Other third party providers don’t really need much in the way of advertising, but I’ll speak to what helped me get through. Here was my path through the exam.
Level 1: Dec 2012 - Pass
Level 2: June 2013 - Band 6 Fail
Level 2: June 2014 - Pass
Level 3: June 2015 - Band 9 Fail
Level 3: June 2016 - Pass
Each time on level 2 and 3 I had to pull up my socks and identify what I was doing wrong. For level 2 it was a lack of study time and lack of prep. I almost exclusively used Schweser for Level 1 and 2 (used CFAI mocks)
Level 3 is a different animal in my opinion, and although it’s best to study directly from the textbook, Go Study was an amazing supplement and incredibly useful material. The guided notes were very conversational, I felt that it was a real human that had gone through the exams and was teaching it in a way that was much easier to understand rather than being lectured by the CFA textbooks. The “cram sheet” for lack of a better word was great for quick review, and covered all the important material.
The material I found to be the most helpful was the Cue Card app. At work with nothing to do? Load up ethics and quiz yourself. It was perfect, especially the ability to mark questions you weren’t sure. This way you could go back and drill down concepts that you didn’t know. I made sure I went through at least 100 cue cards each day, and by the time I wrote the exam I could safely say I had almost every one of them memorized, it was very useful.
This may be different for you, and full disclosure I used Schweser and CFA past exams as well as Go Study, but it’s very inexpensive for the amount of value you get out of it. I would entirely recommend it for 2017.
Level 1: Dec 2012 - Pass
Level 2: June 2013 - Band 6 Fail
Level 2: June 2014 - Pass
Level 3: June 2015 - Band 9 Fail
Level 3: June 2016 - Pass
Each time on level 2 and 3 I had to pull up my socks and identify what I was doing wrong. For level 2 it was a lack of study time and lack of prep. I almost exclusively used Schweser for Level 1 and 2 (used CFAI mocks)
Level 3 is a different animal in my opinion, and although it’s best to study directly from the textbook, Go Study was an amazing supplement and incredibly useful material. The guided notes were very conversational, I felt that it was a real human that had gone through the exams and was teaching it in a way that was much easier to understand rather than being lectured by the CFA textbooks. The “cram sheet” for lack of a better word was great for quick review, and covered all the important material.
The material I found to be the most helpful was the Cue Card app. At work with nothing to do? Load up ethics and quiz yourself. It was perfect, especially the ability to mark questions you weren’t sure. This way you could go back and drill down concepts that you didn’t know. I made sure I went through at least 100 cue cards each day, and by the time I wrote the exam I could safely say I had almost every one of them memorized, it was very useful.
This may be different for you, and full disclosure I used Schweser and CFA past exams as well as Go Study, but it’s very inexpensive for the amount of value you get out of it. I would entirely recommend it for 2017.