Schweser or CFA for level III

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You probably shouldnt chane the way your are studying, particularly if you’ve had success in the past. I’ve known people that passed level 3 with only the Schweser material.
Frankly, I think that the schweser material was really just a slightly trimmed down copy of the level 3 material. In some instances, they provided the same examples as in the curiculum with the numbers changed. So what I am saying is that their material didn’t have a lot of value added relative to the CFAI materials.
 
my vote is for the cfai material……………at level 3 the advantage of having less material is greatly outweighted by the subjjective nature of the exam………………in other words the schweser material is not much shorter than the CFAI so why not go straight to the source
 
I started with Schweser for L1 and i failed. Then i studied from CFAI books and passed. Then for L2 I studied from CFAI books and passed. Then came L3 and i went back to Schweser, and guess what……I failed, and that too poorly. Now i am gonna retake in 2012 and have ordered print curriculum from CFAI.
L3 is not a piece of cake and very serious candidates appear annually. And the AM session requires deep understanding of topics because you just cannot make guesses as more often than not you have to write your answers with reasons. It is very different from L1/L2 where answer is there in one of the choices and you can get it right 33% of the times even if you have no idea about it whatsoever.
I can tell from my personal experience that there are a lot of consequences associated with failing on an exam. Firstly, you lose 1 year, the moment you learn you failed you might feel a strong urge to study again quickly and reappear within a month, but that cannot happen. You have to wait one full year. Secondly, nobody likes to admit to his family and friends that he failed the exam, he might feel ashamed. I do. Thirdly, you get zero reward for 80%(example) effort that you put, when you could have got 100% reward if you had put 20% more effort. Fourthly, you lose a good sum of money, with which you could probably have bought a good laptop or something..!!
So if you are putting effort why not make sure you put a little more and get some actual reward out of it and at least save yourself on the aforesaid four points??
 
use CFAI books , need to focus on details in lv3 , schweser is poor in lv3
 
I’m reading CFA books as my primary source, but am curious how valuable the Schweser books are as a study aid to cement those concepts.
At Level II, I used the same two-source technique and thought it worked rather well. Sometimes with CFA material, it’s difficult to hold on to the main concept because the concepts can be so verbose.
Comments appreciated.
 
I used both Schweser material and CFAI, about 70/30. I used Schweser for the basic stuff and used CFAI supplement to reinforce my own weak areas.
All Schweser does is to distill CFAI material. I think that’s where the value creation come from. Schweser knows better than most candidates where to cut and where not to cut. It really comes down to your own way of study and how to take advantage of strength and weakness of each. Plenty of people here went with one or the other or both and passed/failed. But one thing for sure is that CFAI is definitly more useful for level III than it would be for the other two levels.
 
I used Schweser only with the exception of CFAI practice exams, and I did well in the L3 exam on my first try.
L1 and L2 I used solely schweser and passed also.
 
When you guys say you “use CFAI books” does that mean you actually read everything in the CFAI curriculum? or do you skim through it a bit and read enough to do the examples and EOC q’s?
I’ve found a great deal of the information in the books is either useless or goes into far too much detail to be useful.
 
Like greentomato…i only used schweser for level 3 but used the CFAI practice exams and passed…i think that schweser is sufficient more that enuff material…if you truly understand the content in the schweser notes for level 3…you will be golden.
 
I aint taking any chances. I’ll use Schweser as my supplement but CFAI for my core material. If I can get my gig to swing for Stalla I’ll use that otherwise will go with Schweser. I also have the Allen Resources 2011 L3 material when I thought I was going to take it this year so I’ll use those as well.
 
my advice -
i go through schweser books first. Its a compact version on CFAI material. This allows you to learn the basic material throughout Lv3. Obv you will not be able to remember all material first go around. Thus I use schweser to learn as much as i can before i dive in the CFAI books, that way the information is not new to me, and i can go into depth on it.
Once I finish Schweser, I read and take notes through all CFAI books. After im done with that I reread all my notes over and over. till i understand every concept
Then once i have a good understanding of the material i go back through practice questions, terms I forget, formulas, etc.
then ….Practice exams, practice exams, practice exams
taking Lv3 June 2012… hoping to go 3/3
 
I read every page. I’m only going to do it once (hopefully).
How do you know which material is useless or goes into too much detail?
SocratesCFA Wrote:
——————————————————-
> When you guys say you “use CFAI books” does that
> mean you actually read everything in the CFAI
> curriculum? or do you skim through it a bit and
> read enough to do the examples and EOC q’s?
>
> I’ve found a great deal of the information in the
> books is either useless or goes into far too much
> detail to be useful.
 
mp3bu Wrote:
——————————————————-
> When is the online Qbank available? My online
> Schweser still says L2
I bought my Schweser Essential Pack through the local CFA society (bought it about a month ago) and I have already been given online access for Level III, however all that is really available is the first 2 study books as a link for online access and cirriculum for the first 8 SS’s.
According to the website hard copy study books and Qbank becomes available in October so there pretty close.
 
Ditto…went 3/3 with Schweser for reading only, cfai EOC ?s on 2 & 3, and creighton bootcamp for l3 (which covers tons of old AM exam ?s)
DDL24 Wrote:
——————————————————-
> I used both Schweser material and CFAI, about
> 70/30. I used Schweser for the basic stuff and
> used CFAI supplement to reinforce my own weak
> areas.
> All Schweser does is to distill CFAI material. I
> think that’s where the value creation come from.
> Schweser knows better than most candidates where
> to cut and where not to cut. It really comes down
> to your own way of study and how to take advantage
> of strength and weakness of each. Plenty of
> people here went with one or the other or both and
> passed/failed. But one thing for sure is that CFAI
> is definitly more useful for level III than it
> would be for the other two levels.
 
just ordered schweser L3, books are supposed to come out mid oct according to their timeline
Used only schweser for L1/L2, didnt even open the CFAI books
prob do the same except use the EOC questions from CFAI( cut it a bit close on hte L2 exam)
 
You sure about using Schweser as the primary source?
Remember roughly 1/2 of all candidates fail the test and that’s for a rather narrow group of folks.
np1989 Wrote:
——————————————————-
> just ordered schweser L3, books are supposed to
> come out mid oct according to their timeline
>
>
> Used only schweser for L1/L2, didnt even open the
> CFAI books
>
> prob do the same except use the EOC questions from
> CFAI( cut it a bit close on hte L2 exam)
 
L3 CFAI books are the best of the 3 levels . i read levels 1, 2 from the CFAI books, BUT LEVEL 3 is a fun read. summaries are critical , when i compare my summaries with schw. there are some differences , but at least iam going to the test center after reading from the main source, and if i fail , i wouldnt feel guilty for not reading the cirr. + a gain a lot of knowledge from reading the cirr.
iam a personal decision , depends on the candidate …
 
sharpy606 Wrote:
——————————————————-
> L3 CFAI books are the best of the 3 levels . i
> read levels 1, 2 from the CFAI books, BUT LEVEL 3
> is a fun read. summaries are critical , when i
> compare my summaries with schw. there are some
> differences , but at least iam going to the test
> center after reading from the main source, and if
> i fail , i wouldnt feel guilty for not reading the
> cirr. + a gain a lot of knowledge from reading the
> cirr.
> iam a personal decision , depends on the candidate
> …
its a personal decision , depends on the candidate/.
 
schweser all the way. you need more time to practice. schweser will give you some understanding then when you practice you will get the materials more.
CFAI just takes too long to ready. 2 paragraph concepts is condensed to 1-2 senstences in schweser. the pitfall a lot of people make when using schweser materials is they skim through it. you have to read every sentence and think it through cause it’s already a summary.
 
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