Exam Feedback November 2019 Part 2 Exam Feedback

[hamzaamiri]

Congrats to all who passed the exams and good luck for next time for who didn't pass this time.

After seeing the quartile i'm questionning the minimum passing score... I passed with 22111 and i'm pretty sure i scored no more than 45 to 55 out of 80 (Between 56% and 68%) and i'm still on top quartile... Also, i saw some passing with 4th, 3rd, and 2nd quartile only... So it's either exam results are a lot concentrated around the minimum score which allow people to pass even with low quartile or the minimum passing score is between 45% 50% good answer.

Also i want to thank @David Harper CFA FRM & @Nicole Seaman for the material. i purchased Professionnal package for L1 and L2 and it was very helpful especially videos and learning spreadsheet, but for mock exam, i find them way difficult than real exam which can be confusing on exam day... IMHO it will be interesting to have mock exam that are close to the level of difficulty of GARP exam.

 

[dhirajjha]

Passed PART II . Got help from David and Nicole a lot.... Thank you BT team...

 

[waynewsd]

Passed 32232!! Thank you!!

 

[thornthanet]

passed with 2,4,1,1,3

 

[LopeAlba]

Are te results of 'my program' officials?

 

[Detective]

Are te results of 'my program' officials?

Yes.

 

[JRB]

Passed Part II FRM with 14232
Thank you @@David Harper CFA FRM & @@Nicole Seaman for the great material. The videos bring concepts to life.
The Year-long subscription is much appreciated and works out to be good value

 

[tom87]

Hi all, @David Harper CFA FRM , @Nicole Seaman

First of all thanks to David, Nicole and everyone contributing on this forum. I passed FRM level 2 in November after having purchased BT and Schweser material.

You will find below my feedback on the FRM program, the exam and BT.

FRM program

Overall, I find the FRM program to cover interesting topics from a wide array of sources. It really helped me learn a lot and I would never have learned that much without the pressure of an exam.

Below are my main criticism:

• Some quantitative topics are introduced but only superficially (ex: Extreme value Theory). Coming from an engineering/mathematical background, I was frustrated having to read about models or formulas without understanding the topic in depth.
• Some material clearly require prerequisite that I guess most people including me do not have (ex: Andrew Ang Factor theory).
• Despite the AIM statements, it was never clear to me what should be memorized for the exam. In the end there is a great amount of information that should be memorized (and not just understood) for the exam, especially in Part 2. Usually in those conditions people tend to forget about all of those things after the exam, as opposed to an approach that emphasizes on understanding the concepts.

FRM exam

Both after taking part 1 and part 2 I felt very uncertain about my answers and thought I would probably fail the exam. In the end I passed with 1111 for part 1 and 11121 for part 2. Even though that was a positive surprise, I think it is a sign that the exam is not well designed. Below are some examples:

• In part 2 some questions did not make sense grammatically speaking. I am not a native speaker, but I am quite sure one of the questions in the beginning contained some grammatical mistakes. This is destabilizing the day of an exam and I had to spend more time on this question to make sure I understood the question correctly. It also left some doubt in my mind.
• Some questions were ambiguous in my opinion. I had to spend more time trying to figure out what they meant rather than figuring out what the answer would be given the potential question.
• For many questions there was not a good answer standing out. Instead I had to proceed by elimination and pick the only answer that was not totally absurd. Again, it could be to a lack of understanding/knowledge on my side, but I highly suspect the questions were not well designed so that the perfect expert would answer without any hesitation.
• The questions of the exam were much trickier than the practice exams.
• The exam room was really cold, the table and chair uncomfortable and the staff unhelpful (one lady announced the wrong time, and the person giving the instructions had a very authoritative tonality which isn’t a big deal in itself but contributed to an overall negative experience).

Bionic Turtle

Overall I am satisfied with BT material and would definitely recommend it.

Here are the main strengths:

• The forum is very helpful. Whenever I had a doubt, I searched the forum and very often found answers.
• BT questions are good (much better than Schweser for example). They are not exactly like exam questions but given my feedback about exam questions I don’t think that’s such a bad thing.
• Videos are good as well and explanation from David are clear.

Below are areas of improvements:

• Quality over quantity: before investing time in writing new questions I would focus on increasing the quality of the existing questions and the study material.

Ex:
Some study materials are still referenced in the study planner while no longer in the program.
Some questions contain mistakes or require forum search to get the full explanation which is time consuming.
Some of those errors have already been reported and acknowledged so it is sometimes just a matter of updating the study material.

• It is hard to know what to expect in terms of support. I had a lot of questions and didn’t know if it was appropriate to ask them or if I already had asked too many questions.
• While a lot of my questions were answered (with good quality replies), there are still several questions or comments that were left unanswered. Below are some examples:

https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/selection-bias-vs-survivorship-bias.9470/#post-79012

https://forum.bionicturtle.com/thre...tional-integrated-risk.8761/page-3#post-79037

https://forum.bionicturtle.com/thre...ials-p2-t5-market-risk.8758/page-5#post-79035

https://forum.bionicturtle.com/thre...loss-data-allocation-girling.8270/#post-78908

• David gave up on me on one occasion. My question was probably not clear enough, but it is still worth mentioning:

https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/garp-2019-p2-question-5.22868/#post-78850

• It would be great to have written books instead of digital copies for the study material
• Some topics can be found scattered across different sections. It would be good to have study notes about those topics specifically.
  Ex: The notion of liquidity comes up in different sections. Having one study note summarizing all the notions about liquidity would be great. The study notes present Basel historically. Another approach would be to have sections about Basel for market risk only, another section for Basel for credit risk only, etc

I hope the above feedback will be helpful. Good luck to those studying for the exam in May!

 

[DouglasBrown]

Am I correct in guessing you took your exam in the Hilton place in London?

 

[Sixcarbs]

Am I correct in guessing you took your exam in the Hilton place in London?

I did and I remember it being cold, at least for Part 2. I was in a different room for Part 1 in the morning and it was fine.

 

[tom87]

Am I correct in guessing you took your exam in the Hilton place in London?

Yes, Hilton in London, indeed!

 

[David1973]

Dear @David Harper CFA FRM and @Nicole Seaman - I am fortunate to report back that I passed Part 2 of the FRM written in November 2019, at the second time of asking, and this note is to express my deepest thanks to you for the amazing work that you do each and every day, and all of it with the success of your members at the forefront of your efforts. It goes without saying that I would not have completed the FRM had I not enlisted your help, and for that I am most grateful. Thank you again and keep up the fantastic work!

 

[Peterfcm]

I did and I remember it being cold, at least for Part 2. I was in a different room for Part 1 in the morning and it was fine.

I was literally shivering, the guys and girls around me were rocking them bodies in the seats to keep warm. I asked 4 times for them to do something about the aircon... It was not pleasant.

 

[queliujin]

3rd Jan I submitted my experience, today received email I got certified

 

[Peterfcm]

3rd Jan I submitted my experience, today received email I got certified

Congrats! I submitted on the 2nd Jan and not heard anything. I thought it was dealt with, first come first serve? No matter, it's all good. It'll arrive eventually!

 

[Sixcarbs]

3rd Jan I submitted my experience, today received email I got certified

Great news! Congratulations!!!

 

[krisn]

3rd Jan I submitted my experience, today received email I got certified

Less than a week, didn't know that GARP was so fast

Anyway, congratulations for the good news!

 

[Detective]

Congrats! I submitted on the 2nd Jan and not heard anything. I thought it was dealt with, first come first serve? No matter, it's all good. It'll arrive eventually!

He could be in a drastically different timezone so his Jan 3 could be your Jan 2. FWIW, I submitted mine 8 minutes after results were released, and I have not received email yet. It also says pending review on GARP site. I reside in NYC.

 

[ashna1226]

Does GARP contact your manager or the company where you work? I have not informed my manager as it is taken as a signal that you may leave soon.

 

[Detective]

Does GARP contact your manager or the company where you work? I have not informed my manager as it is taken as a signal that you may leave soon.

They do not, unless you optionally ask them to by providing them your manager's information.