If you depended on Schweser only for Level II, post here ple background, finance, advise, around, about

cross-ied

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.

lunarfollies

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.

Wendy01

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.

needhelp1700

Schweser + CFAI book EOC questions will do the job

anshultongia

No finance background or experience.  Schweser only was fine for me.

Kapie

long may your chimney smoke…a scottish blessing apparently..

luckygiftvn

Schweser + EOC + EOC for a second time will do it.

genuinecfa

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.

bpdulog

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.

RepoToronto

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.