Nov 15, 2014 FRM I exam reflections

machaang

New Member
Subscriber
The first 30mins did not go well. After that It was not that bad. I was able to complete 95 questions and then had to guess as I ran out of time. I too felt that BT was way higher than you actual exam. I have mixed feelings about results. Have to wait for few more weeks to find out. I used BT videos and questions a lot. Thank you David they were really helpful.
 
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[email protected]

Member
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FRM Exam is not an exam that you write and become boastful. It is really a humbling exam. Even a professor of financial engineering can still write the exam and fail woefully for a number of reasons besides not being intelligent - You may be a genius and not have the speed to respond to FRM questions as fast as expected. So the fact that one holds a number of Master Degrees is not a guarantee that such a fellow will find the exam easy. You may be a genius and still fail the exam for any of the following reasons:
1. Poor time management i.e. You do not necessarily have to answer the questions in the strict order of arrangement. You may choose to attempt at random by treating the qualitative questions first for effective time management.
2. Poor preparation i.e. not covering the AIMS and using inappropriate study materials
3. Struggling with questions you think you know and should get right.
4. Poor planning in the exam hall or failure to strategise the sequence of answering questions
Let it also be known that every FRM candidate faces systematic exam tension. So if you as a candidate had an issue occasioned by exam conditions, you are not the only candidate in that situation as every other candidate had one issue or the other. The real issue is that under that condition, the ball is in your court to do your best to emerge victorious.
However well you felt did in that exam, please do not be boastful until January 2, 2015 so that you do not get disappointed.
Wishing everyone that wrote the exam the very best of success.
 

hamu4ok

Active Member
@DebbieM, i think that will depend on the general performance. If a lot of people scored high, (the top 5%) the pass mark will be high.

So it depends.

GARP sent a mail some hours ago that results will be emailed on January 2, 2015. We will have to wait till then. I am equally also worried.
I took part 1 last November, after exam we receive similar email saying wait till Jan 2nd for the results, but the results were emailed earlier, 30th December - a New Year present, kind of.
 

Heidi

Member
Subscriber
I took part 1 last November, after exam we receive similar email saying wait till Jan 2nd for the results, but the results were emailed earlier, 30th December - a New Year present, kind of.

I pray it comes out before the first of January hamu4ok so one can either plan to be happy in the new year, or "be happy"
 

David Harper CFA FRM

David Harper CFA FRM
Subscriber
David, do you access or take these level 1 tests? Do you have any feedback as to how this test would have compared to previous tests and if they are trying to ramp up the difficulty? I feel that maybe there needs to be a bit more focus on qualitative stuff going forward, or at least that was my takeaway from that test. And all the questions in the review videos (and regular videos) were straight forward, even when they were from previous GARP questions, but there were not many like that on the exam.

@justinturner thanks for your detailed feedback. I've never seen the feedback tilt so far into the observation of "so much qualitative/theory/concept and not much quant." As the historical DB shows, the exams are historically quite quantitative (although often times a qualitative question requires a certain quantitative grasp; e.g., volatility is a good example, I think, of a concept which can be tested qualitatively yet still require a quantitative grasp. I can think of many examples. Every year, there is some-much feedback that many studied concepts were not tested. But I've been explaining for many years why this is mathematically certain given the ratio of AIMs (LOs)-to-exam questions, which I think is too high. But, clearly, this exam deviated into new territory with respect to the mix of quantitative vs. qualitative/theory.

Re: David, do you access or take these level 1 tests? No, nobody gets to see the exam anytime soon. I don't like this GARP policy. We will get them "dribbled out" over a long horizon by way of updates, practice exams ... but in terms of the types of questions asked, if you look at this forum, what happens is we quickly develop a very good picture of the questions asked. This week and next, we specifically collect the questions itemized and by the time we organize them, I'd say we a have 90 to 95% accurate picture of the questions asked (but not their exact wording, of course). Thanks!
 

CYLoh

Member
Subscriber
@justinturner yep. You're not alone, I personally feel that there is significantly more qualitative questions as compared to quantitative ones. One could probably score at least 60 by just getting all the qualititative questions right.
 

ShaktiRathore

Well-Known Member
Subscriber
Hi,
@[email protected] its just lots of study,dedication,hard work and nothing else is required to be successful in the exam.
@justinturner I disagree with you, you mean pure qualitative questions?I mean how r you classifying the questions?For me some qualitative questions can be solved by numbers are mixed type can be categorised as quantitative or qualitativ eand some reqquire just the words knowlrdge(pur qualitative) for answer.Some questions explicitely requires numbers are pure quantitative. As per the exam i gave frm paper is quantitative for me and its qualitative in minority. In the end its ur perspective whether the paper is either one.for me its quantitative for u its qualitative.Just that numbers based ques were40% does not mean paper is 60 qualitative,i mean its ur perspective and nothing wrong with that but paper is still tilted towards quant.


Thanks
 
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justinturner

New Member
Hi,
@[email protected] its just lots of study,dedication,hard work and nothing else is required to be successful in the exam.
@justinturner I disagree with you, you mean pure qualitative questions?I mean how r you classifying the questions?For me some qualitative questions can be solved by numbers are mixed type can be categorised as quantitative or qualitativ eand some reqquire just the words knowlrdge(pur qualitative) for answer.Some questions explicitely requires numbers are pure quantitative. As per the exam i gave frm paper is quantitative for me and its qualitative in minority. In the end its ur perspective whether the paper is either one.for me its quantitative for u its qualitative.Just that numbers based ques were40% does not mean paper is 60 qualitative,i mean its ur perspective and nothing wrong with that but paper is still tilted towards quant.


Thanks
I don't agree but i respect your opinion. Just because a question is somewhat related to a quantitative concept (you can argue each and every question is some how tied to numbers) does not make it quantitative, but i do understand your point of view. Many times the questions seem quantitative until you actually go to answer them (and may even have numbers in the answer, but the question is actually all about knowing what answer could be possible and what answers aren't possible given some important qualitative detail that we should know).

The hard work comment @demvros is fair, but there were issues with this test. The fact that you didn't have to study/train the generally accepted important quantitative principals and instead had to make sure you simply remembered every detail of the recommended readings (in some ways sending a not very nice message to the prep providers like BT in the process) doesn't seem in line with the history of this course as well as others. Forcing students to grind hundreds of questions and drive themselves crazy memorizing formulas for dozens of hours and then not really need that in the end is not the greatest way they could thank their customers (us) for deciding to dedicate our time and money to getting their designation. All of that aside, we were given the same test at the end of the day and are all in the same boat, but I still feel a bit cheated and will feel that way even if I passed and was in the top 5%. It was just an unpleasant experience doing a test and thinking that half of the answers are from one or two sentences somewhere in the recommended readings and are super simple if I just had of read and internalized these details/minutia that are (in many cases) irrelevant in the scheme of things.

Thanks for your response David, would be interesting to how the test looks like after you have pieced it together and where our impressions were valid and where they weren't.
 

David Harper CFA FRM

David Harper CFA FRM
Subscriber
Thanks @justinturner Of course I agree with @ShaktiRathore 's point: in many cases, a qualitative question is only superficially textual and requires a quantitative understanding. I think this reality informs the entire discipline. Risk discussions require quantitative literacy (Consider Nassim Taleb or Aaron Brown, can arguments even be conducted unless you arrive with fundamentals?).

But it's a general point. The specific question is about this exam and the points you raise. In terms of the specifics, you raise extremely valid concerns, from my perspective. Notice that the exam is not publicly (or even privately available). If GARP published the exam, this dialog could shift to entirely different dimension. If we had the document, to the extent your concerns are valid, GARP would (in my estimation) have to address them. But, unlike trends in open source or reproducible research, we don't have the source document to discuss/analyze. This is the first-order problem, from my perspective. It limits our ability to make logical assertions. Just like every cycle, observations are limited to anecdote and recollection. Thanks!
 

sujeetsinghjsr

New Member
GARP has sent a link to "participate in FRM Exam Candidate Survey" to all FRM candidate. Please guys give them feedback and share your experience.
 

Aenny

Active Member
Subscriber
people there I feel the same way ; but there are only a few days left which we are able to survive also :confused::(:):(:confused: - somehow
 
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justinturner

New Member
Many people have said results always come out on December 30th, even though official date isn't for a few days after that. Can anyone confirm that? That would mean results are tomorrow.
 

[email protected]

Member
Subscriber
What a very pleasant way to commence a new year 2015!

I just received a mail from GARP now confirming that I was successful in the November, 2015 FRM Part I Exam. This is to the glory of GOD Almighty. I would like to sincerely express gratitude to the Bionic Turtle Team for making their invaluable resources accessible to FRM stakeholders. The forum discussions and quizzes were of immense value to my success.

Like I noted in my post exam comments, FRM Exam is really a humbling and it is not a respecter of your previous academic and professional certification achievements. You have got to work hard, master all the AIMS, practise and learn to manage time effectively under exam condition. It is again, not a boasting exam as you cannot be sure of passing until you have seen your result.

In preparation for the FRM II exam, I must buy a Bionic Turtle's package in order facilitate my preparation by gaining full access to the resources.

Many thanks and wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2015.
 
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