HELP ADVICE REQUIRED!!

MCJ

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After 10 years working in an unrelated industry last year to take the plunge and follow my ambitions to try and forge a career with the Investment Sector. In preparation for this over the last 12 to 18 months I’ve studied towards and successfully gained the CFA IMC and the CISI IAD qualifications whilst also doing a 6 month internship in London and now I’m 7 months in to working at a Stockbrokers in Leeds, albeit in the back office with hopes to sometime in the near future progress in to a trainee role within the front or middle office within a Wealth/Investment Management company.
To bolster my chances of getting on my preferred career path I’m now considering the next qualification to study towards. Over recent weeks I’ve looked into the CFA Level 1 Dec 12 exam and wanted to know if anyone has any advice on what is the best prep for this exam would be. From people I’ve spoke to it appears the general consensus is that the Kaplan Schweser Premium package is the best study package to obtain?? is this correct?? I like the idea of the online videos as for my previous qualifications I’ve purely read the books only which I know I wont be able to do with the CFA exams.
I’ve also considered enrolling on the Kaplan Weekend Courses they offer (just the revision block not the revision phase), although I know this is very expensive, I presume the course is worth the money in the long run in terms of preparation? Has anyone been on this course?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers !
 
Sounds like you’ve already got it planned out.
I would personally reccommend the Elan Guides Ultimate package and the Schweser Question Bank. I have both the Elan Guides notes and the Schweser ones. Basically Elan has better videos and Schweser has a better question bank.
The Elan Guides videos have been a saviour for me at times when I haven’t understood the notes very well for explaining concepts.
Hope this helps.
I too am considering a course like that but I cannot comment as I have never done one. December will be my first sitting.
 
It does sound like you have it all figured out. Since you have done the IMC and the CISI,perhaps you don’t really need to learn alot for CFA L1 anyways…Perhaps take a look at sample L1 exams first to gauge the difficulty or the gap between what you know and what is demanded of you before paying for all these 3rd party packages…Nevertheless I have only heard good things about Elan for L1 … enrolling for classes maybe a little overkill for you!
 
Thanks, your responses are really appreciated.
I’m considering the courses as I’m trying to do everything possible to pass first time. With my previous qualifications I just basically read the text books and did all the practice questions but found that this way caused me to get easily distracted, I was hoping a course would suit me better as It appears distractions in your studies towards the CFA will ultmiatley end in failure!
I’ll look into the Elan Ultimate package.
 
capaldij wrote:
Sounds like you’ve already got it planned out.
I would personally reccommend the Elan Guides Ultimate package and the Schweser Question Bank. I have both the Elan Guides notes and the Schweser ones. Basically Elan has better videos and Schweser has a better question bank.
The Elan Guides videos have been a saviour for me at times when I haven’t understood the notes very well for explaining concepts.
Hope this helps.
I too am considering a course like that but I cannot comment as I have never done one. December will be my first sitting.
You think Schweser Qbank is better than Élan’s practice questions? You gotta be kidding me !! :-|
 
So Élan or Schweser? What are people using? I’m looking to purchase over the next week so any further help would be greatly appreciated !!! Thanks!
 
Is IMC that finance industry introduction test the CFA cooked up?
 
MCJ wrote:
So Élan or Schweser? What are people using? I’m looking to purchase over the next week so any further help would be greatly appreciated !!! Thanks!
Used both and would go for Elan, primarily because of their study guides.
iteracom wrote:
Is IMC that finance industry introduction test the CFA cooked up?
The IMC is the UK’s Investment Management Certificate. The CFAI diploma goes by some other name that I cannot recall right now.
 
Cinderella wrote:
The IMC is the UK’s Investment Management Certificate. The CFAI diploma goes by some other name that I cannot recall right now.
Claritas, which really does sound like antihistamines.
 
Cinderella wrote:
MCJ wrote:
So Élan or Schweser? What are people using? I’m looking to purchase over the next week so any further help would be greatly appreciated !!! Thanks!
Used both and would go for Elan, primarily because of their study guides.
iteraco +1 Is IMC that finance industry introduction test the CFA cooked up? [/QUOTE said:
The IMC is the UK’s Investment Management Certificate. The CFAI diploma goes by some other name that I cannot recall right now.
 
Yeah that’s the IMC we’re talking about. It’s really easy and a money spinner for the society… I guess that’s what CFAI wants Claritas to be as well.
 
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