Study approach

[david_candlish]

Hi
The bionic turtle offering seems to be the best one I've seen but one thing I'm not quite clear on is how the study material works - in other words, do I need to get "official" material from GARP and then use BT to supplment my learning, or would I a BT subscription give me everything needed in a structured package to pass FRM?

Furthermore, I was advised to wait until November had passed before starting so the content on BT would be updated. I'd be looking to take the part 1 exam Nov 2020 - is that still an advisable/realistic timeframe?

Essentially, what I want to know is if I buy into one of the BT packages now am I good to simply start studying immediately, or will I need more on top...?

 

[Peterfcm]

Hi David, I just sat Part 2, but for Part 1, all I really needed was to use the BT subscription. Personally I would just go through all the BT questions (huge amount, like 1000s of pages), mini mocks and mocks and make sure you understand them. The official books were helpful at times, mainly for viewing the equations clearly, but I only bought them due to fear of missing out.

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Thank you for the insight @Peterfcm !

@david_candlish
Re: " I was advised to wait until November had passed before starting"

-- Who told you that? It doesn't sound like us ...

We are currently updating all of the materials, to reflect the 2020 syllabus. See https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/please-read-publishing-process-for-2020.22937/

Re Part 1, this is the first year GARP is publishing its own materials. It remains to be seen exactly how they are received by candidates. My primary observation is that they are more summarized (i.e., more shallow) versions of the same underlying textbooks; importantly, the Learning Objectives effectively did not change for Part 1. Further, clearly GARP did not indent them to be completely standalone because the questions are not representative of exam questions. They've effectively said they want to support EPPs. This is just my preliminary opinion, but if for no other reason than the new P1 lacks numerous, detailed worked exampes and given they contain no exam-type questions, I have a hard time imagining somebody can say they will be sufficient by themselves (and note: my understanding is that they are bundled into the Part 1 fees, which (no surprise) GARP increased by +$75.00 to cover. So, I think the question is sort of moot w.r.t. Part 1? i.e., you already get the P1 material, and further, I think the wisdom of the crowd will soon enough render a judgement ...

In any case, our objective with the updated material is to render the source assignments un-necessary. However, that is a function of time: it's only fully true later in next year. It is not currently true at all. Some of our Study Notes will be superior to the source, some will be very abbreviated summaries. But they will deploy in sequence, so they will only obsolete the source over time.

cc: @Nicole as I was maybe too wordy, I'm sure we have a better, briefer answer! Thanks,

 

[Sixcarbs]

Hi
The bionic turtle offering seems to be the best one I've seen but one thing I'm not quite clear on is how the study material works - in other words, do I need to get "official" material from GARP and then use BT to supplment my learning, or would I a BT subscription give me everything needed in a structured package to pass FRM?

Furthermore, I was advised to wait until November had passed before starting so the content on BT would be updated. I'd be looking to take the part 1 exam Nov 2020 - is that still an advisable/realistic timeframe?

Essentially, what I want to know is if I buy into one of the BT packages now am I good to simply start studying immediately, or will I need more on top...?

If you have time, go with GARP texts and BT Study package with videos at a minimum. If you can handle the BT PQ's, the exam will be no problem.

 

[Nicole Seaman]

Thank you for the insight @Peterfcm !

@david_candlish
Re: " I was advised to wait until November had passed before starting"

-- Who told you that? It doesn't sound like us ...

@David Harper CFA FRM actually it was me that he is referring to, as I've discussed this through email with him already. However, there was a reason that I advised that he wait until November to purchase because he had stated that he wanted to make sure he had access to his materials until the November 2020 exam. So, I stated, "since you plan on taking the November 2020 exam, I would recommend purchasing our study package in November 2019 to ensure that you have a full year of access for your studies. Even if GARP has not released the 2020 curriculum when you purchase, you can still begin your studies with the materials that are currently published."

My email also stated, "We will begin to update the materials in the study planner once GARP has released the curriculum. We do not publish all of the new materials at once, as this would be impossible considering that the 2020 curriculum isn't released until December 1st. We update and publish new materials throughout the exam period."

It doesn't sound like us to tell people to wait until a certain point to begin their studies so you are correct. But, in this case, the reason was because they aren't taking the exam until November 2020 and I wanted to be sure that they have access to their materials until the exam date.

 

[Nicole Seaman]

Hi
The bionic turtle offering seems to be the best one I've seen but one thing I'm not quite clear on is how the study material works - in other words, do I need to get "official" material from GARP and then use BT to supplment my learning, or would I a BT subscription give me everything needed in a structured package to pass FRM?

Furthermore, I was advised to wait until November had passed before starting so the content on BT would be updated. I'd be looking to take the part 1 exam Nov 2020 - is that still an advisable/realistic timeframe?

Essentially, what I want to know is if I buy into one of the BT packages now am I good to simply start studying immediately, or will I need more on top...?

@david_candlish

In addition to David's response, I also want to point out that every person is different. Many people have only used our materials to study for the exam, while others have used both our materials and the GARP books. Also, regarding the time frame for studying, everyone spends a different amount of time before the exam also. Some begin their studies a year in advance, while others begin their studies now for the May 2020 exam, which gives them about 5 months. It really depends on your previous experience and education. As I'm sure you can imagine, it is difficult for us to tell you what will be best for you as an individual.

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Thank you @Nicole Seaman Thank makes perfect sense: @david_candlish didn't mention that the motivation was to be subscribed (under the original purchase) thru Nov 2020. I fully agree with all of your points, of course

 

[AlexGab]

Hi,

I searched the forum to find the answer to my questions but I couldn't find any.

My question is similar to David's. I intend to take the Part I exam in May 2020, however I already bought 2019 Garp study material this summer. I already started to use it to prepare for the exam along with the Bionic Turtle material (which I bought in July). Consequently, my question is : does the 2020 curriculum will be significantly different ? And, should I wait and solely use the BT material or can I continue with the 2019 books and the updated BT material ?

Thank you in advance for your answer.

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Hi @AlexGab It depends whether you refer to Part 1 or Part 2. See https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/2019-2020-curriculum-change-analysis-spreadsheets.22938/

As far as I know at this point (I'm up to almost the end of T2 in Part 1 in terms of revisions), the Learning Objectives in Part 1 are essentially unchanged, despite the entire source material has switched from external readings to internal GARP. Therefore, Part 1 should be essentially unchanged. (Please note this is preliminary opinion, we are still analyzing/editing/etc).

Part 2 is must like other years, it contains some topics with mild change; the T7. Operational changed (too much); and the new T7 Liquidity is entirely new. I'm not sure entirely how that translates into an answer to the question, "should I wait?" ... because, you should never wait on us, in my opinion. The problem with the churn is the readings is the GARP churns the readings more more than testable material such that last year's material (regardless of the year) is always more relevant than it seems because the testable body is more like a moving average. There seems to be little track record in exam questions on the bleeding edge of the latest new material. I hope that's helpful, Thanks,

 

[AlexGab]

I was talking about Part 1.

Thanks you for your quick answer!

 

[DouglasBrown]

For Part 1 I felt I had most stuff covered from my actual job (I have developed VaR models and have studied Maths, Finance etc in university up to MSc). So I just used the GARP books. I found them interesting, and useful for an actual bit of work I was doing, but not particularly helpful for preparing for the exam.

I realised with a few weeks to go that actually the trick to passing was to review the practice questions, so just switched to repeatedly doing the practice questions (provided by GARP).

I could use my experience and general industry knowledge to answer qualitative questions. Some were possible to answer entirely based on industry knowledge. I should have made notes on the case studies though (listed in learning objectives) as some were new to me.

For Part II there were more areas I had never experienced via my work, and the GARP readings are longer. So I had to be a bit more tactical.

I did not have time to read every page of the reading list, and needed to prioritise my time. So I used bionic turtle as the main resource for part 2. Only refering to the readings when I was interested in the topic and/or wanted to see the derivation of some of the formula to cement my understanding. Studies have shown that it is 'levels of engagement' that creates memory so it's better to spend time thinking about and really understanding the topics rather than passively reading.

I am glad I did use Bionic Turtle as the summaries and videos helped target the time I had to the stuff that mattered, the testable material. Also the questions on this site were better prepared (clearer learning objectives, better explainations).

So obviously I can't answer to everyone but in my experience the BT material is sufficient. As it covers the same topics, but in way that is focused on testable areas.

Note that the areas that are harder to test are still in the BT materials, so you don't miss out on the coverage. But let's be honest, as great as your intentions are, when it gets to the final few weeks all you want to know is 'what is likely to be in the exam'.

..and that is where BT sample questions are a fantastic resource.

 

[Detective]

Agree with above engagement with material matters the most. Although, you do not need read the source material page by page, I would recommend reading two sections —

Part 1:
-Foundations of Risk Management (Topic 1)

Part 2:
-Current Issues

Both topics are “free” points in my opinion, and the actual readings are not too long.

For the rest BT is sufficient with emphasis on actively doing practice questions.