CFA Level I Advice testing, reading, purchase, provided, material

scruge

Hello,

I'm taking the June CFA Level I. I was ripping apart the CFA Curriculum, provided by the CFA institute, until someone I know who has his CFA, told me not to waste reading their material. I was advised to purchase the Schweser material as the very folks who 'grade' the CFA exam results also formulate most of the questions. Therefore, through the Schweser material, one gets the material straight from the horses mouth, which is the material the CFA really ends up testing on anyway, in lieu of a bunch of material that is never covered in the exam. Please keep in mind, my friend took the CFA 10 years ago, when one could only take one part a year, and only 1 part, even if you failed, you, one would be required to wait until the following year, unlike today, post AIMR, where it seems to be more of a P&L center than to focus on true talent; so the standards seem to have dropped.

With that said, for the most recent CFA examinations, for those who recently have taken Level I, what material would you recommend I purchase from Schweser? Hypothetically speaking, lets say I'm 'average', would the Schweser CD videos, or some other company, videos be enough for Level I or do you recommend I watch the CDs in conjunction with something else? If so, what would you recommend and what did you use, asides from the fact that you may simply be better than others, and more power to you and let no one take that away from you, to pass Level I? If your not comfortable answering, as I would be competing with you for similar jobs, don't answer, nor provide advice that would steer me down the wrong track, as I will be polling multiple sources, but if your already on top of the world and don't mind sharing, as I won't take your lunch away from you someday, please do provide some suggestions on some solid CD videos or combination of study materials

Thanks

Hardy

farrukhsadiq

Yah long post. This reads like 90% of the posts in the Level I forum. Maybe it should be moved there?

Honestly the secret to Level I is simply logging enough hours of study and making sure you understand the material. You can probably save your money on getting 3rd party books (The CFAI texts are probably more thorough) and spend it on practice exams from Schweser, Elan, or Stalla. Best videos I've seen are Stalla's, but to be honest it was only because I was pressed for time that I used them. If you log 300 hours you should be fine.

The people who work for the third party companies (Schweser, Stalla, etc.) probably have the CFA charter and are familiar with the test, but are most likely not the same ones who actually create the questions themselves. That would most likely be a huge conflict of interest. Whoever told you to skip the CFAI texts is really doing you a disservice. They might have been crappy back then, but they're pretty coherent and useful nowadays.

"If your not comfortable answering, as I would be competing with you for similar jobs, don't answer". Sorry, but this made me chuckle a bit =). You and everyone else will be or already is competing for the same handful of jobs.

ramdabom

I recently passed my CFA level I and my suggestion for you is to just get the Schewser Premium (the one with the note, qbank, and extra exam book).
Read through all the notes and spend ALOT of times on qbank, work through as many questions as you can from each chapter. Leave the last two weeks for the mock and Schewser exam, if you get more than 70% on those exams, you should be fine with the actual one. (disclaimer: result may vary ).

On the side note, the study provider may be sufficient for CFA level 1, but as you advance to level 2, I would recommend just read through curriculum as I hear many, many candidates failed because they focused primarily on Schewser or ELan reading.

dotamasta

The texts are good, but a little long, and you should know that they weren't designed for the test, the test is designed to test the materials. My recommendation is to use a study provider to get you familiar with the material, and then be sure to read or at least skim the real material once you've figured out what parts are most important to focus on. As long as it doesn't mean you're going to be subsisting on cat food for the next 5 months, it's worth the effort.