lots of bashing Schweser here: http://www.analystforum.com/phorums/read.php?12,1168639,1170167#msg-1170167 As a Schweser user, I’m somewhat satisfied with the product, though I think their question bank could have been deeper, and filled with more challenging questions. I used Schweser for Levels 1 & 2, but I’m considering the competition for Level 3 or (especially) if I have to repeat Level 2. Wonder what the Stalla users think of their product post-exam?
Very satisfied! There is a difference between reading the notes and breathing the notes and understanding what is going on. With that being said, as many sources you can use the better since it is difficult to decipher the point of some readings from just one source.
^ Agreed. I’m pretty satisfied with Stalla. Some of the lectures really do help drive home the key points in ways the texts don’t. Although I think I probably missed some of Heatherington’s “no excuses” points!
Very satisfied especially with David Heatherington. But the problem is with myself not having enough time to revise. I only finished the final lecture on the day before the exam. Am preparing to retake the exam next year. 
Yup satisfied with Stalla to read and understand the material. But for final practice month, I would focus more on CFAI EOCs, samples mocks
yes stalla was good as was having to do 2000 questions…that is what drives the material home
I’ve used a little of both (schweser and stalla) and although different in some ways, I have to say that both organisations are good. The problem is with relying entirely on these “study aids.” The CFAI stuff is pretty terrible IMHO, but terrible is what you’re going to deal with on the exam. So my method is this: - Begin with videos (either organisation). - Read all the CFAI books and EOC stuff. - Get cracking on the Q-Bank (by schweser, I find it is better than stalla). - Do a bunch of mocks.
I was satisfied too, but be careful. I’ve heard numerous times before that Stalla Level 3 royally blows compared to their Levels 1 and 2.
^ That’s good to know. It’s too bad the consistency of quality between levels isn’t there. I used Schweser for L1 (Notes and Qbank) and was very happy with it, but based on comments about their L2 being not as good I switched to Stalla for L2. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to find out what to do about L3 and not have to repeat L2!
I am satisfied with their product, but was slightly disappointed the mock exam didn’t have video explanations like it did last year.
I was sastified with Stalla too.
DTM86, You used both, so how do you compare Schweser with Stalla? Do you they have something similar to Secret Sauce?
I took Stalla and overall I’m pretty satisfied, with the exception of one thing; in the Stalla study guide it said that most ABS securities were designed to match the income of the the underlying collateral against them; if the collateral is floating, the security will pay floating too usually (right so far). It said auto loan backed securities would pay fixed (also right) but then it gave credit card backed securities as an example of a security that would pay floating. this is incorrect; the CFA official text said they could pay both fixed or floating. This got me boned for a question on the exam, so I was upset about that. Also, there was no mention of the name Ibbotson Chen, though apparently the formula was in there, but they didn’t identify it as that in the book, so even though I had it memorized, I had no idea what they hell they were talking about on the exam. Overall it was still pretty good, and I would advise it should be used as a strong supplement to the CFAI texts.
Stalla has their “Essential Facts and Formulas” (or called something like that), but it is just a small, short summary of ideas and key formulas, not as in depth as Secret Sauce that does a better job of coming up with key points to help you recall/understand the important parts of each topic. I did buy the Secret Sauce and Schweser practice exams since I’ve heard the Stalla practice exams are too easy. For Schweser L1 and Stalla L2, the notes were a helpful supplement to the CFAI texts and do help get through some topics like quant and econ that can be painfully dry and long for only a small % of the test. So as the poster above said, the important part is to focus on the CFAI texts and use any other 3rd party materials as a supplement that may help explain some topics in a better/more succinct way.