Hi - I read your thread and it was quite useful. Since you have gone through the CFA Texts and Schweser, would you say that one could rely on Schweser alone and pass? I’m thinking about Level 2 for June 10 but the CFA Texts seem very time consuming. Thanks
Corinthia Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hi - I read your thread and it was quite useful. > Since you have gone through the CFA Texts and > Schweser, would you say that one could rely on > Schweser alone and pass? I’m thinking about Level > 2 for June 10 but the CFA Texts seem very time > consuming. > Thanks Hi Corinthia Whether or not to use Schweser as the only source depends on your background and your capabilities to grasp the material from a concise source. In my own experience I think CFAI notes cover all the subject very aptly for a person like me ( no finance experience) and it kinda gave me confidence ( as in all the CFAI people can do is ask questions from this stuff only) .I didnt have to be paranoid about missing anything that hasnt been covered/overlooked/not given enough attention by Schweser. Also with Schweser you will need to revise the stuff thrice to get a good grasp of it. In case of CFAI even if you complete the books just one time thoroughly and make your notes , then you dont need to go to the books again and again. If you ask me then I think if you spend a decent amount of time with either Schweser or CFAI texts you will be well prepared. For eg even if you study around 20 pages everyday ( arnd 2 hrs with notes)and 40 pages on weekends ( around 5 hrs) then you will be finishing around 180 pages in a week . Well 16-20 good weeks will then get you through and guess what you would have studied around 360-400 hours which I think is kind of the least number of hours a student will need to spend to master the topics. Lastly, follow what you think suits you best. 
All the best for your preparations Regards Sameer
Auro Wrote: > Just to clarify, what is NCR? > > I am staying in Singapore, so we can’t meet. Any > way thanks for your reponse to share your notes. > Hopefully, I will take down my own notes. > > cheers:-) NCR - National Capital Region ( Places near New Delhi)
Thanks again for the encouraging words. I also have a non-financial background (legal)but I’ve been working in financial institutions for past 4 years. The CFA is a personal ambition kind of thing for me. What kind of practice exams did you find helped you the most? I see you used Schweser but I’ve heard that their practice exams are a bit easier than the real thing.
Corinthia Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Thanks again for the encouraging words. I also > have a non-financial background (legal)but I’ve > been working in financial institutions for past 4 > years. The CFA is a personal ambition kind of > thing for me. > What kind of practice exams did you find helped > you the most? I see you used Schweser but I’ve > heard that their practice exams are a bit easier > than the real thing. Well the CFA Level 2 exam ( a.m session) was as rude a shock as one can get from an exam. My head was belching out smoke while trying to attempt the Quants question , I spent around 30 mins on the same and most of my answers were flukes ( dont know how i got 5 or 6 of them correct)Also ethics was tricky ( which it always is). And when I read the question asking for calculation of goodwill i assumed its going to be tough exam. But to my surprise the P.M session was a cakewalk. I couldnt help smiling at the paper while solving questions and thinking that well finally there is a glimmer of hope that I may actually pass the thing. I can sense the same trend going forward . ( At least one session A.M / P.M will be difficult ).The same thing happened in December 08 L-1 exam. A.M was a tad bit difficult than the P.M one. I think nothing and nothing could have prepared me for the A.M session and this is my true judgement. All the questions had a certain bent to them that made them different from Schweser or CFAI EOC questions. I think most people will agree that no mock exams or practise questions will be on the simillar lines as are asked by the CFAI in the exam. However we can prepare ourselves well by rigrously attempting Volume-1 of schweser and the CFAI mocks ( free one). No matter what happens never ever skip CFAI EOC questions. There was a question about the blume method in the exam. Now the blume method has been explained in a page or so ( & well its not much anyhow , just a tweak to calculate the beta of the stock) but in the exam that single page of info was worth 3 golder marks. Its easy to miss this kind of information if one doesnt do the EOC questions. Also if i think as a CFAI person then at the end of the chapter I will like to test their knowledge on what I think is important. Ditto for CFAI book examples. They might be simple but provide very good insight in the text . Whats more they take real life examples and show application of the concept. Only real life experience can be an alternative to the above. Also I had got my hands on the additional CFAI papers and did them but they were of not much use ( if no use). The questions were very easy and the level of questions was way different than the actual exams.So I wont waste my money and time on CFAI additional mocks. However if you can loan these papers from someone else than just skim them once. Also mocks will help you simulate exam conditions ( atleast time-boundedness & the rigour of the exam ) so they are a must. Regards Sameer
Hi Sameer Thanks once again. I hope you don’t mind if I ask another Q. I just went through a few chapters in the CFA Texts. I’m highlighting the bits that I think are relevant to the Learning Outcomes. But I found that the Learning Outcomes don’t cover all the topics in the chapters. So there are some pages which I’m not even reading through because they don’t appear to be relevant. Was this your experience too? PS - being an engineer you must be good with the maths side of things…that is my weakness…my mental arithmetic is terrible…although I’m ok when I practice a lot.
Thanks for the Info Sameer Nice insights. thanks for reiterating the importance of the EOCs from CFAI text.
Corinthia Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hi Sameer > Thanks once again. I hope you don’t mind if I ask > another Q. I just went through a few chapters in > the CFA Texts. I’m highlighting the bits that I > think are relevant to the Learning Outcomes. But > I found that the Learning Outcomes don’t cover all > the topics in the chapters. So there are some > pages which I’m not even reading through because > they don’t appear to be relevant. Was this your > experience too? > PS - being an engineer you must be good with the > maths side of things…that is my weakness…my > mental arithmetic is terrible…although I’m ok > when I practice a lot. Hi Corinthia Sorry for the late reply. I was off for Diwali vacations. The only parts of the CFA texts that can be safely ignored are the ones which are marked as optional. Apart from them anything is fair game. So dont just read those parts that you think are related to the LOC’s . Read everything which is not optional and well if you have the time then read the optional parts too. As far as my experience goes , I didnt concentrate on LOC’s to tell you the truth. I just concentrated on whatever there was in the CFAI texts and treated all of it more or less equally important. I didnt even read the LOC’s .Hope it helps. Regards Sameer
Hey sgarg.cfa , Thanks for your post. I wanted to take your notes and shweser, my brother lives in NCR. Can you please meet sometime? Let me know whats the best way? thnaks.
snitins Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hey sgarg.cfa , > > Thanks for your post. I wanted to take your notes > and shweser, my brother lives in NCR. Can you > please meet sometime? Let me know whats the best > way? > > thnaks. Hi snitins I can provide him with notes, he can get them xeroxed and return me my notes. I live in gurgaon.
thank u friend, how can we get in touch? u got some contact no/email or something where u can be reached?