GARP practice q's

[tjpollard]

If this has been asked already I apologize, I searched the forum and couldn't find anything.

I have heard from some people that the official GARP practice questions are relatively easy compared to the rest of the questions on exam day.

In your experience, and based on feedback from customers - is there any truth to this that GARP jacks up the difficulty compared to the examples they have published?

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

(moved to About FRM, please try to keep clean Today's Questions, thank you)

tjpollard We've read that, too. I'm not sure I think the 2013 questions are easier, however; they appear (to me!) about in the range of exam difficulty. With respect to previous years, I do think that is sometimes the case. I do think there is no doubt that the exam question are not easier than the practice; i.e., the actual exam questions tend to be at least as difficult.

I do not think GARP "jacks up" the difficulty, they really would not do that intentionally, they don't roll that way! I've been critical of the practice exams in the past. In my opinion, the explanation is simply that they don't devote a whole lot of resources to them.

I think the more likely explanation for this observation, commonly made, is simply that the practice exams are not even close to comprehensively covering the syllabus. For example, 2013 P1 has 25 questions. So, that's a tiny % of the testable material. I think that's the main reason people say this; if they just use the practice exams, they will encounter questions they've never seen before (perceived as higher degree of difficultly). thanks,

 

[djh2121]

From my personal experience with Part I last Novermber, what David says is true. There were a few questions that were "challenging", but they just required a little extra thought. The great majority of the questions were on par with GARP practice material and were very straightforward. David's questions were much more challenging and I was definitely "over-prepared".