I signed up for both CFAI registration and Elan Ultimate Prep package on the same day. Just received my Vol 1 & 2 study notes, but still waiting for my CFAI curriculum books. Guess Elan isn’t as bad as people potray.
Yes that’s what I thought too, these guys must be good if CFAI publishers want them to write for them.
If I’m not mistaken, Wiley is just the publisher of the material the CFAI creates. They seem to publish a lot of academic journals, too, in which the research is done by PhDs and grad students. They aren’t creating the material in these relationships, it’s just that they’ve got the publishing and distribution centers that create the value in these relationships.
They’ve also got other various businesses that produce educational content, which is what it appears they are acquiring in Elan Guides. I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing (or I’m hoping) that Basit Shajani and Elan won’t be writing for CFAI as Wiley is only a publisher for CFAI, but they’ll still be providing educational content in the fashion they currently are.
Elan’s study material is really good. Judging by their website and people’s complaints on customer service, partnering with Wiley may help Elan with things that aren’t their true compentencies (distribution and marketing).
A side comment, the printed quality of the CFAI books kind of sucks (very thin, cheap paper), which is what Wiley is producing.
We’ll see how this turns out, but it’s pretty big news for those of us that use Elan Guides. I can’t imagine Wiley will be dissolving Elan b/c they don’t seem to have a comparable service – they’d be leaving a lot of money on the table.
Thanks for the update on Elan.
Does anyone know how many readings are missing at this point? I would imagine most of the material is available, is this correct?
Most of the material is available online as soon as you have purchased it. There are a few readings missing (I’ve counted 5 total - between Fixed Income, Derivatives, and Portfolio Management). For those of us that have ordered the hard copies of materials - we have not received a majority of the study guides.
But for an easy fix you can print off everything online. I’ve printed and bound all the notes found online, so I can take notes from the online videos. So even though Elan hasn’t shipped out a majority of the material, I’m still able to work through the material.
I have done the same. But instead of printing out all their notes, i have just printed the Equity readings. I’m now hoping that by the time i finish equity, i receive my books 3 and 4 so i don’t have to go through that hassle again. Fingers tightly crossed!
Hahah yeah, I ended up printing corp fin, portfolio management and equities. I was hoping the same, that by the time I watched them then the hard copies of the books would be available. Almost done with equities, so I think I’ll start printing fixed income shortly!
I’m usually a lurker but I decided to join the discussion after reading this thread.
I just passed L1 and in the course of deciding which provider to go with for L2 I had heard all the amazing reviews for Elan guides on this forum and despite that there still seemed like quite a few people who were complaining about the persistent issue of not receiving their volumes.
Some of the posts in this particular thread have added more to my suspicions that there is a lot of Elan shilling go on in these forums.
Their website looks like complete garbage compared to Schweser. People with almost no posts and join dates in the past couple days are coming out of nowhere to defend Elan etc.
I hate to say it, but I’m also highly suspicious of people like Nickki who got an email back from Elan the same day she sent it (supposedly this is unheard of, and other people in the thread are still waiting to hear back on week-old emails). If you check her post history she plugs Elan a lot in other threads and half her comments about Elan read like they’re straight out of a marketing department.
Please somebody else tell me I haven’t gone full tinfoil hat here.
I don’t know but I doubt Elan has time to plant promoters all over message boards but not to respond to emails or phone calls within 3-4 business days…
Behringer, I really hoped you had something constructive to say here (as it is your first post), rather than going all personal on me. I don’t know why i got a same-day reply. Maybe they sense the severity of matter, and thought to reply me and others immediately? I really don’t know!
Behringer - use whatever study material you would like to use in order to pass the exam. You have options - Finquiz, Elan, Schweser, CFAI. Read the threads on all of them.
I’ve read CFAI and I’m using Elan as supplement. Elan has quality stuff - they are just VERY delayed on getting the hard copies to people. But it doesn’t take a long time to print out the material and it’s all available online. I’ve emailed Elan and I’ve received a response within a day as well.
I will chime in here also. I have Elan and have sent them a few emails and they have all been answered in a reasonable amount of time. Is their shipping situation a big deal to me? No…because most of the info, if not all of it is available online for review. If i only had the hard copy and nothing else, i still wouldnt be as bent out of shape as half of these people because i would try to learn the info cold in both volumes 1 and 2…which most likely isnt the case for those complaining.
For the people that are still concerned about all of this, then just do yourself a favor and get another study provider. I think Elan’s study info is solid and would actually prefer less people to have access to the information.
In my opinion, the same type of company that has awful customer service would be the same type to have underhanded business tactics.
I did have something constructive to say, which was to raise the issue that there may be Elan shilling. The fact it was my first post is irrelevant. I didn’t go “all personal” on you so please stop being so defensive. If you’d like to know why I’m suspicious, here are a few pieces of information that made me feel that way.
If the Elan warehouse is in Paksitan how did you get your shipment in 4 days if you live in the USA (facts you mentioned in other threads)? Your english is weak at times as well. Why do you always put down Schweser and recommend Elan in almost half your post history? Why is your name spelled differently in the email you posted earlier in this thread?
There are more points that made me feel that way but I thought I’d just throw those out there for now off the top of my head. I don’t want to start a war here but I feel that the average forum lurker should consider the possibility instead of throwing more money at unethical business practices in the case that I am correct.
For anyone who is really worried that Elan is only trying to scam people into thinking their material is good, go to their website and sign up for a trial and you can read a lot of the content for yourself. That is primarily how I made my decision, although it is nice to hear from other candidates as well. Since we can never really know if someone is who they claim to be on a message board, it is probably better to evaluate this sort of thing objectively (which can be done as described above) rather than making accusations.
OWNED +1
I don’t know whether Nikki is legit, but I can confirm that I also received my shipment from Pakistan in 4 days. I live on the west coast. It came via DHL.
So far, I’m happy with the quality of Elan’s printed and video materials. I have Book 1 & 2 - and yes, it would be nice to have the rest of the books. Hopefully they will come soon.
Insofar as what the story is regarding Elan having been acquired by Wiley, I’ll email them and ask!
crap elan
hey wasn’t qqqbee from pakistan or at least fly over it on occasion? Coincidence? I think not.
weak