Don’t buy Kaplan Series

Long time lurker here, finally able to pay back the community a little.

I was asked to take Series 79 by a decent bank I am at now and didn’t feel the material they provide is enough (wanted to finish it within 3 days). After research, I bought Kaplan myself since my school sponsored their CFA material for me and it was decent.

The nightmare begins here: I spent 5hrs taking notes and read through the book, only to learn later half of the materials will not be covered on 79 (They only posted that behind one icon in their portal, not even in the E-Book) Then I started using their Qbank, all the unrelated questions were put up (yes, stuff won’t be tested still shows in the Qbank) and worst of all, none of the graphs in Qbank shows, so I had to guess what’s the graph is every a few questions. (Tried a few browsers for that)

more absurdly, I sent a few emails a week ago since my exam is soon, they haven’t got back to me (claimed to reply within one business day) and I had to call them to learn from the operator “NO ONE IS TAKING THE EXAM, SO WE DON’T CARE AND WONT MAKE A NEW BOOK FOR IT.” Guess I am the idiot now trusting Kaplan and they said no way they’ll refund. At the end, she told me she’ll contact the product team for me and (shockingly) I haven’t heard back anything or received the email response.

Sorry about the rant. I researched on this forum a lot when I was looking for materials and wanted to give some feedback. To sum it up: Don’t but Kaplan Series 79 Prep.

14 Comments
 

I bought their video series for the level 2 CFA exams years ago. Some of them were less exciting than watching water boil. The CFA institute books are the way to go there. I have no experience with the 79 (Have the 7, 63, had had the 65)  I feel your pain, and agree that Kaplan is junk.  I had to pick a provider for my CFP as well, and went for them again. It was laughably bad.

The only difference between Asset Management and Investment Research is assets. I generally see somebody I know on TV on Bloomberg/CNBC etc. once or twice a week. This sounds cool, until I remind myself that I see somebody I know on ESPN five days a week.
 

I’ve used Kaplan for the CFA exams, MCAT classes, and GRE flash cards. Yes, I have studied for all of the exams - lol.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

TBH, I didn't really like them.  If I had to do it over I'd go elsewhere. What was your experience?

The only difference between Asset Management and Investment Research is assets. I generally see somebody I know on TV on Bloomberg/CNBC etc. once or twice a week. This sounds cool, until I remind myself that I see somebody I know on ESPN five days a week.
 

Well, I liked Stalla the best for CFA and had live classes with Peter Olinto for L1 and L2.

All of Kaplan’s materials seem decent; I haven’t used them for any Series exam though.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
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The only difference between Asset Management and Investment Research is assets. I generally see somebody I know on TV on Bloomberg/CNBC etc. once or twice a week. This sounds cool, until I remind myself that I see somebody I know on ESPN five days a week.

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