Best CFA Exam Prep Courses for October 2025

Kaplan Schweser earned the top score among CFA exam prep courses we reviewed. It offers a complete education in everything you’ll need to pass the CFA Level I exam, whether you choose the inexpensive Basic plan or the comprehensive Ultimate plan. You’ll find similar courses and additional resources for Levels II and III.

Kaplan Schweser offers four packages, with different resources and levels of instruction:

• Basic: Digital books; no pass protection
• Essential: Digital books; comes with pass protection
• Premium: Digital and printed books; comes with pass protection
• Ultimate: Digital and printed books; comes with pass protection

Each package comes with access to the SchweserPro QBank (question bank), mock exams, checkpoint exams, and a performance tracker. There are some free resources available on the site as well.

Upgrading from Basic to Essential will get you the PassProtection pass guarantee, along with study notes. Upgrading to Premium gets you Schweser’s Secret Sauce, a booklet with study tips, and review workshops with extra instruction. And upgrading to Ultimate provides several more features centered around live interaction and education, like the ability to ask questions of an instructor, live Masterclasses, and live review workshops.

There aren’t many customer reviews of CFA exam prep courses online, but among those that we reviewed, Princeton Review scored the highest for overall customer satisfaction (4.3 out of 5), which combines customer ratings from a variety of sources. You can sample the service with a 14-day free trial, and if you take an eligible course and then fail the Level I CFA exam, you can get your money back.

Princeton Review offers a few different plans:

• Essential: Self-paced study
• Ultimate: Live expert instruction and Q&A access
• Private Tutoring: 14 hours of live 1-on-1 tutoring

Each plan includes the same on-demand educational resources, like practice questions, slides of study notes, 50+ hours of recorded video, mock exams, flash cards, and a formula sheet. Each plan includes the same pass guarantee. By paying more you can get access to personalized one-on-one instruction from a teacher.

Princeton Review provides courses for Level II and III CFA exams, but they only feature on-demand content—there is no live instruction available for those levels.

Different people prefer to learn in different ways. If you like studying for tests by going through a big collection of example questions, Bloomberg’s Level I CFA exam prep course should be at the top of your list. 

Bloomberg provides 10,000 practice questions in each of its plans, from basic to premium. That’s far more than any other service included in our research (the next highest was 5,000). The most basic plan, Sprint, comes with four full mock exams; the Essential plan comes with seven; and the Ultimate plan comes with 11. Compare that to other services, which provide six exams at most in their highest-tier plans.

A free seven-day trial is available to give you an idea if this service is right for you. If you’re having trouble, Bloomberg offers a certain number of Ask-a-Tutor questions, but only with certain plan levels. One-on-one tutoring is also available. If you complete the course and fail the exam, you can get a full refund.

If price is a major factor when choosing CFA exam prep, consider Salt Solutions. Its basic plan (Focus Express) is the least expensive among Level I exam courses we researched, and its premium plan (Complete) is among the least expensive. 

There’s a 14-day trial, but take note that Focus Express only provides access for 45 days. The Complete plan offers lifetime access.

Salt Solutions has some modern tools, like its CheckPoints Pacer, which provides weekly goals based on your progress. It also has many of the same features you find with other services, like video lectures, formula sheets, custom quizzes, practice questions, and mock exams.

But some of those features are a bit limited compared to other services. The pass guarantee is only available in the upgraded plan. And the basic Focus Express plan doesn’t include video lectures, learning manuals, reading assignments, solution materials, or the CheckPoints Pacer—you’ll need to upgrade for those. 

Salt Solutions can be a good pick if you’re on a limited budget and are feeling confident in your ability to learn the material and do well on the exam. Just be sure to try it out first with the free trial.

AnalystPrep is another good budget option, with plans and features at a slightly higher level than Salt Solutions. It’s worth considering because even the least expensive plan comes with great tools, including some of the most valuable study materials: practice questions and mock exams.

You’ve got three plan options when it comes to the Level I exam:

• Practice Package: 12-month access, with question bank and mock exams
• Learn + Practice Package: 12-month access, including video lessons and study notes
• Unlimited Package: Lifetime access, includes courses for Level I, Level II, and Level III CFA exams

The basic Practice package is pretty comprehensive, with 4,000 practice questions, five full-length mock exams, and a formula sheet. It even comes with five Ask-a-Tutor questions, an interesting find because it’s rare to see actual teacher interaction among base-level plans. Upgrading to Learn + Practice adds video lessons and study notes, and the final upgrade includes course materials for every level of the CFA exam. You can buy specific courses for Levels II and III, as well.