I have been contemplating the idea of taking the CFA challenge since I started in finance 4-5 years ago, and I have finally found the courage to register for Level 1 (Dec 2016). My undegrad is in economics and finance, and my work experience is in wealth management and wholesaling.
I am very excited to start studying, and I have seen a lot of good comments/feedback around Schweser as a prep-provider. They have a few different packages (Basic, Essential, Premium, Premium Plus).
Which one are you currently using, or have used (successfully) in the past?
Essential because the qbank is very helpful. I got Essential for all 3 levels. I think I separately ordered flashcards for L1 but did not use them at all. No need for all that premium stuff.
The freaking $CAD is so low! It cost me almost $CAD 1,900 to register for the program and level 1 for Dec. Thank god my employer is picking up the tab!
Did anyone have the employer cover the cost of a prep provider??
That’s interesting. I have heard the same from a few people, but I have that fear that the curriculum covers way more, and therefore I may be missing a few concepts by going over the Schweser material only!
Agree with above. Did all three only with Schweser notes and QBank. For L2 I also ordered the audio files but ultimately I found those useless. I thought I could listen to them on my way to work but they are too monotonous and boring to listen to properly. I used QBank a lot during the day in the office. 20min in the morning, 30min during lunch, 20min before I leave. You can put together any topics and any number of questions also sorted by difficulty or past performance. Anytime you have a few minutes, go through 5 or 10 questions.
I have to write one more exam toward my Canadian financial planning designation next week, then I will buy the Schweser essential and get started. I think 10 months is plenty of time to prepare for Level 1…
Employer when I was on L1 and L2 covered 100% of fee costs and 85% of third-party prep provided I passed…thankfully I did. Employer when I was on L3 covered 100% of fee costs and 100% of third-party prep…no conditional passing…which was nice.
Good for you that’s awesome! My employer was nice enough to cover the cost before taking the exam. I will give it a shot and ask them if they can cover my prep course. Thanks for the note Ramos4rm!
I’m preparing to sit for the December exam as well and got the essential package …In addition to price being a factor, I didn’t consider premium or premium+ because I’m not an auditory learner and do better with self study. So if you are an auditory or prefer more interactive learning maybe the premium stuff is for you.