Wiley/Elan for December 2015 Level 1?

[hopeIdontfail]

Hi all,
I work 14+ hour days and don’t have the time to cram for the June ‘15 Level 1 exam. I’ll instead by spreading my study sessions out so I can write Level 1 in December ‘15.
I’ve worked through Quant using some friends texts to compare the differences between both the CFA texts and Schewser.
Some initial comments:
1. The CFA texts seem incredibly redundant. I don’t see the point in going into such granularity to try and solve TVM problems algebraicly when it can be done 100x faster and easier using a financial calculator. While it is certainly useful to understand the algebraic method it seems completely over the top when you’re trying to simply learn the material to pass the exam.
2. Schewser is good but it seems a bit too “cut to the chase”. There wasn’t much explanation so I could see this text being slightly difficult if you don’t pair it with video material.
My questions:
1. Is Wiley/Elan at all decent for Level 1? I looked at the Trial offer and I was absolutely revolted with Vital Source…It’s simply unusable! You can only print 20 pages at a time, there is no PDF option. That being said, has anyone purchased the textbooks and are they in a decently readable format?
2. Are Wiley/Elan videos useable for 2015? I heard that Fixed Income is a disaster. My concern is that the website says that they will be available to stream until June…but if I’m writing the December exam I’d hate for all of that material to just disappear. Considering that they won’t let you download the videos I wonder if anyone has simply done a Screen Flow to record the videos. It angers me that you’re paying a lot of money and these educational providers are still finding a way to make it really difficult for you to learn.
Cheers.

 

[Iampossible]

Hi,
Yes, you don’t really need to read everything in the detailed solutions CFA Institute provides if you already have a sound understanding of the fundamentals. I suppose this is more to provide those with non-finance backgrounds an opportunity to better understand what they are doing.
1) Yes Wiley/Elan content is superb. I personally use the printed study text, as I like to hand write notes. I think the printed study guides are decent in terms of presentation. As for Vital source, the upside comes when you want to do a quick review on your smartphone/tablet on the move. Moreveover, with Wiley’s Review Course the notes are organized by so called “bit sized lessons” online - so if you don’t like Vital Source, you can see notes nice and clear online, along witht the relevant videos, practice questions and assessments.
2) “With you till you Pass”..Not sure if this applies to all products they offer, but it sure does for the Platinum Package and you will get all content updates till you actually pass the exam. So if for some reason your videos go missing chat them up online and they will sort it out.
At the end of the day, Wiley provides awesome resources, but to really succeed I believe we’ve got to channel great efforts efficiently in the right direction. In other words, its way more efficient to study from Wiley notes/videos, and then do all Wiley questions and use the Institute’s material for questions (including their online practice questions)
All the best for December 2015 !!