ($50 a pop) - got 83%, 90%, 85% (exams 1, 2 and 5). Carpet getting very thin between desk and box in corner. 13. D-day. AM: started well. Got to question 80 (end of FSA) and looked at the clock - said “holy crap I’ve got 40 more questions to do in 40 minutes!”. Lucky that the last 40 questions were ok and nothing huge. No big calcs. Finished on time. PM; Started faster - made a couple of silly errors but did ok. Everything was there, across the board. Nailed most sections. Finished on time. Overall: very few big calcs, very much in line with the Boston and CFA practice exams, no big surprises. Could not have done it without all three: Schweser, Boston and CFA practice exams. Oh, and the box in the corner - you’ve actually gotta open it and you’ve actually gotta read it… 14. Made nice fire out of box in corner (removed from house first)
Hey null&nuller, Thank you for sharing. so you are saying that you just worked the qbanks & questions & supplemented with the Study notes, CFA Society Exam Test and the CFAI Exam? what Study noted did you use?(CFAI Books or Schweser)? Also what is your educational Back ground & what do u do for living? whateverr you did, it seems you are really a smart person. Lets Keep in touch & I wish you best of luck with the results!
CaliCFA, I used the Online live classes for this past exam and found it helpful. I was thinking it was a way for me to help create some discipline around my studies. What I didn’t like was that it started later than my studies and ended 2 weeks before the exam. Therefore, I started studing at least a month before the online class started and used the class as a way to revisit previous learnings to hopefully remember what I read. It helped, but it sucked sitting in front of a computer for 3 hours. They provide archives of each class so I found that helpful and broke it to two sessions each week. By the time I got through FSA, I didn’t go back because I was on such a role with studing. If I must retake L1, I’m will debate taking the online classes again.
hi cali, I just bought the qbank online, which I worked through online. You can get either 1) online (access from any pc anywhere), or 2) CD or 3) download - to one PC only. For me the online option was ideal. In the local society review course they gave out the 1-volume Schweser screenshots of about 1,000 slides. - not the 6 volume schweser notes. From the look of it the 6 vol set was pretty much the same as the online LOSs - but the online would be much better because you have access to thousands of questions, can design your own exams, etc. So, yes the core written material was the CFA readings, which is basically extracts from text books. Re my background - copied my background below from a previous post (sorry, don’t know how to put thread reference, so appologies if you read it twice)…: I’m from Australia - - joined Wespac in Sydney as a graduate in 1983 (bad move) - moved to Melb to join Citi (good move) - moved to HSBC/Midland - in Melb then back to Syd (good move) - in the big equities boom in the 86-7 - went out on my own (good move) - put together some IPOs with a couple of mates, did some venture capital, had fun - in the big recession needed regular income (got married !!) so I went back to Melb (good move) with ANZ, ran several departments and divisions over the next several years. - in mid-90s, moved back to Sydney with ANZ - ran more divisions. - in late 90s markets were booming again - went out on my own again (good move) - floated a dot-com, did some more private equity/venture capital, properties, had fun (ps Westpac and ANZ are two of the big-4 banks here - about $100b market cap each) Quals: law + masters in law - but who’d wanna be a lawyer?? Then did liberal arts (economic history, intenational politics) Then did grad dip in applied finance & investment. Biggest lesson in life = working pays the bills but it doesn’t build wealth - only investing builds wealth. From early days, in most years made more money from investing than working, so decided early on to view work as 1) useful cashflow to pay bills and 2) training. Work is not a career. If you view work as a career, then you end up still working for somebody else 30 years later. I’ve seen it kill (literally) too many good people too young. Since the dot com (sold it to Kaplan as it turns out!), invest own money. Doin’ the CFA because it keeps me up to date, it’s global. The advantage I have is time - lucky enough to be able to put in whatever time I need. So spending 300 hours on just the LOS and qbanks was do-able for me. Some people will work faster, but it took me 300 hours. You guys trying to juggle work + family + CFA must be hurtin’. I did it when I was younger - it’s murder. Sorry, got off topic here - but you asked 
Back to topic - use the CFA readings as the core - use 3rd party stuff as supplement only + do plenty of questions all the way through and especially toward the end. (just noticed: in my 14-step plan - in step 7, should read “1-2 READINGS per day” (not 1-2 LOS’s per day). There are about 450 LOS’s organised into about 70+ readings, so about half a dozen LOS’s per reading in most cases. If you work through Schweser, takes about 4 hours per reading, not per LOS. ) cheers…
Wow null&nuller, I am Speachless. first i want to thank you much for taking the time to come back & post again. Second, it seems like you LONG previous experience has helped you a ton in prep. for the CFA. I would like to share with you my Daily Routine & i would love to hear a feedbak from you & anyone else would like to share. Before i do that though, i would like to ask everyonea Question, Is it Normal to forget what you Studied(i mean the formulas & so)? here is what i am doing:- I am putting about 2-3 hrs everyweekday after work & about 6-8 hrs on Saturday & about 4 on Sundays. I have 3 reading & i will be done with the first book(ethics & Quant). i think my problem is i take my time reading each reading(highliting, underlining, reviewing) & when i finish the reading in 2 or 3 days & start doing some Questions, i find myself forgetting what i have studied. it is really Frustrating for me. if it will be like that, I am not sure that i will be able to remember Vol 1 when i am in Vol 5 !!! a friend of mine told me to read it twice. the first time should be quick(like you are reading a newspaper but still with focus) & the second time will be better. but i do not think i have enough time to do that. so please share what do you think about that. have a great weekend null&nuller.
bigdaddy Thanks for you feedback. I bought the Video CD’s. I am in the same boat like you were in. i am almost done with book one & by the time they will start the Online calsses i will be in the FSA. so i think the CD will be a liitle better & more suitable for my Suitation. also, I think i like to see multipale instructor instead on the same one in every LOS, reading & SS. the only think that i will be missing would be the Instrutor email to ask questions but because i bought the Premium Package i will have access to the Faculty office hrs so that will work for me. Best of luck to you bigdaddy.
hi cali, i guess everybody is different - no one way works for all. a few comments: 1. Personally, i don’t think many people will have time to go through it all twice. 2. The volume of readings is huge. don’t forget that the readings (apart from ethics) is chapters extracted from text books. What you’re going to be tested on is just the LOS, which is just a fraction of most readings. The rest of the reading is intro, explanation, or extra stuff of interest but not critical. So, as you go through keep your mind on what the LOS is, and focus on that. 3. Once you’ve done a reading you should learn it by doing practice quesions until you know it back to front. Then you can move on. 4. Maybe a week later (not a month), go back and do half a dozen questions from the reading again. If you’ve forgotten the material, then you’ve got a problem. 5. If you do dozens of questions for each reading as you go through it, you won’t forget the formulas in a week or a month. You need to drill them to death so you can use then in the exam, in the next level, and in your work if you need to. I found that to be the big advantage of the qbank - lets you keep doing dozens of questions over and over till you get them right. anyway, that worked for me. cheers…
hey null, I well. i am almost done with the Quants. i have 3 more reading to go & i will try your methods for the next 3 readings & i will let know if i see any progress or not. anyways thank you so much for your time & very honest, to the point yet very detailed feedback. best of luck to you, Let me know he did u do when the results come out on Jan. even though i know that you have already nailed the exam. keep in touck , Thanks a ton!
Dear CaliCFA, Aimee and null&nuller, May I know your real name? Which country are you now? Any personal email to reach you? Thanks. Best regards. Kam
Kam, as you can tell from my name I am From California, USA. & i will be more than happy to answer anyquestion you will post here. not really sure about my real name or my email address. maybeit will be ok later if we get to know each other a little more. Good Luck
Dear CaliCFA, Ok. No problem, you can ask me anythings if you want. Happy New Year! Warm regards. Kam
Dear sckam: I would not mind knowing you at all. but is there anything that i can Help you with or anything that I can Answer? if you would like to introduce your self here it is up to you. i do not need to ask you anything. will be glad to help if I can. Best of luck
CaliCFA, What are you decided to go after…Online Class or CDs? I have Video CDs and I like them. I think the VCDs cover the topics in detail than the Online classes because the instructor will also be spending time to answer questions from the students; so it will be lively for the same reason. Good luck to you!
CaliCFA, what is your educational back ground? and what line of business are you in?
kochunni69 I just got the Video CD’s, have not had a chance to explore them yet. but i think they are more Convienient for me. Hank0414x educational back ground is Finance & Accounting, Financial Services is my Line of Biz! what about you?