I am a college senior, graduating in May. I have recently started studying for the CFA®
Level I exam in June. Currently, I only have the textbooks from the CFA®
institue. I have read and heard that the Schweser notes and qbank are a must have. I want to decide which to allocate my study time to. Which is more helpful?
Any advice? I am on a tight budget.
Any additional exam prep would be awesome.
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Analyst notes are the cheapest. I have Schweser notes but they look almost the same as the book. Why would I want to pay for a shorter version of a book? Also the problems you get from Analyst notes are better and mapped against a statistical database so you can see how good you are compared to other people. http://analystnotes.com/
I passed Level 1 solely studying from the CFA texts while taking 18 hours of classes. You can too if you budget the time.
I will check out the analyst notes. Thanks for that.
I am taking 15 hours, and have scheduled my studying for approx. 200 pages per week. That will enable me to be done with the textbooks by the end of April, giving 5 weeks to review/mock exams.
Keep the opinions coming. I appreciate the help.
Took it in december used the text for about the 6 months prior. started using the schwieser notes the final month. They were really useful. Really anything that gives you lots of problems to do is the best thing. the scwiesser stuff is really great for helping you out in the ethics section
the december results aren't out yet... i'll put something in if i find out i did ok
Schweser all the way - were always pretty much spot-on with materials that were tested and easy to read and understand key points. Still sometimes use some of the summaries from the notes because much better overview than big text books
I did it my senior year without Schweser/Stalla notes. That being said, I did get the six Schweser practice tests. They were $99 and a HUGE help. If you take 2-3 practice exams it really helps your time management. The key is playing to your strengths and preparing appropriately. Are you an Accounting major? If so, you should already have a very good handle on most of the accounting. If you have had some basic Economics classes, the econ should be pretty straightforward. Whatever you are weak on, spend the most time there. Also, there are 5-6 chapters in the texts that really don't correspond to a significant number of questions on the test (I forget which, but CFAI or Schweser outlines where the questions come from). At the beginning, give Ethics a cursory glance, but save it for cramming. When I first took practice tests, I was normally hitting 65% or so on Ethics. I used the CFAI and Schweser practice tests the last 2-3 weeks and got to 85% or so consistently on Ethics. The questions are really something you need to get a feel for. If you can roughly memorize the bullet points and do dozens of practice questions you should be able to hit a very high percentage.
www.analystforum.com has some good resources, guys occasionally have typed up notes (GAAP vs. IFRS, operating vs. capital leases) etc. Best of luck and feel free to PM if you have anymore questions.
Not accounting major, but have take 2 accounting courses. Also taken 2 basic econ courses. I am a finance major. At first glance, the more detailed quantitative and advanced Financial Statement Analysis intimidates me the most.
Most comfortable with Equity/Fixed Inc. & Derivative/Alternatives.
Have spent a lot of time (almost 2 weeks) on Ethics and feel pretty good about it. I am just now getting into Quant.
I appreciate all of the help fellas.
Hey man, hope your study's going well. Just got my results a few hours ago for December 2010; passed Level 1.
I used the prescribed books and I did 3 practice exams from the Schweser practice exam qbank 2010 (they have 6 session, 2 exams each, so 12 exams I think).
The prescribed books explains the FRA section verbosely and makes it very easy to understand, so it shouldn't be a huge issue. They don't even go into debits and credits.
I slacked in a crucial finance year for me so I didn't know jack for CF, Equity and Debt. Uphill battle for me and churned a lot of hours reading.
Absolutely true for time mgmt. Take at least 1 practice exam so you can get a feel for what they mean by 1.5m a question. My first exam I went over time a huge amount but by exam 3 I knew how to approach them quickly.
My experience was different on ethics than grayfox. I felt the Schweser ethics questions were not very well constructed to test the section. I found the textbook examples much more watertight. I read somewhere that you can Schweser the whole CFA I but should read the Ethics prescribed text. They Sch q's are good to brush up your knowledge, but use the CFA text for the basis.
Additionally, I felt I knew a lot more than my mates that just went Schweser, gave some confidence. Conversely, I have a friend that did Level II primarily on Schweser, in an extremely tight schedule, and passed. But he's a university scholar so no big shock there. I think you're more able to use Schweser if you've got good foundation knowledge and less time.
I used Stalla for Levels 1 and 2 and liked it, haven't opened them for Level 3 yet
study shwezer notes and practice all q bank questions. They are the best. I passed in 4 months of study and only referred to schwezer.
Analyst notes and stalla notes are not good is what all my friends said.
I used analystnotes and passed my level 1 and 2. I tried Schweser as well. I would say they are very similar in terms of quality but the price of analystnotes is much lower ($70 versus $600).
i passed all exams using schweser. but make sure you do all the blue boxes and end of chapter questions from the actual text. last month should aways be questions. good luck
CFA Study Materials (Originally Posted: 10/20/2006)
Does anyone have any good references for non-CFA published study materials, for CFA Level I?
Schweser?
or u can try www.analystnotes.com
Stella
Stella does some freeworkshops around North America. Go to their site to see what they have.
Stalla, right? Not trying to be an ass. You just confused me - I thought that there were more review companies out there. Note that L1 for 2007 has slightly changed. This may be a factor as you study with older study notes. I think that the majority of the material is the same, as it's not reasonable to have a wholesale change to the curriculum in a year, but there are a couple of additions & subtractions. Just FYI. Good luck.
go for schweser!
schweser
Is cheap and a good source for doing lots of practice questions.
Try Allen Resources
Stalla vs. Schweser
I have the Stalla books and also read some of the Schweser material.
It seems the Schweser has a better flow than Stalla; how topics are structured.
Stalla seems more in depth.
A key factor for me was, that if you do over 90% of the Stalla homeworks and still fail, you get to take the course again for almost free (400 material fee)
hope that helps.
My 1st post here, yah!
CFA Level I Materials (Originally Posted: 08/23/2010)
I am selling the entire Kaplan Schweser Essential Study materials. That's five volumes of review, plus two volumes of practice exams, in addition to the flash cards, and I have the Secret Sauce book as well.
With this material, you can easily prepare for and pass the December exam.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0037IYLMA/?seller=A1SY3CJ313MV9S
250?!
I'll give you $50! Serious. Not to be insulting.
doesn't it changes every year?
These materials cost about $800, and are still in fantastic shape- no highlighting or marking. That is why I'm asking the price I am. $50 isn't quite there, but if you are serious and want the books shoot me a PM and I will consider counter offers.
And yes, it does change every year. However, if you are taking the December exam, the material is identical.
CFA Study Materials Advice (Originally Posted: 08/29/2010)
Has anybody used any of the other CFA Level 1 Prep Providers materials other than Stalla or Kaplan? (http://www.cfainstitute.org/partners/examprep/Pages/cfa_prep_provider_p…). I'm looking at using one for a Qbank instead of buying the package from Kaplan or Stalla. Any suggestions? What do you all use for Q-banks?
There might be a few other options. Check analystforum.com. I used Kaplan myself. It is very useful at Level 1, but becomes less useful through 3. I did find value at all levels as long as you realize the questions are insanely easy and you should be destroying them before the exam.
In addition to what ever you plan to buy, you should know that you can easily find the latest Schweser Study Guides (including q banks etc.)for level 1 and 2 as torrents for free downloads online. Investopedia Study Guide is not too bad either, however it is completely outdated. I would post links but it might piss off Patrick so I'll refrain......
CFA study material (Originally Posted: 10/23/2014)
I need help decided what study material to buy. I was set in scheweser but I heard of analystnotes but I'm not sure. Please give me a brief review on both thanks!
never used analystnotes, only schweser and stalla, both are good. if L1, this should be sufficient, if L2 consider something more in depth. if you work at a big bank call them up, there are tons of corporate discounts available
Thanks looking at stalla now!
I think schweser is enough for L1 and L2
I think schweser is enough for L1 and L2
CFA L1 Study Materials (Originally Posted: 11/27/2015)
I'm trying to choose which Schweser package to buy to prepare for the CFA Level I exam. A former classmate took and passed the exam and he suggested purchasing the Premium Schweser package, so I can attend the classes. Im wondering whether the classes necessary, or can I pass using the just the Notes, Qbank, and Practice exams?
I'm a CPA, and I found the lecture videos and classes that came with my CPA review course to be a waste of time. While I know that CFA will be more challenging, I'm wondering whether the classes are basically the same thing - instructors giving you the same info that's in the book.
If you're disciplined, is dishing out an additional $400-500 for classes worth it?
Really depends on how you study and learn. I took a class and found that it was helpful in keeping me on a schedule and seeing the material multiple times. The professor also gave a lot of handouts and additional notes that are helpful as well
I agree with Bobb. Totally depends on how you learn. I got the books, past exams and videos (want to follow my own timelines). Worked well for me. Good luck
CFA Notecards (Originally Posted: 08/09/2010)
So I have begun studying for the CFA and have realize that there are a million ratios. Is there somewhere where I can buy already made note cards for study? Or do I just have to do them myself. Any study tips would be appreciated. I am using a Schweser study guide that I found online
Apple has an app for CFA note cards... They were okay. Only $20 and good for review when you have a few minutes, but don't want to dive into the books or problems. They go through a lot of the material.
get schweser with Q bank for 600.00 read chapter, take crap load of questions repeat until you are done with everything, everytime you get a question wrong you make a notecard, this way at least you are not memorizing 100 formulas, instead you are actually learning them.
After you do 1000+ questions, the formulas will actually make sense as to why certain things go where they go, and instead of memorizing you will actually know formulas and pass the test.
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