Did you use Schwesser for LII

[detsaw]

I know this a common topic of debate, but I started LII prep this month and have been going back and forth between Schwesser and CFAI. I passed LI with 3 months of prep and only using Scwhesser. Now of course I undestand LII is completely different and Im therefore starting much earlier but how many of you taking LIII only used Schwesser?

 

[psriniva]

For Level 2 I used Schweser and Curriculum EOC questions only. Did not use Schweser Q bank.

 

[PalacioHill]

I read the entire curriculum and finished by March and reviewed with Schweser. In hindsight, I wish I had only studied with Schweser and the CFAI EOC questions. Although the CFAI texts were somewhat interesting they were far to lengthy to really learn and prepare for the exam. I think the people who recommend ‘CFAI only’ are either masochists or are trying to get other people to take the hard route. I essentially learned everything from Schweser and the EOCs between April and the test date even though I started studying in September. I have an MSF degree some of the curriculum was review especially in the derivatives area. My plan of attack for level III is to finish the Schweser notes by March and do the CFAI EOCs and practice exams.

 

[Wendy]

PalacioHill wrote: I think the people who recommend ‘CFAI only’ are either masochists or are trying to get other people to take the hard route.
Agreed. My grandpa loves to talk about how he walked 6 miles to school barefoot, uphill, in a blizzard. Guess what? We don’t need to do that anymore.
PalacioHill wrote: My plan of attack for level III is to finish the Schweser notes by March and do the CFAI EOCs and practice exams.
That’s a good plan, though I got by without even doing the CFAI EOC. For level III, the most important thing is to do the old CFAI morning exams: do at least the last 3 years, and preferably even more. This is the only way I found to master IPS problems.

 

[ftwcfa]

I studied all of Schweser (including all six practice exams), did CFAI EOC, CFAI texts for ethics, parts of corp goverance, and a few of the more qualitative equity chapters (i.e. porters five forces), the CFAI mock, and the 2 Testtrac exams.
I don’t understand people who say the only way to pass is to read CFAI. In fact, for me, the CFAI materials actually sometimes obscure what is testable and what is not by giving so much information. It has a lot of interesting material, but the CFAI chapters are harder to condense down on your own. You will see a few things in the EOC questions that throw you a loop and that were not covered well in Schweser, but that is part of the preperation process and just learn the material based on the question. The EOCs and the Schweser practice exams were in my opinion more difficult than the real thing. If you are making 75%+ on the practice exams, and have a good grasp on the EOCs, I would say you are doing pretty well.

 

[jdough]

I took L1 Dec 2010 and L2 in June. For L2 I used Schweser for the majority of my studying and only read through the CFAI material once (very quickly). I’m pretty sure I barely passed L2, though.

 

[cgeorgan]

ftwcfa wrote:I don’t understand people who say the only way to pass is to read CFAI. In fact, for me, the CFAI materials actually sometimes obscure what is testable and what is not by giving so much information.
What you call “obscure” is simply the way textbooks are written. In fact, the CFAI texts are anything but obscure, in the sense that the actual answers from the CFA examination are spelled out word-for-word in the CFAI texts. If you do enough EOC problems, you’ll come to understand exactly what’s being tested, and you’ll never be surprised on test day.
Furthermore, it would appear that many people don’t actually read the Learning Outcome Statements. These things became my best friends during study time, as they told me exactly what I needed to know out of all of the texts. Not only that, but the CFAI provides a list of “command words,” that tell you precisely the level of knowledge you need to master. In other words, there’s actually a difference between “demonstrate” and “compute”.
If you look at the CFAI texts next to a stack of Schwesser notes, you’ll find that Schwesser probably compresses the CFAI texts to around 70%. That’s not a huge shortcut, IMHO. Further examination will reveal that alot of that compression comes from the removal of many of the excellent work-through examples and optional readings.
Everybody should study in a fashion they feel most comfortable with. However, I can say that reading the CFAI texts is not an undue burden. Last year, I studied from Feb. 26 to June 5, an average of 2 hours each day (except for three days), working through all of the example problems and all of the EOC questions (sometimes twice), with three weeks of review time to spare. I’m not a particularly fast reader, and I took excellent notes (that you could probably compare to a study guide) along the way.
It’s totally doable; not only that but I actually felt as if I was learning something rather than going through the motions.