Failed..
Hi David & BT team,
All this time, I held myself to post here but kindly allow me to share my story today.
By interest, I love valuation side of finance. Thus, am a CFA candidate and pursuing the same. However, recently I moved to Market Risk domain in career thus thought to pursue FRM.
Being CFA candidate and working guy, I straight away relied on my best buddy till date; Schwezer notes, oblivious to what is happening in FRM prep arena. Little did I realize that FRM and CFA preps. are different and it can be possible that Schwezer might not be best in all.
Since during CFA prep, Schwezer material was so much helpful that I never thought beyond it.
After swearing by it and following it religiously for 3 months when I was ready for the exam, just at the fag end of my preparation, since I had some time, thought to stroll over net and look howz everyone else doing out there. Only then I came to know about Bionic Turtle. When I took, the Schwezer exams, I was so confident of my prep. but when I took FRM mock exams, I was totally flummoxed.
I was doing good in basics but when it came to solving practical questions or when concept was tested in depth, I was clueless.
Shell shocked, I went into panic mode and that's when Bionic turtle came to my rescue. It was just 2 weeks before the exam so buying material wouldn't have made much sense so I turned to You tube and watched as much videos as possible. It was just learning and learning.
Well, the more I watched the videos, the more I realized how tangential my preparation was. I realized contrast to CFA, FRM is much deeper and it tests not the definition but real application which was totally not covered in Schwezer material as it still carries hangover of CFA exam. It hell scared me but then 2 weeks of thorough analysis of all videos, gave me that last minute punch. I kicked myself for such blind faith but more importantly ignoring such an awesome material, more from knowledge perspective.
I really liked the sincerity of David and team, about whole approach of exam and beyond. Had you not shared some videos on You tube, it could have been disaster for candidates like me. I realized how beautiful knowledge sharing can be.
One thing which attracted me the most about David and BT material is that it really fascinates you towards learning the material from practical purpose and not just as an exam clearing machine. The testimony to the fact is that I applied some of the learning in my work too, such was the magic.
Well news is, I too cleared FRM-level-1 in my first attempt with 3/4 score in first quartile.
Lesson learnt and now am more informed for Level-2 prep.
Last word from my side would be, since BT material is mostly online I feel Schwezer is still useful to get the basics and to have some physical books by your side which IMO to be used as complementary with irreplaceable indepth knowledge of David's videos.
Thanks a ton David!
Cheers,
Anshul
Consultant -Risk
PS: This post is not to undermine Schwezer material or spread any negative info. about it. Schwezer is an awesome guide for CFA exam but for me in case of FRM prep, it simply didn't work as only independent guide.