Practice Exams and QBanks online, recommend, concerning, additional, like

karoliukas

I've been reading a lot throughout the threads concerning practice exams and qbanks.

My plan is to finish the CFAI text no later than April 15 and as my review do questions and exams almost exclusively. I have not purchased any additional study materials yet and I would like peoples' opinions on the following questions.

What is more effective to use, practice exams or qbanks? How long do you recommend using them? How do they work? (online, hard copy, download, etc.)? Which brand seems to be the best?

I am quite lost on this issue and would appreciate any thoughts you could give me.

- LSUtiger

Maddin

Hi lsutiger

I sat the level I exam last Dec. I found, like most others, that QBank was very helpful in the prep for the exam. Not only did I use it extensively in the 4 or 5 weeks leading up to the exam, but I also used it throughout by study to keep testing myself on topics I had recently studied.

Be warned thou - QBank is very calculation heavy whereas the actual exam doesn't focus so much on calculations. When doing QBank tests it seems like every second question requires the calculator, whereas on the exam it felt like only 1 in 4 questions required the calc.

The practice exams from Schweser were good (although again with lots of calculator based questions), I purchased a Schweser study pack which came with 6 full day exams (i.e. 12 separate 3 hour exams). Some people posted that they completed all 12 in their study prep!

Of course the best practice material has to be anything put out by CFA, so thats the end-of-chapter questions in the CFA books, and the practice/mock exams you can download from their website.

So, from mid April to early June you have 6 - 7 weeks and I'd use a combination of all of the above. If you don't have time, then ensure you use all the CFA prep material (EOC questions and exams).

Best of luck!!