Wiley/ELAN Print Materials for 2015 & My Review of 2014 Materials

[Rapid_777]

Level 1:
I had access to Schweser content as well as ELAN for the 2014 year. I used ELAN guide mostly and found it to be superior to Schweser in many ways. Mainly, ELAN explained the concepts in greater detail and was much more organized in their presentation of the content.
ELAN also offered more and better questions per topic. Their formula sheets were much better as well.
The PDF versions of the eBooks were great. It’s a shame that they have now moved over to VitalSource. VitalSource is terrible because oftentimes there are print limitations and you can’t zoom in and out to your preference.
I hope Wiley/ELAN allow candidates to print up to 150 pages at a time; this is what the CFAI allows us to do through VitalSource (the length of the longest reading; link here: http://www.cfainstitute.org/learning/products/publications/Pages/cfa_pro...)
I ordered the 2014 print materials from ELAN and they were terrible. The content was pressed right up against the center of the book; I could not use the books to study as they were too difficult to read. The books were stiff and wouldn’t lay flat on the desk either. Absolutely horrible design. The type of paper they used and the colors were the only good things about the physical books.
Is anyone here planning on buying the physical Wiley/ELAN books? I’d buy them, but I’m scared that they will be just as bad as the ones that ELAN put out for 2014.
I might just buy them and demand a refund if they suck.
Thoughts?

 

[vinaybettada]

Dear All,
Delighted to be member of this forum. I saw that Elan has changed some of its offerings for Jun 2015 Level 1 exam, like omitting the 11th hour etc. Is it advisible to buy guide for Dec 2014 exam and prepare for June 2015? because, CFA syllabus will not change drastically till next June.
Please advice.
Regards,

 

[Rapid_777]

Dear vinaybettada,
The CFA curriculum has changed drastically from 2014 to 2015. Here is a link to one of the most detailed outlines of the changes:
http://www.apptuto.com/static/downloads/Apptuto_CFA_L1_LOS_Changes_2015.pdf
This was the best outline that I could find. Wiley/ELAN’s change outline was good, but did not go into the level of detail that the document above did. Also, I emailed the CFAI and they do not even provide a document like the one above that outlines the changes for Level 1 from 2014 to 2015.
Here is a copy of Wiley/ELAN’s document in which they list the changes for Level 1 from 2014-2015:
http://www.efficientlearning.com/wiley-cfa/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/20...
If I were you, I would purchase the 2015 materials from Wiley/ELAN if you plan on preparing for the June 2015 exam. I have the 2014 materials, and I won’t be able to use all of the content as there have been several changes.
Please review the changes carefully before making a decision.
I hope that the print materials from Wiley/ELAN are of good quality for the 2015 content as the 2014 print materials were absolute junk! Also, keep in mind that they have partnered with VitalSource which is a terrible offering. There may be page printing limitations within the content itself. You’ve been warned!
If you have any questions, let me know.