Hi guys. Has anyone used Chalk & Board videos or Essay prep for Level III and passed?
Cue CEO10K-DAY in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . go!
… Chronologically
I’m starting to get worried. Over a day has passed and CEO10K still hasn’t commented
Also wondered about that… he must have cut ties with C&B or must have stopped receiving commissions
Maybe he’s getting his response to this post approved by C&B?
Friends, don’t worry. I was just busy with a project at work… which I completely dropped and rescheduled meetings to answer what could be the most appropriate question ever asked of me on this forum.
Here’s the thing OP. I used Chack & Board for levels 2 & 3, and had a 100% pass rate on both attempts. I literally did the impossible and went from pizza delivery driver to CFA Charterholder and portfolio constructionist guru. All thanks to, Nathan Ronen of Chalk & Board.
OP, the only thing standing in between YOU and the CFA Charter, is, the essays. Now, I don’t need to mention to you that there is a specific way the CFA institute wants you to think about certain topics & answer certain questions. Nathan Ronen completely understands this, and his entire video lecture series is predicated on the years of experience he has from grading papers. That means, the way in which he will teach you the material is formulated around the way in which they ask the questions.
Mark Meldrum doesn’t do that, you know why? He doesn’t have the charter. The guy’s never taken the exam (let alone graded them), so how in the world do you expect him to know what the exam looks like, and then give a lecture series that is pertinent to HOW to pass the exam. You feeling me? Yeah, some players will say “Oh, but Meldrum has a PhD”. That’s like saying you KNOW how to drive a motorcylce just because you can assemble one… you’d be wrong.
I’m not gonna waste any time with Nathan’s blurb, he’s obviously skilled with the material. So, here’s my main selling point. YOU pay a THOUSAND bucks, in order to get around the clock custom concierge coverage to anything you need to know. You know how many Friday nights I would text Nathan for help on things, snap him a picture of something I was working on, and then literally three minutes later I have Nathan in my ear explaining things to me in a way that I still understand/know today?
No one else in the business does that. So, you get what you pay for. I was 27 years old, and on level three wanted to get the HELL out and to the other side.
Couldn’t have done it without Nathan.
Got to go. I’m in a meeting right now - and our CEO is wondering why I’m not paying attention to him.
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i like chack too. Chack and coke together is great study time.
Fortunately, the graders don’t dock you marks for misspelling.
My comments are based on my participation in Nathan’s Level 3 course at NYSSA several years back. I believe Nathan is currently at Chalk and Board.
• Nathan strategized optimally to really get the maximum bang-for-the-buck in terms of the effort that the class was investing. Each lecture/session was well researched, well taught with a clear cut plan.
• As a coach, Nathan had an awesome focus on results. The objective was to pass L3, nothing more, nothing less. I liked that laser-sharp focus of teaching the curriculum with a strong emphasis on the essay component.
• Brevity and presentation to senior management are critical for passing the L3, and it is important to unlearn some habits that might have served folks well in the previous levels. This was very clearly articulated, and literally drilled into our heads. That did help.
• Overall Nathan is a highly effective instructor. I do wish some of Nathan’s practical, street-smart techniques could be taught to PhD folks who are aspiring to join academia or who are already teaching Finance.
Great if it worked for some - i found his subscription an absolute waste of time and on the contrary an annoyance. To add some credibility to my feedback, I have qualified all levels in first attempts and the first 2 levels in top 10%ile (third level breakdowns are not provided). I only joined chalk and board to get some guidance on the subjective part of level III and bought the the training materials (classroom videos) and an exam. Videos were more gibberish than content. Nathan has a tendency to wander about rather than stick to the topic so an hour long class may be 17 mins of content worth. The exam was ok (in terms of level of questions/difficulty/coverage) but then Nathan sent me the feedback to my attempt of the exam which I did not find very helpful. He kept pointing every time that I should buy more tests and it seemed more of a marketing exercise to sell materials rather than help me pass my exam based on the fee I have already paid. He even texted me multiple times asking if I am planning to buy more exams from him and that would really help me. I was as polite as I can but it was annoying to see my money wasted and then him trying to get more out rather than asking me where I was facing issues etc. The only time I found him useful was in the one to one session (45mins) where he answered exam related queries. Also, his material is very dated and does not work with the CBT format CFA has transitioned to. I would recommend going through all the tests on the CFA website rather than buying chalk and board materials. In the end I spent the last 5 days just doing all questions in the practice tests in the CFA website and found that the most useful.
The reason I am providing this feedback on the thread is because this was the thread I read before buying the content and am now not sure if everything said here was sarcastic. Anyways I have wasted my money so there is no crying over spilled milk, at least I got sense in time and passed the exam.
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Sorry you had a bad experience, I had the totally opposite experience actually with Chalk & Board. I do feel I owe passing level 3 this past May largely to his videos and mock study sessions. I wish they gave granular results for L3 passing scores because it’s possible that was my best exam of the 3. I also qualified on first attempt and also cleared the 90% mark on prior exams to L3. I think many folks in AF are the same honestly because this is a brainy type of forum. After 2 covid delays in 2020 I took his vids because I was burned out from reading the books by then. I liked his simplistic way of explaining because my energy was flagging by 2021 to keep deciphering things. Honestly May was the first CBT so not sure what you were expecting any prep provider to be ready for, material-wise? Nobody knew what to expect and it’s still probably a work in progress for the CFA Institute. To each their own, for me they worked wonderfully. Cheers and congrats on your pass👍
Folks can simply look at my profile and see my other posts in AF as well. Anyone reading can feel free to reach out to me if you want my unvarnished opinion. There are many good prep providers out there and Nathan Ronen is one of them in my opinion. CFA only had 2 mocks on their website… and the learning ecosystem, while good for end of chapter reading review, was too simplistic in my opinion at least, to rely on as a final level test prep. I have heard good things about Bill Campbell’s mocks too although I haven’t experienced them personally. I did Nathan’s mocks, 4 Schweser package mocks, the one Kaplan CBT mock they just developed, and the 2 CFA mocks on the website. Which actually weren’t great in the case of the 2020 one as many have pointed out on AF. Errors and some confusion in the Boston Society mock from 2020 that CFA issued.
Is not it a bit of irony itself…. The first post of a Level III passed candidates in AF is about a provider ? In all fairness how may one attest any importance to that ?
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Ha ha! It’s not only my first post, I also created the account just to write this feedback. I used the discussion here to form my opinion on buying the content and found it was not what I experienced and so thought I will definitely provide feedback. I wanted to wait for the result to see if I was mistaken in believing that other means were better. I might still be mistaken so to each their own. Good luck to other candidates. I would love to help any genuine aspirants if they have any questions about my CFA experience in general. Discrediting someone you don’t know just because it’s their first post doesn’t seem really mature a tactic….luckily I did not post here for a popularity contest……if it helps someone….great….if not….doesn’t matter
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It seems like you dislike Nathan personally, based on your experience. That’s fair enough not everyone gets along with everyone. But it’s also true that you did watch his lectures as part of your studies like I did, you took his mock session like I did, and you passed Level 3 following that, like I and many others did. So seems the case that you passed on a mosiac of preparatory work based on your description in your posts, and you clearly prefer the core CFA materials as a study basis. That’s fair enough because they are in fact the basis of the exam. I just didn’t have your level of energy to read them a third time after 2 deferrals. So in my case, I relied entirely on Nathan since January to study for and pass the May 2021 exam. We have different experiences but each are entirely valid.
Cheers have a great day, at least we made itđź‘Ť
It seems you don’t like a different opinion and have to find a fault in it - that being that it is my first post or I don’t know what I am talking about and the materials helped me but I just know that they did. Anyways, I don’t think I need to explain more. I did give an opinion about Nathan’s approach because he is selling a service and the service is connected to a person so they do get involved - there is nothing personal about it. I will stop here and I hope diversity of opinions is respected in the future. For anyone who would like to consult directly - please feel free to message me….happy to help!
Who is finding fault in your opinion? In all my posts I have called your opinion valid. The posts speak for themselves. In fact, I have never invalidated anyone’s opinion on AF in any post. Not my style. I am just sharing my truth here which is a 5-star review, next to your truth which is apparently a 1-star review, so folks can see them and make up their own minds. I think this makes perfect sense and is the nature of free speech and information sharing. Cheers have a great day once again, and congrats on your pass once again 
I am now almost tempted mark “ Troll Alert “. Should I report ?
I don’t think it arises to trolling. She just really disliked her experience apparently. Restaurants will inevitably get 1-star reviews from time to time. I really had the opposite experience and was deeply affected by my experience in a positive way. I will always recommend Chalk & Board based on my experience to anyone who asks. She most clearly will not. The world is big enough for diverse opinions. I entirely relied on Chalk & Board for the last 5 months of L3 study, I took 120 pages of high quality notes from his lectures and for me that was surprising since I only took 8-10 pages on L2 and L1.
Having said that, if I was perhaps the type of person who could thoroughly read the CFA source materials maybe I would have gotten even more information. I just didn’t have that energy after 2 deferrals and I wanted someone to explain it to me in layman’s terms. For whatever reason I ended up taking Chalk & Board as opposed to Bill Campbell’s service or Meldrum etc. If I had taken one of those providers and passed, I would be singing their praises instead. It just ended up being Nathan in my case. I didn’t have much interaction with Nathan personally, I just liked the learning and result. Truth be told, this was my first experience with videos. Prior to that I relied entirely on Schweser books.
Elder…. I am all for diverse opinions. That is besides the point. I most certainly am at loss to fathom why would anybody having passed L3 most recently would choose to share his/her( you don’t know it is she) experience of a prep provider negatively , being the very first post.
Personally, I recall my journey and it was painful. I did not take any providers help and I did not pass my CFA exams at first attempt either. I hustled all the way with the epic books of CFAI but for Level I that I banked on Kaplan and I do believe they do a very good job in the lower levels of the CFA program.
But even then, I believe Nathan Ronen, CFA is one of the very best ( sorry I cannot compare because I don’t have any experience) in the business. Source ? Just his sample videos and the very fact that Nathan himself was a grader. Mind you, I would not ever castigate any other providers because I have no rationale to do so. I learnt (mostly) by myself.
But it is not about me, not about you either. I just don’t trust the OP’s opinion because if anything it makes no sense to me. There’s no precedence. I can’t even call it an aftermath. Now why I say this? Because the social media are abound with rogue elements, viruses and pathogens. That’s of concern.
I have identified at least one. I am gathering all the necessary evidence and will expose in time.
Once again, this has got nothing to do with diverse and democratic all perverse personal opinions. Somebody’s gotta separate the wheat from the chaff.
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