If you don't care about the designation then the most cost effective thing to do is just get the books from a previous year from somewhere like Craigslist or eb

If you don't care about the designation then the most cost effective thing to do is just get the books from a previous year from somewhere like Craigslist or ebay. The official syllabus is published by the CFA Institute. Schweser have a cliff notes-style abbreviated version of the syllabus. It's faster and more direct but it doesn't go into as much detail. Level 1 is roughly equivalent to a bachelors in finance. After level 2 you'll roughly have the same level of understanding of finance, econ and accounting that an MBA would give you. Level 3 is more esoteric and deals more with portfolio management than other fields.