Exam Feedback July 2021 Part 1 Exam Feedback

nc27

Active Member
I don't think I have the pro Xp still farming for now :) how about you? You preparing for May exam?
All in for december mate, we will see how things work out! And I am just preparing with BT notes / exercises / forum, right now the forum feels like my second (virtual!) home ehehe
 

Mosh

New Member
Hello, unfortunately i failed with the results below. Score of 44/100.

- Foundations of Risk Management (Good - Percentile 51st - 75th)
- Quantitative Analysis (Good - Percentile 51st - 75th)
- Financial Markets and Products (Good - Percentile 51st - 75th)
- Valuation and Risk Models (Fair - 26th - 50th)

I still consider the Bionic Turtle materials to be very good, especially for someone like me who did not have a strong mathematics background in college (I'm a CPA). Hope these stats at least help with your team's analytics on the results.

My sincerest thanks to @David Harper CFA FRM @Nicole Seaman and everyone on the forum, I was able to learn so much still. Congrats to all who passed, and cheers to us who will for next time :)
 

Alberto

Member
Passed with 81 (or 83 don't remember) 1/1/1/1, I studied from different sources other than BT though.
@David Harper CFA FRM, if it is not inappropriate i would like to express an opinion about BT exercises.
The comment has not the intent to make a negative critic but instead to give space for improvements.
BT exercises, in my opinion, are very technical and, for a precise person as me, it means spending A LOT of time trying to understand all small details that are not actually tested on GARP question, which are more theoretical and more general.
Typo also on old questions are a bit frustrating too.
I would also suggest to remove from the repository old question that became out of topic (I remember once searching in the forum for a clarification about an old old question, that was not on the Facoltative Section, and your (@ David) answer in the forum was that the question was not anymore important and that the important thing to focus was something else. Why not to remove the question then?)
I also think that for some chapter, there are some BT exercise that are even too specific that would probably never be tested on the exam, neither theoretically.

This is only from a time/(exam preparation only) point of view.
To understand how actually to deal with some problem, technical exercises are surely useful instead.
But one should be able to distinguish between the two thing when is looking at the material.

Finally, I would like to thank you David for all the answer that you provided to my questions, that was great. @lushukai thank you to you too.
David, your Youtube video are also very well made. I think I watched all of them.
You could reference to them even more, maybe you manage to save some time in this way.
 

Lu Shu Kai FRM

Well-Known Member
Hi @Alberto ,

Firstly, congrats on your amazing score! Wow, it goes to show you really understood the material well. Perhaps if you don't mind sharing, can you list the resources you used? I'm sure it will benefit everyone here.

I think you make some valid and great points - technicality of BT's questions, faulty/outdated questions and purpose (of the study package). Hopefully I can offer my (biased) opinion (I have to declare I am very fond of BT's discussion-based learning method as it has made me a better thinker, which to me, is the main point of the FRM; not only learning the material well).

Technicality of Questions
- I think the whole point of learning the small details is that no matter how GARP tweaks the question, you would still know how to approach it (based on your comprehensive understanding of the concepts).

Faulty/Outdated Questions
- This might be tricky because from what I know, the BT team only comprises of David and Nicole; so it might take them more time to deal with these matters. I'm sure they have other administrative matters to deal with? It is good though that you brought this up. Sometimes people can be too busy and need some reminders.

Purpose (Exams vs Dealing with Real-World Problems)
- I think this is a very insightful point (I totally get what you are saying). For me, I think this makes BT's package all the better because - the whole purpose of the FRM exam is to make you a better financial risk practitioner. Being able to answer FRM questions is one thing, but being able to apply these concepts and tackle ambiguity in real-world problems is another (how do you price an option with infinite volatility? is an example of an uncomfortable question I have heard). To me, tackling ambiguity in real-world problems is all about critical thinking and being able to structure your approach. I feel BT's material (mostly its forum-based approach), helps me (at least) in the critical thinking aspect.

I hope this makes sense!
 
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Torsleno

New Member
Passed with 1,1,1,1 66% ! Thanks to BT mostly

I agree that BT might be an overkill if the goal is just to pass the exam, however it does make one a better risk professional. It forces to understand the material.

Does anyone know what are the 2022 sessions? May or is there earlier? (but after Dec 21, don't want to jump back into it right away!).
 

nc27

Active Member
I agree with the above comments, BT asks much more in term of understanding than just the knowledge required to pass the exams ... then the FRM is a professional certification, the paper alone does not bring much added value... the added value comes from your third party material and the effort you put in in order to prepare... the exams (and the whole certification thing) are just self fulfilling steps if you have done the proper preparation.

But, yes, the BT way is hard and takes time... if your goal is just to pass (for the sake of passing) ... I agree that other prep providers might be a better choice.
 
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warren_munger

New Member
Hello everyone!

Is there any way to know which 'decile' you have achieved in each section? My quartiles are 2-1-3-1 but I wanted to see how badly/well I had done in detail so as to understand where to improve

TIA
 
Hi, Can somebody explain what these numbers mean 1/1/1/1 or why some write they can not see score, while others say they got for instance 81/100?

Is 80/100 good result on the exam?
Thanks! And what is the average passing score?
 

nc27

Active Member
Hi, Can somebody explain what these numbers mean 1/1/1/1 or why some write they can not see score, while others say they got for instance 81/100?

Is 80/100 good result on the exam?
Thanks! And what is the average passing score?
Some exam provider allowed the candidate to see its overall performance at the end of the test, I do not know if it will be the case for the november exam session... 1/1/1/1 means that the candidate scored top quartile in each section ... with 80/100 you are assured to get 1/1/1/1 grades
 

Baber

New Member
From what i remember :

* Sharpe, Treynor ratio, Information ratio: 2 or 3 questions (very easy)
* code of conduct 2 questions
* CAPM formula: 2 questions (very easy)
* M fold vs General to specific 2 questions ( why!?) ( by pure luck, i was reading my notes about this 1 hour before the exam...)
* management fees & incentive fees: 1 question (easy)
* option strategy: 2 or 3 questions of which a butterfly ( confused)
* Bonds, cash price, dirty price: 3-4 questions (why so many questions)
* Eurodollar: 1 question (tricky)
* Great financial crisis: 2 questions
* Financial disasters: 2 questions
* Term structure: 2 questions
* Greeks: 2 or 3 questions ( vega, gamma)
* Binomial tree, european, one step: 1 question (lucky question! very easy)
* ARMA, AR, MA, GARCH: 4 questions ( conceptual and calculation)
* Bayes probability: 2 questions, of which 1 seems to have 4 false choices
* Fund: 1 question,
* Swap: 3 questions ( too long, I skipped, trade off between time and 33% of chance getting one point, given one option was obviously false)
* insurance: 2 questions ( i did not expect question on solvency)
* hazard rate given cumulative default rate (easy if you know the formula)
* distributions: 2 very basic questions on which kind of distribution to use (easy)
* student's t formula in a very specific context

I will edit if i remember more... I have forgotten some difficult questions...

My advice is to be prepared for the easy-moderate questions that could give you 30 points. For the harder questions, if you have studied enough, you can narrow to 2 solutions.

Final score: 62... (disappointed, i aimed at 70)
What was the result. I scored 63 today . Keeping fingers crossed
 

Nicole Seaman

Director of CFA & FRM Operations
Staff member
Subscriber
Just a reminder not to discuss the November FRM exam in the forum. We will be posting a thread for November exam feedback after the Part 1 exams are over at the end of this week.
 
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