Schweser QBank vs. Bionic Turtle Questions

[chris-FFM]

Hello,

I know that this topic has been discussed several times, but I would like to discuss this topic again.

I use both Schweser and Bonic Turtle materials. I started with Schweser and started doing the QBank questions. I felt very confortable and scored around 80 to 85% on average. I started doing the old practise exam questions and felt that I was not well prepared with the Schweser QBank. The questions I are a way too easy.

That i the reason why I have ordered Bonic Turtle. I need to say that those questions are really good. I get a lot of questions wrong at the moment so it is a little bit frustrating, since I thought I am already well prepared. However, by reading the answers of the questions I gain a much deeper understanding of the topics. The questions are structured in a way, that they provide deep insights of each topic.

However, I also have a recommendation. The pdfs are a little bit unstructured and it takes some time to get a good structure. Would it not be better to built up something similar to a QBank?

Many thanks

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Hi Chris,

Thanks, we do take pride in difficult questions (I spend the first 2-3+ hours every workday just writing questions) and I'm glad you appreciate their goal is more to train than to produce the satisfaction of a high score.

Question: can you be more specific ?

i.e., the current organization is structured by topic/reading assignment, so I would characterize our current approach as "structured" by topic/reading. Now, this year we are adding:

• In the shorter run (before May): mock exams
• In the longer run (before Nov 2012): online quiz to simulate

both of these are "unstructured;" in fact, the primary work is to curate from our database and re-purpose to the unstructured format.

So, hopefully you can see why I could really use your help with the SPECIFIC want/need, especially as there is a difference between a QBank for browsing versus for simulation. Any further help appreciated because, in all sincerity, it can inform our online plan. Thank you!

 

[Hend Abuenein]

Hello David and Chris ,

I'd like to share a couple of ideas here if I may.

I have found that online quizzes do not help me at all in my preparation.
What I need is the exact setting of the real test. No screen or keyboard , just the exam book, calculator, and a pencil.

When I used Schweser pro Qbank, what I did was design a 100 Q exam with equal weights, printed that out, set a date and exact hour to give myself a mock exam. And it would be on a very early morning, just like exam Part 1 would be. And I did this 5 times over the last 10 days prior to the exam.

The repeated experience was very good for setting my pace. But, like Chris points out here, the way too easy questions (some repeated in the same exam) made it less challenging to finish, so much that last 2 exams I finished 100 Qs in 2:20 hours only.

So basically what we need for mock exams IMHO is the following:
1- That we be able to design exams with weights of our choice, or GARP exam weights, and total number of Qs from part topics.
2- That exams (and question answers) be printable or runnable online (2 separate options), to the choice of the candidate.
3- That answers be printable at end of exam pages (similar to GARP mock exams format), for reviewing after the mock experience (this was very good learning experience to me).
4- That questions never be repeated for the same candidate from her previously designed exams. SO that if I withdraw first 100 Qs from the Q pool for exam no.1, the same questions should never show up again if I design another exam later.

And I thank you

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Hend, thank you, specifics are very helpful ... while we won't be able to satisfy all of those items in a single application, as i think about it, the combination of hand-crafted mock exams and serving the online quizzes will address several of your items .... (it will have print ability; and eventually timing ability)
I think a key theme of your is, to simulate the actual exam, which I definitely agree with, thanks!