Choosing CFA study materials: the official curriculum or a prep provider?

The CFA candidate who buys notes from two providers, a question bank from a third and a video course from a fourth rarely finishes any of them.

Three routes to material

Route 1: the official route. Your registration gives you access to CFA Institute's curriculum and its learning ecosystem, including practice questions and mock exams. This suits disciplined self-learners who want material written by the examiner.

Route 2: a prep provider. Many providers sell condensed notes, video lectures, question banks and mock exams. A provider offers structure and a shorter read. Ask whether it follows the outline for your exam year.

Route 3: the limited-time route. If you have ten hours a week or less, choose one main source, the official practice questions and mock exams, and a short review course near the end. Study the topics you rated lowest first.

Each route trades cost for structure. Official practice matters in all of them.

Which route suits whom

Do not pick by marketing. Pick by how you learn, and by the weekly hours you measured.

Four checks

Before you pay for anything, confirm all four.

1. It names your level and exam year. Material for another year may follow different weights.
2. It follows the topic outline. For Level I in 2027, Ethics is 10 to 15 per cent and Quantitative Methods 11 to 14 per cent. Material showing the 2026 weights is out of date for a 2027 exam.
3. It includes questions in the format of your level. Level I uses three-option multiple choice, Level II uses vignette item sets and Level III adds essay sets.
4. The refund policy is in writing. Read it before you pay.

If a product fails any check, keep looking, or use it only for background.

Second-hand notes

A friend's notes can be useful for background, but they are often a year or two old. A candidate in the book bought second-hand notes, noticed they were two years old, kept them for background and used the official curriculum for his exam year. It is a fair compromise.

Check the cover page and the weights before you read a line.

Avoiding overlap

Write one line for each of your study needs.

• Main reading source
• One question bank
• Mock exams
• Revision sources for the last month

Fill each line with exactly one item. If you want to add a second item to a line, ask what the first one failed to give you. If the answer is not clear, do not buy it.

Where the money should go

The standard budget in the book adds a prep provider's notes and a question bank to the official route, while the economy budget uses only the official curriculum and mock exams with early registration. An intensive budget adds live classes or a review course.

In every budget, keep a reserve for a possible retake. Ask your employer about sponsorship first, because it is the biggest saving.

When to stop buying

When you have a main source, a question bank and the official mocks, you have enough. Extra material does not add marks. It adds reasons to postpone the practice that does.

Clear the shelf

On one page, write your main source, your question bank and the dates of your mocks. Anything left on the shelf that fails the four checks gets labelled "background only" and stays closed until the main source is finished.