Question about Elan Guides

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cv4cfa

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I've seen quite a few discussions on whether Stella is better or Schweser is. But I've seen very few posts about Elan guides (or I missed them). They are the most economical of the lot. I just want to know if any of you who have used Elan guides had a chance to look at Stella/Schweser, and what do you think of the quality of those guides in comparison to Stella or Schweser? Do they cover the material well for us to have enough practice?
 
I think they are great. I have a friends copy of the 09 Schweser text and I have gone back and forth between to two company's and find they almost identical. I am currently using the Elan guides and am satisfied. They also offer videos which are a huge help too. For the price you can't beat it. After dropping 1000 to register spending another 600 at the minimum was going to be tough.

In short, they are good, thorough, and I am satisfied with my decision to use them.
 
Agree with aapl. I just finished with the econ section (guides plus videos) and am happy with their stuff. I am studying primarily from their materials. So far I've only used the CFAI book for questions and summaries.

You ask about practice so I should tell you that they only provide a handful of practice questions for each reading. I wish they had a practice questions software, but they don't.

I am not in a position to make the comparison with Schweser or Stalla. I got a letter from elan in the mail, checked out their samples, liked them so made a $85 punt on them. Definitely working well so far.
 
I am using the Elan guides also and so far think they are a big help. I wish they had more practice questions. Does anyone know if you can just buy Qbank from Schweser or do you have to buy the entire package?

Cheers
 
Horse Girl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am using the Elan guides also and so far think
> they are a big help. I wish they had more
> practice questions. Does anyone know if you can
> just buy Qbank from Schweser or do you have to buy
> the entire package?
>
> Cheers


you can buy it separately, $350
 
packattack4,

Scheweser does not sell Qbank separately. It is the practice exams + the 5 study notes that they sell for $349. I had asked them if I could buy the Qbank + practice exams separately, and they replied they do not have such a package for sale. I suggested they should make such a package for sale as most of us would be interested in that. They never responded.
 
cv4cfa, horse_girl:

Schweser does sell the QBank separately:

http://www.schweser.com/cfa/cfa1.php

It's under Additional Level I June study tools.

The downloadable version is $299 and the CD is for $324.

On a more 'thread-related' note I think Elan's videos and guides are a wonderful resource. I am a big fan of their's.
 
beatthecfa,

You are right - I misspoke even though I intended stating the Qbank + Practice exams package is what they do not sell separately.
 
I have not seen their complete set of notes, as they were not available when I took my L1 exam.

But I have seen some free samples on their site. And I was quite impressed reading them. Specially after reading their text on Deferred Taxes.

Also, the quality and low prices they are offering, Schweser and Stalla are in for a tough competition. Their pricing needs to come down towards their marginal costs, no supernormal earnings in long run :)
 
I printed the free study notes from the Elan Guides website and compared it to the CFA text and the Schweser 09 notes. The Elan provides a good summary of the CFA text, but Schweser seems to explain the material differently from the text. Someone told me that is because Schweser does not do a good job updating their notes. I think I prefer Elan's way of summarizing the actual CFA test material. So, today I ordered the 5 volume set of notes and their 11th hour in the printed version for about $129, including shipping. However, the qbank questions from Schweser are a must.
 
Thank you all for your inputs. It certainly helps to get different perspectives.
 
please let us know how you like them once you start chugging away. Been a schweser user but after two times of not passing, partially because I feel schweser is more quantitative based, would like to try anther service!

soverby Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I printed the free study notes from the Elan
> Guides website and compared it to the CFA text and
> the Schweser 09 notes. The Elan provides a good
> summary of the CFA text, but Schweser seems to
> explain the material differently from the text.
> Someone told me that is because Schweser does not
> do a good job updating their notes. I think I
> prefer Elan's way of summarizing the actual CFA
> test material. So, today I ordered the 5 volume
> set of notes and their 11th hour in the printed
> version for about $129, including shipping.
> However, the qbank questions from Schweser are a
> must.
 
Jay335,

What band were you in your previous attempts? Which areas are you weak in? Did you focus solely on the Schwerser notes? Or did you refer to the curicullum as well?

I have been tutoring candidates for a number of years now. Perhaps you will find my insight helpful, but I need to know more regarding your prep the last time around.

As for Elan Guides, I recomend them to my students if they seek the help of a prep provider. As I have said for a while now, their guides are really great. They are an improvement on Schweser esp in Econ, FRA, debt and derivatives. Unfortunately, they don't have a QBank yet, which is the only con I have heard regarding them from anyone.
There are also some irritating grammatical mistakes in some portions of the text, but in my opinion that does not make a material difference to their overall quality.

Before making the purchasing decision, you should check out their samples and see for yourself whether you even need a new set of books/ videos.

Get back to me with answers to my questions above and I'll try to offer you some tailored advice.

Good luck!
 
Band 4 & 7 is how I panned out^
Started studying late, knew what the consequences would be. This time around I am giving myself 1 whole month on practice tests if I can power through the material early. I felt Schweser was much more quantitative than conceptual and solely focusing on them was not a good idea. Just ordered Elan Guides through phone today. Sounds legit, but wish they had an online order form.
Appreciate the tutoring insight, but schedule wise I'm all over the board so self study has always been my method. I'm gunning for it, but if this round doesn't work, I will try the new approach.

Thanks for the insight as well.
 
You're welcome,

Did you get the 40% retaker discount on the Guides. Or is that only applicable on their Ultimate Pack?
 
Elans material on fixed income is outstanding...... very easy to understand compared to schweser....
 
I believe it is only available on their ultimate pack. Just got the books and very surprised at the quality of the material. I have only worked with Econ so far but did a comparative between Schweser/Elan/CFA Text and the Elan seems more in line with the CFA text but with Schweser style summarizing/info needed to pass the exam. It has been easy to comprehend and the explanations are pretty solid so far.

My coworker who has Schweser and passed L1 was making fun of me expecting Elan to be a foreign scam due to the fact that they are housed across seas but the books/material that came is professional and easy to understand.

Just took a few pics of the books themselves:
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/561/photoyh.jpg
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/3404/photo2bp.jpg

Will probably have a more in depth review in the future after using them for about a month but so far, it looks promising.
 
I used schweser's premium plus pack two years ago but failed my Level I. I am retaking the exam this june. schweser was good but very expensive. I agree with jay335 that elan's books are more closely related to the CFA books. Although I have not received my elan books yet because I ordered them just yesterday, but I spent a long time evaluating their free samples ( both videos and chapters) before I decided to buy their full pack. Also they cost only a fraction of the money u pay for schweser plus there are special discounts for those who've flunked (like me). There are enough free samples to help u decide and other free stuff like formula sheets, on their website.
 
Has Elan been around for a while? Its premium package is dirt cheap (I understand there is no qbank).
 
I don't think they've been around too long. But their stuff is really good.

No Qbank though. I am using their Ultimate Package plus schwesers qbank.
 
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