Exam Feedback May 2017 Part 2 Exam Feedback

[Nicole Seaman]

Good luck to everyone who is taking the exam tomorrow!! It is always a pleasure supporting all of you, and we appreciate you spending your time preparing with us!

We would love to hear any feedback that you have after you have taken the exam. How did it go? Did you encounter unexpected questions? Thank you in advance for any feedback you can provide!

 

[adityakantror]

Exam was very much ok type....lot of tough theory and numericals quite simple
..lot of hazard rate questions

 

[energetic.Aditya@gmail.com]

I made a stupid mistake. for all the questions i answered in two columns. like i circled the answer and as well wrote in the column ( which is supposed to be only used if you change your answer). would this create a problem?

 

[kevolution]

I made a stupid mistake. for all the questions i answered in two columns. like i circled the answer and as well wrote in the column ( which is supposed to be only used if you change your answer). would this create a problem?

Don't think so. The column is looked at as the final answer if you have something written in there.

 

[ashish_pandey]

For me i was doing good till 3 hrs 30 mins..till 1-68 question number..but last 30 mins i screwed up a little bit from 70 to 80 where in i was not able to crack the numericals as i panicked a little bit....overall i believe i shud be able to crack in 50+ as correct on conservative side

 

[Kl881]

...

 

[KingKendrick]

Things I remembered

Bitcoin x2
Hazard rate x3
Expected Shortfall x2
MVAR
Stress PD
Collateral threshold amount
CCP funds
Calculate 1Y forward LIBOR with OIS and LIBOR given
SMA (Operational Risk)
Realized correlation vs fixed (question no.80)
Paretto vs EVT

 

[furqan]

You had one question which had calculatr the credit spread and given the yield of one bond and work out the yield of the other bond using merton model.

 

[vistag]

Does everyone get the same sequence if questions? seems like i had a sequence of consecutive Ds

On the paper part -theoretically tricky and deep ,quant is doable apart from 2-3 extremely lengthy problems which i felt are better left untouched. Most of the questions were verbose with irrelevant information. It is a good paper, moderately complex just like it is supposed to be. Every question was answerable and teasing enough to think and solve.
Most of the people in my center answered around 70qs and felt it is easy,as i spoke to them. (Deja vu of my frm l1)

I felt there was too much concentration on certain areas and plenty of areas were uncovered especially the new chapters added this year.This is where i felt i wasted lots of time in studying to get an edge and was disappointed to see not more than 1 or 2 questions

I really liked the way they framed the option choices very tricky and easy to be guiled unless the concepts are absolutely clear. However the coverage of topics is bit clustered and not well spread.

Overall not sure if i will make the cut basednon feedback i got from the sample in my center.i think its time to start for Nov for me with better revision

 

[vistag]

Things I remembered

Bitcoin x2
Hazard rate x3
Expected Shortfall x2
MVAR
Stress PD
Collateral threshold amount
CCP funds
Calculate 1Y forward LIBOR with OIS and LIBOR given
SMA (Operational Risk)
Realized correlation vs fixed (question no.80)
Paretto vs EVT

For everyone here i do not want to be a spoil sport, but do hold the horses till next couple of hours before posting details about topics to ensure all the time zone takers have a fair play

 

[KA1991]

Hello All - I felt that exam was easy - still I wasn't fully prepared. No unexpected questions.
What do you think should be the pass cutoff around? Considering the low difficulty of this exam - I'm expecting a high cut off of around 65%+.

Current issues in financial markets was highly tested too.

 

[vistag]

Hello All - I'm expecting a high cut off of around 65%+.

Nope,unless garp decides the pass rate for this year may 2017 to be around 25%.

It should be fair to assume it would be around 50-55. Perception of questions is one thing and solving them under pressure in exam is a whole lot different. On a normal day lot of us with decent prep will do 60 for this exam but it is a completely different ball game to do this in stressful 4 hours where mind plays all kinds of tricks on us

 

[KA1991]

Nope,unless garp decides the pass rate for this year may 2017 to be around 25%.

It should be fair to assume it would be around 50-55. Perception of questions is one thing and solving them under pressure in exam is a whole lot different. On a normal day lot of us with decent prep will do 60 for this exam but it is a completely different ball game to do this in stressful 4 hours where mind plays all kinds of tricks on us

Very true. It was so stressful - that's what I found. Whoever manages the stress well with decent preparation is a winner.
I took too long for solving the questions where I was condident. Left me with 20 question in the last 30 minutes. Missed few easy questions because of some bad time management.

 

[stephenjohn]

I expected rather something like the garp Practice exam 2017 or 2016. Unfortunately, it was quite different with much Mapping questions.

Hi Kl881 - Pardon my ignorance as I haven't finished the syllabus but what are Mapping Questions? Thanks

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

@stephenjohn I found the "much [many] mapping questions" interesting, also. I assume @KA1991 refers to VaR Mapping which has been assigned to Jorion Chapter 11 (3rd ed book, not the FRM handbook which is never exactly assigned) for over a decade (but not always highly tested. At times, with low testability). I am currently reviewing GARP's revised P2 PQ set and indeed there are fully four VaR mapping questions which is a high proportion relative to history (they are #13, #30, #59 and #73). Based on this, I am going to move a revision of our own associated Study Note (and supporting XLS) and Video up in our (second semester) priority. Thank you for the feedback ...

 

[kunalparekh07]

Hi Kl881 - Pardon my ignorance as I haven't finished the syllabus but what are Mapping Questions? Thanks

Questions related to cash flow mapping, duration mapping and principal mapping..

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

@kunalparekh07 Thank you, so those are all fixed income mapping, it would be nice to know if any other asset classes were queried under (VaR) mapping (e.g., options, FX)

 

[kunalparekh07]

@kunalparekh07 Thank you, so those are all fixed income mapping, it would be nice to know if any other asset classes were queried under (VaR) mapping (e.g., options, FX)

They were mostly on fixed income. I recall two questions based on fixed income mapping.

 

[stephenjohn]

@stephenjohn I found the "much [many] mapping questions" interesting, also. I assume @KA1991 refers to VaR Mapping which has been assigned to Jorion Chapter 11 (3rd ed book, not the FRM handbook which is never exactly assigned) for over a decade (but not always highly tested. At times, with low testability). I am currently reviewing GARP's revised P2 PQ set and indeed there are fully four VaR mapping questions which is a high proportion relative to history (they are #13, #30, #59 and #73). Based on this, I am going to move a revision of our own associated Study Note (and supporting XLS) and Video up in our (second semester) priority. Thank you for the feedback ...

Thank You David

 

[Linghan]

Is it the left part of the answer sheet or right part? I do recall...I am running out of time filling bubbles >_<

Does everyone get the same sequence if questions? seems like i had a sequence of consecutive Ds

On the paper part -theoretically tricky and deep ,quant is doable apart from 2-3 extremely lengthy problems which i felt are better left untouched. Most of the questions were verbose with irrelevant information. It is a good paper, moderately complex just like it is supposed to be. Every question was answerable and teasing enough to think and solve.
Most of the people in my center answered around 70qs and felt it is easy,as i spoke to them. (Deja vu of my frm l1)

I felt there was too much concentration on certain areas and plenty of areas were uncovered especially the new chapters added this year.This is where i felt i wasted lots of time in studying to get an edge and was disappointed to see not more than 1 or 2 questions

I really liked the way they framed the option choices very tricky and easy to be guiled unless the concepts are absolutely clear. However the coverage of topics is bit clustered and not well spread.

Overall not sure if i will make the cut basednon feedback i got from the sample in my center.i think its time to start for Nov for me with better revision