Can anyone that has been to one before talk about what the level of assumed preparation prior to the beginning of the week is? do the cater to the lowest denominator (the completely unprepared)? Do they just do a crammed rehash of the video lectures or do they assume you have already studied the material and spend the whole week practicing and drilling difficult concepts, key LOS, and nasty problems. Obviously I expect some review but can frankly do that on my own. I also would like it to get me going on a good final strategy. I’d prefer something that really puts me in testing situations as you get in the final stage of review. Working on the hardest concepts and problems, not telling me what the CAPM is for the 10 millionth time as if I hadn’t heard of it before. It’s hard to put it into words and maybe I’m expecting too much from the schweser folks, but to take a week out of my time and fly to Canada it should be. I know they do a mock but can do that myself. /My adderarrall has me on edge
And if anyone has any good alternatives let me know. DFW seems the same. Just closer to the exam.
Windsor Week is not what you’re looking for. It’s a week long review that goes over every topic quickly. It serves a purpose and I found it very useful last year (Disclaimer: It was for level II). But if you’re looking for advanced sessions, this is not it.
How well prepared were you going into it? I think it sounds like a decent way to start off the month before the exam. Get you in the Christmas spirit if you will. But I’d still like to be further along than that come May 1st because I’m not very smart.
I considered myself fairly well prepared for it. I was about 300 hours at that point, but I am also not very smart, so you can take 300 hours with a grain of salt. If you go in with a decent grasp of/familiarity with every topic, it can kick start your final month really well. It’s a full week of intense class time where you focus on nothing but studying… no work, family, errands, meal planning, etc. Just for that alone, I found it useful.
Thanks Alex. I work in India: 1. Alone 2. My errands get taken care of by the servants and my driver. 3. So does my cooking and chores. 4. I’m the boss here so nobody questions me if I’m reading CFA material. So I guess I get that anyway. You’re right that is definitely valuable.