The More I study from the CFA Books

…the more I realize how invaluable Schweser/Stalla really is. Even the topics I know/remember pretty well are WAY more in depth in the CFA books. On the one hand, thats obviously good if need a deep understanding of a topic you may not grasp. On the other, this is just too much information to process. I mean, cmon.

Good thing my company pays for it and I have both.

When I signed up for a Stalla class I didnt realize they gave me the notes. So now I have CFAI books, Schweser, Stalla for notes and the Stalla Lecture CDs. Good thing my company paid for all of it.

I guess that makes three of us in the same boat.

On a related note, what do you perceive is the incremental downside (if any) for failing a CFA exam for which your employer footed the bill? Assume your employer knows you’re a CFA candidate and you fail your next exam. Does the matter of who paid for the exam impact your employer’s impression of you as an employee w/r/t/ attitude towards company resources, professionalism, or any other qualitative metric? Clearly this is a subjective question, but I’m curious to know your opinions. Thank you. edit: contingent follow-up question: If you think there is additional cost to failing an employer-financed CFA exam, do you think this potential cost outweighs the benefits of being able to expense your exam fees? Upon registering for your next exam, would you still seek reimbursement for your fees, given the opportunity to do so?

the group that i work in encourages folks to pursue a MBA, CFA, etc… any further degree. So far on a desk of about 12 people, we’ve had pretty mixed results on the CFA. One guy pass/pass L1/2, headed for L3, one guy pass L1 fail L2, then pass L2, headed for L3, I failed L1 then passed L1, headed for L2, and we had 2 guys both fail L1 and haven’t touched a CFA book since. Our mgmt I think understands that it’s a hard test, even for smart people (except for one of the one and dones, all top 20 undergrad names, well educated). Note that nobody has failed more than once though- I think it’s been a sort of unspoken thing, fail once… shame on you, fail twice, shame on me? We’ll see if ever it happens, but I don’t think they’d be so open to saying sure, put books/test on the corp card if they thought someone wasn’t studying or wasn’t capable of passing. my overall co. is a huge firm and probably has no clue that our group throws books on the black card, but so long as my boss gives me the thumbs up, i’m certainly not going to argue the practice. i’d think that this is a pretty forgiving scenario. i’m sure there are some do or die employers out there. that’d be tough… i guess a bit of extra motivation to hit the books, not the bottle, come weekends? whether big or small, i’m sure that failing has some stigma, but i think on the flip side, passing earns respect. i’m like aretha, need my r-e-s-p-e-c-t… so i’m willing to put it out there on their dime and face the consequences.

how do you rate the stalla qbank for any past exams. is it like the real exam questions???