CFA CFA General Only using third party study material?

Only using third party study material?

  • Author
    Posts
    • Avatar of priyaamin318priyaamin318
      Participant
        • CFA Level 1
        Up
        0
        ::

        Hey,

        I was wondering what everyone’s opinion of relying mostly on third party study notes and only using CFAI material to clarify concepts you don’t understand. Do you think it would be possible passing using this study method? I’m a (very nervous) Level 1 candidate.

      • Avatar of vincenttvincentt
        Participant
          • CFA Level 3
          Up
          5
          ::

          @MM12‌ schweser notes are expensive, cost me over £240 I think but when you take the time into consideration, I think I’ll rather spend that amount than trying to cover the entire CFAI and risk not finishing in time and having to resit a year later. I’m a slow reader btw.

        • Avatar of RaviVoodaRaviVooda
          Participant
            • CFA Level 3
            Up
            4
            ::

            @priyaamin318, using third material depends on how one is comfortable with and the time remaining for exam. I have preprared using Schweser for Level-1 and Level-2 since I had only 4 months for both levels. For Level-3 I did not even look at schweser except for test papers as I had ample time.

          • Avatar of MM12MM12
            Participant
              • CFA Level 3
              Up
              4
              ::

              One more consideration – CFAI comes for free with exam registration, third-party tools may cost a lot more (anywhere from a couple of hundred $ to thousands). In my case my employer paid for the Schweser study materials – I might not have used them if I’d had to pay for them myself!

            • Avatar of priyaamin318priyaamin318
              Participant
                • CFA Level 1
                Up
                4
                ::

                Thanks for all of the input! I was originally going to stick with CFAI material until I saw the volume of it. I decided to stick to Elan and use Schweser for practice questions and mocks. Just wanted to make sure I wouldn’t be putting myself at a disadvantage prep wise if I did so.

              • Avatar of MM12MM12
                Participant
                  • CFA Level 3
                  Up
                  2
                  ::

                  Hi @priyaamin318‌, I have used Schweser and CFAI materials in the past. In my opinion, using only Schweser to study and then only looking at CFAI occasionally works well (it got me past level 2). CFAI material is a lot more wordy and sometimes goes into unnecessary detail. That said, if I’d had an infinite amount of time to prepare, I would have used CFAI most of the time because some concepts are better explained (in my opinion). The real power of Schweser is that the amount of text is a lot less, making it feasible to go through everything while having a full-time job. Either way, good luck!

                • Avatar of vincenttvincentt
                  Participant
                    • CFA Level 3
                    Up
                    2
                    ::

                    @priyaamin318‌ I don’t know about any other third party study material but i mainly used schweser for all levels and purely schweser for L1. In L2 & 3, if you want to have further explanation on certain concepts you can look at the underlying text (as @mm12 mentioned). However, I do know some hardcore candidates like @RaviVooda‌ and @Alta12‌ who only use CFAI’s. So it’s down to how much time you have, how quick you can go through the syllabus.

                  • Avatar of vincenttvincentt
                    Participant
                      • CFA Level 3
                      Up
                      2
                      ::

                      @mm12 haha yes that’s a better word to describe, CFA well used 😛

                    • Avatar of MM12MM12
                      Participant
                        • CFA Level 3
                        Up
                        1
                        ::

                        @vincentt‌, True, it’s all opportunity costs 😉 

                    Viewing 8 reply threads
                    • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.