Exam Feedback November 15, 2008

[amritanand]

It was simply horrifying. This is not a way to test Knowledge and skill. U r simply checking time management.

It was surprising to see that many of the questions answers were not matching or were simply away from the statement. Your question says use compounding method but choices are those when we use discrete compounding.

Given a one page case study on Op risk caoital estimation, not justifyiable. U are just checking my skills of mathematical computation AND FAST USE OF CALCULATOR, it took lot of time. There was nothing big in that question. ( ALCO BANK QUESTION)

I hope any one who scores 50 is sure to clear it this time. The question was such that even finance pundits will not be able to solve in stipulated time.


Cheers and best of luck to all

 

[amritanand]

Issue is what does garp do if the alternative answers are not correct. What if in TROR question I have choosen -12 mio instead of -6 mio althogh the answer was -9 mio.

Even the VaR questions, alternatives were not correct. Does it give benefit of doubt.

Also I do not know why have they checked the concepts of VaR after every second question,in real world and to us practitioners we feel VaR has badly failed and has almost lost relevance, its concepts only look good in books.

 

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i voted as bad in the poll above ...

At the end of the day the fact that GARP forgot the AIMS about Basel this year and yet tested Basel as extensively is simply unforigivable. Combined with the rest of the mis-alignments to the AIMS I lost faith in the exam.. With more than one question instead of trying to answer the question I was instead estimating the probability that there was a flaw in the question (like the mistakes in the 2008 practise exam) which made it impossible to answer the question correctly. Since I easily missed out on 15 questions cause i ran out of time, I have no idea whether I passed. I reckon the max i can get is a 50%. If this is sufficient to pass - like it was last year - I'd be happy for sure but still question what exactly it all meant.

I learnt an incredible amount in the last 6 months studying for this exam, thanks to Bionic Turtle. I particpated from the early-bird sessions and easily put in 350 hrs. David, you have an incredible gift and I was constantly at peace thinking there was someone out there doing so much of the studying for me. Thanks. The lectures are incredible as well as the excel sheets and notes. The ONLY thing missing is practise questions, which is clearly difficult (as mentioned) given that GARP didnt exacgtly strictly stick to the AIMS.

David, I took the concrete decision not do focus to much on past exam questions (beyond prescribed given time) since many of them didnt seem to link to the AIMS. This was a mistake since the test in fact didnt test many of the new AIMS and in this sense was like the past exams. More practise would have helped. The other mistake I made was to not spend enough time on the Investment Discipline and all the different VARs. I would make the point to FRM candidates next year to not see the Investment discipline as "the last 10%" but rather the "last 10% that ties it all together."

I dont know if I will write the exam again next year if I fail. But i might just subscribe again to Bionic Turtle for the movies.

Regards,
Philip

 

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I passed.

 

[[email protected]]

Thanks Mr. Turtle you ROCK!

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Philip,

Awesome, congratulations!
(Your feedback from November remains appreciated and valuable. Your first paragraph echoes the thrust of my feedback to GARP. Thanks again.)

David

 

[itsyourz]

Hi

David!

ive passed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks for everything,,

really!


suk

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

suk,

I am thrilled to hear that! Thank you very much for engaging in the forum with your queries, it helped others...David