Boston– March 11, 2008 – Schweser, a division of Kaplan, Inc., will host a
3-Day Seminar for candidates preparing for the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) Exam in June. The seminar will be held April 11-13, 2008, at the Courtyard Boston Tremont Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts.
Schweser’s CFA curriculum experts will lead candidates through 22 hours of instruction and provide invaluable insight, exam tips and strategies. Attendees will also take a hands-on approach to working through new problems and different scenarios. In addition, attendees will receive access to an Ethics online streaming video and Level 1 candidates will receive a 50-question mock exam with review.
The seminar is scheduled for April 11-13, 2008:
Friday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Sunday 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
The cost of the seminar is $429. Seating is limited, so early registration is highly recommended.
Kaplan Schweser is a leading global provider of financial and accounting education solutions to professionals around the world. Since 1991, Kaplan Schweser has helped hundreds of thousands of candidates prepare for the CFA, FRM, CPA, CFP and CAIA exams. Kaplan Schweser is part of Kaplan, Inc., a leading international education services leader and a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO). For further information, please call (608) 779-5599 or visit www.kaplanschweser.com.
Charlotte– March 11, 2008 – Schweser, a division of Kaplan, Inc., will host a
3-Day Seminar for candidates preparing for the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) Exam in June. The seminar will be held April 4-6, 2008, at the Renaissance Charlotte SouthPark in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Schweser’s CFA curriculum experts will lead candidates through 22 hours of instruction and provide invaluable insight, exam tips and strategies. Attendees will also take a hands-on approach to working through new problems and different scenarios. In addition, attendees will receive access to an Ethics online streaming video and Level 1 candidates will receive a 50-question mock exam with review.
The seminar is scheduled for April 4-6, 2008:
Friday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Sunday 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
The cost of the seminar is $429. Seating is limited, so early registration is highly recommended.
Kaplan Schweser is a leading global provider of financial and accounting education solutions to professionals around the world. Since 1991, Kaplan Schweser has helped hundreds of thousands of candidates prepare for the CFA, FRM, CPA, CFP and CAIA exams. Kaplan Schweser is part of Kaplan, Inc., a leading international education services leader and a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO). For further information, please call (608) 779-5599 or visit www.kaplanschweser.com.
Chicago– March 11, 2008 – Schweser, a division of Kaplan, Inc., will host a
3-Day Seminar for candidates preparing for the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) Exam in June. The seminar will be held April 11-13, 2008, at the Westin Chicago North Shore in Wheeling, Illinois.
Schweser’s CFA curriculum experts will lead candidates through 22 hours of instruction and provide invaluable insight, exam tips and strategies. Attendees will also take a hands-on approach to working through new problems and different scenarios. In addition, attendees will receive access to an Ethics online streaming video and Level 1 candidates will receive a 50-question mock exam with review.
The seminar is scheduled for April 11-13, 2008:
Friday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Sunday 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
The cost of the seminar is $429. Seating is limited, so early registration is highly recommended.
Kaplan Schweser is a leading global provider of financial and accounting education solutions to professionals around the world. Since 1991, Kaplan Schweser has helped hundreds of thousands of candidates prepare for the CFA, FRM, CPA, CFP and CAIA exams. Kaplan Schweser is part of Kaplan, Inc., a leading international education services leader and a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO). For further information, please call 608-779-5599 or visit www.kaplanschweser.com.
Washington DC– March 11, 2008 – Schweser, a division of Kaplan, Inc., will host a 3-Day Seminar for candidates preparing for the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) Exam in June. The seminar will be held May 2-4, 2008, at the Westin Arlington Gateway in Arlington, VA.
Schweser’s CFA curriculum experts will lead candidates through 22 hours of instruction and provide invaluable insight, exam tips and strategies. Attendees will also take a hands-on approach to working through new problems and different scenarios. In addition to the live instruction, candidates will receive a 50-question mock exam with a mock-exam review, and they will receive access to an Ethics online streaming video.
The seminar schedule will be:
Friday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Sunday 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
The cost of the seminar is $429. Seating is limited, so early registration is highly recommended.
Kaplan Schweser is a leading global provider of financial and accounting education solutions to professionals around the world. Since 1991, Kaplan Schweser has helped hundreds of thousands of candidates prepare for the CFA, FRM, CPA, CFP and CAIA exams. Kaplan Schweser is part of Kaplan, Inc., a leading international education services leader and a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO). For further information, please call (608) 779-5599 or visit www.kaplanschweser.com.
Toronto– March 11, 2008 – Schweser, a division of Kaplan, Inc., will host a 3-Day Seminar for candidates preparing for the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) Exam in June. The seminar will be held April 25-27, 2008, at the Doubletree International Plaza Hotel Airport in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Schweser’s CFA curriculum experts will lead candidates through 22 hours of instruction and provide invaluable insight, exam tips and strategies. Attendees will also take a hands-on approach to working through new problems and different scenarios. In addition to the live instruction, candidates will receive a 50-question mock exam with a mock-exam review, and they will receive access to an Ethics online streaming video.
The seminar schedule will be:
Friday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Sunday 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
The cost of the seminar is $429. Seating is limited, so early registration is highly recommended.
About Kaplan Schweser
Kaplan Schweser is a leading global provider of financial and accounting education solutions to professionals around the world. Since 1991, Kaplan Schweser has helped hundreds of thousands of candidates prepare for the CFA, FRM, CPA, CFP and CAIA exams. Kaplan Schweser is part of Kaplan, Inc., a leading international education services leader and a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO). For further information, please call (608) 779-5599 or visit www.kaplanschweser.com.
Houston– March 11, 2008 – Schweser, a division of Kaplan, Inc., will host a 3-Day Seminar for candidates preparing for the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) Exam in June. The seminar will be held April 25-27, 2008 at the JW Marriott in Houston, TX.
Schweser’s CFA curriculum experts will lead candidates through 22 hours of instruction and provide invaluable insight, exam tips and strategies. Attendees will also take a hands-on approach to working through new problems and different scenarios. In addition to the live instruction, candidates will receive a 50-question mock exam with a mock-exam review, and they will receive access to an Ethics online streaming video.
The seminar schedule will be:
Friday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Sunday 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
The cost of the seminar is $429. Seating is limited, so early registration is highly recommended.
About Kaplan Schweser
Kaplan Schweser is a leading global provider of financial and accounting education solutions to professionals around the world. Since 1991, Kaplan Schweser has helped hundreds of thousands of candidates prepare for the CFA, FRM, CPA, CFP and CAIA exams. Kaplan Schweser is part of Kaplan, Inc., a leading international education services leader and a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO). For further information, please call (608) 779-5599 or visit www.kaplanschweser.com.
Philadelphia – March 11, 2008 – Schweser, a division of Kaplan, Inc., will host a 3-Day Seminar for candidates preparing for the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) Exam in June. The seminar will be held April 18-20, 2008, at the Radisson Plaza – Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia, PA.
Schweser’s CFA curriculum experts will lead candidates through 22 hours of instruction and provide invaluable insight, exam tips and strategies. Attendees will also take a hands-on approach to working through new problems and different scenarios. In addition to the live instruction, candidates will receive a 50-question mock exam with a mock-exam review, and they will receive access to an Ethics online streaming video.
The seminar schedule will be:
Friday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Sunday 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
The cost of the seminar is $429. Seating is limited, so early registration is highly recommended.
About Schweser
Kaplan Schweser is a leading global provider of financial education solutions. As a Kaplan Professional Company, Schweser has helped hundreds of thousands of candidates prepare for the CFA, FRM, and CAIA Exams, and continues to provide professional development solutions to financial professionals around the world. (www.schweser.com)
About Kaplan, Inc.
Kaplan is a leading global provider of educational services to individuals, schools and businesses, serving over one million students with operations in more than 30 countries around the world. Its international programs include higher education, test preparation, language instruction and professional training. Kaplan, with projected 2007 revenue of $2 billion, is a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO - News). For more information, please visit www.kaplan.com.
Los Angeles – March 11, 2008 – Schweser, a division of Kaplan, Inc., will host a 3-Day Seminar for candidates preparing for the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) Exam in June. The seminar will be held April 18-20, 2008, at the Four Points Sheraton in Los Angeles, California.
Schweser’s CFA curriculum experts will lead candidates through 22 hours of instruction and provide invaluable insight, exam tips and strategies. Attendees will also take a hands-on approach to working through new problems and different scenarios. In addition to the live instruction, candidates will receive a 50-question mock exam with a mock-exam review, and they will receive access to an Ethics online streaming video.
The seminar schedule will be:
Friday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Sunday 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
The cost of the seminar is $429. Seating is limited, so early registration is highly recommended.
About Kaplan Schweser
Kaplan Schweser is a leading global provider of financial and accounting education solutions to professionals around the world. Since 1991, Kaplan Schweser has helped hundreds of thousands of candidates prepare for the CFA, FRM, CPA, CFP and CAIA exams. Kaplan Schweser is part of Kaplan, Inc., a leading international education services leader and a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO). For further information, please call (608) 779-5599 or visit www.kaplanschweser.com.
Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Candidates Take the Classroom Home with New Kaplan Schweser Online Program
Posted January 7, 2008
Kaplan Schweser (www.kaplanschweser.com), a leading global provider of financial education solutions to professionals around the world, announces the launch of the Kaplan Schweser Weekly Online Program, an interactive webcast designed to provide Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIASM) Level I exam candidates the convenience of real-time instruction from their homes or offices via the Internet. The eight week course, consisting of one 3-hour session each week, begins January 10, 2008 and runs through February 28, 2008.
Candidates who take advantage of the Kaplan Schweser Weekly Online Program will receive Kaplan Schweser's expert instruction, which simplifies concepts and enhances understanding of the curriculum. Participants also have the option to download seminar slides and view seminar archives of any session they missed.
"Candidates who utilize a variety of study techniques improve their retention of the curriculum, increasing their chances of success on exam day," said Kaplan Schweser President Dr. Andrew Temte. "The online seminar format has proven effective in Kaplan Schweser's other product lines and will provide a key advantage to CAIA candidates as they prepare for the exam."
Online weekly seminars encourage candidates to stay motivated and keep on track with exam preparation. Questions can be asked during each session while concepts and ideas are fresh in the candidate's mind. The instructor also holds online office hours to provide additional assistance and personal attention.
The cost is $649 for the weekly online program alone and $949 for the Premium Solution, which includes the weekly online program, study notes, online practice exams and flashcards.
Dr. Greg Filbeck, CFA, FRM, CAIA will be instructing the Level I weekly online program for March 2008 candidates. Dr. Filbeck has extensive teaching experience and a thorough working knowledge of the material candidates need to pass the CAIA exam.
The CAIA exam is offered semi-annually in March and September, to provide candidates the opportunity to complete the program within one year. The exam is administered by computer at testing centers around the world. The Level I exam is composed of 200 multiple-choice questions, while the Level II exam is consists of 100 multiple-choice questions, as well as essay questions.
About Kaplan Schweser
Kaplan Schweser is a leading global provider of financial education solutions to professionals around the world, helping hundreds of thousands of candidates prepare for the CFA, FRM, and CAIA exams. Kaplan Schweser is part of Kaplan, Inc., a leading international education services leader and a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO). For further information, please call (888) 325-5072 or visit www.kaplanschweser.com.
Start Your Studies Now with a Schweser Essential Solution!
December Level 1 Candidates: don't wait for the CFA® Exam results to be released on January 23, 2008... start studying now for Level 2 at no risk to you.
Here's the plan:
TODAY Pay $289.50 and receive Online Access to Schweser's 2008 Level 2 Study Notes (PDF's of Books 1-5) and SchweserPro™ Question Bank (online format).
CONTACT SCHWESER BEFORE JAN. 25TH! When you receive your 2007 December Level 1 Exam results, call or email Schweser. If you passed, simply pay an additional $289.50* and we will send the balance of your 2008 Level 2 Essential Solution.
If you were not successful, take advantage of our "Repeating A Level" Discount and save up to 50% on select products**! You can apply the $289.50 toward your 2008 Level 1 purchase.
BUY NEW. BUY NOW. SCHWESER '08. Use your valuable time wisely this holiday season. The curriculum has changed extensively. Take advantage of this no risk offer today by calling our customer service team at 608-779-5599 or 888-325-5072.
*Shipping is not included in the cost, and will vary depending on product selection. Taxes apply to all purchases. Your order and taxation process may vary depending on whether you receive Level 1 or Level 2 materials for the 2008 CFA Exam.
Limited time offer (December 7, 2007 – January 25, 2008) for 2007 December Level 1 Candidates only. Online Access to PDF Study Notes will be provided until January 31, 2008. Online Access to your originally assigned level of SchweserPro™ will continue pending your call regarding the finalization of your December Level 1 results.
Five investment professionals reflect on their experience with
the 2007 CFA Examination
Afterword to series of four articles
And then, just like that, word gets around that CFA examination results are
available.
Six months of hard work, anticipation, and energy condense into a single moment
of anxiety and excitement. The throat gets a bit dry. The fingers shake a little
as the mouse is maneuvered to the CFA Institute website where the secret awaits.
The heart skips a beat.
The eyes unconsciously move away for a moment in nervousness and then back
to the screen, which asks for a username and password that are surprisingly
difficult to type.
The page tries to load…waiting, waiting, waiting…as tens of thousands
of candidates hit the site simultaneously to learn their fates. It seems like
ages, even if it’s only several seconds.
And then, there it is: Such a simple description—pass or fail—to
describe such a long, complex, heart-wrenching effort.
“I passed!”
So said Kevin Zvargulis, a securities analyst and portfolio manager for the
Swarthmore Group in Philadelphia. “My heart is racing and I couldn’t
care less that the S&P 500 is down over 10 percent in the last 30 days.
This evening, I plan on the finest feast that Georges Perrier can prepare”
With a pass rate of a mere 40 percent for Level II of the CFA Exam in 2007,
nearly two-thirds of the candidates came away disappointed. Reason thus would
suggest that only two of the five candidates we followed through the preparation
process would pass the exam. Reason in this case would be wrong, in this small
sample at least, as three of the five candidates—or 60 percent—would
celebrate.
“I passed,” said Adam Kindreich, a consumer analyst for the private
bank Lombard Odier Darier & Hentsch in Geneva, Switzerland. “I’m
surprised that the pass rate is so low this year compared to previous years.
Normally it's well into the 50s. I'm relieved, but aware that the final challenge
is looming in June 2008—I’m not off the hook yet!”
Alina Dulimof, who since the CFA Exam has changed jobs to join Merrill Lynch’s
financial advisor program, passed and then immediately had to sit for the Series
7 exam as mandated by her new position, which she also passed. What were Dulimof’s
strengths on the CFA Exam? “Accounting for sure, was a strength for me
as was equity analysis, fixed income analysis, and portfolio management,”
she said.
“My areas of strength were the areas in which I needed to be strong,”
said Zvargulis, “financial statement analysis and equity analysis, which
comprised half of the test. I also scored above 70 percent in derivatives, economics,
and fixed income. Three areas in which I thought I was pretty strong—quant,
portfolio management, and ethics—I scored between 50 and 70 percent.”
“I got top scores—70 to 100 percent—in all areas except economics
and portfolio management where my score was 50 to 70 percent for both,”
said Kindreich. “This compares to top scores in all sections in Level
I for me last year, so I dropped a little in terms of performance between the
two levels. I'm amazed at my good score in derivatives, a section I found tough.
I can remember having to recalculate one of the derivatives questions and change
my answer several times as I hadn't figured out exactly how to do it. I’m
not surprised about the general portfolio management score, which I found that
tough—very dry and theoretical, and picky about hypotheses behind the
theories.”
Alas, there were two in the group—Montine Jordan and Michael Smith—who
did not get the news they wanted to hear.
“I’m disappointed, of course,” said Jordan, “I was
having palpitations of insecurity as the results approached. I left the exam
feeling I could have passed, but certainly not feeling any certainty
that I did. So I was very prepared for my result. I'm proud to say that financial
statement analysis was one of my strongest subjects,” she said, “this
after I complained throughout about accounting driving me to drink! That type
of analysis is a primary part of my research role with my new firm, so I'm pleased
to see that I definitely made progress there. I got tripped up in derivatives
and economics, interestingly enough. I did very well in both of those last year,
but I guess I did not give them the attention they deserved this year…or
I just misinterpreted some item sets.”
“I’m totally shocked; it’s awful,” said Smith, who
was the lone candidate in the group who attempted the formidable challenge of
conquering Level I in December and Level II in June. “It’s been
a strange 15 months. This may be the ugliest thing I’ve ever done to myself
that didn’t actually draw blood. I had better-than-70 percent strengths
in ethics, fixed income, and economics. My only less-than-50 percent weakness
was derivatives, so everything else was mediocre including the big-point categories
of equity analysis and financial statement analysis.”
So, what turned out to be the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates’
preparation strategy and, looking back now, what would they have done differently?
“What worked for me was generally being well prepared, working steadily
through the curriculum (actually I hardly opened the CFA curriculum, but focused
almost exclusively on the Schweser Notes) and taking the exam preparation seriously,”
said Kindreich. “Just general common sense…if you've got an exam
to prepare for, you buckle down and prepare for it!”
Kindreich also suggested a key for him was to allocate some substantial time
away from the office late in the process to focus entirely on the exam. “It
was important to take time off work just before the exam, at least one full
week, but I had over two weeks off, including weekends,” he said. “If
you start early enough and pace yourself, there's no need to panic or start
cramming a few weeks before the exam. I don't feel I need to change my strategy
at all. I seem to have the winning formula.”
“The best decision I made was to read and then reread all the Schweser
materials late in the process,” said Jordan. “I made multiple passes
through the books, highlighting and re-highlighting, and each time, conceptually,
things gained better focus for me. I did less outright testing this year and
more reading and digesting. And I do think that served me well.”
“After reading my results, I can see how focusing my time on financial
statement analysis and equity analysis paid off,” said Zvargulis. “I
got over 70 percent on the two most significant areas. The results for the other
areas are just flukes. I did not concentrate on derivatives or fixed
income and scored relatively well on both of those sections. I did focus significant
time on quant and ethics and scored relatively poorly on those sections. With
ethics I seem to remember a couple of situations that I just had not encountered
before or questions that I thought were ambiguous. I’m not sure what I
could have done differently to prepare. Quant, however…man…I pride
myself on being a little bit of a quant guy. I’m not saying I’m
a super quant guy, I know I’m not one of those, but I should
definitely have scored higher on that section.”
“I should have stopped taking the practice tests a week before the exam
and re-review the theory,” said Dulimof. “I think that improves
the test results. Also, I think there is a smarter way to study. I was too thorough
and could have been more relaxed, which is easy to say this now.”
“The one thing I wish I could have taken advantage of were the CFA online
tests,” said Jordan, “but I just don't take online tests well…they're
too linear for the way my mind works. If they'd have offered printed versions,
as Schweser does, I think I'd have benefited from understanding better how
(CFA Institute) ask their questions. I think that lack of exposure to their
testing hurt me, in the end.”
“During the first half of my studies, I probably spent too much time
dwelling on the official readings and not enough time working on solving problems,”
said Smith. “Given the fact that I started relatively late, waiting for
the December 2006 Level I results, I should have attacked the study aids harder
first and then moved my emphasis to the practice tests and drills on the actual
problems much sooner. I knew this by the beginning of May and made some changes,
but evidently not soon enough. My biggest mistake was probably that I tried
to play Level II just like I played Level I, but without the same number of
weeks to do it in.”
If you’re looking for precision on where he spent his time and how it
could be better allocated next time, Smith can provide it. “Looking at
my notes now, I only spent about 22 percent of my time on the three subjects
I did well in,” he said. “So I don’t think that was overkill,
but, then again, I only spent about 18 percent of my time each on equity analysis
and financial statement analysis, which were ultimately worth more points. I
spent just under nine percent of my time on derivatives, so the weak result
there didn’t surprise me, but with a total of about 30 hours I expected
to get at least a middle-ground result. What I did that was totally lame was
to spend as much time as I did on corporate finance—nearly 11 percent,
mostly just reading—which, in retrospect, did not seem to be of much help
at all on the test.”
“I'll definitely spend more time on derivatives and options next year,”
said Jordan, “as I suspect their role in the curriculum will only expand.
Also, the ‘cheap’ points for me—not being among the brilliant
mathematicians of this test-taking bunch—are the qualitative, or clear-cut,
parts of the exam. I needed to rack up more points in ethics and quant and economics
than I did, to give me some breathing room for the things my mind has real difficulty
with, like derivatives.”
In the end, Kindreich suggests “the CFA Exam is certainly NOT a test
of intelligence, but a test of attitude. It's not rocket science,” he
said. “It's a simple case of sitting down and doing two to three hours
studying nearly every evening, going back over areas that you didn't understand
in order to master the topics, taking practice exams under exam conditions,
and generally accelerating the tempo as the exam approaches.”
Ten weeks removed from the CFA Exam, each in the group seems to have re-gained
their enthusiasm for the long hours of studying that lay ahead. Each intends
to register again for next June’s exams—three moving on the Level
III exam, two heading back to the Level II exam with clear lessons learned about
what it will take to pass on the second attempt.
“I think I'd like to register for Level III as soon as possible and then
I'll be properly focused on the last lap,” said Kindreich. “But
I don't think I'll start working on it for another two or three months yet.
I'd like to have the CFA curriculum books in my possession just to flick through
them and see roughly what Level III is all about.”
“I want to focus on building my business in private wealth management
at the moment, which they say is very hard, tedious work,” said Dulimof.
“And I need to graduate the (Merrill Lynch) financial advisor program,
but I think I have the dedication and passion to succeed. I definitely want
to gain the CFA designation, so I might give CFA Level III a try next year!”
“I will sign up and take Level III in June and I probably will not alter
my study habits too much,” said Zvargulis. “The only thing that
I might do differently this time is start a little earlier. I was a lot more
unsure as to whether or not I would pass this test as opposed to the first one.
I really felt that the first test was easy. This time I had way too much anxiety
opening up these results. I do not want to be this nervous about my results
next August. Therefore I will respect Level III more and I will start studying
earlier.”
Of the group, Smith seems most eager to get back to his studies. “I will
register for next year’s test, begin reading and working problems next
month on a six- to eight-hour-a-week schedule for the rest of this year, and
then ramp up for the kill. I must destroy this &#@*!”
“I really wish I could re-take Level II in December, but there's no
question I'll forge ahead,” said Jordan. “The difficulty of the
passage only makes the reward at the end all the more prized. Ultimately, I
won't let this thing beat me. It comes down to that.”
Schweser's Free Workshops with Lesson on Financial Statement Analysis
Posted September 28, 2007
For CFA® Levels 1 & 2
Space Is Limited — Reserve Your Seat Today!
Schweser is conducting Free Workshops for CFA® candidates in several locations
across North America. We invite you to experience the world's leading instruction
in CFA review provided by one of Schweser's expert instructors.
Attend the Workshop for a:
2.5-hour lesson in Financial Statement Analysis with Q&A
Workbook including presentation slides, sample FSA reading, and practice
questions
Chance to win a 2008 Premium Solution
20% Discount on a 2008 Premium or Essential Solution
Event Registration
Registration is required to attend this event. To reserve your seat, email staff@schweser.com. Please include the location you would like to attend, your name, address, phone number and CFA Level. For more information, call 888-325-5072 or 608-779-5599.
Free Workshop Dates and Locations
Program
Day/Date
Location
Presenter
Free Workshop
New York [Registration Closed]
Mon., Oct. 1
Check In: 5:30 pm – 6:00 pm
Instruction: 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Kaplan Test Prep
Auditorium Room
Manhattan Village
16 Cooper Square
New York, NY 10003
O. Nathan Ronen, CFA
Free Workshop
Boston [Registration Closed]
Wed., Oct. 3
Check In: 5:30 pm – 6:00 pm
Instruction: 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Omni Parker House
60 School St.
Boston, MA 02108
O. Nathan Ronen, CFA
Free Workshop
Toronto [Registration Closed]
Thur., Oct. 4
Check In: 6:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Instruction: 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Holiday Inn on King
370 King Street West
Toronto, ON M5V139
Five investment professionals reflect on their experience with
the 2007 CFA Examination
Epilogue to series of three articles
It is perhaps the cruelest element of the Chartered Financial Analyst™
(CFA®) examination. It offers no gradients of success: You either pass or
you fail. Getting close to the passing score, but nonetheless failing, gets
you the same result you’d receive if you missed every question.
Five investment professionals whose past six months or even longer have been
dominated by preparation for the June CFA examination now should feel free.
And they do…well, to a certain degree. While completion of the exam certainly
absolved them from the day-to-day obligation of needing to spend every available
moment in intense study, it does not provide total comfort. That won’t
come until August when Level II and III CFA candidates are released from their
personal purgatory as examination results are released.
It will be a long two months.
Two months to reconcile the preparation strategy they used with their actual
performance on the examination. Two months to ponder whether they will move
on to Level III of the CFA Program or make that dreaded visit to the CFA Institute
website to re-register for Level II. Two months to think about what, if anything,
they could have done differently that would have changed the feeling of anxious
optimism they currently feel to sheer confidence that August only can bring
positive results.
“I am so anxious,” said Kevin Zvargulis, a securities analyst and
portfolio manager for the Swarthmore Group in Philadelphia. “I’m
almost as anxious as before I took the test. Last year I came out of (Level
I) and I didn’t want to be cocky. I told myself ‘I didn’t
pass it.’ But of course I passed it. I thought it was easy. The difference
was last year I had an answer for all the questions. Whether it was right or
wrong, at least I knew how to do it. This year I guessed more often. There were
more things that I had to guess at.”
Anxiousness arrives because topics covered on the CFA examination do not—or
really can not—match up perfectly with the voluminous CFA curriculum
the group has spent day and night with over the past months. In other words,
candidates end up spending a large amount of time studying content and even
concepts that never appear on the exam.
“The biggest surprise was what was not on the test,” said
Zvargulis. “They’re limited and therefore a lot of stuff is invariably
going to be left off. For example, I did a lot of work understanding triangular
arbitrage…not on the test. I spent time understanding the measures of
economic growth and how they relate—factor costs or market costs, theories
of interest rates and exchange rates, theory of economic growth and exchange
rates, stock market growth and exchange rates. All of that stuff, I could rattle
off no problem and it was totally not on the test. I memorized all the free
cashflow equations and I don’t think I used any. There were only six economic
questions on the whole test. You don’t know what’s going to be on
the test, and honestly that’s really what’s great about it. Now
I really have a good understanding of a lot of the concepts. Even though they
weren’t tested, it forced me to read the material and really know it.”
Montine Jordan, an investment generalist for hedge-fund start-up Hagin Investment
Management in New York, on the other hand, felt that the Level II exam was based
more closely on the curriculum than the Level I exam was last June.
“I felt like at Level I that they missed vast chunks of the curriculum,”
she said. “I invested a huge amount of time mastering subjects like revenue
recognition and they never even got there. They hammered other things relentlessly.
I felt Level II was broader. It really did cover the breadth of the curriculum.”
What did bother Jordan, however, was the wording of some of the exam questions
themselves, which she felt made them tougher than needed to understand. “After
taking practice exams, you expect it to be about reading comprehension and precision,”
she said. “I think because this is such a global exam, they try to make
things clearer to people for whom English is a second language. To me, that
made it harder to know what they were asking. There was vagueness to the questions
that surprised me. For instance, corporate governance was part of an item set.
I knew that stuff cold, but it felt like what they were asking for was such
a departure from the way it was presented in the curriculum.”
As for the topics that were on the examination, the most difficult subjects
for the group appeared to be fixed income, derivatives, and portfolio management
where they suggested the questions were more theoretical than mathematical.
“It was very dry, very theoretical, looking at the assumptions behind
models and such,” said Adam Kindreich, , a consumer analyst for the private
bank Lombard Odier Darier & Hentsch in Geneva, Switzerland. “The fixed
income was quite difficult, a lot of that was really finicky, little details.
Also, on the portfolio management, I thought that was quite tricky because they
were really focusing on some of the hypotheses and if you didn't really know
your sections there, it was a bit tricky. Derivatives are actually quite logical,
but that’s when you have Schweser in front of you. When you've got nothing
to refer to, it's trickier. Sometimes you recognize the question, but not quite
understand what they are asking.”
Derivatives were a particular challenge for Alina Dulimof, an investment manager
for a venture capital firm in New York City, “for the simple reason I
didn't do too many problems prior to the exam and I have a hard time to think
who is short or long on what. It is more intimidating than difficult, maybe.
So I kept it to a minimum, while I think CFA Institute kept it to its maximum.
Call-put parity, I will look into that in a couple of months, without the stress
of the exam. And quant and null-hypothesis, I'm not too happy about all those
‘negations,’ like ‘fail to reject.’ May I suggest somebody
rewrite that theory?”
Jordan agreed that the harder content was that of the more theoretical variety.
“Interestingly the one topic that I was blind-sided by, which I felt best
about going in, was portfolio management,” she said. “That’s
what I do in my work and so those concepts were like, ‘oh yeah, that’s
what I do every day.’ But the way they tested it, even my testing partner,
who is brilliant and who will probably singularly blow the curve for the rest
of us, said ‘I bet I don’t score better than 50 percent on portfolio
management.’ They ask topics that were known, but they hammered them so
hard and in such an oblique way that I wish I’d studied that more or differently.”
Said Zvargulis: “The things I had to guess at were the types of questions
where they ask things like: ‘Here are four points the credit-rating agencies
look at for the asset-backed security credit quality. How many are the most
important of four things?’ I looked at the answers, and I thought, ‘Man
in some circumstances, all four of them could be relevant; in other circumstances,
only three of them would be relevant.’ It was not the nitty gritty of
figuring out the equation questions, but the questions on theory and the wishy
washy stuff. At this point, I’m thinking, ‘I so much want a good
triangular arbitrage problem.’ Give it to me where I know I got it or
didn’t get it. I made a guess and moved on.”
What subjects did the group feel best about?
“They could have really tortured us on the accounting, but they didn't,”
said Kindreich. “They asked relatively easy questions actually. They could
have asked much harder questions. Ethics was all right. The economics was all
right as well.”
“Fixed income has nothing to do with my daily work,” said Jordan,
“but I was surprised at what good command I had on those topics. I tried
to cover all the topics broadly, so I didn’t focus on one and hope I could
gather all my points and no one would notice that I had no idea about another.”
So, with another exam cycle behind them, knowing what they know now, what,
if anything, would the group change to their preparation strategy?
“If there was any way I could have started a little earlier, I would
have,” said Michael Smith, a portfolio manager with the Bank of the West’s
wealth management division in Los Angeles, who actually took the Level I examination
in December and thus has been studying the CFA curriculum solidly for a year.
“I put in about 350 hours for this one, and that felt like barely enough.
The whole thing came out OK because I think on the actual day of the test I
was coming up on the cusp of my ability to articulate the stuff. An extra week
or two would have been nice. I would have had more time to get a little more
thorough with reading the official stuff. About six or eight weeks out, I hung
up the official readings and focused on mastery of the material for the purpose
of passing the test through the Schweser materials. I believe that worked.”
“I am convinced the week before the exam, I should just have gone through
the Schweser Notes (rather than focus on practice questions),” said Dulimof.
“People say they do lots of problems before the exam, but they took too
much time. I think I would have been better off to read the Notes (again).”
”I think I would have done very little differently,” said Kindreich.
“The way I went about the preparation was the right way to go, basically
doing a bit every day, gradually working my way through the Schweser notes,
attending the Swiss CFA Society course at the start of May, taking the last
two weeks off from work. I don't think I really need to change the formula.”
“I did right by concentrating on equity analysis and by concentrating
on financial statement analysis,” said Zvargulis. “Those were big
portions of the test. My biggest problem was that once I made my way through
all the material, I lost confidence in my ability to review, in my use of note
cards, which served me so well at Level I. Once I got back to the note cards,
I hit my groove. I would have been more efficient if I’d never lost faith
in the note cards.”
With all the exam questions now answered, the largest question still remains—do
the members of the group think they passed the exam?
“I think I probably did,” said Kindreich. “I have a very
rough way of working the figures. The first 42 questions were easy...the sections
like ethics, economics, quant, accounting, equity valuation. Let's say I got
80 percent there, which is 33.6 of 42 questions. On the last 18 questions, let's
say I had a bad performance and only got 50 percent right…that's nine.
So I got 33 plus 9, that's 42, which is 70 percent. You basically are guaranteed
to pass at 70 percent.”
“Yes, I'm pretty sure I passed,” said Smith. “I'll be shocked
if I didn't pass.”
“I came away from it actually feeling like I could have passed,”
said Jordan, “which is different than last time. When I took Level I,
I really had no idea. This year I feel a little more confident. I knew the topics
well and whether I gave them what they were wanting is another matter. I feel
there is a chance that I passed.
“I don’t know if I passed,” said Zvargulis, who said he’s
not saying that this year as a mental defensive mechanism. “I
did a rough calculation in my head at the end of the exam—I guessed on
this one, I knew this one—I think I got 70 percent. That means I can really
go either way. I could have gotten a 68 or a 67…I’m right on the
cusp.”
“I hope I passed, I think I put the time into it,” said Dulimof.
“But we'll see in August.”
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An inside look at how five candidates are preparing for the June 2007
CFA Examination
Third in a series of three articles
It is a phenomenon that occurs each year at the end of May and the beginning
of June, a period of a week to ten days when activities within the investment
world decelerate in measurable fashion. Some actually refer to it as the “CFA
Phenomenon,” the net effect of more than 100,000 investment professionals
around the world trading their day-to-day responsibilities of portfolio management
and securities analysis for complete immersion in final preparation for the
upcoming Chartered Financial Analyst™ (CFA®) Examinations.
As a group of five investment professionals maps out the preparation strategy
they will use in the weeks leading up to Level II of the CFA Exam, one thing
is clear: no matter how early each began their studies, the final weeks are
intense. Practice exams, drilling with note cards, memorizing formulas…each
will make most efficient use of his/her available time in order to identify
weaknesses and to fill in the information gaps.
“Come to work, work for eight hours, stay at work and study for four
hours, go home, sleep, and do it again,” said Michael Smith, a portfolio
manager with the Bank of the West’s wealth management division in Los
Angeles. “That’s the routine for every weekday for the rest of this
month. On the weekends, the goal is to try to get six hours a day in on each
day and try to rest and relax a little bit.”
Montine Jordan, an investment generalist for hedge-fund start-up Hagin Investment
Management in New York, will take the final week off before the exam to focus
all her energy on preparation. “I wouldn’t pass without that immersion
period,” she said. “They’re very understanding here at work
because, of a firm of seven, three of us are in the CFA Program now. So May
is a big month for us. They’ve told us that we’re going to kind
of chill a bit here and give us a little air so that we’re not so swallowed
by our work concerns that we can focus more on our studies.”
A securities analyst and portfolio manager for the Swarthmore Group in Philadelphia,
Kevin Zvargulus intends to take every Monday off in the month of May. “Weekends
are all three-day weekends,” he said. “That’s how I’m
dealing with it. I know at T. Rowe Price they give them ten days to study for
this exam. I’m just taking vacation days. I’ll have four three-day
weekends coming up and I’ll mainly be taking Schweser practice exams and
then reviewing what I did right and what I did wrong on those practice exams.”
While final efforts in May for each in the group represent a critical component
to their overall portfolio of preparation strategies, they nonetheless are supplemental
efforts – review and application of the massive curriculum they have spent
the past six months working through on a daily basis. Each has completed the
curriculum in its entirety and now will spend May going through the curriculum
a second time, memorizing formulas, testing recall, and identifying strengths
and problem areas through online practice exams.
The goal is to be as prepared as possible for the CFA Exam since history foretells
that more than half of those who walk through the doors the first weekend in
June will not be. The unprepared also are probably spending the month of May
in CFA immersion, but, rather than using May for review and final preparation,
they are still in the middle, or even the beginning, of their preparation.
“When people fail, I imagine 90 percent of the time it is because they
didn’t adequately prepare,” said Adam Kindreich, a consumer analyst
for the private bank Lombard Odier Darier & Hentsch in Geneva, Switzerland.
“I began my preparation in November and I feel that I now have everything
under control. But I spent the first week of May at a review course with the
Swiss CFA Society and there were people there who had only begun studying very
recently.”
“It’s like a writer, writing a page a day,” said Jordan.
“You just have to chip at it and work your way doggedly through the material.
If you let up and come out of it for any length of time, you really lose speed,
momentum, focus. If you have any ambivalence about entering the curriculum,
you’re not going to get there. You have to want it and then take the plunge.”
Taking the plunge entails pledging allegiance to a massive curriculum, covering
literally thousands of pages of theory and formulas that can be daunting according
to the group. For that reason, each within the group made liberal use of supplementary
preparation products through Kaplan Schweser, even though they each purchased
the assigned CFA Institute curriculum. “At some point I realized I wasn’t
getting as much preparation value out of the time I was spending in the (CFA
Institute) materials,” said Smith. “The sheer volume of the core
materials…it wasn’t paying off in terms of the time I was spending
on it. I’ll have the rest of the year after the test to finish reading
those sections that I want to get back to and focus on more deeply. Between
now and the exam, though, the strategy has to be passing that test, which means
focusing on the Schweser stuff.”
“The Schweser Study Notes really focus your study on what’s going
to be on the actual exam,” said Zvargulus. “I say that because I
felt over-prepared for the Level I Exam. After having taken the exam, I felt
it was easy and I completely credit the study materials for focusing me and
challenging me. The practice exams and practice questions are much more difficult
than what CFA Institute has. When I say difficult, they took longer to do, but
they made you understand the concepts and internalize the concepts, which helped
on the exams.”
Smith likewise relies extensively on practice exams. “The more questions
you see, the more questions you ask yourself and put yourself through the better,”
said Smith. “Those drills are absolutely essential: looking at the different
ways questions can be asked; considering all the different formats in which
the data can be given; thinking about what (CFA Institute) really wants you
to tell them; and then actually computing an answer. Getting good at that is
essential. Then it’s just practice, repetition, facing a thousand questions,
getting half of them wrong, doing those questions again, figuring out why you
got them wrong, and how you can get them right. Not doing that would be a huge
disadvantage on exam day, just because of how strange the formatting of questions
can be.”
Alina Dulimof, an investment manager for a venture capital firm in New York
City also sees immense value in practice questions, even if she is the only
one in the group who will go through the exams before reading the curriculum.
“I like doing the exercises before reading the theory,” she said.
“It works better with my short-term memory. If I read the material and
then do the practice exam and get the answers right, I don’t remember
the material as well afterward. But if I do the practice questions first, it’s
easier to remember the content later on when I’m going through it. So
I do the practice exams first and the review afterwards.”
With hundreds of hours under their belts and with the final stretch to the
CFA Examination within their view, each in the group seems reasonably comfortable
with the preparation they have logged thus far. But such a long process, of
course, provides ample opportunity for self-doubt.
“For me, the end of March and the beginning of April was a pretty grim
time,” said Smith. “This was when I was focusing on some of the
corporate finance stuff, some of the foreign exchange/economics stuff. It seemed
like no matter how much time I put into it, I wasn’t getting anywhere.”
Smith said he simply had to put the content he didn’t immediately understand
aside for a while to focus on the material that came to him more easily. “There
was a point there where I was spending four-hour blocks of time trying to get
down into two or three (learning outcome statements) on some of the financial
statement analysis stuff, the translation of foreign subsidiary income…it
just wasn’t happening. So, I just said ‘you know what, I’m
moving on from that and I’m going to get into the equities and fixed-income
sections and I’ll come back and fill in some of the blanks.’”
Zvargulus said that when self-doubt hit him, he took a couple of days to step
back and evaluate his overall preparation strategy. “I mapped out all
the readings and just did a cursory review to see which readings I really did
not remember or which readings looked like I would need to do a complete review
of,” he said. “I did a triage of the readings that I felt I was
comfortable with, the readings where I felt I needed to do a cursory review,
and the readings where I needed to do a complete review. That’s how I
handled it. Now I have this in my notebook in front of me. I can see the entire
curriculum and where my trouble spots are. That helps alleviate some of the
stress just because there is so much on the exam. It’s such a broad exam.”
Jordan suggested that even if she logically knew that she was covering the
material in an efficient manner and followed the same basic preparatory strategies
she used to pass the Level I Examination in 2006, uncertainty inevitably creeps
in. “I have constant doubts about whether I will get past this exam. I
remember my teacher from (New York Society of Security Analysts prep course)
last year who said that he had portfolio managers who have been active in the
field for ten years who have failed this Level II Exam five times. She said
she’d tutored them personally and they still failed. It’s not about
understanding the concepts. She said it’s about knowing it cold.
That level of capability, that’s where I’m constantly having doubts,
that I will know the material so sufficiently cold when I walk in that room
that I can pass. I have no doubts about the process, but I have doubts about
surviving the process.”
With such high stakes falling on a single day, a single six-hour period, candidates
also worry about smaller things like getting lost on the way to exam site or
getting sick.
“At this point, my biggest fear is getting sick,” said Smith. “Honestly,
the only thing that can hold me down other than total catastrophe – maybe
needing a kidney transplant – is getting sick, coming down with some terrible
flu the Thursday before the exam. So I’m going to pace myself to make
sure I stay healthy for it. That’s the thing, if you get stressed out,
that can lead you to get sick.”
“I worry that I’m going to be tired on exam day and won’t
be able to concentrate,” said Dulimof. “I worry that I’ll
get too nervous the day before and I cannot get to sleep. And with the CFA Exam,
the speed with which you have to answer questions, you have to maintain a good
pace. If you’re tired, your brain doesn’t react as quickly, you
can’t read as quickly.”
“I am concerned about being able to completely review the broad nature
of the curriculum,” said Zvargulus. “I’ve gone through it
all and I know it, but I want to have mastered the curriculum before
I go into the exam. Once I start taking the practice exams, it really will allow
me to focus on the areas that I’m weakest in. I found last year that the
practice exams were a great tool to hone my studies. I went into the exam very
well prepared and I came out knowing that I had passed. I feel that
the same thing will happen this time around—I will know before June 2nd
whether I will pass or not. But right now, I don’t know.”
After months and hundreds of hours of preparation, including May’s intense
sprint to the finish line, regardless of performance, after the first weekend
of June, the pressure of CFA Exam preparation will disappear entirely. What
will these CFA candidates do with their time after that?
“It’s a long list,” said Jordan. “I remember walking
out of the exam (last year) and suddenly it was like I felt sunshine for the
first time. I look forward to focusing more on work and the fascinating things
we’re doing here that will be a direct extension of all that I’m
studying. And then I just look forward to real life…the summer and being
social again.”
Zvargulus said he can’t wait. “I am going to work out, go do a
lot of yoga, a lot of bike riding,” he said. “I am going to read
and I am going to make a rock album. I’m going to do a lot of stuff. I’m
real excited for June to get here.”
Kindreich said that he’s looking forward to the exam being over, but
he knows it’s merely a respite for Level III beckons (hopefully, not Level
II a second time). “Having the weight off my shoulders, having a nice
long summer holiday with long walks, that’s what I look forward to,”
he said. “Once the exam is over, I come home at night and I simply can’t
believe how much free time I have. I’m completely free to do whatever
I like in the evenings. It’s very liberating. I get six or seven months
off, but of course, then I get to do it all again.”
An inside look at how five candidates are preparing for the June
2007 CFA examination
Second in a series of three articles
Were you to ask the hiring managers at any of the world’s major investment
firms what they look for when hiring young professionals, a few general themes
will emerge—general intelligence, relevant background, and strong command
of finance always are near the top of the list. But, really, those are common-denominator
traits that virtually anyone who makes it to the first round of interviews will
possess. More difficult to measure is what most hiring managers will tell you
is the most elusive attribute to measure, yet it remains a defining characteristic
of highly successful investment professionals—passion.
Checking in with five investment professionals two months prior to the June
Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) examination, it’s easy to understand
why employers place such a high emphasis on those who successfully emerge from
a program that is as much a test of will and discipline as it is of knowledge.
And, yes, a dose of passion also is necessary for each in the group who not
only must contend with the formidable rigors of the CFA curriculum, but also
must not lose a step in their full-time positions at prestigious investment
firms.
Why go through this exercise?
“It’s about gaining credibility in the profession,” said
Kevin Zvargulis, a securities analyst and portfolio manager for the Swarthmore
Group in Philadelphia. “I have an MBA, but even with that I had to work
hard to get my foot in the door. All MBA programs are not created equal and
I think the CFA (designation) is definitely a standard by which people can be
confident that I have a minimum level of knowledge, that I’m competent
in handling their money, but, most importantly that I made the commitment to
get through the program. The CFA Program is an intense overview of finance,
lacking the human resources and the marketing of an MBA program. But as far
as the finance—the asset valuation, the derivatives—I feel that
it is even be better than my MBA finance curriculum.”
Michael Smith, a portfolio manager with the Bank of the West’s wealth
management division, says earning the CFA designation is about positioning himself
for further growth within his firm. “I’ve been working in a bank
trust department for nearly ten years,” he said. “My career has
evolved, but it was clear that for me to take the next step, I need to demonstrate
that I know what I’m talking about and that I’m willing to put in
the time to get chartered. With the CFA designation under my belt, I feel like
I’ll have more opportunity to move up the organizational chart and get
deeper into the specifics of the business.”
Discipline entails launching preparation many months in advance of the examination,
following a steady schedule of up to 30 hours per week, again, while each in
the group simultaneously handles the obligations of their day jobs. In all,
each in the group is on pace to invest 300 hours or more of intense preparation
with the assigned CFA Institute curriculum, with supplementary Study Notes from
Kaplan Schweser, and review courses.
Each in the group intends to make their way through the voluminous material
in its entirety before moving on to practice study exams and intensive review
in May. “Right now, I’m working my way through the Schweser Study
Notes,” said Adam Kindreich, a consumer analyst for the private bank Lombard
Odier Darier & Hentsch in Geneva, Switzerland. “Normally I allocate
one week per chapter, and I’m a bit behind that schedule so I’m
going to have to work a little bit harder over the Easter holiday when I have
a Friday and a Monday off.”
Alina Duhlimof, an investment manager for a venture capital firm in New York
City says she’s putting in 10-15 hours of study per week on top of an
online study review course she’s taking through Kaplan Schweser. “My
preparation has gone very well over the last month,” she said. “I
took my books on a recent vacation and made some progress on my schedule. I
missed one of the online Schweser study sessions when I was traveling, but I’ll
watch the archive in the next couple of days to make up for that.”
Indeed, steady progress on their studies is necessary when you’re immersed
in the CFA Program. Vacations and holidays lose a bit of their luster as study
materials never can be more than an arm’s length away, even when you’re
on a Caribbean beach as Duhlimof recently was.
Staying motivated across several months of preparation is key in a process
that many have likened to training for a marathon, motivation that Montine Jordan,
an investment generalist for hedge-fund start-up Hagin Investment Management,
says is based on “utter fear and pride.” “A couple of guys
in my office are tackling level I while I am at Level II,” she said. “Because
I started out ahead of them in the curriculum, I want to stay ahead of them
in the curriculum. Also, I’m just incredibly competitive. I don’t
want to tackle anything and fail. And I know that at Level II, it’s horrifyingly
difficult and I just keep reminding myself of that when I want to take some
time off.”
All five in the group are Level II candidates. Should any fail Level II in
June, as 50 to 60 percent of candidates are likely to do, the next opportunity
to re-take the examination, and move on to Level III, the final phase of the
program, is a long 12 months away. So, Zvargulis agrees that the fear of having
to repeat Level II is a major motivating factor. “I don’t want to
have to study for Level II again next year,” he said. “That is the
primary motivating factor—you set yourself back a year if you don’t
pass the first time.”
Each in the group agrees that while personal sacrifices of the highest order
must be made to accommodate study time, the same level of sacrifices cannot
be made in their day jobs, even if their employers are sympathetic to their
situations.
At this point, Kindreich says his preparation doesn’t at all interfere
with his job though he intends to spend the first week in May at a review course
with the Swiss CFA Society and at least another week off immediately before
the exam when he will devote virtually all of his waking hours to final preparation.
His personal life is another story. “The biggest problem is fitting the
studies around all the domestic chores you have to do like shopping and cooking,
even opening your mail,” he said. “But it doesn’t affect my
job at all.”
Jordan says separating work from her studies indeed is a juggling act. “I’m
in a start-up firm, so I work 10- or 12-hour days, five days a week, and, of
course, there’s weekend work as well,” she said. “I’ve
been finding myself on the weekends doing my readings and I’ll stop to
kick off Factset jobs or do processing that is related to work and then I go
back to studying. I don’t have much of a life right now. Everyone around
me knows they just have to kiss me off for a few months.”
A distinguishing characteristic of the CFA Program—over MBA and other
credentialing programs—is that it is practice-based, meaning its content
should be directly applicable to candidates’ work. What has been the experience
of these five candidates in that regard? Duhlimof points to ethics as particularly
useful, “what you have to tell everybody and why you’re supposed
to or not supposed to this or that,” she said. “Also economics…I’m
trying to see it from my work’s perspective, to see what happens with
an international perspective and with international exchange rates.”
Zvargulis says there is much content that he will use directly in his work.
“Sustainable earnings growth is mantra here; it’s our raison-d’etre,”
he said. “I just read about sustainable cashflow growth in the cashflow
section of the financial statement analysis. I loved it. It was a whole chapter
on what we do.” And he doesn’t have to dig deep to see application
of portfolio management material either. “I’m in an organization
where portfolio managers have a set way that they approach their investments.
They’ve been doing it for years. And they have CFA charters. Now, all
of the sudden, I read something in portfolio management theory that maybe they
know, but maybe they haven’t been thinking about. And I’m able to
say, ‘Hey, what do you think about changing our style or considering this
aspect a little more?’ The curriculum introduces some new ideas and is
an agent of change in our firm. I’m helping to develop our investment
theory in a different way.”
Despite the benefits of the education itself and the corresponding career opportunities
it affords upon successful completion of the program, these five investment
professionals are giving away the better part of three years of their lives
with no guarantee they will emerge with the CFA designation. Why go through
this?
“I think it is a pride in having gone through the same thing that the
guy across the room did that has the CFA charter,” said Jordan. “It’s
a shared learning base even though the curriculum has changed wildly over the
years. It’s kind of pride of ownership because the people who have it
display those initials with a lot of pride. No one earned them easily.”
So, if the CFA Program is a marathon, with two months to go until the exam,
the finish line is not even yet in view. What’s the mental state like
at this point?
“You have to just keep on going,” said Duhlimof.
“Pretty good,” said Smith. “Definitely better than it was
two or three weeks ago. I’m pleased now at the rate I’m working.
I’ve hit my stride.”
About Schweser, a Kaplan Professional Company
Schweser is a Kaplan Professional Company, a worldwide education services provider
and a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO). Founded in 1991,
Kaplan Schweser built its reputation as the leading global provider of financial
education solutions through its high-quality preparatory training and study
materials for the CFA examination. Since then, Kaplan Schweser has extended
its educational expertise to additional financial-related examinations including
the CPA Exam, the Chartered Alternative Investment AnalystSM (CAIASM)
exam, the Financial Risk Manager (FRM®) exam, and a host of Professional
Development courses. To learn more, visit www.schweser.com.
La Crosse, WI – April 25, 2007 – Schweser, a Kaplan Professional
Company, is a leading provider of Financial Risk Manager (FRM®) Exam review
materials. The FRM Certificate is globally recognized as the benchmark for financial
risk professionals. More than 10,000 individuals around the world have completed
the FRM Certification program, and the candidate pool continues to grow at a
record pace – in 2006, there was a 19% increase in candidate registrations*.
In anticipation of the 2007 FRM Exam, Kaplan Schweser has enhanced its product
offering of FRM study materials, as highlighted at www.schweser.com/frm.
The Schweser Study Manuals (retail $179) are an essential 3-volume set of texts
that utilize an improved topical approach to covering the entire FRM curriculum
in a clear and condensed manner. The topical format allows the candidate to
study manageable segments of the curriculum while staying focused on the critical
concepts of the 2007 FRM readings.
Kaplan Schweser’s 10-Week Online Seminar (retail $599) has been extended
by two weeks to allow more in-depth coverage of the difficult concepts. It now
includes 30 hours of real-time FRM instruction, with instant feedback during
lecture and Q&A sessions led by an industry expert. The online classes are
scheduled for Saturday mornings, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm ET, beginning the
week of September 8, 2007.
In addition to the improvements made to existing study materials, Kaplan Schweser
has expanded its product line with new study tools for the 2007 FRM Exam, including
the SchweserPro™ QBank (retail $199). This comprehensive question bank
includes more than 1,200 practice questions intended to elevate the candidates’
understanding of the curriculum.
The Practice Exam Book (retail $99) is also a new addition for 2007. This perfect
complement to the Schweser Study Manuals includes two complete, 5-hour practice
exams designed to familiarize the candidate with the structure and difficulty
of the actual FRM exam. The Final Review Guidebook (retail $99) is a new, late
season review product. It contains focused summaries of the critical concepts
from the FRM core readings.
To order Kaplan Schweser FRM study materials and for additional information,
visit www.schweser.com/frm or call 608-779-5599.
About Schweser, a Kaplan Professional Company
Schweser, a Kaplan Professional Company, is a worldwide education services provider.
Founded in 1991, Kaplan Schweser built its reputation as the leading global
provider of financial education solutions through its high-quality preparatory
training and study materials for the CFA examination. Since then, Kaplan Schweser
has extended its educational expertise to additional financial-related examinations
including the Chartered Alternative Investment AnalystSM (CAIASM)
exam, the Financial Risk Manager (FRM®) exam, and a host of Professional
Development courses. To learn more, visit www.schweser.com.
About Kaplan, Inc.
Kaplan, Inc. is a leading provider of educational and career services to students,
schools, professionals and businesses worldwide. For nearly 70 years, Kaplan
has helped millions of individuals achieve their educational and career goals.
Kaplan is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).
For more information about Kaplan, please visit www.kaplan.com.
An inside look at how five investment professionals are preparing for
the June 2007 CFA examination
First in a series of three articles
It’s February. In various parts of the world, the general population
is focused on the activities one generally would associate with the year’s
shortest month: Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day, and Mardi Gras.
But for a group of five investment professionals preparing for this June’s
Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) examination, there were no fireworks
at Chinese New Year. Their respective love interests no doubt were disappointed
on Valentine’s Day. And they most certainly were nowhere near Bourbon
Street in New Orleans on Mardi Gras.
Because, even in February, any of their discretionary time is spent
hyper-concentrated on the first weekend in June—the dates of
all three levels of the 2007 CFA examinations (the Level I exam also is offered
in December). According to this group, if you’re a financial analyst,
a portfolio manager or an investment strategist and you’re not already
knee-deep in your preparation for the June CFA examination, you might already
be out of luck.
“One of the things I found is that people were starting (their studies)
far too late—they were starting in March, which is way too late whichever
level you’re on,” said Adam Kindreich, a consumer analyst for the
private bank Lombard Odier Darier & Hentsch in Geneva, Switzerland. “It’s
a question of work and preparation. It’s as simple as that. You have to
start early enough and prepare properly. Just work your way through the curriculum
and the guides.”
Kindreich, like each of the peers in this group, is a Level II candidate, having
passed the Level I examination on his first try (as each in the group did).
With a notoriously low pass rate, two-thirds or more of investment professionals
will fail the exam their first time out. The Level I pass rates of 40 and 39
percent respectively for June and December 2006 were quite high compared with
the recent past. And it is generally understood that fewer than one in five
who enter the program ultimately will pass all three levels and emerge with
the coveted CFA designation.
But don’t get the sense that Kindreich has only just started his studies.
“I started in November,” he said. “I planned across the seven
months up to the exam. I made a calendar of exactly what I was going to do every
single week. I’ve planned to finish the Schweser guides (a complement
to the assigned curriculum) by the time I go to a review course at the start
of May.” He says he will spend the final four weeks before the exam immersed
in intensive review of practice exam questions made available by Kaplan Schweser
and CFA Institute.
Time is the common denominator to success agrees Alina Dulimof, an investment
manager for a venture capital firm in New York City, who—even in February—already
had reviewed more than half of the voluminous CFA Institute curriculum and corresponding
Schweser Study Notes. “You have to study continuously,” she said,
“better a half hour a day than doing nothing for a while and then trying
to do it all. Keep it continuous even if it’s a low number. Don’t
get stressed and stop studying. Keep on going, even if it’s only an hour.
And if you are lucky enough to get through the material a second time, it is
going to be a delight compared to the first time.”
Dulimof also participates in Kaplan Schweser’s Online Review course,
which takes place over 16 weeks leading up to the examination. To optimize the
online review, she makes it a point to cover the corresponding curriculum prior
to when the online course meets each Tuesday. “Right now, I’m ahead
of the class,” studying asset valuation she said. “Tomorrow the
online class will be studying economics—which I’ve already gone
through, but I’ll look at the economics sections tomorrow for an hour
before the class. And then it’s back to asset valuation,” which,
again, put her ahead of the class.
Montine Jordan, an investment generalist for hedge-fund start-up Hagin Investment
Management, uses a similar tactic—making sure she stays ahead of the course
she’s taking through the New York Society of Security Analysts. “I’m
taking the NYSSA class and they’re not doing things in sequence, but I’m
trying to do my readings that way,” she said. “I’ve gone through
(Schweser) books one, two and three. I’m trying to get ahead in my readings
and stay ahead of the class instead of just keeping up with the class.”
Jordan, like Dulimof, wants to get all the way through the curriculum once
to see where her relative strengths and weaknesses are so she knows where to
focus her preparation in the pressure-packed weeks leading up to the first weekend
in June. “At this point, I’m trying to acquaint myself with the
entire curriculum,” she said. “Then I will circle back several times
before I get it all under my belt.”
Kevin Zvargulis is devoting 18 to 20 hours a week to his CFA exam preparation
at this point, but that’s nothing compared to what he’ll be doing
as June gets a little closer. A securities analyst and portfolio manager for
the Swarthmore Group in Philadelphia, Zvargulis (pronounced “just as it’s
written”) said: “It doesn’t dominate yet. It probably will
as the time gets closer. I study for about two hours a day and on the weekends
I try to get in 10 hours. That’s not dominating the way it will later
on. I’ve gone over the Schweser Notes on ethics and quantitative methods.
I’m about to start economics with the Schweser material.”
If 18 to 20 hours of study a week on top of a full-time job isn’t dominating,
as Zvargulis suggested, in what activities will he be engaged when actual “domination”
takes over? “I plan to read the CFA curriculum and then go over it again
with the Schweser Study Notes,” he said. “Then, I create note cards—note
cards are my thing. Last time when I did Level I, I had a ton of note cards,
which I intend to do again. Then I use those note cards to review. I also make
sure that I do all of the Schweser practice questions at the end of the chapters.
Hopefully I’ll be finished with all the chapters with a couple of weeks
to go. At that point I’ll start taking the Schweser tests.”
Michael Smith, a portfolio manager with the Bank of the West’s wealth
management division, also is a big fan of the practice exams. “I spend
a lot of time doing test questions to be up to speed—to be able to view
a question, know what they’re talking about, and be able to attack it,”
he said. “It’s about drilling concepts and making sure you know
more than you need to know on the subjects. The practice tests definitely were
a challenge to get through, which was good, because I found the actual exam
to be comparatively pretty easy.”
Likewise Dulimof is a strong advocate of practice exams. “Because there’s
no faking it,” she said. “You know the material or you don’t.
I have stacks of tests in which I would get, like, 40 percent and have exclamation
points and all kinds of bitter comments on (the papers). But I’d keep
taking those tests until the scores got better.”
As for the content of the curriculum, the challenges differ within the group,
depending on the particular candidate’s strengths and background.
“I have difficulty with ethics,” said Zvargulis. “It seems
that there’s a lot of ambiguity and a lot of the ethical lapses are covered
under different standards of the (CFA Institute) Code of Ethics. It’s
not as concrete.”
“For me, it’s the statistical sections that are linked to the capital
asset pricing model,” said Kindreich, “which also are linked to
the securities line as well where you’re looking at expected returns.
Sometimes that can be quite tricky.”
Jordan called accounting the hardest content. “Everything else seems doable,”
she said, a sentiment echoed by Smith. “The accounting material was something
I had never studied previously,” he said, “so that was probably
the newest thing to me. It’s certainly not impossible stuff, but coming
from literally square zero on that, that was a bit of a challenge. But you just
put in the work and you do it.”
What will occupy their time over the next 30 days and beyond?
Kindreich: “I’ll continue with the Schweser guides until I get
through all the material,” he said. “I’ll do the questions
at the end; I’ll check my results. If I feel I’m particularly weak
on any particular matter then I will dip into the CFA official curriculum and
do a little bit more work.”
Dulimof: “I definitely hope that I will go through the material once
and a second time to review, because the second time is the better one,”
she said. “And then, in addition to the online course, what helps me—the
flashcards. I take them on subways and buses…they’re easier to carry.”
Smith: “By the end of March, I should have done at least 120 hours,”
he said. “I keep track of that pretty closely. Just wading through the
stuff…I should be 40 percent or better through the (CFA Institute) official
materials and I should be starting in on the (Schweser) Study Notes by then.”
Jordan: “I hope to have gotten a whole lot further in my reading,”
she said. “At this point, it’s not as bad as I thought it was going
to be, the Level II stuff. I expected it to be horrifying and it’s not.
It feels like a logical continuation of Level I, which I guess is the way it
should be. In a month, I’ll have a better sense that I’m not grossly
underestimating what is in front of me, hopefully be on pace.”
Zvargulis: “This is not rocket science. You just have to put in the time,”
he said. “Your friends want to go out on the weekends…you want to
go out for a beer tonight or whatever. You just have to put in the time and
when someone invites you to go ice skating this weekend, you just have to say,
‘studying, sorry I can’t do it.’ Because you make the one
exception to go ice skating and then the next weekend somebody wants to do something
else and the next weekend somebody wants to do something else. So that’s
the key. It’s really just staying focused and making sure you put in the
time.”
As of February, did the members of this group think they’ll pass the
CFA examination in June?
“I would stretch to say ‘yes,’ said Kindreich. “I’m
quite confident.”
“Oh yes,” said Dulimof, “Yes, I think I’m going to
pass it.”
“Yeah,” said Zvargulis.
“Absolutely,” said Smith.
Jordan is only a bit more cautious. “I do not want to jinx myself
by saying ‘yes,’” she said, “but I’m going to
give it my best shot. I can tell the test formats are different, but it feels
manageable. I remember as I got toward May last year and realized how much material
had to be maintained in my head, it humbled my expectations. At this point,
though, I am more than cautiously optimistic.”
About Schweser, a Kaplan Professional Company
Schweser is a Kaplan Professional Company, a worldwide education services provider
and a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO). Founded in 1991,
Kaplan Schweser built its reputation as the leading global provider of financial
education solutions through its high-quality preparatory training and study
materials for the CFA examination. Since then, Kaplan Schweser has extended
its educational expertise to additional financial-related examinations including
the CPA Exam, the Chartered Alternative Investment AnalystSM
(CAIASM) exam, the Financial Risk Manager (FRM®)
exam, and a host of Professional Development courses. To learn more, visit www.schweser.com.
Schweser's Free Workshops with Lesson on Derivatives
Posted February 14, 2007
Open House
Schedule
5:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Registration
6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Instruction and Q&A
Dr.
Andrew Temte, CFA
President
Dr.
Tim Smaby, CFA, FRM
Sr. Vice President
Dr.
Bruce Kuhlman, CFA
Vice President
Dr.
Doug Van Eaton, CFA
Vice President
Dr.
John Paul Broussard, CFA, FRM
Dr. Greg Filbeck, CFA, FRM, CAIA
Your Sneak Preview of a Schweser Seminar — Reserve Your Seat Today!
Schweser is conducting Free Workshops for CFA® candidates in 12 locations across North America. We invite you to experience the world's leading instruction in CFA review provided by one of Schweser's expert instructors.
Reserve your seat today by selecting a location below
Attend the Workshop for a:
2.5-hour lesson in Derivatives with Q&A
Slide workbook of the presentation
Free Derivatives handbook containing
readings and practice exam questions
Plus you can choose one of the following discounts on 2007 Schweser Seminars:
$200 off the 7-Day residential SSFA Program at Windsor
or
$150 off the 5-Day Dallas Seminar or Multi-Phase Seminar
or
$100 off a 3-Day Seminar
And a Chance to Win SchweserOnline™ (retail $999) including:
Schweser Study Notes
SchweserPro™ Question Bank
The Final Review Pack (Online Practice Exams, Secret Sauce eBook, and Online Workshops)
Full Schweser Library
Plus your choice of the:
16-Week Online Seminar with archives
or
Online Multi-Phase Seminar with archives
Open House Dates and Locations
Registration is required to attend this event. To reserve your seat, email staff@schweser.com. Please include the location you would like to attend, your name, address, phone number and CFA Level. For more information, call 888-325-5072 or 608-779-5599.
2007 Dates and Locations
City
Date
Location
Presenter
Chicago Registration Closed
Wed. Feb. 21
Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza 350 North Orleans
Chicago, IL 60654
Dr. Tim Smaby, CFA, FRM Sr. Vice President
Philadelphia Registration Closed
Wed. Feb. 21
Pennsylvania Convention Ctr One Convention Center
Pl.
1101 Arch St.
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Dr. Douglas Van Eaton, CFA Vice President
Washington, D.C. Registration Closed
Thurs. Feb. 22
Renaissance M Street Hotel 1143
New Hampshire Ave. NW
Washington, D.C 20037
Dr. Doug Van Eaton, CFA Vice President
Charlotte Registration Closed.
Tues. Feb. 27
Marriott Charlotte City Center 100 West Trade
St.
Charlotte, NC 28202
Dr. John Paul Broussard, CFA, FRM
San Francisco Registration Closed
Wed. Feb. 28
Crowne Plaza Union Square 480 Sutter St.
San Francisco, CA 94108
Dr. Tim Smaby, CFA, FRM Sr. Vice President
Los Angeles Registration Closed.
Thurs. Mar. 1
Manhattan Beach Marriott
1400 Parkview Ave.
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Dr. Tim Smaby, CFA, FRM Sr. Vice President
Atlanta Registration Closed.
Thurs., Mar. 1
Sheraton Atlanta Hotel 165 Courtland St.
Atlanta, GA 30303
Dr. John Paul Broussard, CFA, FRM
Houston Registration Closed.
Tues. Apr. 3
InterContinental Houston 2222 West Loop South
Houston Texas, 77027
Dr. Bruce Kuhlman, CFA, CAIA Vice President
Dallas Call to Register.
Wed. Apr. 4
Hilton Park Cities 5954 Luther Ln.
Dallas, TX 75225
Dr. Bruce Kuhlman, CFA, CAIA Vice President
Boston
Registration Closed.
Wed. Apr. 18
Omni Parker House 60 School St.
Boston, MA 02108
Dr. John Paul Broussard, CFA, FRM
New York
Registration Closed.
Thurs. Apr. 19
Kaplan, Inc 61 Broadway, Suite 700
New York, NY 10006
Dr. John Paul Broussard, CFA, FRM
Toronto Registration Closed.
Thurs. Apr. 26
University of Toronto
Health Sciences Building - Room 106
155 College Street
Toronto, M5S 2J7
Schweser's Free Workshops with Lesson on Derivatives
Posted October 6, 2006
Open House
Schedule
5:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Registration
6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Instruction and Q&A
Dr.
Andrew Temte, CFA
President
Dr.
Tim Smaby, CFA, FRM
Sr. Vice President
Dr.
Bruce Kuhlman, CFA
Vice President
Dr.
Doug Van Eaton, CFA
Vice President
A 2007 CFA® Season Sneak Preview
Schweser is conducting Free Workshops for CFA® candidates in eight locations
across North America. We invite you to experience the world's leading instruction
in CFA review provided by one of Schweser's top executives.
Reserve your seat today by selecting a location below
Attend the Workshop for a:
2.5-hour lesson in Derivatives with Q&A
Slide workbook of the presentation
Free Derivatives handbook containing
readings and practice exam questions
Plus Get 20% OFF a 2007 Schweser Self-Study Package:
Premium Solution
(retail $949)
or Essential Solution (retail $549)
Open House Dates and Locations
Registration is required to attend this event. Call 888-325-5072 or 608-779-5599,
or select a location below to email your request and reserve your seat. Please include the location you would like to attend,
your name, address, phone number and CFA Level.
2006 Dates and Locations
City
Date
Location
Presenter
New York
Wed. Oct. 11
Kaplan, Inc. 61 Broadway, Suite 700 New York, NY 10006
Dr. Andrew Temte, CFA
Philadelphia
Thurs. Oct. 12
Pennsylvania Convention Ctr One Convention Center Pl.
1101 Arch St.
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Phone: 215-418-4750
Website: click here
Dr. Andrew Temte, CFA
Charlotte
Wed. Oct. 18
Marriott Charlotte City Center
100 West Trade St.
Charlotte, NC 28202
Phone: 704-333-9000
Website: click here
Dr. Bruce Kuhlman, CFA
Boston
Thurs. Oct. 19
Omni Parker House
60 School Street
Boston, MA 02108
Phone: 617-227-8600
Website: click here
Dr. Douglas Van Eaton, CFA
Atlanta
Thurs. Oct. 19
Sheraton Atlanta Hotel
165 Courtland Street
Atlanta, GA 30303
Phone: 404-659-6500
Website: click here
Dr. Bruce Kuhlman, CFA
Los Angeles
Wed. Oct. 25
Millennium Biltmore Hotel
506 S. Grand Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90071
Phone: 213-612-1587
Website: click here
Dr. Tim Smaby, CFA
San Francisco
Thurs. Oct. 26
Crowne Plaza Union Square 480 Sutter Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
Phone: 1-415-398-8900
Website: click here
Dr. Tim Smaby, CFA
Chicago
Wed. Nov. 1
Crowne Plaza Chicago Metro
733 West Madison
Chicago, IL 60661
Phone: 312-829-5000
Website: click here
Schweser Announces CFA Institute Textbook Policy for 2007
Posted September 21, 2006
Schweser study materials and seminars are the perfect complement to the original CFA Institute 2007 Program Curriculum. Schweser encourages all candidates to purchase the original curriculum, and to use them in tandem with Schweser products. In recognition of your purchase of these Textbooks from CFA Institute, totaling over $395 for the CFA Level 1 and CFA Level 2, and $378 for the CFA Level 3, during the 2007 CFA® season, we will give an additional $100 off the Schweser purchases
listed below.
SAVE $100 off the retail price of these qualifying purchases:
Study Seminar for Financial Analysts (SSFA) at Windsor
6-Day Multi-Phase Seminar
6-Day Multi-Phase Online Seminar
5-Day Dallas-Fort Worth Seminar
Premium Solution
SchweserOnline™ (Blended eLearning Solution)
Or
Purchase a 3-Day Seminar at $429 along with the Essential Solution at
$449 (reduced rate) and subtract an additional $100 from the order total.
Your total cost would be $778, plus tax/shipping.
Process for Receiving This $100 Off Offer
Requires a purchase of the 2007 Program Curriculum from CFA Institute and a qualifying purchase from Schweser during the same CFA® season, by a candidate.
Email (staff@schweser.com) or fax (608-779-5877) your order confirmation from CFA Institute to Schweser. Please include your Schweser order number if you have already placed a qualifying order for 2007, or call our office to place your order.
This offer is solely for individuals that have already purchased the 2007 Program Curriculum from CFA Institute.
This offer cannot be combined with any other offers, discounts or promotions. You must request this discount at the time your order is placed.
Schweser study materials and seminars are the perfect complement to the original CFA Institute 2006 Level 1 Program Curriculum. Schweser encourages all candidates to purchase the original curriculum, and to use them in tandem with Schweser products. In recognition of your purchase of these Textbooks from CFA Institute, totaling over $350 during a given CFA® season, we will give an additional $100 off the Schweser purchases
listed below.
SAVE $100 off the retail price of these qualifying purchases:
Study Seminar for Financial Analysts (SSFA) at Windsor
6-Day Multi-Phase Seminar
6-Day Multi-Phase Online Seminar (Broadcast from Philadelphia, PA)
5-Day Dallas-Fort Worth Seminar
Premium Solution
SchweserOnline™ (The Complete eLearning Study Solution)
Or
Purchase a 3-Day Seminar at $429 along with the Essential Solution at
$399 (reduced rate) and subtract an additional $100 from the order total.
Your total cost would be $728, plus tax.
Process for Receiving This $100 Off Offer
Requires a purchase of the four volume set of textbooks from CFA Institute and a qualifying purchase from Schweser during the same CFA® season, by a candidate.
Email (staff@schweser.com) or fax (608-779-5877) your order confirmation from CFA Institute to Schweser. Please include your Schweser order number if you have already placed a qualifying order for 2006, or call our office to place your order.
This offer is solely for individuals that have already purchased the original textbooks from CFA Institute. For 2006, these textbooks are available only for
Level 1.
Schweser Study Program is conducting FREE Open Houses for CFA® candidates
in seven cities across North America. We invite you to experience the world's
leading instruction in CFA review provide by one of Schweser's® top executives.
By attending the Workshop, you will receive a:
2.5 hour lesson in quantitative methods
Hypothesis testing
Linear regression
Multilinear regression
Supplemental handout of the presentation
REGISTER TO WIN
YOUR CHOICE OF:
Schweser's Multi-Phase
Seminar
6 Days of Instruction During 3 Weekends
(Retail Value $749)
OR
SchweserOnline™
The Complete eLearning Solution
(Retail Value $799)
ONLY WHEN YOU ATTEND
THE FREE WORKSHOP!
When you register for a Schweser seminar at the Open House with Workshop you
will receive a discount on your choice of live instruction:
$200 OFF the 7-Day Residential SSFA Program at Windsor
$150 OFF the 5-Day Dallas Seminar or the Multi-Phase Seminar
$100 OFF a 3-Day Seminar
Open House Dates and Locations
Registration is required to attend this event. Call 888-325-5072 or 608-779-5599,
or email staff@schweser
to reserve your seat. Please include the location you would like to attend,
your name, address, phone number and CFA Level.
Canadian Academics and Schweser Announce Partnership to Offer CFA® Review in Toronto
Posted August 2, 2005
Toronto – August 2, 2005 – Schweser Study Program, a division of
Kaplan Financial™ and a world leader in CFA® review, and Canadian Academics,
a provider of financial industry exam preparation, have partnered to offer a
14-week classroom review for the December level 1 CFA exam held at the University
of Toronto beginning August 24, 2005.
In conjunction with instruction by Canadian Academics, registrants can receive Schweser’s Essential Solution including study notes, online tools, flashcards or practice exams and audio CDs or testing software offered at a discount price.
“We are excited to bring a weekly review product to the Toronto market.
Joining forces with Canadian Academics represents the ideal balance of excellence
in materials and instruction,” said Dr. Andrew C. Temte, CFA, President
of Schweser Study Program.
Weekly review classes for the December Level 1 CFA exam are scheduled from
August 24 through November 23, 2005 and will be held Wednesday evenings from
6:30pm to 9:30pm in the Bahen Centre at the University of Toronto. Additional
information, course costs, updates and registration details for the weekly program
presented by Canadian Academics and Schweser Study Program are located at www.canadianacademics.com
or www.schweser.com.
Beginning in the spring of 2006, Canadian Academics and Schweser Study Program
will offer weekly review programs for all three levels of the June 2006 CFA
exam.
About Canadian Academics
Canadian Academics provides in-house training, private coaching and specialty
workshops for advisory professionals and corporations in service industries,
including: banks, investment brokerages, insurance companies, mutual fund companies,
law firms and IT firms.
About Schweser Study Program
Schweser Study Program is a leading provider of preparation tools, live seminars
and weekly programs for the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®) and Financial
Risk Manager (FRM®) Exams. Schweser Study Program is a division of Kaplan
Financial – a leader in financial services education.
About Kaplan, Inc.
Kaplan, Inc. is a leading provider of educational and career services to students,
schools, professionals and businesses worldwide. For nearly 70 years, Kaplan
has helped millions of individuals achieve their educational and career goals.
Kaplan is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).
For more information about Kaplan, please visit www.kaplan.com.
CFA Institute has released the 2006 CFA® curriculum. The study guides are available at http://www.cfainstitute.org/canservices/studyguides/. Our faculty and content staff are working on the new Schweser study materials for the 2006 CFA® season.
Kaplan Professional Announces Formation of Kaplan Financial, Names Andrea Mainelli President and CEO of Kaplan Financial
Posted June 28, 2005
Contact: Paige Hunting
Kaplan, Inc.
212.974.6233
paige_hunting@kaplan.com
Chicago, June 28, 2005 – Kaplan Professional, a division of worldwide
education services provider Kaplan, Inc., today announced that it has formed
Kaplan FinancialTM, a single source for financial institutions and individuals
seeking education and compliance solutions. The announcement is the latest in
a series of moves by Kaplan designed to create the most comprehensive set of
education and compliance services for securities, insurance and banking customers.
Andrea Mainelli has been named President and CEO of the new unit, in addition
to her current role as Chief Operating Officer of Kaplan Professional. Kaplan
has also appointed newly-hired J R Berry to Executive Vice President and Managing
Director, Compliance Services of Kaplan Financial. Bryan Austin, formerly Managing
Director of Kaplan’s Dearborn Financial Services, has been named Executive
Vice President and Managing Director, Education Services of Kaplan Financial.
Andy Temte, President of SchweserTM Study Program and Kaplan CPA Review, will
continue to report to Mainelli as part of the newly formed Kaplan Financial
unit.
"This new organizational structure will enable us to integrate all of
the financial education assets we’ve assembled to best serve the education
and compliance sides of our business. Our new leadership team will make it possible
for us serve our clients even better,” said Eric Cantor, President and
CEO of Kaplan Professional and Chairman of Kaplan Financial.
The formation of Kaplan Financial follows on the heels of Kaplan’s recent
acquisitions of BISYS Education Services and eMind. Kaplan Financial will also
include Dearborn Financial Services, a leading provider of securities and insurance
education and compliance solutions; Schweser Study Program, the leader in test
preparation for the CFA® exam; Kaplan CPA Review, online, classroom and
self-study preparation for the CPA exam; and Insurance Achievement, which offers
ChFC® and CLU® exam preparation for insurance professionals. The new
organization’s website is www.kaplanfinancial.com.
“By pulling all of these resources under one roof, we will be able to
provide customers in the securities, insurance and banking industries with education
and compliance management tools that boost productivity, deliver results and
minimize risk,” said Mainelli.
Andrea Mainelli has been COO of Kaplan Professional since March 2004. Prior
to that, she held several other positions at Kaplan including Chief Financial
Officer of Kaplan Professional, Vice President of Development for Kaplan, Inc.,
and Regional Director for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions.
J R Berry came to Kaplan from Promissor, where he was Vice President of Professional
Services. Prior to that, he served as CEO of Innovative IT Solutions (now SIRCON).
Bryan Austin has been Managing Director of Dearborn Financial Services since
August 2002. Andy Temte has been the President of SchweserTM since November
1999.
About Kaplan Professional
Kaplan Professional provides licensing and continuing education training, certification,
professional development courses, and compliance tracking for financial services,
legal, IT, and real estate professionals and corporations. Offering an array
of educational tools, from on-site training and classroom instruction to over
600 online courses and programs, Kaplan Professional serves individuals who
must maintain licenses and comply with regulatory mandates. Kaplan Professional
is a unit of Kaplan, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Washington Post
Company (NYSE: WPO). For more information, please visit www.kaplanprofessional.com.
Kaplan Financial and Schweser are trademarks of Kaplan,
Inc.
ChFC and CLU are registered trademarks of The American College.
All 2005 FRM physical products are now in stock and shipping. These products
include: Schweser Study Notes, Flashcards, Essential Exam Strategies™,
and Schweser's QuickSheet™. Our Online Exams will be available in the
middle of July, and classes for our 8-Week Live Online Seminar will start on
September 10, 2005.
2005 Schweser Study Materials at 50% OFF for Level 2 and Level 3
Posted June 8, 2005
We have a limited amount of study materials remaining from the 2005 exam season which you may purchase at half-price plus applicable shipping and/or tax. You
may use the purchase price (excluding shipping and tax) of 2005 study materials,
purchased at half-price, June 6 - September 30, 2005 as a credit (maximum credit amount $300) towards the purchase price of a 2006 Premium, Essential, or Classic
Study Solution (this applies to Solution orders only, individual product purchases
are not eligible for this credit.).
50% OFF prices for 2005 Level 2 and Level 3 Products:
Schweser Study Notes
$149
Video CDs
$299
Flashcards (Paper Version)
$49
Audio CDs
$124
Order Today and Receive Credit on 2006 Study Solutions
Click here (PDF) for information about the $300 credit from this half-price purchase.
Ask us about the Schweser Study Solutions for the 2006 season, or visit our
website www.schweser.com, in late-July for complete details, or to place an
order for the 2006 season.
This offer is available only while supplies last and may be discontinued at
any time. Relying exclusively on 2005 study materials for the 2006 exam is problematic
due to LOS revisions and additions, new readings, and the elimination of old
readings. We strongly suggest that candidates use the 2005 study materials only as an interim
study aid until the newly created 2006 Study Solutions become available.
CFA Institute Changes Admission Ticket Policy for 2005 June Exams
Posted April 20, 2005
The CFA Institute has discontinued the distribution of paper tickets via mail. CFA candidates will now need to print their admission tickets online from the Candidate Services section of the CFA Institute website (www.cfainstitute.org).
These are the tickets are required for admittance into the 2005 June CFA examinations.
Please visit the April 2005 Candidate Bulletin from CFA Institute for complete information on CFA Institute's exam day polices.
Will you achieve peak performance on exam day? The Schweser Final Review Series
will give you the competitive edge for exam day success. We will help you "bring
it all together" in the weeks leading up to exam day. With these products,
you'll have all the power you need to cross the finish line successfully at
the CFA® Exam. We've designed a special review pack just for you...to help
pick up the study pace!
This late season series contains:
Schweser's Secret Sauce™ - Your Recipe for Success
Essential Exam Strategies™ - Your Game Plan for Approaching the Exam
Online Practice Exams - Your Final Warm Up for Exam Day
Final Review Workshop (4 Sessions to be held in May) - Your Opportunity
to Strategize with the Level Managers
The Final Review Pack ($199) can be purchased Online (CFA
Level 1 | CFA
Level 2 | CFA
Level 3), or by calling 888-325-5072 or 608-779-5599.
Schweser's 2005 Online Practice Exams offer you the best simulation of the actual CFA® exam experience, including question difficulty, timing, and CFA Institute question weighting. These cumulative exams offer entirely new and different questions in comparison to any of our other testing products (Practice Exam Book, SchweserPro™, Book 6). These Online Exams will help you point out your areas of strengths and
weaknesses. You may choose from five exams at Level 1, or four exams at Levels
2 and 3. Each exam may be taken online, or printed off and taken at your convenience.
Online Practice Exams are included in SchweserOnline™, or can be ordered independently.
Schweser 3-Day and 5-Day Seminars Coming to 15 Locations Across North America
Posted March 2, 2005
Click
here
or call our office (888-325-5072) to add-on one of these
Intensive Review Seminars to your existing purchase of Schweser
Study Notes or a Study Solution.
3-Day
or 5-Day Seminar Features
Live
Classroom Instruction Invigorate
your studies, gain valuable knowledge, and focus your efforts with
Schweser Live Instruction. Our high-tech seminars provide:
Insights,
tips, and exam strategies
Guidance
through the challenging CFA curriculum
Tutorial
reviews with faculty notes emailed to you after the seminar
Experienced
CFA Review Course Leaders Schweser's
leading academic professionals have the credentials and the experience
to deliver the CFA curriculum in and easy-to-understand manner.
High-Quality
Study Aids Registration
includes Schweser Study Notes and Schweser's Secret Sauce.
Fri.
8:30 am to 5:00 pm
Sat. 8:30 am to 6:00 pm
Sun. 8:30 am to 4:30 pm
Wed.
9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Thur. 9:00 am to 6:00 pm
Fri. 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Sat. 9:00 am to 6:00 pm
Sun. 9:00 am to 4:30 pm
See
Also: JKE/Excel
Review in Dallas-Fort Worth
This
5-Day "Executive Retreat" will take place Monday May 16 through noon
on Friday May 20 at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Marriott South.
Features Instructors from the original JKE/Excel Review.
Now that the December exam results are out, you have some quick decisions to make!
If you passed, do you go on to take the Level 2 exam in June, 2005? If you did
not pass, do you make another attempt right away at Level 1? In either case, when
do you start studying and what resources do you use in your studies?
Special Offer Upgrades Candidates from Essential Solution to Premium
Solution at Either Level 1 or Level 2
Whether you are forging ahead to Level 2 or circling back to Level 1, we at
Schweser Study Program would like to get you started on your studying with a
FREE $400 Upgrade! As you know, Schweser has long advocated that an early, disciplined
and strong effort using excellent study materials is essential for success on
the CFA® examinations. This is easier than ever with our FREE Upgrade to
the Premium Solution. December 2004 Level 1 candidates who are moving on to
Level 2 and purchase Schweser’s Essential Solution for $499
will be upgraded to the $899 Premium Solution at no additional cost. As a December
2004 Level 1 candidate moving to Level 2, you can now order Schweser’s
Premium Package for $499.
If You Purchased Schweser Materials And Did Not Pass
Schweser candidates who need to repeat Level 1 can order the Premium Solution
for only $449.50. Please visit our Repeat
Policy for details.
The Premium Solution includes:
The 2005 Schweser Study Notes
2005 Schweser’s QuickSheet
The Schweser Study Planner
Online Faculty Office Hours
Online Kickoff Seminar with Archives
Tip of the Week Email Lessons
Your choice of:
Schweser Flashcards or
Practice Exam Book (3 different exams than those in Book 6 of the Schweser
Study Notes)
Your choice of:
Schweser Audio CD’s or
SchweserPro™ Testing Software
Your choice of:
16-Week Live Online Seminar or
2005 Schweser Video CDs with a 500-page workbook.
Special Add-on Offer with
Your FREE Upgrade
SchweserOnline™
plus Problems & Solutions Workshop
$250
(Retail Price $598)
Order Today
Phone Numbers: Toll Free: (888) 325-5072 or Main: (608) 779-5599
FRM Results from the November Exam have now been sent out from this email address: sendouts@garp.com. You should check your SPAM blockers if you have not yet received the email from GARP.
The Schweser Study Planner is an online calendar that will help CFA® candidates stay on track with your studies throughout the CFA season. The SSP can be customized for start and end date. Assignments are listed in a calendar format, and if the candidate falls behind, the days on each calendar will turn yellow, and eventually red. The SSP is available for all purchasers of 2005 Schweser Study Notes within
the accompanying Online Accounts.
You can login at www.schweser.com, select Online Access, and click Schweser Study Program on the left-side menu.
Schweser Study Program's Online Faculty Office Hours are starting during the
first week in January 2005. These Office Hours will allow candidates to interact
with their CFA® Level Manager in real time, and each session will be archived
as well for customers who cannot attend the live event. The initial schedule
for Office Hours is now available within Online Access Accounts for all purchasers
of Schweser Study Notes. These first sessions will be open to general discussion.
Additional office hours will be scheduled to cover specific topics on a regularly
basis. Times for office hours, as well as the login to each session is available
within the webpage for Online Faculty
Office Hours.
Currently Scheduled Office Hours
Level 1
Wednesday, January 5, 10:00 am to 11:00 am ET
Tuesday, January 11, 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm ET
Tuesday, January 18, 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm ET
Level 2
Tuesday, January 4, 9:00 am to 10:00 am ET
Monday, January 10, 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm ET
Monday, January 17, 9:00 am to 10:00 am ET
Level 3
Tuesday, January 4, 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm ET
Monday, January 10, 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm ET
Wednesday, January 19, 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm ET
Schweser's 2004 FRM Study Notes and Flashcards are now available for half of their original price. Study Notes are priced at $149.50 and paper flashcards are available for $49.50. Standard sales tax and shipping rates apply. A limited supply of these products remain. This offer cannot be combined with any other offer.
Please call our office at (888) 325-5072 or (608) 779-5599 to place an order.
The Schweser Study Notes are written to be premiere summaries of the entire FRM® curriculum as assigned by The Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP™). The study materials consist of five books, the first four of which cover the assigned readings. The last book contains old exam questions and three full-length sample exams.
GARP releases a new curriculum every year. The 2004 FRM study materials should not be considered a replacement for the 2005 FRM study materials. Our 2005 FRM study materials will become available in the middle of 2005. Please revisit our website for updated product availability and pre-ordering during the spring of 2005.
Now Shipping: 2005 Schweser Study Notes, SchweserPro™, and Flashcards for CFA Level 3
Posted November 19, 2004
Schweser Study Program is now shipping Schweser Study Notes for the 2005 CFA Level 3 Exam. Our Study Notes are comprised of six books that
are essential for all Level 3 candidates. These books include:
Complete coverage of all learning outcome statements (LOS) for the 2005
Exam.
Book six containing three full-length sample exams.
Enhanced problems at the end of each topic review.
Selected questions from past CFA Institute Exams.
Topic formula sheets containing critical formulas.
Professor’s Notes that provide tips and strategies for the CFA®
Exam.
The 2005 Study Notes also include Schweser's QuickSheet (Crucial Concepts for
Exam Success) and a FREE Online Account with several new tools to help candidates
stay on track while studying for their Exam.
Also shipping as of today are SchweserPro - Testing Software and Flashcards. New features in SchweserPro include re-testing on
Incorrect questions, and the ability to choose Advanced, Intermediate, and Basic questions. Schweser Flashcards allow you to focus on key information, weighted according to importance by our faculty.
Now Shipping: 2005 Schweser Study Notes, SchweserPro™, and Flashcards for CFA Level 2
Posted November 5, 2004
Schweser Study Program is now shipping Schweser Study Notes for the 2005 CFA Level 2 Exam. Our Study Notes are comprised of six books that
are essential for all Level 2 candidates. These books include:
Complete coverage of all learning outcome statements (LOS) for the 2005
Exam.
Book six containing three full-length sample exams.
Enhanced problems at the end of each topic review.
Selected questions from past CFA Institute Exams.
Topic formula sheets containing critical formulas.
Professor’s Notes that provide tips and strategies for the CFA®
Exam.
The 2005 Study Notes also include Schweser's QuickSheet (Crucial Concepts for
Exam Success) and a FREE Online Account with several new tools to help candidates
stay on track while studying for their Exam.
Also shipping as of today are SchweserPro - Testing Software and Flashcards. New features in SchweserPro include re-testing on
Incorrect questions, and the ability to choose Advanced, Intermediate, and Basic questions. Schweser Flashcards allow you to focus on key information, weighted according to importance by our faculty.
Now Shipping: 2005 Schweser Study Notes, SchweserPro™, and Flashcards for CFA Level 1
Posted October 20, 2004
Schweser Study Program is now shipping Schweser Study Notes for the 2005 CFA Level 1 Exam. Our Study Notes are comprised of six books that
are essential for all Level 1 candidates. These books include:
Complete coverage of all learning outcome statements (LOS) for the 2005
Exam.
Book six containing three full-length sample exams with two and three part
questions.
Enhanced problems at the end of each topic review.
Selected questions from past CFA Institute Exams.
Topic formula sheets containing critical formulas.
Professor’s Notes that provide tips and strategies for the CFA®
Exam.
The 2005 Study Notes also include Schweser's QuickSheet (Crucial Concepts for
Exam Success) and an Online Account with several new tools to help candidates
stay on track while studying for their Exam.
Also shipping as of today are SchweserPro - Testing Software and Flashcards. New features in SchweserPro include re-testing on
Incorrect questions, and the ability to choose Advanced, Intermediate, and Basic questions. Schweser Flashcards allow you to focus on key information, weighted according to importance by our faculty.
2004 Schweser Study Materials at 50% OFF for Level 2 and Level 3
Posted June 11, 2004
We have a limited amount of study materials remaining from the 2004 exam season
which you may purchase at half-price plus applicable shipping and/or tax, while
supplies last. You may use the purchase price (excluding shipping and tax) of
2004 study materials, purchased at half-price, June 7 - September 10, 2004 as
a credit (maximum credit amount $300) towards the purchase price of a 2005 STUDY
SOLUTION (this applies to Solution orders only, individual product purchases
are not eligible for this credit.).
Ask us about the Schweser Study Solutions for the 2005 season, or visit our
website www.schweser.com, in mid-July for complete details, or to place an order
for the 2005 season. Click
here (PDF) for a sneak preview of our new 2005 Study Solutions .
Global Investment Association AIMR Changes Name to "CFA Institute"
Posted May 10, 2004
New CEO Named to Take Office January 2005
DENVER, Colo. – MAY 9, 2004 - Members of the Association for Investment Management and Research (AIMR), the global non-profit professional association that administers the Chartered Financial Analyst® study and examination program worldwide, have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution that changes the organization’s name to “CFA Institute.”
The final vote was taken and announced tonight in Denver, Colo., at the annual membership meeting of the 70,000-member organization. The resolution was approved by more than 86 percent of members who voted in person or by proxy. The change takes effect immediately.
The Board of Governors also announced at the meeting that it had unanimously selected Jeffrey J. Diermeier, CFA, to become president and CEO of CFA Institute upon the retirement of current president and CEO Thomas A. Bowman, CFA, at the end of the year. Last December, Bowman announced his plans to retire Dec. 31, 2004. Diermeier, 51, most recently was global chief investment officer at UBS Global Asset Management.
Commenting on the name change, Bowman said, “The CFA name commands great respect in the investment world, even among people who have never heard of AIMR. Everything we do – our standard-setting initiatives, our advocacy work, our investment-performance standards, conferences and publications – all are built on the foundation of the knowledge, ethics and standards embodied in the CFA Program.”
The CFA Program is a rigorous self-study curriculum that requires candidates to pass a series of three six-hour examinations over at least two years. A minimum of 750 hours of study for the three examination levels are recommended. The curriculum covers investment analysis, portfolio management, financial statement analysis, corporate finance, economics, performance measurement and professional ethics. More than 85,000 candidates in 145 countries and territories are enrolled for the annual examinations in June, and another 30,000 are expected to enroll for the semi-annual exams in December.
The name change does not immediately affect the AIMR-Performance Presentation Standards, or AIMR-PPS®, which are a set of standardized industry guidelines used throughout the U.S. and Canada outlining how investment firms should calculate and report their investment results. The AIMR-PPS name may change in the next two years for different reasons, as the North American standards converge to a newer, global standard, called Global Investment Performance Standards, or GIPS®, which also were established under AIMR’s leadership.
Exhaustive Name Change Study and Review
AIMR was formed in 1990 as an umbrella organization that brought together the Financial Analysts Federation and the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts. The FAF’s history goes back to 1947 when four local-market financial analyst societies formed a federation. In the early 1960s, the FAF created the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts as a separate, independent entity commissioned to develop and administer the new Chartered Financial Analyst curriculum and examination program. The first CFA exam was offered in the U.S. and Canada in 1963.
Over the next 25 years the ICFA and FAF continued to work in parallel as the CFA examination steadily established a reputation as the definitive standard, first, for securities analysis and, later, for portfolio management and other investment specialties. This led to the 1990 combination of the two associations. However, from the outset, many members indicated that the name “AIMR” did not adequately describe the association or its membership, and lobbied the board to consider a change.
In recent years, name-change advocates received additional fodder for their argument as studies showed significant brand confusion among the targets of its public awareness campaign.
“As our public awareness efforts advanced, it became clear that having two brands—AIMR and CFA—diluted our message,” said Bowman. “People want to know that a professional credential is backed up by a reputable organization, but the minute we introduced ‘AIMR’ into our messaging, it created unnecessary confusion.”
Last September, the AIMR board commissioned a study to determine whether a name change was in the best interest of the organization and the CFA designation. It was determined that any new name would incorporate the letters “CFA.” Beginning in November 2003 and continuing through January 2004, AIMR tested several alternative names with members
About CFA Institute:
CFA Institute is the global, non-profit professional association that administers the Chartered Financial Analyst® curriculum and examination program worldwide and sets voluntary, ethics-based professional and performance-reporting standards for the investment industry. CFA Institute has 70,000 members in 115 countries. Its membership includes the world’s 57,000 CFA charterholders, as well as 129 affiliated professional societies and chapters in 50 countries and territories. CFA Institute is headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., USA, with additional offices in London and Hong Kong. CFA Institute was known as AIMR (Association for Investment Management and Research) from 1990 to early 2004, and before that was two separate organizations whose roots go back to 1947. More information may be found at www.cfainstitute.org or by calling 1-800-247-8132 or 1-434-951-5499 in the U.S., 44-207-712-1719 in London or 852-2868-2700 in Hong Kong.
Jeffrey Diermeier Named to Succeed Thomas Bowman as CEO of Global Investment Association CFA Institute (Formerly AIMR)
Posted May 10, 2004
DENVER, Colo, May 9, 2004 – The 70,000-member, worldwide Association for Investment Management and Research (AIMR) not only has a new name – “CFA Institute” – but also will have a new president and CEO effective Jan. 1, 2005, it was announced tonight at the organization’s annual meeting in Denver, Colo.
Jeffrey J. Diermeier, CFA, has been unanimously selected by the professional association’s Board of Governors to fill the position that will be vacated Dec. 31, 2004, by the retirement of Thomas A. Bowman, CFA, who has served as president and CEO since 1994. Bowman announced his retirement plans in December.
Diermeier, 51, most recently was global chief investment officer at UBS Global Asset Management. In that role, he oversaw the management of more than $400 billion in assets, covering asset allocation, equities, fixed-income, real estate and currencies, and a staff of 435 investment professionals in 10 countries. He had been with UBS and its predecessors since he joined the former First National Bank of Chicago in 1975.
At CFA Institute – known as “AIMR” until tonight’s membership vote to change the name of the organization – Diermeier will oversee the global management of the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) Program, a world-renowned study and credentialing program that requires passage of three rigorous examinations over at least two years. More than 97,000 candidates from 145 countries are currently enrolled.
He also will oversee the association’s many other programs and services – including its Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct, its advocacy and standard-setting initiatives, its conferences and Web-based training seminars, its highly regarded Financial Analysts Journal, and its Global Investment Performance Standards, or GIPS®, and other performance-measurement standards.
CFA Institute has members in 116 countries. Most are investment managers, securities analysts and private-client investment counselors. It also has 129 affiliated local or national professional societies in 50 countries or territories. Diermeier will manage a staff of 240 working in London, Hong Kong and Charlottesville, Virginia.
Diermeier has served the non-profit association in various volunteer capacities for 18 years, including six years on the CFA curriculum committee. Currently, he is a member of the Board of Governors, having been elected to the board in 2002. He currently chairs the board’s planning committee, and in that capacity played a leadership role in the development of a five-year strategic vision for the organization. He is a member of the Investment Analysts Society of Chicago (one of four societies that in 1947 co-founded the original forerunner to CFA Institute) and served on the IASC board of directors from 1990 to 1992.
“I am thrilled to be stepping into the leadership of such a vital organization at this critical juncture in the investment profession, when our industry has been so challenged by issues of professionalism and ethics,” Diermeier said. “No other organization has as its core mission to advance the skills, knowledge, ethics and standards of investment professionals around the world – a mission that is more relevant now than ever. I look forward to working with all our constituencies – our societies, our individual members, our candidates and staff – to help create a better investment environment overall.”
In announcing Diermeier’s appointment, Ted R. Aronson, CFA, chair of the CFA Institute Board of Governors, and head of the board’s ad hoc search committee, said, “Jeff brings an awesome array of talents and experience to his role of CEO. His knowledge of the issues and opportunities facing not only CFA Institute but the global investment environment will be invaluable as we enter the next stage of our development as a worldwide professional association. Moreover, the timing is charmed – it is fortuitous indeed that Jeff's availability coincides with Tom's retirement.”
Current President and CEO Thomas A. Bowman, CFA, said, “I couldn’t be more pleased with the board’s selection. My 18 years as an executive with this organization, including 10 years as CEO, have truly been a labor of love, so I have a great deal vested in seeing a successor build on all we’ve accomplished to date. Jeff brings a wealth of global management skills at a time when we are experiencing unprecedented international expansion, with all the attendant opportunities and challenges that brings with it. I can tell the members and staff unequivocally that this organization will be in great hands.”
“I have big shoes to fill,” Diermeier said. “When Tom Bowman took over as president and CEO 10 years ago, AIMR had 25,000 individual members and fewer then 20,000 candidates in the CFA Program. We had member societies in just six countries, where today we have societies in 50. The organization has more than tripled in size and scope since then. But even more impressive than growth in numbers, Tom has led the organization to become a much more visible and influential leader and advocate for high standards of competence and integrity throughout the profession.”
Diermeier graduated in 1974 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison with a bachelor’s of business administration and in 1975 with a master’s of business administration from the same institution. He earned the CFA charter in 1979. He began his career in 1975 as an equity analyst at First Chicago and rose to become head of asset allocation in 1980. When Brinson Partners was formed in a management buyout from First Chicago in 1989, he was head of its U.S. equity division. Later, when Brinson Partners became UBS Brinson (now UBS Global Asset Management), he became deputy chief investment officer and co-head of global equity. With the retirement of Gary Brinson, CFA, in 2000, he became global chief investment officer.
Diermeier has received two Graham and Dodd “Scroll Awards” for research articles he has contributed to the Financial Analysts Journal, published by CFA Institute. He also has received a Roger Murray Award from the Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance. He has received the distinguished Business Alumnus Award from the University of Wisconsin, where he served on the dean’s advisory board of the business school and endowed the Jeffrey J. Diermeier Chair in Finance. He is a member of the investment committees of both the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin Foundation.
About CFA Institute:
CFA Institute is the global, non-profit professional association that administers the CFA curriculum and examination program worldwide and sets voluntary, ethics-based professional and performance-reporting standards for the investment industry. CFA Institute has 70,000 members in 116 countries. Its membership includes the world’s 57,000 CFA charterholders, as well as 129 affiliated professional societies in 50 countries. CFA Institute is headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., with additional offices in London and Hong Kong. It was formed as the Association for Investment Management and Research in 1990 from the combination of the Financial Analysts Federation (formed in 1947) and the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts (formed in 1962). More information may be found at www.cfainstitute.org or by calling 1-800-247-8132 or 1-434-951-5499.
Topics Announced for Final Review SuperChat™ Sessions
Posted April 15, 2004
Join our virtual classroom as a part of your Final Review! Four interactive SuperChat webcast sessions* with Schweser faculty will help you make the most of that last month before the exam. We will focus on key topics based on candidate feedback to us throughout the season. Each SuperChat session includes exam strategy and final review lessons. SuperChats are also available in our archives for your scheduling flexibility.
You will be able to interact with the instructor by asking questions pertinent to the topic. The professor will support the answers by using examples and whiteboard technology. SuperChat also allows you to participate in polls and quizzes held during the review session.
The key topics for the four interactive webcasts in each CFA Level are listed below:
These four Final Review SuperChat Sessions can be purchased for $99, or as a part of the Final Review Series PLUS SuperChat for $159.
* Each live session SuperChat is limited to the first 300 registrants. All registrants will receive unlimited access to the archived versions of these sessions. * * All sessions are listed in Eastern Time.
Schweser's Online Practice Exams offer you the best simulation of the actual CFA® exam experience, including question difficulty, timing, and AIMR® question weighting. These cumulative exams offer
entirely new and different questions in comparison to any of our other products.
The exams will help you point out your areas of strengths and weaknesses. Choose
from five exams at Level 1, or four exams at Levels 2 and 3. Each exam may be
taken online, or printed off and taken at your convenience.
Online Practice Exams are included in SchweserOnline™, or can be ordered
independently.
Will you achieve peak performance on exam day? The Schweser Final Review Series will give you the competitive edge for exam day success. We will help you "bring it all together" in the weeks leading up to exam day. This late season series will be comprised of SuperChat web casting covering key topics, the popular Secret Sauce Book, and the following new products.
Essential Exam Strategies
This late season booklet contains all of the main points to focus on during the final weeks leading up to the CFA® exam. These items are covered:
Mastering the CFA® curriculum
Preparation during the week before the exam
Exam procedures
Tips for approaching questions at all levels
Answering essay questions at Levels 2 & 3
How an essay question is graded
Time management
Schweser's QuickSheet™
This new product is a concise six-page laminate. It is designed to be used as a quick reference and spans all major topic areas by level.
Live Intensive Review (4-Day Seminars) Coming to a Location Near You
Posted March 18, 2004
During the next two months, Schweser Study Program will hold spring seminars in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Calgary, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Newark, Orlando, San Francisco, St. Louis, Toronto, and Washington D.C. Our 4-Day Seminars are offered at convenient locations and times to fit into your demanding schedule.
Please select your CFA Level for additional details and to register:
Schweser to Present Open Houses Introducing Live 4-Day Seminars
Posted January 22, 2004
Schweser Study Program will be conducting eight FREE Open Houses across North
America during the first two weeks of February. These Open Houses will introduce
you to our new high-tech, 4-Day Intensive Review Seminars. In our Live Seminars
we will help you to “tie it all together” by integrating the material
and pointing out areas that require additional study. All seminars are taught
by experienced CFA® charterholders, most of whom hold Ph.Ds. Our program
instructors use specially developed supplemental instructional material to add
value to your study routine.
Benefits of Attending a FREE Open House
There are several benefits to attending one of these Open Houses. You will
be able to:
Register for any of our 4-Day Seminars at a discounted rate of $400 ($579
value). Offer good at the Open House only (not valid with NYSSA sponsored
seminars).
Register to win a set of Video CDs ($599 value).
Participate in a 1.5-hour lecture on quantitative methods (covering hypothesis
testing, linear regression, and multiple linear regression).
View handouts covering the entire presentation.
View Schweser's new high-tech seminar format.
Open House Dates and Locations
Registration is required to attend. Call 888-325-5072 or 608-779-5599, or email staff@schweser to reserve
your seat. Please include the location you would like to attend, your name, address, phone number and CFA Level.
Each presentation will be delivered by Dr. Andrew Temte, CFA or Dr. Greg Filbeck,
CFA, FRM.
City
Date
Location
Hotel
Phone
Presenter
Atlanta
Feb. 2
Westin Atlanta
Airport Hotel
(404) 762 - 7676
Dr. Temte
Boston
Feb. 4
Tremont Boston Hotel
(617) 426 - 1400
Dr. Temte
Chicago
Feb. 12
Double Tree
O’Hare Hotel
(847) 292 - 9100
Dr. Filbeck
Dallas
Feb. 11
Crowne Plaza
Suites Hotel
(972) 233 - 7600
Dr. Filbeck
Los Angeles
Feb. 10
Westin Los Angeles
Airport Hotel
(310) 216 - 5858
Dr. Filbeck
San Francisco
Feb. 9
Crowne Plaza
San Francisco Airport Hotel
(650) 342 - 9200
Dr. Filbeck
Toronto
Feb. 5
Hilton Toronto
Airport Hotel
(905) 677 - 9900
Dr. Temte
Washington, DC
Feb. 3
Renaissance Hotel
(202) 898 - 9000
Dr. Temte
Open House Schedule
6:00 p.m.
Registration
6:30 p.m.
Program
8:00 p.m.
Question and Answer Session
In addition to the cities with Open Houses, we will hold
spring seminars in Calgary, Houston, Las Vegas, New York, Newark, Orlando, and
St. Louis. Our 4-Day Seminars are offered at convenient locations and times
to fit into your demanding schedule:
Class Times for 4-Day Seminars
Day
Seminar
Evening Tutorial
Thursday:
1:00 - 6:00
Friday:
8:30 - 4:45
5:00 - 6:00
Saturday:
8:30 - 4:45
7:00 - 9:00
Sunday:
8:30 - 3:00
Please select your CFA Level for additional details and registering for 4-Day
Seminars :
Schweser Study Program Partners with New York Society of Security Analysts to Provide Chartered Financial Analyst® Exam Preparation
Posted September 11, 2003
Combined Program Will Prepare Nearly 2,000 CFA® Candidates Annually
New York/La Crosse, Wisconsin – September 11, 2003 – Schweser Study Program, a Kaplan Professional Company, announced it will partner with the New York Society of Securityies Analysts (NYSSA) to offer premium CFA® training programs in New York City. The CFA® charter is a globally recognized standard for professionals in the financial services industry, and indicates that a financial professional has undergone a rigorous curriculum of investment topics and is committed to the highest standards and ethics.
In New York City, 8,524 candidates registered for the May/June 2003 CFA® exam, according to the Association for Investment Management and Research (AIMR®), which administers the exams. Worldwide, 102,352 candidates registered for the May/June 2003 CFA® exam.
“We hold NYSSA in the highest regard,” said Dr. Andrew Temte, President and CEO of Schweser Study Program. “Given the organization’s prominence and reputation for quality, we are pleased to join forces with NYSSA to expand our reach among New York securities professionals and better serve CFA® candidates in this key financial market.”
“We are excited to team with Schweser Study Program, which is respected worldwide for its premium quality training resources,” said Eileen Budd, Director of Programming and Education of NYSSA. “As the CFA® designation becomes increasingly global, our ability to leverage Schweser’s resources and expertise will benefit the growing number of New York professionals seeking CFA® training.”
Schweser Study Program is the largest worldwide provider of training tools for the CFA® exam, and has serviced over 39,000 candidates worldwide in 2003 through its live courses, online programs, and physical study materials. NYSSA is a not-for-profit educational organization dedicated to informing and educating investors, and advancing the professional competence of investment professionals including portfolio managers, security analysts, investment advisors, and others involved in the investment process.
About Schweser Study Program
Schweser Study Program (www.schweser.com) is the global leader in providing training tools for the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) examination and the Financial Risk Manager (FRM®) exam. Schweser offers a comprehensive product line developed and taught by a world class faculty. Study materials include Study Notes, Flashcards, Video CDs, Audio CDs, Live Seminars, Online Services, Testing Software, and Practice Exams. Schweser is a unit of Kaplan Professional, a division of Kaplan, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).About Schweser Study Program
About NYSSA
Since 1937, the New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA) has educated and inspired investment professionals, providing them with a unique forum for the exchange of ideas and information. NYSSA was founded by Benjamin Graham, the “father of security analysis” and one of the most influential men in the history of finance. With over 8,900 members, NYSSA is the largest of over 115 financial analyst societies wordwide that comprise the Association for Investment Management and Research (AIMR) ®. NYSSA’s mission is to educate and inform investment decision makers, promote ethical standards in the industry, and assist financial professionals in career development.
2004 CFA® Product Line to Include New Virtual Weekly Program, SuperChat Sessions
Schweser Study Program, a Kaplan Professional Company, will enhance its product line for the 2004 CFA exams to include a virtual weekly program that will enable CFA candidates to enjoy the rigor and structure of a weekly educational program without leaving their homes or offices. Each week beginning in January, candidates will be notified to read preassigned pages from the Schweser Study Notes and work certain end-of-reading problem sets. Candidates will then watch Schweser's expert faculty give a 2-21/2 hour video lecture explaining the topic of the week and can view the videos as often as they wish to improve comprehension. Schweser's faculty will also conduct 50-minute SuperChat™ tutorial review sessions discussing the topic and answering participants' questions. The sessions will be conducted live via the Internet.
Designed primarily to serve as a tutorial review, participation in a live SuperChat session allows the CFA candidate to see and hear a "level-specialist" professor clarify troublesome exam areas in real time. Participants can enter questions into a textbox for submission into the professor's queue. Schweser's expert faculty then selects the questions or issues that are most pertinent for discussion and provides succinct and clear explanations and on-the-fly examples to enhance the candidate's understanding of the topic at hand.
Participants will also receive access to the Schweser Priority Pass version of its cutting-edge online educational program. On September 22, this special version of SchweserOnline will feature read-only PDF files of the renowned Schweser Study Notes for the 2004 exam to allow candidates to get the earliest start possible. Each week, Schweser staff will release additional study sessions of content to its online program and refresh the list of available PDF files as its editorial staff completes the Notes. The Schweser Priority Pass will also be sold in a separate package featuring SchweserOnline, SchweserPro, and the physical Schweser Study Notes.
Schweser Transforms its CFA® Live Intensive Seminars
Once again, Schweser has transformed the live CFA® review seminar with its innovative high-tech, 4-day seminar that includes evening tutorial review sessions. Each "level-specialist" instructor will be equipped with a tablet PC and an LCD projector so that he or she can highlight the relevant Study Notes material and create on-the-spot illustrations. So that candidates can focus more clearly on the presentation, they will be emailed the professor's illustrations and annotations after the seminar.
This innovative 4-day seminar model is designed to fit the needs of the working professional. The seminar starts at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, which allows for an extra half-day of work. If candidates are traveling to the seminar, they don't have to arrive the night before. Most importantly, tutorial reviews have been added on Friday and Saturday evenings to allow for individual questions and to enhance retention and comprehension. The seminar concludes at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday to allow candidates more time to return home the same day.
Level 1 candidates will enjoy a 50-question mock exam on Sunday followed by an exam review session that is designed to clearly illustrate what to expect on the actual exam.
Please select your CFA Level for more information:
Schweser Study Program® welcomes The Financial Trading Company (FTC) to Kaplan Professional. FTC is the official distributor of Schweser Study Materials in Europe, which helps to reduce the cost of our materials to candidates located in European regions.
FTC is widely recognized as a leader in test preparation services for accounting and financial services professionals in the UK and Europe, including the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®) designation. In addition to their headquarters in London, FTC has expanded their training centers to many regions with a growing presence in Asia, including operations in Hong Kong and Singapore.
The FTC Dealership Territories include: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Candidates located in these geographical areas should continue to contact FTC for Schweser Study Materials.
Northern Ireland (uk)
