Third party product to purchase

I have read lots of threads on this forum, in last few months, comparing different third party materials. What I inferred from all those is: 1. Schweser most widely used but satisfied candidates are less than unsatisfied candidates. (mocks referred to as more calculations oriented) 2. Elan second most widely used and satisfied candidates are more than unsatisfied candidates. (mocks referred to as more concepts oriented) 3. Stalla not used by much candidates or at least not much posted on it here, so cant compare Well, this clearly makes Elan the first choice… What all you guys think…

I think it depends on how you plan to study. If you want to read the CFAI books then do practice exams the schweser QBank will be enough. That was what I did and I felt very confident after the test. Did 120 Q’s a day for a few weeks. The QBank won’t run out of problems, you’ll just run out of time before the exam.

lxwarr, do you think QBank was more similar to the actual exam than Schweser mocks?

Can’t say how close Schweser is to the actual exam but élan was certainly close. I thought their online free mock level was very close to morning exam level. There were some questions in the afternoon session where I wasn’t completely sure of what to do and in that sense I thought it waas close to the cfa mock.

johnnyBuz Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > lxwarr, do you think QBank was more similar to the > actual exam than Schweser mocks? I definitely don’t think Schweser Qbank or mocks were any close to the real exam. With Schweser questions, I never had problems in eliminating choices to get to the right answer. Mostly straight forward questions, although timing was always a problem for me. But with the real exam, some of the questions were so challenging that I couldn’t even eliminate one choice. I am not sure about people who studied with CFAI books have had any advantage on those questions.

Elan did a good job, I think. I’ll tell you for certain once the exam results come back. They had some major errors, though. Make sure to check their errata.

I actually did the schweser QBank was similar to the real exam. Maybe not in being asked the exact questions, but the style of questions you could expect. I think it might have focused a little too much on calculations but also had the CFA’s random know or don’t type questions.

Elan. Definitely get Ethics coverage from CFAI-- don’t just rely on vendors for this topic. I’m a little worried that previous poster said there were major errors in Elan. I did not check the errata…

Elan for sure! All providers have an errata. What was disappointing for me for that the CFA curriculum and the CFA mock also had errors. @busterbluth: Don’t worry too much. Some of their questions had the wrong answer choice down. The only prob with the notes was the %k and %d line in technical analysis (which th CFA books had wrong too BTW) and tracking error.

thank you for the input, it will definitely help…

I just studied the CFA Official material and felt pretty well during the exam. One has to think by himself. I have never seen the other materials so I cannot give a qualified answer on that.

awbuch Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I just studied the CFA Official material and felt > pretty well during the exam. One has to think by > himself. I have never seen the other materials so > I cannot give a qualified answer on that. where did you do the practice questions … was EOC questions and CFA mock enough…

investopedia.com has a nice review material and also mock exams. I made my review through that material and used my notes. In the last days I did the CFA mock exam and that was it. It depends how much effort you will put into it and also how much time you have to dedicate yourself for the studies. From February on, there were only a couple of days where I did not touch the material.

thank you awbuch, thats really helpful.

awbuch, can i have your email.

Stalla lectures are awesome. Olinto is the man.