Third party product to purchase purchase

fructify

I have read lots of threads on this forum, in last few months, comparing different third party materials. What I inferred from all those is:

1. Schweser most widely used but satisfied candidates are less than unsatisfied candidates. (mocks referred to as more calculations oriented)
2. Elan second most widely used and satisfied candidates are more than unsatisfied candidates. (mocks referred to as more concepts oriented)
3. Stalla not used by much candidates or at least not much posted on it here, so cant compare

Well, this clearly makes Elan the first choice...
What all you guys think...

orang3eph

I think it depends on how you plan to study. If you want to read the CFAI books then do practice exams the schweser QBank will be enough. That was what I did and I felt very confident after the test. Did 120 Q's a day for a few weeks. The QBank won't run out of problems, you'll just run out of time before the exam.

thisisbrianly

lxwarr, do you think QBank was more similar to the actual exam than Schweser mocks?

ajpheif16

Can't say how close Schweser is to the actual exam but

ramzes

johnnyBuz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> lxwarr, do you think QBank was more similar to the
> actual exam than Schweser mocks?


I definitely don't think Schweser Qbank or mocks were any close to the real exam. With Schweser questions, I never had problems in eliminating choices to get to the right answer. Mostly straight forward questions, although timing was always a problem for me. But with the real exam, some of the questions were so challenging that I couldn't even eliminate one choice. I am not sure about people who studied with CFAI books have had any advantage on those questions.

Matori

Elan did a good job, I think. I'll tell you for certain once the exam results come back.

They had some major errors, though. Make sure to check their errata.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 01:56PM by 99 cannon sloop.

ftwcfa

I actually did the schweser QBank was similar to the real exam. Maybe not in being asked the exact questions, but the style of questions you could expect. I think it might have focused a little too much on calculations but also had the CFA's random know or don't type questions.

Siddimaula

Elan. Definitely get Ethics coverage from CFAI-- don't just rely on vendors for this topic.

I'm a little worried that previous poster said there were major errors in Elan. I did not check the errata....

sdada

Elan for sure!

All providers have an errata. What was disappointing for me for that the CFA curriculum and the CFA mock also had errors.

@busterbluth: Don't worry too much. Some of their questions had the wrong answer choice down. The only prob with the notes was the %k and %d line in technical analysis (which th CFA books had wrong too BTW) and tracking error.

farrukhsadiq

I just studied the CFA Official material and felt pretty well during the exam. One has to think by himself. I have never seen the other materials so I cannot give a qualified answer on that.