Schweser Videos

CFA Level II
#1

Hi guys - when it comes to video reviews I seem to see a lot on Wiley etc but I have not seen many people’s feedback on the Schweser Videos.

Can someone who used them for L2 just give a little more insight on whether they felt this was a real value adder and if the quality of tuition was high standard?

FYI - I am personally a fan of the video of the approach and learn best this way.

Cheers

#2

Peter Olinto and Basit Shajani do most of the videos for Wiley. Peter’s awesome. Basit’s solid, but a bit boring. (He knows this, so I’m not being revolutionary here.)

I did a couple of Level II videos for Schweser a few years ago, and they may still be around. They’re spectacular. (!) Andy Holmes does many of the Level II Schweser videos, and he’s a great instructor. Bijesh Tolia (BJ) has done some videos; some people like him; others don’t.

#3

Wiley’s videos are unbelievably awesome. I like Peter Olinto’s high energetic style of teaching. However, some people might get too overwhelmed or intimidated with his high energetic style of teaching. But he can teach you in a crystal clear way with a lot of reasoning behind every point he make in the video lessons.

#4

I would always read the chapter first and then watch the videos (Schweser). I felt the videos did a great job reinforcing the materials and hitting some important points that I may have missed in the reading. Definitely a good supplement to the readings.

#5

Cheers all

#6

Hi,

Does anybody have further breakdown of who is covering exactly what on the Schweser videos for L2?

Thanks a lot in advance

#7

Schweser videos were a key part of my L2 2016 prep. Overall, I would say they were very good for what they are. If you compare the number of hours of Schweser versus others I believe it is much lower. This isn’t good or bad it just is the way they do them.

I personally really liked the Easter European / Russian guy who did the Quant and Derivatives. He was methodical and robotic in his delivery, but I found him very effective. People seem to like Andy Holmes. He is affable and lighthearted. I thought his lecture on Term Structure (Fixed Income) was excellent, and watched it entirely twice and certain parts three times. the others were good as well (I nailed Fixed Income on the exam, and entered with only basic L1 knowledge).

The weakest area of their videos in my opinion was Equity. I did not like the equity lectures at all. I lost confidence in the Equity instructor during the FCF lecture and couldn’t get it back. I purchased Equity a la carte from another vendor. I only watched Pensions and International from FRA and thought the guy did a solid job. He made a couple of IFRS/GAAP observations that I thought were pretty insightful, even if not directly part of the cirriculum. This instilled confidence in the rest of his talks.

I also referred to the slides periodically throughout my studies, and the last slide of each lecture gave their “Keys to the Exam” which I found very helpful.

#8

Thanks 40yoCFAcandidate. Really insightful.

I purchased the Schweser video series in the end - I have skimmed through them all and here is the breakdown:

Ethics - Holmes

Quant- The east European robot guy lol

Econ & Equity - Jeffrey Chang? (Not sure what I think of him tbh, he seems quite junior but lets see - he cant be bad if he is doing all of equity and econ)

FSA - Bone

Corp Fin - BJ Tolia first section, Holmes for governance etc

FI - Holmes

Derivatives - BJ Tolia & Richie Owens

PM- Holmes

Obviously I haven’t gone through the lectures yet, just fast forwarded through some to see what the guys are like. Some look great others not so much.

Thanks

#9

Sounds like pretty much the same line up. It’s funny, I don’t rememebr the Corporate Finance videos at all, but I remember Andy Holmes’ jokes, and his periodic political comments.

If you learn well by video, as I do, I’d recommend checking out IFT as a supplement. He has (or at least used to) a free sample of one lecture per section. And if you choose to buy, you can buy by section for fairly inexpensively. His general tone is much more serious than at least two of the Schweser instructors (not better or worse, just different) and he uses a more blue box approach. I don’t think I am his target customer, but I liked his videos.

#10

I took a 3 day review course with Jeff Chang - he has a lot of good tips for memorization and quick shortcuts. I thought he was helpful…not sure what his videos are like though.