Need advice re the study material :S

LOL – no worries @CFAcharterwannabe. Your friend is right, in the sense that you can use a good third party prep provider’s material on its own and it is sufficient – I’ve done that personally too. You can always refer to CFAI books if you need a different explanation on the same topic.

All in all, both method works, as long as you commit time to finish your studies, understand the materials and do practice papers. Choose one that works for you!

In my experience so far, Schweser was perfect for level I. Given the multiple choice format, Schweser more than adequately covers the level I material. However I found Schweser’s level II preparation material to be lacking. One noticeable difference is the difficulty in practice questions that you’ll find between Schweser and CFAI. I always found myself lost on the CFAI questions, as quite frankly they were much tougher and required more in depth knowledge of the topic at hand.

Now that may just be a matter of question difficulty, however, I might recommend using the CFAI books for level II.

But for level I, Schweser is far and away your best bet.

I might also add that this applies to the 2013 level II materials. But given that the CFA has made several changes to this year’s level II curriculum, I’d still be wary of gaps in coverage this time around as well.

Good points @Dollarstodonuts! Hope this helps @CFAcharterwannabe