FRM Practice exam

[ravishankar80]

Hi David,

I was going through the GARP digital library . I saw that they are giving FRM Practice Exams 2008 at no fee to members . Wanted to check if these give us a feel of the actual exam . Also I understand that you don't provide a full length exam , is this correct? So will these papers be a good enough practice for the exam. Thanks

Ravi

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Hi Ravi,

Right, I don't have a full-length sample exam. On the member page, I've got a copy of the 2008 to which you refer plus two others: http://www.bionicturtle.com/learn/article/practice_exams/

I've been thru the 2008 sample - I think it's very good. Yes, it is representative. Generally, as you go back (2007, 2006) they are good samples with a bit of "erosion" in relevance is the topics have churned - with highest relevance in quant/market risk and less in the others as the churn is greater.

David

 

[varadarajan]

Hi David,
The 2008 FRM practice exam, as I understand from it's introduction, is based on a sample of 2006 FRM exam. I have come across many comments from 2007 exam takers that the 2007 exam was a lot different (difficult) than it has been earlier and it was more 'case - like' and practice oriented. If this is true about the 2007 exam (please correct me if I am wrong), can we still consider the 2008 practice exam to be representative of the difficulty level of 2008 exam or merely as a representation of the areas of coverage?

Also, please let me know if there is anyway we can get the 2007 questions.

regards

varadarajan N

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

varadarajan,

Yes, I did get the same feedback, some of that same feedback vis a vis 2007 is on this forum.

Re "can we consider the 2008 representative?" In truth, I would *not* make this assumption in totality. In the last couple of years, there has been some frustration with the sample questions (especially the CD-ROM) vis a vis their "representativeness." A big part of this, you must understand, is content churn. There are many many examples; e.g., recent sample questions may have hedge accounting b/c it previously was in the AIMs, but no longer; subprime securitization will not appear in old samples, but is new this year, etc etc. In general, Quant and Market tend to be more durable (i.e., old sample questions apply) than the other three disciplines. But, operational risk, for example, has churned a *lot;* many old questions will not apply.

Re: the 2007 questions, I tried *really* hard to pry them away from GARP. I really wanted that exam...but they have shared it with no one...if i had it, it would be on the member page...

David

...append...as noted, I concur that "case - like and practice oriented" was reflected in some of the feedback. IMO, this is a good thing reflecting GARP's want to become a better exam (less standardized and more practitioner-oriented)...this sort of thing (IMO) indicates that the best preparation is diligence toward the AIMs.