i am a full time student, looking to take the exam in december. i am finding the amount of material i have to learn extremely daunting. As a student i will struggle to finance it but feel that the elan guides may offer me a much easier way of learning the material. what are peoples thoughts on this? i find it hard to differentiate what is key material in the cfa books and what is not, thus i feel i will never get through the material in time. my plan would be to learn through elan study notes, and brush up on the tougher subject in the cfa books. Will the elan notes really reduce the amount of time i have to spend studying, or am i dreaming of an easy way out?
I just got my Elan notes the other day. I had alot of trouble trying to understand one of the concept/formulas while I was reading just the CFAI Books prior to getting the Elan guides, but once I looked up the concept in the guide, I immediately understood it. From what I can see from the guide is it does a pretty good job explaining the material that the CFAI books don’t explain very well. However, I haven’t really had a good sit down with them yet so there may be better resources out there, but I think they’ll be helpful… and they’re cheap too.
You’re an econ major, right? You can get Elan’s Economics book for free, here’s the link: http://www.elanguides.com/free-econ.php This is one of the five books included in their Study Notes, and with econ being your major you can easily assess how much of the study time it cuts. Register on Elan’s website, get their free book, and just spend the weekend on the Econ readings, comparing CFAI’s and Elan’s books. Two days should be more than enough to tell, I’m an econ major too and none of the material was new for those three study sessions. Some of it was half forgotten though 
I have them, for 50 USD (ebook) were a good quality/price but now… 150 USD for ebooks are TOO expensive. If you don’t want to buy Shweser try Elan Guides, they worth the money. The quality is still good, compared to Schweser. But the whole Ultimate Package is 600 USD, I wouldn’t pay this amount just for an ebooks, the material on those books is even available on ****Internet, the CFAI material and that is well-known economic material on any library. Those providers just explain the material covered on CFAI books with their own words, I think they do a good work. But it’s very expensive to pay 150 USD or 100 USD for some ebooks about economics and finance. 50 USD for the Elan Guides and their Study Notes was a fair price. **** http://www.investopedia.com/exam-guide/cfa-level-1/ethics-standards/default.asp Maybe it’s not 100% updated to the last exam, but you can learn.
Elan is the best, rest are overpriced, you don’t really need that much assistance to pass these exams. Elan has video lectures for every reading, versus Stalla and Schweser that have video lectures for every Study Session. Elan questions are far superior to those of Schwesers questions bank since the actual exam tests theory more so than your ability to plug in numbers. The difference in cost cannot be overstated. Schweser and Stalla have been around for so long that their priority is not on making their materials better, since they bank on the fact that people will buy their products because of their long history of being in the business. Elan Guides, despite being new breaks down the material in a clear and concise way. Unfortunately, they only have materials for level I at the moment.
I graduated last june with a degree in Finance. Started with the CFAI books and read the entire Econ one. Decided it was to much material and was for the most part review given my undergrad. Ordered Elan a 2 weeks ago and i have not regretted a single moment of it. I can relate to you with respect to the costs involved, ya its expensive but so is taking it over again if you dont pass. If you do decide on elan go with the essential prep package. You get 2000 questions, new books, book of equations, and 3 mock exams. BTW the books are HALF the length of the CFAI. so about 250 each subject I figured if i do the CFAI end of chapter questions, elans 2000 questions, 3 mocks, the CFAI mocks, i should have a fighting chance. For me its all about repetition and actually using the material. Basically, just do it
you can also get 40% off for being a full time student with Elan notes!
Does ELAN give you these books in pdf format when you buy the hard copy version of the book? Also economicz - where did you get this for $50?
There are plenty of threads floating around that discuss Elan Guides. Please use the search function. http://www.analystforum.com/phorums/read.php?11,1170877,page=1 @cfa_pittsburgh: Apparently you get both with their 2011 packages.
They were for 50 bucks back in January. Even now 150 bucks is a good deal given they they are half of schweser/stallas price and arguable better.
I agree Elan notes are good. I was wondering how are the Eleventh Hour Guide? Does it really help you to stay in gear till the exams and revise.
The Eleventh Hour is extremely useful… no question!
I highly recommend the Eleventh Hour Guide. It’s great for reviewing past readings
I’ve been using Schweser combined with the CFA curriculum EOC questions. Thinking of getting the Eleventh Hour too! Has anyone tried their 2000 practice questions? How does it compare to Schweser?
Another vote for the Eleventh Hour Guide right here. Also get their mock exams if you can spare the cash
Mustafa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Another vote for the Eleventh Hour Guide right > here. Also get their mock exams if you can spare > the cash What did you score on the Elan mock exams? Since the mock is so much easier than the actual exam, should we be scoring at least in the 80 percent or higher mark? Schweser I understand is a little easier than the actual exam as well, so we should def get in the 70+% range to feel comfortable.
allegro-cpa/cfa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Mustafa Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Another vote for the Eleventh Hour Guide right > > here. Also get their mock exams if you can > spare > > the cash > > > What did you score on the Elan mock exams? Since > the mock is so much easier than the actual exam, > should we be scoring at least in the 80 percent or > higher mark? Schweser I understand is a little > easier than the actual exam as well, so we should > def get in the 70+% range to feel comfortable. What makes you think the mock is much easier than the actual exam?
beatthecfa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > allegro-cpa/cfa Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Mustafa Wrote: > > > -------------------------------------------------- > > > ----- > > > Another vote for the Eleventh Hour Guide > right > > > here. Also get their mock exams if you can > > spare > > > the cash > > > > > > What did you score on the Elan mock exams? > Since > > the mock is so much easier than the actual > exam, > > should we be scoring at least in the 80 percent > or > > higher mark? Schweser I understand is a little > > easier than the actual exam as well, so we > should > > def get in the 70+% range to feel comfortable. > > > What makes you think the mock is much easier than > the actual exam? I don’t know for sure if its easier, i’m just going off what some of the posters said about it in other threads. ive never taken the actual, but from the pass rate being so low, i better study extra and prep hard.
ive been doing the elan end of reading questions. I have noticed that some of the questions are very easy and have been written in a very easy to understand way. Has anyone else noticed this? Im worried that these questions are giving me a false sense of security.
Yeh I have thought the same, élan questions seem quite easy