Elan Guides vs. Schweser quality, 2010, difference, december, practice

agulani

Retaking level 1 in december. First time around I used Schweser and am thinking about reordering for dec 2010 test. However, I have been looking at Elan Guides and was wondering if anyone knows why such a drastic price difference? just a new company trying to break into the market? how is the quality of Elan’s practice problems?
I know ill buy either schweser or elan, any guidance on which provider to go with would be much appreciated. Thanks.

ikoreaii

I am in a good position to compare them as I am using Elans full pack now and have used Schwesers full pack on my last attempt.
The Elan vs Schweser is a close comparison. Comparing them one on one
Elan’s study notes are slightly better than schweser both in structure and content but have no questions (you get practice questions seperately on their website) but schweser’s concept checkers are no good.
their lecture videos are more detailed than schweser but some people find them too long and boring so I would say they are equal
the review book of elan called the 11th hour is much better for reviewing than the seceret sauce and this is the consensus opinion
their mock’s although only two are better than the schweser practice exams becuse they are less calculation intensive questions than schweser. And thus are more like the actual exam ( I have attempted the CFA level 1 before) but schweser gives more questions to practice.
Question bank is one product that Elan does not have and it is probably schweser’s speciality. Schweser qbank is good.
So overall if we exclude the qbank Elan is better but if you value the qbank more than schweser wins.
BUT if we consider the prices there is a huge difference schweser’s full pack costs some 4 to 5 times of elans full pack. Even if we exclude the qbank, Schweser still costs atleast twice that of Elan. And if you have failed before you get further discounts from elan.

Gypsy

I personally found Elan to be much more organized and easier to understand than Schweser.

franzino

HI,
I’ve got both Schweser and the 11th Hour guide from Elan. From now on, I’m defintely going to go with Elan. Their material is a great addition to the CFAI books and the price for the Schweser products is simply too high.
Of course, the Qbank would be nice, but I’m sure you can also do with the 2 Elan mocks, the end of chapter questions and the CFAI mock.

ShooterMcCFA

Thanks for input. Based on these and other posts, the discount from Elan, and reading their samples, I will be going with Elan. Combining Elan, CFA curr., and my old Schweser books should be perfect.
Gmat in june then off to cfa, I’m burnt out just thinking about it.

ogoluwa

I just bought the Elan Wildcard Pack, which includes the Eleventh Hour Review Guide and 2 mock exams.. for $70 ($80 if you want the hard copy).
If I were to buy a similar Schweser package, I would end up spending about $250 and only get one additional mock exam since theirs comes with 3.
Based on what I’ve read here and seen on their website samples, I’ve decided that Elan had the best bangforthebuck. They have exactly what I need for L1  review and practice exams to supplement the CFA material.
Does Schweser really expect us to pay a significant amount more for virtually the same product when we’ve already paid for the exam curriculum (think about it as your sunk cost, you can’t avoid it)? The QBank would be nice, but it is NOT essential.
Let us know what you end up going with, and how it works out for you.
Ciao,
DC