I just registered for CFA Level I last week and am waiting for the official books. I’ve seen posts on this forum about Stalla and Schweser materials. What makes these materials so great and worth paying for? Are they as good for the CFA exam as the Princeton Review’s books are for the SAT and GRE? I would expect the official books to focus on the most relevant material, and there’s plenty to read. Who needs more stuff to read? I also read here that some of the material in one of the books is inaccurate. Also, it has been said that the Schweser exams are not only more difficult than the real ones but involve much more time-consuming computation. Wouldn’t these be counterproductive? Wouldn’t you be freaked out from an artificially low score, and wouldn’t you then be tempted to obsess over computation at the expense of non-computational material? Aren’t the sample and mock exams from the official source enough? For preparing for the SAT and GRE, I only trusted the results from exams from the College Board and ETS (OK, and the Princeton Review books as well). The questions and format of the fake exams in Barrons, Arcos, and other guides only had a very superficial resemblance to the real ones.
DiehardValueInvestor Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I just registered for CFA Level I last week and am > waiting for the official books. > > I’ve seen posts on this forum about Stalla and > Schweser materials. What makes these materials so > great and worth paying for? Are they as good for > the CFA exam as the Princeton Review’s books are > for the SAT and GRE? I’ve never read any of those but Schweser/Stalla are good because they are somewhat more concise and give you a large number of questions to practice with. > > I would expect the official books to focus on the > most relevant material, and there’s plenty to > read. Who needs more stuff to read? This is not the case. The official CFA Insitute volumes lift entire chapters from different textbooks – they are extremely verbose and contain a myriad of material that you will never be tested on. The Learning Outcome Statements (LOS) at the beginning of the chapter outline what you will be tested on from the reading. This is all 3rd party providers focus on. However, the “extra” information provided by CFA institute is all part of a framework for you to better understand the concepts and be able to put them into context, and is still worth reading. > I also read here that some of the material in one > of the books is inaccurate. There are lots of mistakes in the CFAI volumes and third party providers. This is pretty much a certainty when you’re dealing with such a large volume of information and a constantly changing curriculum. They all release errata. > Also, it has been said that the Schweser exams are > not only more difficult than the real ones but > involve much more time-consuming computation. > Wouldn’t these be counterproductive? Wouldn’t you > be freaked out from an artificially low score, and > wouldn’t you then be tempted to obsess over > computation at the expense of non-computational > material? It is true that you will come across more calculation-type questions with 3rd party providers than you do on the real exam. The real exam is mostly conceptual and only a handful of questions require calculations. But this is inconsequential – working through these calculation problems often does a good job of pounding the conceptual issues into your head. There are also tons of conceptual problems with 3rd party providers. You will also notice that most of the examples and end-of-reading questions provided by the CFA institute are also fairly computational, unlike the actual exam. > Aren’t the sample and mock exams from > the official source enough? For preparing for the > SAT and GRE, I only trusted the results from exams > from the College Board and ETS (OK, and the > Princeton Review books as well). The questions > and format of the fake exams in Barrons, Arcos, > and other guides only had a very superficial > resemblance to the real ones. The CFA Institute sample and mock exams are as close as you get to the real thing and are a fantastic tool. The problem is you only get 2 mocks and 3 samples – a total of ~400 questions for an exam spanning 2000 pages of materials and thousands of different types of questions that you could be asked. It’s very possible that you do not need any 3rd party materials. I found them very useful. Especially the 4,000 practice problems that come with the Qbank. The material is not very challenging, it’s just very volumous. This is why I (no background in finance) had to use 3rd party question banks to pound the material into my head. I still read the CFAi volumes – like I said, they do a great job of providing a framework for you to put everything into context.
The greatest asset you can derive from Stalla/Schweser in my opinion is their question banks: Stalla has Passmaster Schweser has Qbank You will maximize memory retention if you nail ALL of these questions after you read each reading. ie. there are 3-5 readings per 18 study sessions.
DiehardValueInvestor Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I just registered for CFA Level I last week and am > waiting for the official books. > > I’ve seen posts on this forum about Stalla and > Schweser materials. What makes these materials so > great and worth paying for? Are they as good for > the CFA exam as the Princeton Review’s books are > for the SAT and GRE? > > I would expect the official books to focus on the > most relevant material, and there’s plenty to > read. Who needs more stuff to read? > > I also read here that some of the material in one > of the books is inaccurate. > > Also, it has been said that the Schweser exams are > not only more difficult than the real ones but > involve much more time-consuming computation. > Wouldn’t these be counterproductive? Wouldn’t you > be freaked out from an artificially low score, and > wouldn’t you then be tempted to obsess over > computation at the expense of non-computational > material? Aren’t the sample and mock exams from > the official source enough? For preparing for the > SAT and GRE, I only trusted the results from exams > from the College Board and ETS (OK, and the > Princeton Review books as well). The questions > and format of the fake exams in Barrons, Arcos, > and other guides only had a very superficial > resemblance to the real ones. Are you working full time or are you a student? Remember time is a constraint and CFAI texts take alot of time.
Time. Whichever one you pick it saves you time. Most of us doing this exam aren’t full time students. It’s nearly impossible to study from the CFAI modules with a 12 hour job…honest. Are there errors in Stalla/Schweser?Yeah…for sure. They also have errata sheets. Oh, and Qbank/Passmaster rocks for retention…