FRM results released!!

[cgiyer]

David,

Passed. The quality of your material is way ahead of competitor offerings. Combined with core readings they can help any candidate get an edge.

My specific feedback would be to see the question bank simulate more of GARP-like questions, albeit on a higher scale.

Thanks for your help.

Regards,
Ai-see

 

[shauncass]

@ajsa : 22,854 candidates registered for both Full and L1 by Aug 31,09 if u go by that report...that is the standard registration deadline...if i remember the final date of registration is Oct 31,09 - so thats another 2 months of registrations of which there is no public information as far as I know....

also we do not know the percentage of ppl sitting for Full and L1 separately...

and as David says we do not know the number of ppl who actually sat for the exam....

In conclusion, we cannot guess the passing rate close to the accurate one!!! and there wud b a different passing rate for Full and L1....

Btw I also cleared the Full Level(had to wait so many hrs till GARP finally put out a passing list..)

@ David, am not ur customer but have used the forum to some extent...would suggest ur material to others next time...

 

[SJWong]

Hi David,

Just to let you know that I passed the full FRM as well, despite coming out of the morning exam and thinking that it was "game over" even before the afternoon session began.

My experience with FRM training providers may be illuminating. I initially subscribed to one of your largest competitors and paid for their premium product but two months before the exam, I came across BT. Being sufficiently impressed by the material that was freely available, I subscribed and frankly, it was one of the best things I did last year.

Not only do you have the gift of clarity with tutorials that really get to the nub of the issue but I've been continually impressed at how responsive you have been in the forum. So when your competitor's 'final exam prep handbook' arrived a month before the exam, it almost went straight into the bin as it was about as much use as trying to prepare for the FRM with a set of bubble gum cards.

One point worth making is that I did all 1600 qbank questions provided by your competitor and all I can say is that they were way too easy and might have been appropriate if you took the exam pre-2006. There is no doubt that in the past few years the FRM exam has become considerably more difficult (with the 2009 morning exam marking the 'high water mark').

So I must thank you for providing an excellent service and have already recommended BT to a couple of aspiring FRM candidates. Judging by the comments in this forum, I am sure they will soon number amongst your growing fan base.

Steven

 

[rpwes]

Here is my calc of pass rate for L1 & Full

23000 totals registered (Full + L1)


13.7K registered for 2008 assuming a 40% increase from 2008 results in ~19.2K Full Registrations
of which I assume 15% were noshows ~ 16.3K of which 6,375 passed resulting in a pass rate of 39.1% for Full Exam

For L1

I have 3,280 as num registered (based on past threads there were far fewer L1 takers than FULL exam)
of which I assume 15% were noshows ~ 3.2K of which 981 passed resulting in a pass rate of ~30%

 

[ajsa]

My results are:
Credit Risk Measurement and Management: 2nd Quartile.
All other categories: 1st Quartile

I guess except David I am the one who have posted most on this forum. I asked so many questions, and David was very patient and deeply understands FRM concepts! His explanations were very clear and can be easliy followed. I highly recommend BT without any reservations! As I said before, without BT the journey would be much more painful because I hate to leave anything unclear in studies but studying alone i did not have anyone to discuss with.

David, below are some of my suggestions (just personal opinions).
1. Video tuturial is very time consuming (you know better than anyone else I believe). It is hard to maintain because each year you will have to re-record everything for small changes in cirriculum. so i still think notes are better and more viable from your business perspective. (I agree with your concern about copyright though)
2. It may not be very helpful to include screenshots of spreadsheets in the notes. it is hard to follow. If you decide to focus on notes, you may want to re-write the examples without spreadsheet, though you can keep spreadsheets on BT.
3. I know you spent huge amount of time on answering questions on the forum. it should be reused than being discarded. I think candidates in the future will have those similar questions/confusions again and again, and very likely it means those questions are not clearly addressed in the materials so you may want to incorporate them into your materials
4. previous years' questions are very valuable. I think BT can list all those questions in the forum (for paid members) and organize them based on years. the order of the questions should be fixed for easy lookup. each question is a thread (the current way). so candidate can easliy find the answers/explainations/discussions himself. It will save you a lot of time as well.

lastly thank you very much again David!

Hi ajsa - great to hear from you, looking forward to further feedback. Isn't the 20,000+ registrants such that the actual number who sat for the exam is materially lower; i.e., a material number register but do not follow thru with sitting? (I have a query into GARP re: pass rate, but I am not expecting them to be able to share information yet...). Thanks, David​

 

[eddfung]

Hi David

I passed the exam with 4x1st Quartile, 4x2nd Quartile, and 1 3rd Quartile. Thanks very much for your guidance through these trough
months.

As you said, I was one of those who thought I would fail miserly (the morning one was horrible! I could say the questions were set more difficult than any CFA exams. I even spotted a couple of errors in the exam's questions and perhaps even answers!).

The Videos and Illustrations are great! The forum Q&A helped me pick up some of the materials.

Your notes are good but unfortunately I don't see anything beyond those topics in L1.

My suggestion: Like someone said before, rather than following the official learning objectives strictly, you may shorten the video for each topic in an hr or two. As you know, the GARP's outcomes are loosely set, and some of the learning outcomes are overlapping and confusing, particularly BASEL2. ( PRM seems better, as they provide an official handbook to candidates, while FRM's handbook is not in depth enough!) You know what, the review video/audio#1 & 2 (for the level 1), I have gone through a few times.

BTW, during Xmas I read a book called Balck Swan by Nassim Taleb, and have been relating what the author related to what I have leant in FRM, Have you read it? Can I still ask you questions on your opinions on some FRM/Finance concepts attacked by the book, even though I have passed the exam?

Thanks again!

eddfung

 

[hsuwang]

Hello David,

Here's my exam result breakdowns: [2nd Quartile] for Foundation and Current Issues and [1st Quartile] for the rest - much better than I thought it would be. Although restating what I said right after the exam, I still think the exam did not (and realistically can not) cover most of what I learned in the preparation process, in which I valued the most of. The forum and David's prompt/detailed replies helped me out the most, it was probably the next best thing to having a tutor sitting right next to me.

I agree with ajsa for most of his recommendations for BT (ie. forum, practice questions), but as for my personal opinion, I'd say the videos were the most helpful and they really kept me motivated at all times because it felt much like attending classes, with a real person there with you. If I were to read the notes only, I can imagine how hard it could've been (and the extra amount of hours I'd have to spend) just to follow up with the excel spreadsheets (which were excellent and often self explanatory in companion with the videos). I know screencasts are the selling point for BT, and that was the reason why I chose BT - a 6-minute video can replace and do a far better job breaking down difficult concepts into simple ideas than plain-text notes. Frankly, in terms of study notes, I would say that Schweser has done a better job (since their selling point is fully dependent on their notes alone), although I'd say BT's notes are superior and more to-the-point when pressed for time.

What I did for the last week of preparation was that I managed to watch the videos again, 1 topic per day (so that's about 5-8 hours a day), and try to refresh my memories and review the concepts that I've missed. I really recommend watching the videos again for the last few weeks because I realized that along the way, David has been connecting together concepts from different risk categories (ie. market with credit), and so when watching them the first time, one could easily miss the connections because some concepts were not covered yet at the time. I pretty much started my preparation from scratch, did not have any background in risk management, but the videos and David's forum along with about 1/3 of Schweser's notes (as supplement) were more than enough to give me a rewarding learning process, a wonderful experience, and of course, a pass on the exam!

Thank you David! I know it must have been a hectic year for you, and having to deal with an insane year AND still keeping the forum running says a lot about your generosity and commitment to helping people succeed. I can't thank you enough.

Jack w.

 

[laura1987]

I just found out the 2009 FRM Exam Result Analysis report. I got 2nd Quartile for Foundations of Risk Management and Financial Markets and Products, the rest are 1st Quartile in full exam.
FRM is the first financial exam that I took. I have never taken any level of CFA before and have no experience in risk management as I am still undergraduate student.
I used those free materials on this website, your videos on youtube and read the forum, I really love them very much. Your material did help me a great deal in preparing for my FRM.
Thank David!!

 

[ash007]

Hi David,

Thanks a lot David, once again. Your Video's are excellent. It was always a welcome change from holding the book and reading (sometimes falling asleep). Surprised to note that I am in 1st quartile for Quants. I hate the it and spent less hours preparing for it.

Thinking of doing PRM -

1. Do you give coaching for PRM?
2. What is the level of difficulty compared to FRM?
3 Is there any excemption/credit for those who have cleared FRM?

Appreciate your feedback.

Cheers

 

[jnavas]

Hi "Ashok Krishna Murthy"



I do prefer PRM due to the following reasons.

I registerd for 2008 FRM , but could appear only for 2009 exam. I didn't pass. Surprisingly my score on Quants in 3rd quartile( I have my Masters in Quants!!!!). So I doubts the resuts.

1. In PRM , your pass or fail is purely based on your performance. If you score more than 60% you are in.
But in FRM , it is based on where you stand with respect to others( so called quartile, ), even if you score 70% , you can be out , if majority score more than that( GARP claims! no way to verify)

2.GARP will never give your exact score and will not publish the name or centere of those who have passed ( You should know credentials of those passed as your ranking depends on them, Why GARP is not publishing credentials of those who passed?)

3. GARP published a big list of more than 4500 registration numbers as passed. Who knows that some are not fake to show high pass percentage ?

4.But FRM syllabus is more relevent and practice oriented than PRM, but unlike PRM , GARP revise FRM syllabus for every exam. But my observation is that it is only a rearranging of old syllabus, perhaps to get more business by selling study material.

5.In FRM , I can say you will be trying your luck. Studying the whole syllabus and understanding the cencept alone will not help you.

6.FRM not only test your knowledge in concepts , but your patience also . Most of the questions will be very lengthy ( half page ) and take atleast five minutes to read and at the end you will forget what you read in the first. Now when comes to the choices it will be like A.6.2311, B.6.2310, C.6.2321 etc.


So do a research before deciding FRM/PRM

 

[ash007]

Thanks a lot, jn.

 

[vishan]

Hi David,

I passed !!...Thank you very much for your amazing videos...I'd recommend big time to all FRM aspirants..

I got my quartile results..I got mostly 1st and 2nd quartiles except in operational risk..I got 4th quartile..i knw 4th !! I didnt knw u could pass wit a 4th quartile..plus I dont knw anybdy who have a 4th quartile..

Can someone tell me if I'm mistaken or if GARP was chilled out with the passing rate this year..

Thanks