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spartanag07

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So I was on the phone with a Stalla sales rep today, and she was really pressing on buying a study package (instruction+notes+passmaster). She even went so far as to say that the study guides are not enough to pass the exam, even if I thoroughly study and master the concepts in them. That sounds like a salesperson trying to get some extra gross margin dollars...but I want to know what the rest of the forum thinks.

I have a B.B.A in Finance from Texas A&M University (I know, the football team isn't doing very well) and I was under the impression I would be fine studying for the CFA as long as I read and understood either the Schweser or Stalla study guides, and then worked a bunch of practice questions in either QBank or Passmaster.

Your thoughts?
 
They will always try to sell you the entire package...
But only study guides and Qbank/Passmaster should be enough.
Flashcards and videos might be useful, but not a must, given your background.
Hope this helps
 
The "videos", improperly called so, cause those are not videos in the Schweser sense, are great. Especially those with Peter Olinto.

Sample the Solutions with Stalla at http://www.stalla.com/solutions/level_1.cfm# , you'll understand what I am talking about.
 
PS - Passmaster comes with the study guides. Not the book form, but the electronic form. They don't tell you, but in each question you can click 'Study Guide' and it will take you to a PDF kind of version of the Stalla books.
 
Get a test bank - either passmaster (Stalla) or question pro (Schweser). REgular testing is the only way to drive this stuff in deep and ensure retention.
 
Can anyone else confirm that Passmaster comes with an electronic copy of the study guides? I wanted to hear it from more than one source, but Stalla's site is fuzzy with the details on this. It says the questions are linked to an electronic page of the relevant material, but it doesn't say if it has the full guide or just those relevant pages.

Also, if it does have the full guide, are the pages printable?

I called Stalla and asked them, and the woman I talked to said no, but it seemed like she didn't really understand what I was asking.
 
If it was me, based on all the stuff I have seen here, I would just buy study notes and question bank and sample exams. Flash cards, secret sauce, videos, audio tapes, podcasts, etc. are fine for some people but I would never use them (maybe a video for passive learning).
 
Word, that's the route I'd like to go. But I'm not clear on whether Stalla's Passmaster has that. I know the PassMaster� and Practice Exams set has the question bank and sample exams, but I'm not sure if it also includes the study notes.
 
Drz - passmaster does come with an electronic guide. At the bottom of each question is a link to the pdf of that chapter of the book - you could print this out too. If you're asking can you use that rather than buying the hard-copy study guides.... You probably could but it would be a logistical nightmare to print out and probably in a crappy format- the books are pretty good.

And I agree with the above comments - the Flashcards are a waste of time for my learning style.
 
> If you're asking can you use that rather than buying the hard-copy
> study guides.... You probably could but it would be a logistical
> nightmare to print out and probably in a crappy format- the books
> are pretty good.

That's exactly what I was wondering. I'll probably go with the logistical nightmare, since I'll be loading this on my laptop and may just carry that around and not print the pages anyway. My company pays all exam and study material fees, but I have to reimburse everything if I don't pass, so I'd rather not spend the money where possible.

Thanks yo.
 
Drz Wrote:

> My company pays all exam and study material fees,
> but I have to reimburse everything if I don't
> pass, so I'd rather not spend the money where
> possible.
>
> Thanks yo.


But if you don't pass, Stalla give you the next one for free so not too much expense
 
The stalla's correspondent in the middle-east said that stalla just offer the 'enhanced system' now...no 'the system' for 2009...is it true?

and i have no clue whether they sell individual elements - such as vdo cds, study guides, passmaster, practice exams because that is all i need, i dont want to take mock exam from them..
 
Yes. Stalla does offer individual materials...check their site.

I am thinking of using the flashcards for review not to study the material from....anyone used it before...?
 
23adam Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes. Stalla does offer individual
> materials...check their site.
>
> I am thinking of using the flashcards for review
> not to study the material from....anyone used it
> before...?


YES AND PLEASE DO NOT ASK THESE KINDS OF QUESTIONS ONE WEEK BEFORE OUR EXAM! WE ARE TRYING TO USE THIS SITE FOR OUR FINAL REVIEW AND DO NOT WANT TO WEED OUT THESE POSTS OR TAKE TIME WITH THEM!!!
 
peter olinto is great...the other guys on stalla....not so much.
 
> Drz - passmaster does come with an electronic guide. At the bottom of each question is a
> link to the pdf of that chapter of the book - you could print this out too. If you're asking can
> you use that rather than buying the hard-copy study guides.... You probably could but it
> would be a logistical nightmare to print out and probably in a crappy format- the books are
> pretty good.

I got the passmaster software and can get to the electronic study guides, but I can't print them. There's no print button, no menu of File / Edit / etc., Ctrl-P does nothing... it seems like they've disabled everything except the ability to open and close the guide.

Does anyone know how to print these pages? I couldn't figure out how to get to them from the program's directory.
 
>
> I got the passmaster software and can get to the
> electronic study guides, but I can't print them.
> There's no print button, no menu of File / Edit /
> etc., Ctrl-P does nothing... it seems like they've
> disabled everything except the ability to open and
> close the guide.
>
> Does anyone know how to print these pages? I
> couldn't figure out how to get to them from the
> program's directory.


Dude. You didn't buy the rights to a printed copy. You can't print them. You have to buy the study guides. (Or break Standard VII)
 
I'm pretty sure I bought the rights to a study guide, and that there's no distinction with whether I can print it or not. I don't think I'm violating any standard, although I genuinely do appreciate your turning this into an exam question. Makes me feel a little less like I'm thread-crapping.

I think the fact that they've made it difficult to print (obviously because they don't want people printing out copies and handing them out to their friends) is irrelevant. It's just a company safeguard to protect their business, but if I'm able to print it then great for me, so long as I don't distribute the material to anyone else.
 
I did the program almost exclusively with live classes and videos, and referring to parts of the study guide (but not as much as I should have). I used passmaster very little, mostly because I didn't like doing questions on a computer - I preferred doing them on paper.

The study guide is very good, in my opinion. However, I tend to learn best by hearing something explained to me first, then reading to reinforce it, so I focused on that. (I can do learn-by-reading, certainly, but prefer an explanation when it's available - explanations tend to do a better job of setting the context for the material)

So I'd cast a vote for having the videos. Peter Olinto is awesome, and David Hetherington is pretty good too (though less exciting and dynamic).
 
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