Using only Elan guides for L1 exam

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mgg100

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I was wondering what people thought of elan guides for preparing for L1 in June. Do you think the material is enough to replace the CFAI books? I’m pressed for time and looking to switch. Thanks
 
They were excellent. I got the Ultimate Pack and was very well-prepared. I would still advise you to use the CFA books for the EOC questions.
 
So I should be ok with reading the Elan study notes as a replacement to the CFAI material? How is the Ethics section for Elan?
 
im currently using elan guides for the Level 1 exam. the notes are very good, they are straight to the point but still cover everything you have to know. i also have the questions ( 2000 of them) . in my opinion the questions are better and harder than the CFA EOC questions.
 
Honestly i thought elan was fantastic, no more than 4 5 questions in the exam i didnt see in elan. I would still do ethics on CFAI. I passed with >70 in all sections doing CFAI ethics summaries and EOC (for summaries it ll help you point some areas Elan missed) and then did every elan questions from qbank 2 mock and the CFA mock.
 
There seems to be a lot of knowledge of the ELAN Guides in this thread. I have been using Elan almost exclusively for my studying. I agree that it is very helpful, very to the point. It has been a lot easier than reading the CFAI material. I only use the CFAI material if I am struggling to understand something specific.
I do have a question, specifically for Micholien since you have already taken and passed Level I. I am scoring around 80% on my EOC and Elan section questions. Do you think this is sufficient to move on to other sections or should I wait until I am scoring higher? Thanks!
 
Yes definitely and also because its better to keep going through the curriculum and come back to redo the questions later when you do reviews than redoing it right away. I ll tell you exactly what I did (which may seem extreme ==> about 400 hours or little more):
- CFAI Ethics
- Elan videos for the whole study session (for example quant first study session i watch all 4 videos for the 4 readings).
- then I would read that study session notes from elan and highlights stuff. After each reading I did te EOC before jumping to the enxt reading and read CFAI summary to make sure everything was covered; if it was not i would go and read quickly the CFAI material covering it.
- At the end of a full subject like quants for example which has 2 study sessions, I would go and do all elan quants questions.
- i repeat the previous 3 things (videos, elan notes, eoc and summaries and elan questions) for every subject.
- I had about 3 4 weeks for review and I planned it this way, I reviewed the notes I highlighted for example i started reviewing quants and econ together and did the questions I had missed only, then FRA by itself, then equity and FI together, then CF and PM, finally derivatives and AI.
- I had like a week left, and because I was working I never took a full mock but did half by half after work every day, i did 4 half mocks from elan (so 2 mocks out of 3), and finally did the CFA mock half by half one thursday one friday before the exam. didnt go to bed late but just read a few formulas i had missed and a few definitions before going to bed around 11pm or something close to that. I brought all my books to the exam in my car to read in case for the 2 hours break but really couldnt its too much and at this point i didnt think it would be useful however i read people say that you should read at lunch break sections not tested in the morning session because they are likely to be tested in the pm session.
Good luck man and unfortunately at level 2 elan seems to be in the making (only soft copies which i hate, no qbank, only one mock, videos not for all subjects) but still gonna use them because they were so good for level 1. However, i wont be able to repeat the plan i used for L1 because of time constraints, i just started to study and I work longer hours.
 
i usually move on to the next section when i score 80% on the elan guides questions. usually when i finish a section, ill review all my notes, after which i do all the elan questions over and over until i hit 80+ ( unless i score well the first time around). like i said earlier, they seem harder than the EOC questions and are more math based which helps me memorize all those formulas.
 
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