Exam Feedback May 2018 Part 1 Exam Feedback

ag0511

Member
I know it's a stretch, do you recall the other answers? Were they obvious to reject?

Also, was the FALSE answer "does not account for market risk premium" or "accounts for market risk premium"? I'm assuming it's the former...but damn this is tricky...I can't recall one bit what answer I marked for this.
I am pretty confident of reading other options and then marking "does not account for market risk premium" or some thing along those lines.I think it was the first option
 

ag0511

Member
5. Pardon me this has been discussed earlier though remained incomplete.
SSE was given as 458 and SSR as 252. So total SST was 700. For finding R sq. we neded SS explained by regression / total SS
= 252/700 = 0.36 and correlation = sqrt(.36) = 0.6
I got this answer. Does it seem correct?
I remember doing 458/700 and taking a square root to get 0.80 or related value.Others can correct,if they remember
 

ag0511

Member
I have a hard time believing Q1 cutoff in each section would be at 85%. Heck even 80%...I'm doubtful of it. If indeed Q1 is at between 80-85% I'm SOL! I'd have expected Q1 to be at ~75-80% and Q2 to be at ~60-65%, with the overall cutoff to pass at ~65/100 marks.
Well, I wish that % cutoff for Q1 and q2 is as low as possible :) .However based upon my experience of attempting part 1 previously,I firmly believe that Q2 cutoff for any section definitely can't go below to as low as 60 %.
 

ag0511

Member
Anyways I believe that the institute should give absolute scores or candidate's performance in each section in % band ( similar to cfa institute) and accordingly provide the cutoff in % band or as absolute score.This may discourage some candidate to repeat taking the test.But may help the candidate to check the utility of their effort.On a lighter note,the institute believes in normal distribution and according decides criteria for passing,whereas actually the distribution of candidate marks is right skewed and the mean is probably getting pulled over with every successive examination ;)
 

nikic

Active Member
Well, I wish that % cutoff for Q1 and q2 is as low as possible :) .However based upon my experience of attempting part 1 previously,I firmly believe that Q2 cutoff for any section definitely can't go below to as low as 60 %.

Can you elaborate exactly why you feel Q2 cut off can't be at 60% for a section? I find it hard to believe half the candidates get two thirds correct in a given topic which seems to be what you're implying.
 
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ag0511

Member
I mean that the sections in which I got Q 3 in previous exam, I couldn't have scored less than 60-65 % .Even overall if one attempts 76-78 ques (last attempt) without any wild guesses and another 10 ques with 50-50 equal chances of being right or wrong.The 14 or 12 left over ques being equally divided across 4 sections.How many out of say 86, can go wrong. I believe at the max 20,but if you still end up getting two 3's and two 2's ,you have to believe the cutoff (Q2) would be min around 68-70 for a section.I too couldn't have imagined that more than 50 % would have got more marks than me,but then had to concede that it is a professional exam with only the more informed and willing attempting the test unlike other eligibility tests where you can expect normal distribution. I got the same shock , when in an MBA internal test, a score of 12/20 placed me in bottom 10% students out of class of 60 who had cracked a tough national level entrance test to get their place in the course
 

ag0511

Member
How many questions did you attempt excluding wild guesses(guesses made without reading the question) ? I attempted around 90-92.
 

nikic

Active Member
I mean that the sections in which I got Q 3 in previous exam, I couldn't have scored less than 60-65 % .Even overall if one attempts 76-78 ques (last attempt) without any wild guesses and another 10 ques with 50-50 equal chances of being right or wrong.The 14 or 12 left over ques being equally divided across 4 sections.How many out of say 86, can go wrong. I believe at the max 20,but if you still end up getting two 3's and two 2's ,you have to believe the cutoff (Q2) would be min around 68-70 for a section.I too couldn't have imagined that more than 50 % would have got more marks than me,but then had to concede that it is a professional exam with only the more informed and willing attempting the test unlike other eligibility tests where you can expect normal distribution. I got the same shock , when in an MBA internal test, a score of 12/20 placed me in bottom 10% students out of class of 60 who had cracked a tough national level entrance test to get their place in the course

Hmm I truly wish you are mistaken, but you'd have known best and I can't argue against it. To me I honestly thought 18/30 for FMP for example would have got you a Q2 score. That I might have misjudged things worries me.

If you don't mind me asking, what were your Quartiles for your failed attempt previously? Did you find the paper difficult? What do you think you scored over 100 in that paper overall?

How many questions did you attempt excluding wild guesses(guesses made without reading the question) ? I attempted around 90-92.

I had enough time to read every question but made around 8 wild guesses and 12 more 50-50 guesses. Yet I know for a fact some "simple" questions that were straightforward or that I'd have thought I was correct on, I made mistakes.

At the same time I also know some 50-50 and some wild guesses turned out to be correct...so well, there's that.
 

ag0511

Member
Hmm I truly wish you are mistaken, but you'd have known best and I can't argue against it. To me I honestly thought 18/30 for FMP for example would have got you a Q2 score. That I might have misjudged things worries me.

If you don't mind me asking, what were your Quartiles for your failed attempt previously? Did you find the paper difficult? What do you think you scored over 100 in that paper overall?



I had enough time to read every question but made around 8 wild guesses and 12 more 50-50 guesses. Yet I know for a fact some "simple" questions that were straightforward or that I'd have thought I was correct on, I made mistakes.

At the same time I also know some 50-50 and some wild guesses turned out to be correct...so well, there's that.
2,3,2,3.I can say this with that I couldn't have scored less than about say 13/20 in Quantitative analysis.The paper this time probably required less calculation,more particularly the last 50 questions required lesser time vis-a-vis first 50 ,but it had much more unexpected questions , which tested application of concepts and required some logic. I was taken aback by some questions, though believe that managed some of them really well .It would be proper to say that test showed that how some seemingly untestable material or straight forward theory mentioned casually in your test provider's study material can be tested in a nasty way.
 

nikic

Active Member
2,3,2,3.I can say this with that I couldn't have scored less than about say 13/20 in Quantitative analysis.The paper this time probably required less calculation,more particularly the last 50 questions required lesser time vis-a-vis first 50 ,but it had much more unexpected questions , which tested application of concepts and required some logic. I was taken aback by some questions, though believe that managed some of them really well .It would be proper to say that test showed that how some seemingly untestable material or straight forward theory mentioned casually in your test provider's study material can be tested in a nasty way.

So when did you sit previously? Nov 2017? On the whole, which paper was more difficult/trickier/challenging?
 

krystynkatt

New Member
Hoping for more replies on the no of question attempted in May 2018 FRM part 1.
i took about 8 guesses and 8 50-50 guesses; some of the answers I was sure of (so no guessing) turned out to be incorrect though. Hope this helps. Can I ask you whether you used BT materials previous time (unless it's forbidden on this forum...)?
 
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ag0511

Member
i took about 8 guesses and 8 50-50 guesses; some of the answers I was sure of (so no guessing) turned out to be incorrect though. Hope this helps. Can I ask you whether you used BT materials previous time (unless it's forbidden on this forum...)?
Did not use BT. The failure in examination in most cases is more due to shortcoming of the student rather than test prep provider.One may expect some % of practical question or theory material in examination which a candidate has never attempted or not explained in detail in the study material.But if candidates masters and attempts 100 % of the illustrations,theory,practice ques and practice exams,they should still be able to make it.But they shouldn't expect to study 80 % of the material and expect to get through.
 

krystynkatt

New Member
Did not use BT. The failure in examination in most cases is more due to shortcoming of the student rather than test prep provider.One may expect some % of practical question or theory material in examination which a candidate has never attempted or not explained in detail in the study material.But if candidates masters and attempts 100 % of the illustrations,theory,practice ques and practice exams,they should still be able to make it.But they shouldn't expect to study 80 % of the material and expect to get through.
The latter part is obvious, i was just curious, as I've seen plenty of opinions that bt matetial is generally tougher/more challenging compared to other providers. Thanks
 

ag0511

Member
Ideally the study material should as lucid as possible,topic wise (end of section test) question should have a equal mix of easy,average and difficult question.And the final comprehensive test, which the candidate should attempt atleast 15 days before exam should have equal mix of average and really difficult tricky question.The idea is to have some confidence but not get too complacent,with a window to correct shortcomings in the identified area
 

Nicole Seaman

Director of CFA & FRM Operations
Staff member
Subscriber
The latter part is obvious, i was just curious, as I've seen plenty of opinions that bt matetial is generally tougher/more challenging compared to other providers. Thanks
@krystynkatt

We do not purchase other prep provider's materials, so we do not see what they provide. However, we can say with confidence from the feedback from our members over the years, that generally, BT's practice questions are much more in-depth. David writes each practice question himself and spends hours on them in order to make sure that you not only understand the concepts to pass the exam but also to use them in the real world. We are also the only prep provider that has a forum with over a decade of FRM discussion, and many of our members have attributed passing the exam to the support that they received in the forum. David has even spent hours helping those who are not paid BT members. We also have a YouTube channel with over a decade of FRM videos posted. I just wanted to give some insight to those who are not BT subscribers, so they can see that we go above and beyond to make sure our members have everything that they need to pass the exam. If I had to guess, I would say that BT is the most passionate about our FRM work. We are a two-person team, and our members are not just customers to us. We are passionate about helping each and every one of them to succeed. :)

Nicole
 

jbejarjimenez

New Member
26 days for the scores... I personally answered 40 questions that I know I'm right, 15 more that I'm 70% confidence of getting them right, 10 questions 50/50,20 educated guesses, and 15 totally random. How do u see that?
 
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