Totally agree with you, same feeling.I agree there was lots of qualitatives, that was unexpected for me. And Hard quant Qs (one of them was the probability of at least 2 exceedance for %80 VaR - by the way, really, what was that!!!)
I don't really believe that a risk professional need to solve these each questions in 2-3 minutes, questions that can not be solved manually, without a calculator.
Because of the time constraint, you don't have time to calculate again with calculator. For example, you need 7-8 calculatings sequentially. If your solution is not there, SURPRISE, most probably you skip to type a number. Skip the question or you'll lose 2-3 more minutes (remember binomial tree, american put question). That's ok, this is the way to solve question but when you evaluate the whole exam, you need time!, even you know the solution, you may need to pass to another question, time is passing by, unfortunately.
If GARP asks 80 Qs in 4 hours, suddenly will see that participants average score will increase, in fact most of these participants are able to solve them, but lack of time, participants are forced to lose their judgement... Moreover I think that concentrating 4 hours for an exam is not efficient, especially for FRM. As a participant, I lost my judgement after 2nd hour gradually.
You may think that 4-hour timing is the tradition for FRM. But the level of challange was also as usual?
Lots of people spent hundreds of dollars, hundreds of hours, sacrifice their social life, but I am afraid it is worthless today. Because GARP surprised us unfortunately.
I spent 500 hours for preparaton, solve each question that can be accessable, averaged 70 for GARP samples, 65 for Scheweser, 70 in BT, but expecting 55 in exam today.
This is something unfair
Schweser is terrible for FRM!It was a total shocker. As a first time test taker, I'd treat this exam as an "expect the unexpected". Also, I made the big mistake of relying on schweser - solely. That turned out to be my biggest undoing. I am assuming I will have to take the retest in November, but two things clearly stand out - one, do not try to cram everything in your head at the last moment; I did this, only to realize I didn't remember even the most basic stuff as the clock went off, and two, practise hard. I have already started preparing for the retest, and I will be signing up for the advanced course from BT, with the FRM handbook by PJ on my absolute must-do list. That book is a classic. People have talked about how difficult BT is in relation to the actual test - which am totally ok with given that I ended up looking like a dimwit thanks to Schweser - damn good for CFA prep but a total avoid for FRM. All the best everyone and work hard!
Ask me mate!Schweser is terrible for FRM!
@akshay.chinchalkar Fyi, I did the BT questions and review quizzes, but didn't find them at the level of the exam; most questions yesterday really required thinking outside the box. I suspect the only way to truly prepare for such an exam (given the FRM 2016 practice exam wasn't a useful guide either) is to purchase some of the text books and do all the exercises in those. Surely the advanced exercises would help prepare for FRM curve balls.
Will take a look at that FRM by PJ book, but it needs to have tons of tricky/difficult questions, because that is key to passing.