You would think after the past two exams I would learn to stop getting mad at the stupidity of the Schweser questions. So I finished the curriculum and I am now starting to review by going over the first Schweser Exam book. First question off the bat, a guy is retiring in 3 years and they do all of his portfolio return calculations based on his current year when he has a salary. It makes a huge difference of needing 5% in year 1-3 and 11% when he retires. It is so wrong to base all of the answers on years 1-3. It should be based on the immediate future and in his immediate future, he is retiring and will not have a salary. I’m glad that I also have the CFAI questions and those do not seem as vague or tricky and are much more straight forward in time horizon.
Would you recommend those Schweser exam books to people anyway? More tricky may be better than less tricky when prepping. Or would you say skip it altogther and stick with only the CFAI materials?
sebrock I feel the same way. While doing that particular q, I was wondering why we are doing RR calculations when the guy is still working? The whole purpose is to plan for retirement-not calculate the savings rate!!! bball I found Schwesers exams-particularly essay questions not too great. I would definitely pay more attention to the multiple choice q-those are good. Just my opinion.
My experience with level 1 & 2 where that the schweser exams were more complicated than the actual exams. This was good, because it made the actual exams feel like a breeze. But they they sure made me go crazy taking them. Hopefully that will be the case again this time
Doing the exams already? I’d be focused on EOC or Qbank if I were you. That’s what I’m doing. FWIW, I’ve found so many errata in the level 3 qbank that my head has started spinning. CFAI exams will be key.
Yeah, I’m just doing the first exam book as my ending review. Meaning that I am not taking them as an exam but doing them in a relaxed manner and always looking at the answers. I have the CFA 2000-2009 exams, so that should be plenty to do. I will do the Stalla and Scwheser multiple choice. I’ve been doing the q-bank and doing quite well because I do know the overall concepts very well but it’s amazing to me how much you forget by the time you get to the end of the material. Nonetheless, I am always amazed at the stupid exam questions schweser makes up and how Stalla is the opposite and is super easy. For LII I remember I was getting in the 80’s for the Stalla exams and in the 60’s for Schweser. Their Volume two books are always a joke and I would always get in the 50’s. Then when I would take the CFAI mocks I would do in the mid 70’s. Anyways, that Schweser question just got me so angry because it is clearly bad financial planning. Also the CFAI stuff will clearly say “calculate the needed return for this year”.
@derswap: good advice, but I think it may be late to start Qbank. What do you recommend? @artvandalay: first of all, awesome username. secondly, thanks I’ll take your advice on that. @sebrock: how did you get the CFA '00-'09 exams? Are they available online somewhere.
2007 to 2009 are on the CFAI website and 2000-2007 was floating around here. Send me an email at sf@walhonding-capital.com and I will email them to you.
derswap07 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > sebrock > > I feel the same way. While doing that particular > q, I was wondering why we are doing RR > calculations when the guy is still working? The > whole purpose is to plan for retirement-not > calculate the savings rate!!! > > bball > > I found Schwesers exams-particularly essay > questions not too great. I would definitely pay > more attention to the multiple choice q-those are > good. > > Just my opinion. derswap07, I was very much confused by RR calculations in Schweser exam book last year and even some of its solutions to mutiple choice questions. If there is any doubt, its better to have discussion here on AF.
Sebrock, if you have the 2000-2007 exams can you send them my way as well? Many thanks. dan.brown912@gmail.com
bballcoasty Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > @derswap: good advice, but I think it may be late > to start Qbank. What do you recommend? > > @artvandalay: first of all, awesome username. > secondly, thanks I’ll take your advice on that. > > @sebrock: how did you get the CFA '00-'09 exams? > Are they available online somewhere. I don’t think it’s too late to start Q Bank. They have this feature called test exams you can select an exam for a topic area. I found them ok for review.
schweser exams can really help you enhance the understanding. I have done 3 mock already. another 3 to go (2 on vol1, 1 on vol2). Some questions are so brutal, making you want to bang your head against wall. but I feel they have such a broad coverage. some single question makes you review many content to get your answer. BTW, we shouldn’t say questions from schweser are tougher than real exam. CFAI must have their intelligence people surfing web and try to understand what we are talking about! 
My problem with Schweser is not difficulty per say, it’s their vagueness that makes them sometimes not so clear. That being said, they are difficult and a good learning tool, that is why I use them.
Agree. The Schweser exams are pretty useless as an actual exam experience, especially the IPS. You need to do the old CFA exams. That said, they have some utility as a review tool.
I’ll do the first one today and try not getting mad about it. If nothing else it’s going to be good review.