Schweser vs Official books either, better, buying

richer

Any thoughts on which of these are the better bet?
I'll be buying either one of these ahead of signing up for the exam.

dcfox83

If you want the Official books, you can buy them off of me at a steep discount. Still in its plastic wrap, never opened, never marked!

soddy1979

Can one register for the exam and not buy CFAI text books?

kasinkei

The CFA texts come with the price of registration. So buying them beforehand wouldn't make a lot of sense. While there's a lot of debate about the use of study guides (some say they're worth it, and some not - use the search function), they do save a fair bit of time on the sections where you already have a good background.

Given that, I'd go with buying the study guide first. If you're taking the December exam, it covers the same material as the June one (they modify the curriculum each year somewhat). So, you could potentially find a used copy of the notes. But while that would save money, it wouldn;t get you access to Schweser's Q-bank (their question bank - Stalla's is called Passmaster, I believe), which most people find very useful as a tool for driving things home. To get that, you'd be best off buying a Schweser package (or Stalla one if you gnat to go that route) that includes the test bank.

Londonrocks

A Schweser or Stalla package is pretty useful for level 1, but for certain sections, you want to read the CFA texts. Ethics is a must, and then I found there were a few other readings where some more detail definitely helped my understanding.

If you don't want to sign up yet, buy Schweser/Stalla first, and then sign up for the CFA (which includes their texts) later.

agulani

No need for the CFAI books except for ethics for L1. Schweser is enough.

Flok

I have heard of very few folks passing with only material from CFA institue and even they say it was a huge time sink and barrier to retaining testable content.

I vote for other material like schweser/stalla.

joemoran

Schweser is very good at condensing the material. Personally, I am going to be reading the Schweser materials and doing LOS. Once I finish each study session I will be doing entire CFAI questions for that specific session.

scr879

I passed level I only with Schweser... The key is to be confortable with LOS, formulas and do as much as you can Qbank questions (Schweser questions). You have to be quick and know the formulas to pass level 1.

A lot of information in the CFAI books are not absolutely necessary, but important if you want to understand well the concept...

ramdabom

I have to disagree with all the read schwesser only...

I mean if you're going to go through this program all the way I would say read the CFAI texts in their entirety and then do all the CFAI questions, and refer to Schwesser if you need extra practice for anything.

I mean if you're going to invest 200 hours into studying, whats another 40 hours to get through the CFAI stuff...

QBANK is INVALUABLE, but CFAI stuff is VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY important, ESPECIALLY taking CFAI mocks and sample exams.