CFA® Materials: Schweser vs Bloomberg
Hello all,
This week I registered for CFA® Level 1. I registered for the June 2016 exam. I am wondering if anyone has used the Bloomberg study materials for the CFA® . I know Schweser is the go to for most people but it looks like Bloomberg's product is pretty strong. You can get either program for around $600 and they both look good, although the Bloomberg one doesn't have physical books - they're all PDFs and videos.
Any suggestions on choosing between these two products?
Can't comment on Bloomberg (i believe its pretty new) but Schweser is usually the go to and I have no complaints with it
Schweser is the cornerstone for CFA® studying and I would say that 75% of the candidates I know use their services. Bloomberg may roll out something of quality, but with Schweser, you already know their products are quality. Study materials for the CFA® exams is not something that I'd probably want to take a risk on.
I used Schweser (books and online question bank) and found it to be excellent. I agree with the advice above: you should stick with what's proven and not fool around with Bloomberg or other materials. Let someone else be the guinea pig. Your time is too valuable for that.
Agree with people! Go with Schwester
FWIW i got an email that bloomberg was $100 off right now for a short time.
disclosure: just passed level 2 this june. have used schweser for 1 & 2 successfully on 1 try each. cannot say whether the program made the difference (i read main curriculum 1st time w/ CFA® materials), but kaplan review materials are def worthwhile imo.
would recommend QBank, secret sauce book (maybe flash cards too if that's ur thing). ultimately, L1 is a pretty low hurdle, but learning it properly now could save you some time & potential anguish prepping for L2
Is the secret sauce book worth the extra $130? It's just time Management Strategies and combined reading summaries right?
Great! Thanks everyone. I'll let other people fool around with the experimental Bloomberg stuff. Schweser it is!
Regarding Schweser - I'm currently planning on taking the December 2016, but on Schweser's website, they only have materials for the December 2015 and June 2016 exams. I've confirmed with a Kaplan rep that the December 2016 materials won't be available until early/mid next year.
I'd really like at least a year to prepare for this exam, so that I'm not having to study 10 to 15 hours per week - is there any reason why I couldn't buy the June 2016 materials and just use that to prepare for the December 2016 exam?
June 2016 and December 2016 will be the same material
Appreciate it
The issue with buying the June materials is that your access to the Schweser Q bank & online materials will expire shortly after the June Exam.
You can buy the books/notes now and buy the QBank later on
In case you haven't purchased it yet, the Dec exam materials for Schweser are now available
All I used was CFA® materials and the Bloomberg 2 week free trial. Passed December 2015. Can't speak for Schweser but I LOVED Bloomberg. If I had known it would turn out to be awesome I would have paid for it and was thinking of doing so if I had to retake.
There is a lot of good insight here (and I hope I'm not making a mistake), but I'm going to go with Bloomberg. I'm taking the December 2016 exam, so I have time to learn. After doing extensive research between the main prep providers, (Schwesser, fitch, wiley) it seems like the only indicator pointing away from Bloomberg is the lack of track record. The price is attractive since Bloomberg hasn't yet been able to differentiate its product, though I really feel like the quality is there. I cant find anyone who has used Bloomberg and taken the exam, but those who have used their free trial mostly have good things to say about them. So I'll try to remember come back and let you all know if Bloomberg was effective or not.
hey how did your exam go? any feedback on Bloomberg? did it help?
Considering Bloomberg as well, wondering how your experience was and if you passed?
Has anyone tried the Bloomberg prep for Level 1? I'm eyeing the December 2017 exam and considering Schweser vs Bloomberg, although might lean towards bloomberg in the end.
I passed level 1 and 2 using Schweser. I think they do an excellent job of giving you the information you need to know. That said, I wouldn't pay attention to their questions at the end of each section. Instead, you should focus on the CFA® material questions that correspond to the section you review in Schweser or Bloomberg or whatever supplemental material you use. They will likely mirror what you see on the exam.
i've been using Bloomberg Prep now for a few days and i'm very impressed, I'll probably stick to it once my trial expires.
I used Schweser for levels 1 and 2. It was enough to get me top scores in every section for level 1 and top scores in every section except ethics for level 2. For both levels, I used the CFA® practice questions as supplement. I would recommend you do the same.
Solid advice here. I did the saCFA® me for levels 1 and 2. Key was using CFA® practice questions / topic test questions to see similar questions to the actual exams.
OK, here is my story. I made the mistake and purchased the Bloomberg prep package even though I read these comments on this forum. After I came to more complex subjects in statistics and other parts of the curriculum, I realized what a huuuuge mistake I made with bloomberg. The funny part is that they tricked me and made me purchase for both level 1 and 2 and now I am stuck with their package! Anyways, even though I wasted my money there, I went now in addition to the premium package of schweser and started reading their notes books... here is the difference: I get the same idea that I got from bloomberg but in a waaaay faster, easier and more logical way.. These guys at bloomberg just jump into conclusion expecting you have already read the material and know exactly how top use the calculator... Please dont make the same mistake and go straight with schweser.. can only recommend them to all... thanks and cheers..
Hey, at least you learned from your mistake, so kudos for that. I've used Schweser for L1 and L2 and felt adequately prepared for both exams, so I plan to stick to it for L3 as well. Their track record is there for a reason, they help students pass the test, plain and simple. I find it ironic that CFA® L1 candidates focus on the $100 promotion/savings to try and use Bloomberg - a product with no track record (super risky, no?). Seems like they're failing to adjust their discount rate accordingly...not to mention that $100 is a blip in the $3-4K investment (as well as the implicit cost of hours of studying) in the hellhole that is the CFA® journey.
"Their track record is there for a reason, they help students pass the test, plain and simple." This is a very good point. After reading this thread I plan to go with the $379 Kaplan package.
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