标题: If you depended on Schweser only for Level II, post here ple [打印本页] 作者: cross-ied 时间: 2013-8-17 03:05 标题: If you depended on Schweser only for Level II, post here ple
Hi,
I just cleared Level I, and would like to plan for my Level II study.
Please tell me if Schweser alone will do the trick?
If not, how do you advise that I go about it?
A bit about your background in finance could coplement the picture too.
Thanks, and congratulations to those who passed, good luck next time around to those who didn’t.作者: lunarfollies 时间: 2013-8-17 03:08
In Level I it will for most people.
In Level II it will not for most people - there is another recent thread here that discusses this. I used it but HAD TO complement it with CFAI EOC and LOS and Bluebox examples to pass. No background in finance here.作者: Wendy01 时间: 2013-8-17 03:10
In my experience, Schweser is fine for Levels I and II. I never opened a single CFAI book for those two levels. I do, however, have many years of buy-side experience.作者: needhelp1700 时间: 2013-8-17 03:13
Schweser + CFAI book EOC questions will do the job作者: anshultongia 时间: 2013-8-17 03:16
No finance background or experience. Schweser only was fine for me.作者: Kapie 时间: 2013-8-17 03:18
long may your chimney smoke…a scottish blessing apparently..作者: luckygiftvn 时间: 2013-8-17 03:23
Schweser + EOC + EOC for a second time will do it.作者: genuinecfa 时间: 2013-8-17 03:29
You don’t have to read the CFAI texts cover to cover to pass..
Having Schweser in your toolbox is fine BUT don’t depend 100% on it.
Do the CFAI EOCs and mocks at a minimum.作者: bpdulog 时间: 2013-8-17 03:31
I used strictly Schweser for Level 1 and passed on first attempt.
I used strictly Schweser for Level 2, did about 1800 Qbank questions, 6 full schweser mocks and a cfai mock and ended up with a band 5. I studied for 6 months, and did well over “300 hours”, but they were apparently not the right kind of hours. Practice does not make perfect, only perfect practice makes perfect. I did not do anything in CFAI text, which in my case appears to be a huge mistake. I spent too much time memorizing facts and formulas versus actually putting a pencil to paper and working practice problems. IMO Qbank will prepare you for the easy questions, but not the more challenging ones. For 2014, I will be focusing on working a ton of CFAI Blue Boxes and EOC, only referring to Schweser or the text when I am stuck. All the reading I did was useless as I retained very little.
Side note: the note cards I purchased from Schweser aren’t worth a god damn. Foolish purchase.
I work as a financial advisor at a brokerage. My experience is more in financial planning.作者: RepoToronto 时间: 2013-8-17 03:34
Here’s what i think, CFAI covers 100% of the material you need to know (of course!) and let’s say Schweser covers 85% of the CFAI, but you understand EVERYTHING on teh 85%, your chance of passing is still very high because the actual exam will probably take materials from the 85% (most testable topics) rather than the 15% that Schweser leaves out.
But if you struggle reading the CFAI texts and you may end up only understanding 60-70% of the material, then you are no better off because you are 1) not focusing on the most testable material, and 2) you are stuck on the overwhelming length instead of spend your studying hours more productively, ie questions and reviewing of answers.作者: jcole21 时间: 2013-8-17 03:37
I feel the same way regarding your point about comprehending CFAI. I still don’t plan on reading that text unless I’m stuck on a topic. I will most definitely be hammering Blue Boxes and EOC like a maniac.作者: cityboy 时间: 2013-8-17 03:39
used Schweser dedicatedly for level 1 and level 2..it is quite comprehensive and gives a firm grasp of the conceptsin a concise manner..THOUGH a few questions on L2 this time caught me offguard..better to religiously follow schweser mocks and practice exams for concept clarity BUT also make sure to go through the CFAI texts, just to be on the safe side!作者: profil 时间: 2013-8-17 03:42
i passed L1 perfectly (all As), L2 quite perfectly…
my strategy has always been: use only schweser books, only use CFAI books as reference (when something’s not clear in schweser notes), study time: from Jan - day before test (about 2 hours per day, some days are self-made holidays)
all the best作者: anothercfainnyc 时间: 2013-8-17 03:44
People say schweser + eoc does the trick. Problem I have with this is for some subjects like fixed income you can’t even answer the eoc with schweser. So you end up basically reading cfa text for those subjects of complementing with 作者: ASSet_MANagemen 时间: 2013-8-17 03:47
Posted this in another thread
Also did Level 1 Dec 2012 and Passed Level 2 in June 2013Only used Schweser Notes with Econ/PM < 50%, Ethics 50-70, rest 70+
Did 5 mocks total, first 4 Schweser mocks and the official CFAI mock, got around 75% in all the mocks
Highly recommend getting schwesser, studied around 250 hours. Started studying in Feb and finished Schweser notes by the 2nd week in April, 2 weeks of review of all the materials, and then a mock every weekend until the exam作者: firat 时间: 2013-8-17 03:50
Passed lvl 1 easily, and lvl 2 wih a ton of abysmal doubt but still passed with 2 <50 and 2 midrange.
A different strategy for the original poster: ask yourself at the beginning which of the ten topics you find the easiest. Fra, equity maybe? Use Schweser for those. For the rest, use BOTH CFAI and Schweser. BOTH. And as others have provided, work on tons of Schweser and CFAI mock tests. I did about a total of 10 practice sets (1 set = am + pm sessions), took the horrible Schweser live mock which I very much recommend (I got a 58% which gave me a wake up call, WHICH is all I needed.), all EOC questions in CFAI.
I placed the word doubt at the beginning due to the ethics section. Get as much practice on this. You will never feel confident on ethics level 2, unlike in level 1.
4yrs working exp in finance: 2 in valuations and modelling and 2 in funds monitoring.作者: pimpineasy 时间: 2013-8-17 03:52
Me.
1st attempt Level 1 on Dec 2012, pass.
1st attempt Level 2 on Jun 2013, pass.
I barely looked at CFAI cirrucumlum because I just didn’t have time.
I have computer science background. No finance related background.作者: strikethree 时间: 2013-8-17 03:55
Here is my 2 cents.
Schweser+EOC+mock will make you fine. (only my own experience)
Schweser: read in very detail. Figure out any possible confusion. Also, read and think. If you know the calculation/defination, try to explain why but not only how.
EOC: If you did the first step, you can probably beat most of the EOC questions. However, you may still see very few that are not explained clearly or even never appeared in Schweser. Here, you need to go back to the textbook and read that part. (go over those you did wrong before exam).
Mock: Do it just before the real exam (maybe 1 week or 2). This is for practice and mimic the real exam. If possible, do at least 4 comprehensive mock before exam to make every topic familar.作者: adehbone 时间: 2013-8-17 03:58
I did Schweser only for both L1 and L2. I tried to study CFAI text for L2 derivative but there was just too much information for each LOS - I couldn’t really concentrate on retaining just the most critical knowledge needed. So I did 2 read through for Schweser - once in detail reading in 2 months time , second round is a speed read through for the topics I can’t retain fully from my head for roughly 1 month - and I tried to link the entire curriculum up in a logical manner. The last month before the exam I did lots of Qbank - like 1200 of them? and I only do the difficult ones (no point getting a false comfort in scoring the easy questions, imo) , and spend lots of time reviewing each question I got wrong. 3 days before test all i did was mock and again heavy review of each question I got wrong - ended I only manage to do 2 full mocks - 1 CFAI and 1 Schweser mock.
But I barely passed - so it is quite dangerous to do only Schweser, imo. Another caveat - it seems that there are many more surprises in the L2 test compared to L1 - some concepts wasnt covered in detail in Schweser. Be mindful of that - so for you to just rely on Schweser - you have to be sure that whatever that’s covered in Schweser, you have to know it extremely well. Cant shortcut the text and shortcut the supplementary note. lol
On the background part - I have a maths degree with a focus in financial engineering - ermm.. so derivative in cfa is actually more primitive than the one I’ve already learnt in univ. 2 years working exp in unrelated field - portoflio analytics in a bank…作者: rohitdoshi 时间: 2013-8-17 04:00
My CFA experience is this:
Level I: I used Qbank almost exclusively. Read the LOS, then do the LOS questions (basic), then do the reading questions (intermediate) when finish all the LOS’s, and section questions (advanced) when finish the readings. For some topics (e.g. hypothesis test) I had to resort to curriculum/Sch notes/wiki/others because my work experience and previous study didn’t provide me the knowledge; other topics (e.g. technical analysis) I just totally ignored. Then I started creating tests and do ALL the Qbank questions (yes, around 3000+ questions), one section at a time. Then came practice exams and mocks, some 1500 questions more. Passed rather comfortably.
Level II: I pretty much repeat what I did for Level I. 2 things different this time around though: 1/ I read through the CFAI texts before doing a section; 2/ I don’t have as much time as Level I going straight from Dec to Jun, so I have to weight down certain sections. In the end, I failed those that I weighted down (AI, Econ) but did well on others, esp. Equity and FRA which with some luck help save the day.
Bottom line: for level I it’s a computationally intensive exam, so doing lots and lots and lots of practice will help you memorize the formulas and crush it easily. For Level II it’s still a computationally intensive exam; however the questions presented are no more “you are given a, b, c; now use a formula and get to the result”, instead they’re now “you are given a, b, c, noise, noise, x, y, z, more noise; now determine which goes where and get to the result”. I guess a lot of people fail at the “determine which goes where” part, which is where you need to pay attention to the most for level II.
Work experience: 5 years working as an actuary, with some actuarial exams under my belt that helps a lot in level I, but not so much in level II.作者: anshultongia 时间: 2013-8-17 04:03
I used Schweser only and believe in the material definitely. In my opinion Schweser + S2000 Magician is all you need to pass. I used Schweser Notes (read it 4 times), did 5 practice mocks, 1 cfai mock and some ethic questions off Q bank for level II.
I kept track of my time on excel and I legitimately clocked in over 400+ hours (i didn’t count any breaks or anytime my mind wondered off)
It’s all about taking what you have and becoming a master at it. reading through CFAI and Schweser is just to much for me. So i focused on one resource and became great at it and it paid off. Also when I study i constantly ask myself why this why that. Every number/variable in an equation I try to understand why something is being used and not just accepting it because that’s what the formula says.
It takes a lot of digging and reading but it was all there in Schweser. Also people on the boards were really helpful and S2000 explained things very well too.
You can buy Elan, Schweser, classes, CFAI material but if you dont take the time to master any one of them than you’re going to be screwed because you spend all your time spread out and each one uses different language and methods and you end up getting confused.
Also my mock scores were in the 60s and I learned the most the very last week when I was going over mocks. (that’s the one thing I wish i spent more time doing) or reviewing the questions I got wrong..
But I plan to use Schweser only again for level III too.作者: pimpineasy 时间: 2013-8-17 04:05
hamada.smaili … buddy did you clear level 2 this time? I hope you did because I remember reading your post back in december where you said you have already covered the whole curriculum and you will be practicing from then on … I hope you did clear the exam.
As for me, I didnt. I’ll be taking the exam again next year 作者: cv4cfa 时间: 2013-8-17 04:11
it is very difficult to pick yourself up after a demoralizing failure like this. I hope, however, to do just that and come back strongly next year.
I will make sure that I do all the EOC this time. I did EOC for FRA and Equities and ended up doing good in those areas. I will make sure that I do every single EOC question of every single subject. I thankfully have most of the concepts on my finger tips and hope not to repeat my mistakes.作者: tobeornottobe 时间: 2013-8-17 04:13
Schweser books + CFA EOC + mock exams and you’ll be fine作者: MiniMe7 时间: 2013-8-17 04:16
I used mainly Schweser Notes+QBank+the Live mock exam. I also read the summaries in CFAI and did EOC questions in CFAI for a couple of study sessions (2-3). Summary: 95% of the study time with Schweser, 5% with CFAI. It worked. I think the most useful parts was the Schweser mock exams and the Qbank.
My background is Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.作者: Wendy01 时间: 2013-8-17 04:19
I used only Schweser for bot hlevels, but it feels like level II requires more than Schweser, e.g. the official CFA mock revealed many areas that were missing in Schweser. Such topics as ethics, economics and as it turned out derivatives were not properly covered in Schweser
Qbank was amazing for level I, but not that valuable for level II, at least in my opinion, mostly due to the question format in Qbank.
For level III I am going to make notes from the original curriculum and practice with questions from Schweser.作者: AndyNZ 时间: 2013-8-17 04:21
Hi
Personally I studied the Schweser material only.
My strategy in general:
1. The topics which weigh more need more time and practice.
2. Study the material twice.
3. Practice the tests at the end of study session twice.
4. Topics/Subjects I am comfortable with need to be studied at the end.
5. While studying ‘study session’ i made short (but very important like formulas or relationships of key variables) notes.
6. After studying 5th study session, I came back to the 1st study session to see if I still remember the formulas, key points. This helps in both retaining the material in head and helps practice recall the concepts and formula.
7. For the second reading of the material, I targeted 50 pages of material to read / practice questions each day.
8. Week before exam, I revised my key notes and very important topics of FRA (pensions specially and inventory), Equity Investments (DD valuation, FCF valuation and residual income approach) and some key formula and topics of other subjects.
9. I practiced from time to time the end of study session questions of schewser notes without looking at the material. Before exam, i practiced these questions from important study sessions.
10. Unfortunately, I did not practice any mock exams or any mock exams provided by Scheweser or from any other source. Though, I would highly recommend you to do that. Not only practice mock exams at the end but also when you are half way through the material. This will definitely give you a feel of new material you still have to study/cover/practice. You will definitely know where you stand and how much more effort you need to put before sitting in the actual exam.
Good Luck in the end.作者: ruchita 时间: 2013-8-17 04:24
Schweser notes + the CFA mock exam. I felt this was adequate for me, though I’m an actuary which helps.
