Exam Feedback FRM Part 2 (November 2014) Exam Feedback

Tanya Vasileva

New Member
Subscriber
I've remembered a question about the difference between the Nominal & Z-spread - I think I got Yield Curve 2 & MBS 1
For 5) 73% was LCR - I think the amount given for Level 2A assets staited that the haircut was already applied ....
 

Roshan Ramdas

Active Member
I've remembered a question about the difference between the Nominal & Z-spread - I think I got Yield Curve 2 & MBS 1
For 5) 73% was LCR - I think the amount given for Level 2A assets staited that the haircut was already applied ....
Hi Tanya - Are you sure that there was mention about the haircut already being applied to the level 2A ??
I did perform the 40% check on the Level 2A assets but forgot to account for the haircut and landed up using the Level 1+Level 2A in the numerator. My answer should still be correct if the Level 2A figure already contained the haircut.
 

AnZu

New Member
I found the exam brutal. I agree with someone else that the questions were worded in a very confusing way. There were 5 or 6 questions on the CSA, and I haven't done all of the BT questions, but neither the GARP, Kaplan, nor BT questions (the mock exam ones) covered this, so I lost a lot of points--I didn't really go over that one in much detail in my revision.

For the RWA question (it was one of the first 5 or so questions) the market risk was already given in RWA form, but the op risk and credit risk were given as the capital charge. I divided the credit risk charge by 8%, but for op risk, I thought the capital charge is 15% of the average of the last 3 years of income, so for that one, I divided by 15%, and I did not get any of the answer choices, though one of the answer choices was something like 1135, and I got 1315. This must mean I did it wrong, but were all of the capital charge weights supposed to be 8%? There was one answer that matched that (choice d, I think), but I'm pretty sure the op risk charge was different, so I didn't pick that one.

I do not remember reading about variance vs volatility swaps anywhere. (And I was using the GARP book, the schweser, and BT)

There was a question about a HF with high returns with an 18-month lock in period where they are only accepting new investors for the next 30 months. I think I put that the 18 month lock in period should cause alarm, but is it normal for all hedge funds? I didn't pick that answer because it seemed extreme (normal for all hedgefunds, rather than "some", etc).
 

OL

New Member
I've remembered a question about the difference between the Nominal & Z-spread - I think I got Yield Curve 2 & MBS 1
For 5) 73% was LCR - I think the amount given for Level 2A assets staited that the haircut was already applied ....


I think LCR question is 73% since basically it cant be more than 75%
 

sudssuds

New Member
Hi Nicole/David,

Based on your experience, do you always get this kind of "very Difficult" feedback from students or are we a "bunch of ill prepared losers"
 

Thierry S

New Member
During my preparation, I've scored pretty well (70%+), whether on the BT mock exams or the Schweser practice exams but also on the GARP practice questions. Also it always took me less time to do them (Kaplan 2014 Final Review exam, I scored 80% in 2h40). So I felt pretty confident.

I found the exam pretty difficult but interessting. GARP wants us to think out of the box. I'd love to have time to go through the exam without time pressure. Of course there were easier questions than others. As mentioned by AnZu there were several questions on CSA, I did struggle on them as well. When going through the questions I didn't feel very confident as the wording in the exam was different than the mock exam. I just finished on time. I didn't feel well prepared after the exam.

Let's see when the results come out.

Although I loved BT for Part 1, I am a bit disappointed for part 2. The Part on Current Issues in Fin Market has only 4 readings and the video is usless and many new topics didn't have study notes. Given we are in November, I expected full coverage and updated material.

May be Schweser provide more structure in the notes.
 

JacquesBBB

New Member
I found the exam brutal. I agree with someone else that the questions were worded in a very confusing way. There were 5 or 6 questions on the CSA, and I haven't done all of the BT questions, but neither the GARP, Kaplan, nor BT questions (the mock exam ones) covered this, so I lost a lot of points--I didn't really go over that one in much detail in my revision.

For the RWA question (it was one of the first 5 or so questions) the market risk was already given in RWA form, but the op risk and credit risk were given as the capital charge. I divided the credit risk charge by 8%, but for op risk, I thought the capital charge is 15% of the average of the last 3 years of income, so for that one, I divided by 15%, and I did not get any of the answer choices, though one of the answer choices was something like 1135, and I got 1315. This must mean I did it wrong, but were all of the capital charge weights supposed to be 8%? There was one answer that matched that (choice d, I think), but I'm pretty sure the op risk charge was different, so I didn't pick that one.

I do not remember reading about variance vs volatility swaps anywhere. (And I was using the GARP book, the schweser, and BT)

There was a question about a HF with high returns with an 18-month lock in period where they are only accepting new investors for the next 30 months. I think I put that the 18 month lock in period should cause alarm, but is it normal for all hedge funds? I didn't pick that answer because it seemed extreme (normal for all hedgefunds, rather than "some", etc).
For the RWA question, if I remenber well, the credit part was already given in RWA , but not the market and op risk part. So we had to multiply the market and op risk by 12,5 and sum it with the given RWA credit amount.
 

JacquesBBB

New Member
For the RWA question, if I remenber well, the credit part was already given in RWA , but not the market and op risk part. So we had to multiply the market and op risk by 12,5 and sum it with the given RWA credit amount.

For the 18 months lock in period , I select the answer underlying the inconstancy between the investmebt in liquid asset and the 18 months period lock
 

JacquesBBB

New Member
I remenber a question concerning the golin reading and credit analyst who use just the quantitativ credit analysis in their decision and we had to guess the type of conterpart. I selected the answer customer
 

Roshan Ramdas

Active Member
Rams y u deleted your answers ..we could discuss many other questions as well..
:)
Yep,...I performed a full fledged review of the list of questions that you had posted and had reverted with my view.
I took back the post as I was not really sure if GARP has any rule in their code of conduct that stops candidates from discussing questions post the exam.
 

JacquesBBB

New Member
The question about the PD over 3 year which were 3% with the internal model, and we had to compare it with the Information given by the spread and the cumulative PD Matrix of a Rating agency.
I selected that the 3% was the lowest PD among the three measures
 
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