Special Info for China Candidates
Recently, I rec'd a lot of emails from China candidates regarding CFA study materials and some other questions, it would take me too much time to answer them one by one. So I put together the following information answering their FAQ.
1. Other text books as Substitutes of the Official Readings
I don't know why but I got several emails asking about the same book list as substitute of the official readings:
Official Text Books | So-called "Substitute Text books" |
Quantitative Methods for Investment Analysis | Statistical Techniques in Business and Economics - Robert D. Mason , Douglas A. Lind |
Economics: Private and Public Choice | Economics : Principles and Policy |
Fundamentals of Financial Management | "Essentials of Managerial Finance" (11th Edition) - J. Fried Weston , Scott , Besley , Eugene F. Brigham |
The Analysis and Use of Financial Statements |
"Financial Accounting" (9th EDITION) - P.Stickney Roman, L.Weil |
Fixed Income Analysis for the Chartered Financial Analyst Program | Fixed Income Analysis for the Global Financial Market |
Futures, Options, and Swaps | "Options , Futures and Other Derivatives" John C. Hull |
My Comment: Don't try to find any substitute on the assigned readings.
Reasons:
Different text books got different approaches to the topic areas.
They need not be addressing the same components that required in CFA curriculum.
Some people say "text books on some subjects like accounting, economics, statistics are all the same, got the same topics". Wrong! absolutely wrong!
- For example, our new text book on Quantitative Methods includes time series. There're no one single popular text book on business statistic giving a good guiding on time series.
- Accounting as one of the topic section in CFA program, focus on financial analysis and company valuation. You can't just throw me some accounting text books and said it's good for CFA study. One of the above substitutes named "Financial Accounting". I think those proposed this book, just want to sell you the book and make money.
- Many post-graduate student in Finance use the above Derivatives text book authored by John Hull. I don't have any doubt on the quality of the book. But I've doubt on whether Hull's book addressing the same topics required by CFA. (I got a China edition of Hull's bk.)
CFA got very specific curriculum in terms of "learning outcome statements" (LOS). You can simply make a comparison on whether these so-called substitutes can answer every LOS in our official study guide.
Rule of Thumb: Your first priority in choosing study materials is getting yourself well-prepared for the exam in the most efficient and effective way. Don't waste your time on studying something which won't be tested in the exam. You can afford to spend the money and buy the text books, but you can't afford to waste your precious study time and run the risk of failing the exam.
2. Old Study Notes
Many of the China candidates use out-dated, 2nd hand Schweser to prepare the exam. I know that some of the course providers in China sell out-dated Schweser and tell the candidates that - " the syllabus of CFA seldom changes. You can simply use the old notes."
My comment: The curriculum of CFA changed drastically over the past few years. For example, the exam format of L2 &L3 changed from all essay-type questions to 50/50 of essay/mc questions. In yr 2001, AIMR got a bland new text book on fixed income. In 2002, AIMR got a bland new text book on Quantitative Methods. The articles in "Candidate Readings" also changed from time to time. Besides, new LOS frequently added to current curriculum. It's my advice for you to use the latest version of study notes. Cost saving is NOT our first priority in choosing study materials.
3. Find your required info directly from AIMR's official web site
Sometimes, I rec'd emails asking about details on enrolling the CFA program. I also have read many messages on the discussion boards of some course providers, asking about such details. I've to emphasize that you should always refers to AIMR's official web site to find your required info.
4. Quality of the Course Providers in China
I got an impression that the quality of the course providers in China is questionable. They are sales-oriented and simply want to sell you something. They even hire some unqualified person (say, some L2 candidates) as tutors of their CFA courses.
They always give some misleading advice to boost their sale of services/books. You shouldn't expect those people who sell courses and books, would give you a good guiding on exam preparation.
5. Some Useful Study Materials on Net
Some candidates ask me about: where to find some free resources on study materials. Of course, you can got some useful stuff from my web. You can find some good practice exam from the following sites for free.
Online Practice Exam of Shulmanreview - Shulmanreview provide 3 online practice exam. You can even download the pdf format of the questions from their web. For L1 only.