Good day. For both Level 1 and 2 I used Schweser books and they helped me a lot, in Level 1 I scored more than 70 in all bands and I’ve just taken Level 2 exam, and that does not seem to be so difficult, I hope I will pass it too.
I’d like to be advised whether or not I must continue of using Schweser books for Level 3 in case of passing L2 or what was your preffered source of learning?
Thanks in advance.
Best,
Elnur.
You should not change your way of preparation is my 2 cents. Continue with Schweser, but use the CFAI text a bit more than what you would have done for L1 and L2 especially on EOC and IPS problems.
Good luck with your result.
I’d say CFAI books as they are more comprehensive and you can’t definitely blame the books for not doing well cause you prepared with the original books :).
+1
i like Schweser books for the first read, they give you a big picture quick, then you can go into detail with the CFAI books. whether it worked this time – will find out in August 
I would reccomend sticking to Schweser books, since they cover the material in more efficient way.
The most efficient way, hovewer, would be to learn the answers to all LOS, which Schweser is good for.
For example, I wrote down all study sessions main information and formulas and completely memorized the main points (provided in a list below) in a way that I could reproduce all the information in just 2 hours. This inforumation could be put just on 12 pages of handwriting.
After that you should solve 6-7 mocks and you are fine.
1 Ethics a Ethical and professional standarts b ethical responcibilities (6) c Ethical decision making(5) d Code of ethics(6) 3 Behavioral Finance a Begavioral models, 3 b Utility vs Prospect Theory (2 phases, 6 types) c EMH, 3 forms + 2 components d Behavioral finance models, 4 e Cognitive errors (2 types, 10 errors), Emotional (6), Other (4) + prud. trap, appr. data, time p. 14 Risk management a financial (3), nonfinancila risks (8) and sovereign risk b VAR, 3 types. Daily and monthly deviataion. c confidence inetervals (5%, 2,5%, 1%) d other types of VAR (5) e Methods for managing Market risk (4) and Credit risk (6) f Risk -Afjusted perfomance measures (5) e currency management (4) f Time weighted vs Money weighted return 15 Risk and Derivatives a Change portfolio duration/beta with bond/equity futures b Foreign exchange rate risk (3) c Option spread strategies(10) d Interest rate Options e Cash flow risk vs Market value riskm Contingent claim risk f Delta and Gamma, duration of call g Change portfolio duration with swap, mvhr h Swap notional principal ofr currency hedge (swap payment* (number of periods per year)/(annual swap rate) 16 Rebalancing a Effective spread b Market structures(6) c Market quality(3) d Execution costs(2) and VWAP e Implementation shortfall(5) f g Trading tactics(5) h Algorithmic trading(2) i Rebalancing(2), transaction costs, risk tolerance, correlations of returns, volatility of asset reutrns k Dynamic rebalancing strategies(3) l Reasons for secondary trading(8) 17 Perfomance evaluation and attribution a P = M+S+A b Properties of a valid benchmark(7) c Types of benchmark(7) d Characteristics of a good benchmark(4) e Multi-period return f Perfomance attribution(3)(9) g Measures of risk adjusted return(5) h Types of errors(2) i Return in global portfolio k Global portfolio attribution(3) l Perfomance evaluation(3) 4 Private wealth management a Objective and constrains(7) b Tax regimes(7) c FVIF(3) and R(art) d laws(2) and property rights(2) e Core capital and prob of joint survival f RV(5) g Trusts(5) h Tax jurisdictions(2) and reliefs(3) i Diversification technics(4) k Life insurance demand(5) 5 Institutional investors a Types (6), objectives and constrains 6 Capital market expectations a Statistical forecasting tools(4) b Discounted CF models + Grinold Croner c Bond risk premium d Equity risk premium + Singer and Ferhaar e Inventory and business cycle, components(2)(5), infl, int.rat, bond yields f The taylor rule g Inflation effect on assets (5) h Fiscal and monetary Policy(4) i Effective beta (Rp/Rm), covariance and correlation 7 Economic concepts a Coub Douglas and Sollow residial b H-model c Top-down and bottom-up approaches d Fed model, Yeardiny model, p/10 year MA €, overvalued or undervalued e Tobin’s q, equity q. f Methods of forcasting exchange rates(4) 8 Asset Allocation a Utility-adjusted return b Shorfall risk, (target) semivariance, Roy’s Safety First c Specification of asset classes(5) d Asset allocation approaches(6) e Best execution(4) 9 Fixed income portfolio a Strategies(5) b Stratified sampling, multifactor model, key-rate duration c interest rate risk(2) d Immunisation of the single liability e Dollar duration, rebalancing ratio f Contingent imm, cushion spread, dollar safety margin g bullet and barbell strategies h immunisation strategies g Cyclical and secullar changes h Duration of fixed-rate bond and floating-rate bond i Bond risk exposures(4) 10 Global bonds a Levereged portfolio return and Levereged duration b Advantages of interest rate futures over cash instruments c Hedging duration, hedge ratio d types of credit risk(3) e credit derivatives(4) f Duration contribution of the foreign bond g interest rate parity h Hedging techniques(3) i Breakven yield change 11 Equity a weighting schemets b IMF vs ETF c Creation of indexed portfolio(3) d equity styles(3) e Returns based vs Holdings based f Information ratio g Total active return(4) 13 Alternative insvestments a Common features(5) b Issues for private wealth investors(5) c Types of alternative investments and benchamarks(6) d Hedge funds types(9) e Total return, roll return, lease rate f Selecting manager(7)
I used Schweser + CFAI for all 3 levels… definitely felt it was most helpful at L2 due to the quantitative nature and least helpful at L3 since you really need to get in the head of CFAI to understand how to answer the questions, particularly essays.
I bought the complete packages for the test prep materials because I thought I was getting a deal and i get to try different ways to study. Here’s what happened, i never used any of the books in all 3 levels. In fact its still shrink wrapped in a box. Really brand new schwesser stuff. In hindsight, i shouldnt have, but who really cares, i was curious what the secret sauce was. I read the first few pages and was like welp forget that. Now here are the most important things you need.
VIDEOS. This is prolly 30% of studying. its like 40 hours~ total, but with rewinding and everything its a lot longer, i also rewatch some of them cuz sometimes i fall asleep. Elan is better. They have no powerpoint stuff though. This is what you do at start to get the jist of things.
Mock Exams/PQs. This is prolly 30% of studying. This is the meat. Most important thing at the very end of the game. CFAI mocks are the best. Schwesser is too hard on their mocks. and their PQs are too easy. I did the CFAI PQs, they were aight.
Internet. Google. Analyst Forum. Whatever. 30% of studying. I find that most things i have a question on pop up in these forums on a simple google search. Some of the answers given by people are questionable. But it beats trying to look for it in the schwesser online crap. Its very hard to navigate through it. Additionally this is the best place to compare yourself, it is graded by a curve. remember that.
Schwesser Flash Cards. 10% of studying. Honestly, I should have spent more time on these. They are amazing. It was essentially equivalent to reading the book. for 85 bucks it was worth it. I only did it on the last weekend, but noticed this would have been very helpful allthroughout. It was useful in the end though.
just do Schweser… CFAI will ask about 3-4 questions that are not covered in Schweser though so if you wanna really nail it, then read from their books.
I would not use Schweser books and do not waste your miney on Qbank its a complete waste. Read my schweser books once then ditched them and used CFAI and other providers. They have not put much effort in to level 3 or even updating the material. I felt as if Schweser was money wasted.
I primarily used Schweser Videos (probably spend 120 hours listening and writing notes). Second was EOC Schweser Questions. Third was reading material in Schweser that I was unclear from the videos (very little was not explained in the videos). I only used the CFA materials for all of Ethics and end of chapter questions for GIPS. Don’t bother with Schweser for Ethics. Do bother doing some AM practice tests. I didn’t do that, and if I fail, practicing writing and explaining things will be the reason.
I honestly don’t think I would have done any better (probably worst) using the CFA texts other than for Ethics (I disagree with others as I think I was helped by my review on many of the Ethics Questions by using the CFA text). Looking at the CFA books yesterday, not a lot of the AM Essay problems are from the CFA texts since they are different examples with various exceptions from the problems described by the CFA blue boxes and end of chapter questions. What’s the point in wasting time reading that long CFA text then? You might as well read a a shortened summary as that is all that Schweser is. There was not an item on the test not addressed by Schweser but addressed by the CFA text. There were items/circumstances not addressed by CFA (also not addressed by Schweser) on the test though.
Hello everyone,
I have always stuck to Schwesers, but I found that Finquiz did a far better job at explaining the concepts/practice when it came to Level 3, SS included in Book 3 and 4.
I felt very confident after doing their item set questions.
I found the following to be good for structured study
Schweser notes
Schweser pro CD
Finquiz exhaustive review material (caution: at places I have found either typo or blatant mistakes)
Though i have not done it, eoc question from CFA publication.
Anyway this is just my thought.
Thank you
i have never read CFAI books until Level 3. Used Stalla then Kaplan and Elan for Level 2. Unless you have time to read the material twice, I STRONGLY recommended AGAINST using Kaplan or other sources - read every single word of the CFAI books, even Ethics.
You can use other sources like Kaplan and Finquiz (i used Finquiz for my review) to help teach and/or review/summarize information, but you NEED to read every page of the CFAI books. Without giving questions and/or any exam information away, it is critical to read the CFAI books and do their EOC questions. You will easily pick up 10% points on exam day just from reading the material and not being taught the “main stuff” by Kaplan or others.
CFAI if you have plenty of time.
Schweser if you’re time-constrained.
I understand your enthusiasm but my advice for you is to chill-out and wait for your results. You could be slightly ahead of yourself here. In any case, non of us here L3 candidates can give you an accurate answer because all our musings will need validation in three months time.
I’ve always used the CFAI texts. Once tried using Schweser for Level 1 Economics (only because my undergrad is in Econ and I wanted to see which of Schweser or CFAI explained it better).
Not my cup of tea. Explanations are not as detailed as I would like them to be. It felt like as if they were saying “here this is the stuff you need to know to pass”. With the CFAI curriculum, you get the feeling that they’re saying “here know this know that and know why this and that happens, and why this and that matters”.
One thing about the CFAI texts is that it feels like they’re meant to be used as a source of reference for practitioners – so the depth & detail is much more than just what is needed for the exams.
Thanks you so much , I really appreciate that, hope all we pass the exam.