Fitch CFA Review: Pros and Cons Analysis

Fitch CFA Review (formerly known as 7City Learning) has been around since 2000. They offer live classes in selected locations, online review kit and mock exams. Fitch CFA review courses train over 3,000 candidates every year, and have helped over 31,000 aspiring CFAs.

Fitch CFA Course Offering

1. Classroom Learning

There are ongoing virtual classes as well as 2-day live review courses.

The 2-day course is essentially a final review, running on a weekend from 9:30am to 4pm. This course is available in major cities across regions.

Course materials include:

• A companion book to the CFAI text book, in electronic format
• Study plan (static)
• Revision guide with equations key concept
• Online portal and mobile app (see below)
• Instructor help desk

2. Online Portal and Mobile App

You can also choose to get only the online package, which is priced at $678 for Level 1 to $878 for Level 3.

The Online Review Kit is packed with resources to help final preparation for the CFA exam.

• Three full mock exams
• Instructor recordings and webcasts
• Final countdown revision guide
• Revision mind maps
• Revision summaries and exam style questions

Fitch CFA Pros and Cons

Pros

1. Great at Explaining Concepts

The 2-day live classes have generally good reviews. They are usually offered 5-6 weeks before the exam as a cram revision course covering all topics. For Level 1, it includes a book with revision questions and for Level 2, there is  a book with 30 vignettes with 6 questions each. There are also 3 mock exams.

For online portal, the videos tend to be more instructive than that from Schweser. The instructors go through the reading in a more thorough way than some of his counterparts in Schweser. They are also helpful in responding emails.

2. Lots of Practice Questions

Fitch CFA Review has a bank of tons of questions, which might be comparable to Qbank (which I’ve never used). THey’re good for learning concepts, but not good enough for learning the complicated vignette-style questions.

3. No Pass No Pay (with Restrictions)

Fitch CFA Review has a No Pay No Pass policy, where if you don’t pass the CFA exam, they cut you a check for the exam fees.

Cons

1. Notes Not Detailed Enough?

I haven’t heard from readers who are customers of Fitch CFA, but based on previous comments on 7City (which I assume is the same), my readers find the notes not as useful, as in they only give out slides with bullet points rather than detailed notes.

Having said that, Fitch doesn’t design these notes to be a replacement of the CFAI text (as in Schweser, for example), but as a supplement. The Fitch notes are great for this purpose.

2. Question Banks Not as Structured

The questions are generally great in helping candidates understand the concepts, but they are not as “exam structured” so in terms of exam taking strategies, the others may offer more value.

3. Cancelled Classes?

I’ve heard classes being cancelled without notice, due to low enrollment. The class was in New York City.

Recommendations

Fitch CFA is a decent product with its fair share of pros and cons. If you are look for a supplement (instead of a replacement) of CFAI text book, this could be a good choice.

My general recommendation is Wiley CFA which offers a more integrated course with excellent video instructor, tough practice questions, free trials and access until you pass: