Schweser doesn't sound right

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c_hayhurst

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I just spoke with a rep with Schweser today and asked about their practice exams. Here is what she told me:

-The practice exam book for $99 comes with 3 tests and answer keys.
-The Schweser Question Bank CD comes with 5000 test questions for $249.
-The online practice exams are available for $99 each, or 3 for $149.

Got that so far? Okay, sounds a little weird to me, in terms of the wild pricing differences and what each product offers. Here is where it gets really confusing:

-The practice exam book is not really representative of the question which will appear on the Level I exam. It's just a bunch of basic questions to test your understanding of the comcepts in the CFA curriculum.
-The Schweser Question Bank CD provides questions which are more difficult, yet do not represent a best effort to provide questions which are likely to appear on the exam.
-The online practice exams are the only types of exams which make an attempt to provide questions that are likely to appear on the CFA exam.

The lady I spoke to was either a) confused about her products, b) not knowledgeable about her products and lying to cover up her lack of product knowledge, or c) was 100% accurate in her explanations.

In any event, I am looking for a set of practice exams, preferably not online, that I can take that will try to provide questions which will actually appear on the exam. Does anyone know of a vendor who provides such a product? Stalla said they did, but only if I buy the entire package for $1400. Screw that.

Any experiences or suggestions?
 
There is no vendor that would provide you with an accurate questions that represent the actual CFA exam. (Past exams are not released to the public).

However, said that, the questions that are provided by vendors are actually harder than what CFA tests. If you can understand those questions and basics behind it, then you're good to go. Also, practice is a critical point in passing CFA. If you practice any kind of questions that are associated with LOS, then your preparing for CFA.

Also, CFA offers online tests for $50, and I think that would be a good study material and more accurate towards the upcoming exams. There are older tests that you can print for free on CFA website.
 
As the kids say, "kewl".

You make complete sense when you mention that you can't get the exact questions on the exam. I am more concerned about the pratice exams containing the types of questions and questions which test on the LOS that will be included in the exam.

IOW, I'm concerned that a practice test will cover the LOS and present the questions in a format similiar to what will be on the exam.

If there was a clairvoyant out there who could provide the actual test, then they would become quite popular with us CFA candidates.

Thanks for the info!
 
no problem. I suggest you take any practice exam given to you. Also, if some people sugested buying the $50 exam from CFA. I'm going to stick to the free ones.
 
I have been using the schweser Qbank and the questions can get challenging and many are quite indepth. There are questions of Basic Intermediate and Advanced difficulty. There are many longer than the 1.5 minutes time involving multiple considerations, but that's great in that it makes you think faster, it's helped me and after months of using it I do the average schweser question in about a minute, but there are some that it may take you 3-4 minutes to do.

Also there are no test provider that follows the CFA format 100%, many depart from the format a bit. Schweser uses the "most accuratly", "least accuratly" formats, which are CFA formats for some questions, but they also use the "except for" quite a bit, which although the CFA exam does not use, is quite useful for reviewing a concpt. They also use the double detractor format. . The one thing I really like about schweser is that the format is quite variable, in that there are many different questions, asking many different things in many different ways and styles. As such you have to not only think about the concept in a different light, you have to adapt quickly to new format. I never get bored in a test and there is always a bunch of unexpected questions.

http://www.cfainstitute.org/cfaprogram/pdf/StudyandTestingTips.pdf

BTW the above study tips posted by a level 3 is great, they give the basic format of many f the questions and some groovy tips.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Monday, April 17, 2006 at 11:51PM by jamespucyk.
 
Typical Schweser Question:

Which of the following is not false?

A) Revenues are not reported on non balance sheet statement
B) Amortization is only reported on the income statement
C) COGS is found on other statements other than the Income Statement
D) Income is found on the cash flow statement and not the balance sheet statement


Even if you know the contents of the statements inside and out, the double negatives throw you off. The CFAI does not do this but for some reason Schweser tests you on it. BTW i Just made the question up so there may be more than one answer or no right answer.
 
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