How useful is Schweser for level 3?

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vanphapdang

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Hi all, I’ve just started studying for level 3. A good friend of mine told me that schweser notes for level 3 are very good and useful and it covers like 90-95% of the curriculum content. Could anybody confirm or oppose that and give me some opinions? I need to create a study plan because my job is more stressful in the coming time.
Thank you all!
 
There have been conflicting views on this. The Schweser notes seem to be good is almost an accepted view. Their Qbank have got mixed reviews.
Between, if you lack time as you seem to indicate - My 0.02 is that go for Schweser notes. Good luck!
 
Yes use schweser as the main source, and with1-2mths to go only do CFAI EOC and practice exams. That was sufficient for me, but its all subjective. Goodluck!
 
you never get a unanimous answer for this kind of question.
100 people have 100 views on that.
I have stopped asking this question long time ago.
 
I read all the CFA curriculum from September - February for level 3. At the end, I had a feeling that i know nothing.
Then I used Schwesser Videos + Notes + Exam Practisec. it was much much better. Did not have problems with passing it.
 
jqian wrote:
you never get a unanimous answer for this kind of question.
100 people have 100 views on that.
I have stopped asking this question long time ago.
Click to expand...
 
between arif & sch - which one has better videos? I’ve mostly avoided videos (except stalla in past) .. but think, might be better for my 2nd attempt on L3 (to repeat lessons). Wondering if there is any recommendation on videos.
 
I used Schweser almost exclusively for LIII and passed. The notes are great, and cover realistically about 100% of what you need to know to pass, that said CFAI material will have some additional material that may or may not show up on the exam. I started reading both the Schweser notes and the CFAI material, and I found the CFAI material to cover the same stuff, though was much lengthier and more difficult to get through and I stopped going through the CFAI books. The QBank is just OK. I used it mainly to drill down the main points and to make sure I had the formulas down. One thing the CFAI books are excellent for are the end of session questions which you should do for each study session. Pretty much everyone will tell you though that practice exams are the best way to really prep for the exam. As you do practice exams your weaknesses will come out, and that is where the Qbank can come in handy and you can drill through dozens or even hundreds of questions on a particular topic to get up to speed.
 
I heard Hetherington from Schweser is very good. But the bad news is THE great Andrew Holmes does not deliver L3 lectures.
l used Arif and passed.
 
Andrew Holmes will do 3 day final review. He said so on last time Level 2 final review.
 
i never unboxed the CFAI test.
schweser did the job.
me like schweser. very much.
 
Used Schweser almost exclusively (except for a bit of the behavioral material). Put around 100 hours (mostly videos first followed by notes), and finished just before the exam. Based on my score breakdown, I just squeeked by. So it’s possible, but I felt I got very lucky on the exam selection of questions. Plus, I’ve always been good at taking tests. Hetheringtons sections were excellent for his approach to writing answers. Lefevre was also good. Some of the others were stupifying, but that’s life.
 
Used only schweser for all three levels and passed. (almost all ppl i know cleared various cfa levels used schweser exclusively.) In fact i have hardly come across anyone personally who has used the CFA curriculum.
I find that schweser gives nice consice explanations for most of the topics and this is more than sufficient as a majority of the topics are not really that difficult to understand. (the ones you find too difficult can obviously be looked up from the main curriculum) The main benefit of this is that one can quicly go through the entire curriculum once and get a good grasp of what fits where in the broad portfolio management process. This is especially important as i think a key part of level 3 is to be able to pick points from various sections of the curriculum and answer accordingly.
The problem with CFA texts is that they are just toooo long and verbose. I tried reading a couple of chapters from the original texts and completely lost my way half way through.
The argument that most ppl have against schweser is that it doesn’t cover stuff thoroughly enough or skips certain parts of the curriculum.
My take on this is that Schweser covers atleast 90% of the material if not more… Now knowing this 90% should be more than sufficient to answer most of the stuff on the test. Much better than attempting to know the obscure bits and then failing to understand comprehensively the main stuff…
Note that this is from the point of view of someone who has to study while working and so would not have all the time in the world to just study for CFA.
 
Schweser in my view is more than enough. The videos on Individual and Institutional portfolio management is really good. I thoroughly enjoyed watching other Scheweser videos too. Whatever you do, do well.
 
Thank you all for the answers.
Seems like everybody is cool with the notes. I’ve never used Schweser as my main source in the previous two levels, but I might have to do it now due to my condensed free time as well as the need to quickly pick up main points in level 3. I believe Schweser will do me good. Let’s go!
 
Went Schweser for all 3 levels and worked out quite well, so I would definitely say Schweser is sufficient to pass the test.
Your question should really come down to what kind of learning style fits you best. I am definitely the type that likes to read condensed notes rather than reading pages and pages of “blah”, so Schweser was great. I know many smart people personally who cannot study condensed notes and learn absolutely nothing from notes, so it comes down to you personally.
 
Hi all,
This is my first post in this forum. Until yesterday, i was just a silent spectator to this forum. I have passed L3 this year and wanted to help the people writing L3 in the future.
I have cleared L3 in my first attempt and i didnot even order the hard copies of CFAI books. I have never seen those CFAI books. I prepared from ONLY schweser material and schweser videos. Honestly wirtten all the 6 question papers of Schweser and 3 past question papers from CFAI. Following is my result where i have aced both morning and evening. (Didnot get 70% in 6 topics). I assume i am waay above the MPS and cleared the exam quite comfortably.
So, i suggest only Schweser and past question papers for everyone.
Essay

Q#
Topic
Max Pts

51%-70%
>70%

1
Portfolio Management - Individual
20
-
-
*

2
Portfolio Management - Individual
15
-
-
*

3
Portfolio Management - Individual
16
-
*
-

4
Equity Investments
17
-
*
-

5
Economics
20
-
*
-

6
Portfolio Management - Institutional
18
-
-
*

7
Portfolio Management - Institutional
14
-
-
*

8
Fixed Income Investments
17
-
-
*

9
Fixed Income Investments
9
-
-
*

10
Portfolio Management - Risk Management
18
-
*
-

11
Portfolio Management - Performance Eval.
16
-
*
-





Item Set

Q#
Topic
Max Pts

51%-70%
>70%

-
Alternative Investments
36
-
-
*

-
Economics
18
-
-
*

-
Equity Investments
18
-
-
*

-
Ethical & Professional Standards
36
-
-
*

-
Fixed Income Investments
18
-
*
-

-
Portfolio Management
18
*
-
-

-
Portfolio Management - Asset Allocation
18
-
-
*

-
Portfolio Management - Risk Management
18
-
-
*
 
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