Constructing a study plan

@zatar: well everyone has a different opinion on this. A lot of people such as myself are using third party material like schweser as the primary source and then the CFAI books as a supplement. If i have any problems in an area while studying from kaplan, i refer to the CFAi material cos its really detailed and explains things a lot. But its supposed to be really time consuming which is why people choose to use kaplan. It depends on your methodology of studying and what you are comfortable with but for level 1 people usually do this. so good luck making ur choice and good luck for everything 🙂

Hi @zatar – it depends on your time, cost and study style really. If you don’t want to spend any extra, stick to CFAI then and supplement your study with 3rd party practice papers. If you are short on time, 3rd party materials are more focused and straight-to-the-point. If you prefer lengthy detailed explanation, go for CFAI (but watch your study plan timing).

@zatar: honestly from the studies I have done so far Kaplan has been how shall I say it… The phrase I am lookin for is user friendly for level 1 at least. But that doesn’t mean I am not going to use cfai material. I hope to go thru both materials so that I don’t miss out on anything. And practise questions from any and every source. Practise practise and tons of practise should be the motto. I get ur question cos when I was studyin for ACCA before it was a dilemma to choose between Kaplan or BPP from subject to subject. But here I think from what I have seen and a lot of people recommend you should go for Kaplan but keep the CFA I books by your side during studies.

I started with CFAi books for this June (just wanted to experience it by myself!), but I will switch to third party providers.
I only did Economics with the curriculum. It is really clear, detailed, but really wordy as well. Since I have a pretty good academical background in this field, I was able to directly highlight the concepts and move on really fast (1 reading per day in average).

However, since I will be clearly less comfortable with FRA & Quant (and most of the rest actually), I will use mainly third party providers in order to go directly into the concept, and use the curriculum only if I’m struggling and need a more detailed explanation..

@zatar – I suspect you’re in a decision paralysis mode, which isn’t good as you should be starting to prepare for the exams now and not worry about which material to use (CFAI or Kaplan) – as they are both excellent, though different.

If it helps as an example, I used third party materials exclusively for my exam (Kaplan actually, as it was only available that time I took my CFA exams), and it works out fine, i.e. using it standalone is sufficient to pass with good preparation. The benefit of third party materials is that they are more concise, but it comes as an additional cost to CFAI materials. Agree with @CFAcharterwannabe there, practice is crucial.