Live Review Session

[cdbsmith]

Hi David,

I'm not sure, but I believe you will issue "focused review" videos for the upcoming exam. Is this correct? If so, this is great. However, it would be even better if you held a live review session as well. That said, are you planning to hold a live review or Q&A session so that candidates can interact with you directly to get clarity on some of the topics?

Thanks,

Charles

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Hi Charles - No, none of that ahead of this November (we will retain last year's recorded Focus Reviews I think. Suzanne Evans, is that true?)

... our focus is getting new videos published on new material (e.g., Malz, Gregory Credit Risk). You might notice that some of our customers are eager/anxious to see the new material ... I'd love to conduct the sort of reviews you speak of (I actually used to do that, it was fun and productive, I'd like to think). But we don't have time.

The 2013 syllabus created unique challenges and we have to react to the 2013 syllabus, which is really an unfortunate syllabus (in my opinion) because it creates a lot of new, unlikely-to-be-tested material which diverts everybody's time (candidly) ... e.g., our approach to writing detailed AIM-by-AIM practice questions is very time-consuming, and still we have several document gaps (which have a higher priority than live reviews). Behind the scenes, we've expended a lot of effort to grapple better (i.e., in 2014 and going forward) with GARP's churning approach to the syllable. (while, also, giving a lot of input) ... I would love to bring these back in 2014 (not that I expect that satisfies Nov 2013 candidates obviously). Sorry, thanks,

 

[cdbsmith]

Thanks David!

I completely understand. I will start viewing the focused review videos.

Btw, I have been trying to get a solid answer on another issue as well: practice questions.

I understand (thanks to Suzanne) that online access to practice questions is not possible this exam cycle. However, we do have access to prqctice questions via PDF files, which is fine.

However, the my concern with the pdf files is that the answers immediately follow the questions. I would like to see 25, 50, 75 or 100 questions to answer and then see the answers. I just feel that if I am able to answer a larger number of questions correctly before looking at the answers and explanations, I would start feeling more confident that I am actually retaining the material. Do you offer PDF files of practice questions without the answers and explanations and separate files that have the correct answers and explanations to the same questions that candidates can access after attempting to answer the questions?

Thanks,

Charles

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Hi Charles (copy Suzanne Evans)

Thanks. That's correct re online questions (we deploy the new website/Study Planner, a year-long site re-architecture, immediately after the Nov exam. After we deploy the new Study Planner, we plan to look at an online quiz as part of 2014 functionality)

With respect to "Do you offer PDF files of practice questions without the answers and explanations and separate files that have the correct answers and explanations to the same questions that candidates can access after attempting to answer the questions?"

• We do not have a comprehensive set of such PDFs that correspond to (i.e., map to) our entire database, (short answer is 'no'). However,
• We do have some Mock Exams (I think 4 P1 and 2 P2) which basically achieve what you refer to; i.e., simulate an exam format with separation of the 'Q' from the "Q&A". However, this is a very partial subset as our entire Q&A database is very large. I don't know exactly, but our current six Mocks are surely less than 10% of our total database, probably less than 5 or 3%.

I can ask Suzanne about the viability of creating additional Mock Exams; and whether we can accelerate that aspect of the schedule to build an additional Mock Exam(s) ahead of November.
(e.g., our newer Topic Review sets would be high-quality ingredients into Mock Exam format). But I don't know if we have time, I'll ask Suzanne and get back, thanks,

 

[cdbsmith]

David,

Thanks a ton!

 

[Suzanne Evans]

cdbsmith & David Harper, CFA, FRM, CIPM,

I will certainly do my best. I think we can pull it off. I'll report when it's complete!

Thanks!