Course Study Plan Guide

[conanthebarbarian]

Does anybody expect the May exam to be delayed due to coronavirus? I see more and more countries are temporary shutting down their schools and universities.

 

[Sixcarbs]

Does anybody expect the May exam to be delayed due to coronavirus? I see more and more countries are temporary shutting down their schools and universities.

I can see the exam being cancelled in certain cities, but not completely, however I am not a doctor.

 

[conanthebarbarian]

I can see the exam being cancelled in certain cities, but not completely, however I am not a doctor.

I hope it won't get postponed. It would be bad if you get prepared by May for the exam but you had to constantly revise the material until the new exam date.
My other fear is that if it doesn't get delayed I couldn't go to the exam because of travel bans. Unfortunatly I don't have exam location in my country.
Fingers crossed that everything will be okay.

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Hi @corinne.lieberman21 I understand the challenge, but I do not have a specific view on this because it's the first cycle of the new, expanded material. To be really candid, I think it's a problem GARP created for everybody. There is way too much P2 material such that, in the first cycle (and feedback), we'll learn a lot about which material is less relevant. They should have done a private beta test rather than effectively using this semester as a public beta test. As far as pacing, your sense is probably just as good (or better) than mine. We can only do the best we can do to update materials, per a quality threshold, as fast as we can. (And, as I've written many times, I am not going to feel pressured about the status of our material. We need to proud of the content we produce and, eg, quality practice questions do take time). My suspicion is that GARP is getting a lot of negative feedback about the undue amount of new P2 material and will need to rationalize it for next year. For one thing, many of the new assignments contain LOs that are not really testable (and many more which certainly GARP itself has zero track record of mastery), which is really unproductive for EPPs and candidates alike. This Part 2 this year is massively over-assigned. I'm on record already as telling GARP that I believe this year's rate of change is "reckless" on their part; that's the adjective I've used.

Sorry I can't be more helpful; or, what I mean is, sorry that I can't have a better view than you yourself can. I do wish you would give feedback to GARP. Of course they don't work weekends but they should be reachable during their well-balanced work hours Thanks,

 

[finhoe]

On a related note about study pace (on FRM Part 1), I am currently finishing my first read through GARP textbooks book 3 and onto book 4. With 2 months left to the first exam, how would you advise myself to structure my study @David Harper CFA FRM ?
My current plan is to finish my first read through of the 4th book by end march. Spend the month of April to work through books 1-4 again but with BT notes and questions, and then the last 2 weeks before the exam in may to just practise exam questions. Would you suggest any changes?
*Im seriously concerned that my study plan will not prepare me well enough*

 

[ucaksbu]

Hi all,

I'm sorry if this is answered somewhere, but I'm getting a bit lost due to the mass of content everywhere. I'm currently mainly working with the question sets of the course (i.e. after each reading). Is my understanding correct that there's basically 3 sources of questions:
- In the course, after each reading
- In the forum
- In old exams

Is there any recommended approach as to how to approach them, as there are so many? I'm currently planning on doing the ones in the course now, then after do the ones in the old exams, and then going over the ones in the forum. Are the ones in the forum also collected somewhere on a pdf or is the idea to go post-for-post?

And as for the difficulty, as I am currently not looking at practice exams yet, do the questions at the end of each reading match up to the difficulty of the exam or are they more review questions to ensure the content is understood? I am currently at around 80% on the Global Topic Drill, and am wondering how that would translate into the exam

Thanks

Sam

 

[Nicole Seaman]

Hi all,

I'm sorry if this is answered somewhere, but I'm getting a bit lost due to the mass of content everywhere. I'm currently mainly working with the question sets of the course (i.e. after each reading). Is my understanding correct that there's basically 3 sources of questions:
- In the course, after each reading
- In the forum
- In old exams

Is there any recommended approach as to how to approach them, as there are so many? I'm currently planning on doing the ones in the course now, then after do the ones in the old exams, and then going over the ones in the forum. Are the ones in the forum also collected somewhere on a pdf or is the idea to go post-for-post?

And as for the difficulty, as I am currently not looking at practice exams yet, do the questions at the end of each reading match up to the difficulty of the exam or are they more review questions to ensure the content is understood? I am currently at around 80% on the Global Topic Drill, and am wondering how that would translate into the exam

Thanks

Sam

Hello Sam,

I moved your post to this thread, where many of our members have provided advice on their study plans. Reading through the discussion may help you to create your own study plan.

Regarding the practice questions in the forum, those questions are the same as the questions in the study planner (Practice Question Set PDFs). We post all of our practice questions in the forum first. When we have a complete set, we compile them into a PDF and publish them in the study planner. So, there is no need for you to go through all of the questions in the forum unless you want to follow them as they are posted. Having a forum thread for each practice question provides a place for our members to ask questions about that specific practice question. The practice question PDFs include the corresponding forum link on the answer page. It keeps our forum organized, and allows our members to easily find information with the search and tag functions. You can read detailed information about our practice questions here: https://www.bionicturtle.com/bt-faq/what-do-the-question-sets-include/.

To answer your question about the difficulty, our practice questions are generally more difficult than those that you will see on the exam. The practice questions that David writes go in-depth so you are prepared for the exam. If you study questions that are too easy, that would make the exam very difficult. The reason for the difficulty of our practice questions is also to make sure that you are learning the concepts and not just memorizing them for an exam. The link that I provided above explains more about the difficulty of our practice questions and the reasoning.

The Global Topic Drills will help you to make sure you understand the concepts that were covered in that specific topic. We also have interactive quizzes available in the Advanced and Professional study packages. These quizzes are both interactive and in PDF format. They are a review of the concepts in each topic also.

I hope this helps to answer your questions!

 

[ucaksbu]

Hello Sam,

I moved your post to this thread, where many of our members have provided advice on their study plans. Reading through the discussion may help you to create your own study plan.

Regarding the practice questions in the forum, those questions are the same as the questions in the study planner (Practice Question Set PDFs). We post all of our practice questions in the forum first. When we have a complete set, we compile them into a PDF and publish them in the study planner. So, there is no need for you to go through all of the questions in the forum unless you want to follow them as they are posted. Having a forum thread for each practice question provides a place for our members to ask questions about that specific practice question. The practice question PDFs include the corresponding forum link on the answer page. It keeps our forum organized, and allows our members to easily find information with the search and tag functions. You can read detailed information about our practice questions here: https://www.bionicturtle.com/bt-faq/what-do-the-question-sets-include/.

To answer your question about the difficulty, our practice questions are generally more difficult than those that you will see on the exam. The practice questions that David writes go in-depth so you are prepared for the exam. If you study questions that are too easy, that would make the exam very difficult. The reason for the difficulty of our practice questions is also to make sure that you are learning the concepts and not just memorizing them for an exam. The link that I provided above explains more about the difficulty of our practice questions and the reasoning.

The Global Topic Drills will help you to make sure you understand the concepts that were covered in that specific topic. We also have interactive quizzes available in the Advanced and Professional study packages. These quizzes are both interactive and in PDF format. They are a review of the concepts in each topic also.

I hope this helps to answer your questions!

Hi Nicole,

thank you, that helps a lot. I have just now noticed that the learning objectives in the videos are not aligned with the GARP learning objectives. From previous posts here I understand that this year has been a big change in material. I'm not too concerned as I am not planning on studying superficially, and as such a high variance of what the exam might tests might actually be good for me But I am wondering a) are you planning on updating the some of the videos (and other material) before the November exam - issue corrections aside, b) would it be possible to somehow know in advance which material will be updated (to hold off on studying it before it gets the update) and c) is there a central place where I can see which material was updated

Additionally, not sure if the right place for this question is here, but there are now 2 exams, one in October, one in November, is the expectation from you guys that these exams are equivalent in what material they cover? (I was signed up for October, however moved to November as that's the only way of taking both levels in the same day

Thanks

Sam

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Hi Sam (@ucaksbu ) I'll let @Nicole Seaman answer your first set of questions, but I just wanted to weigh in on "there are now 2 exams, one in October, one in November, is the expectation from you guys that these exams are equivalent in what material they cover?"

Yes, the October is the deferred May exam and therefore it will cover the same material; also, it is untenable for GARP to take any other approach as there is only a month between the exams.

Re central place, see Announcements

• https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/2020-part-1-new-and-updated-published-materials.23056
• https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/2020-part-2-new-and-updated-published-materials.23057/

 

[Nicole Seaman]

Hi Nicole,

thank you, that helps a lot. I have just now noticed that the learning objectives in the videos are not aligned with the GARP learning objectives. From previous posts here I understand that this year has been a big change in material. I'm not too concerned as I am not planning on studying superficially, and as such a high variance of what the exam might tests might actually be good for me But I am wondering a) are you planning on updating the some of the videos (and other material) before the November exam - issue corrections aside, b) would it be possible to somehow know in advance which material will be updated (to hold off on studying it before it gets the update) and c) is there a central place where I can see which material was updated

Additionally, not sure if the right place for this question is here, but there are now 2 exams, one in October, one in November, is the expectation from you guys that these exams are equivalent in what material they cover? (I was signed up for October, however moved to November as that's the only way of taking both levels in the same day

Thanks

Sam

Hello @ucaksbu

Please make sure to read through our publishing process thread, as that explains that we continue to update materials throughout the entire exam year. This includes making updates to all of the types of materials that we offer (videos, study notes, question sets, learning spreadsheets, focus review videos, global topic reviews, mock exams, etc.), however, we never guarantee that all of these materials will be updated, as it would be impossible to maintain quality if we rush through updating the materials just to say that all materials are updated. We are not able to provide dates or information on when study materials will be published or if they have upcoming updates. This has caused too much constant pressure and emails/forum posts in the past and it is something that we cannot provide. Every time we need to respond to inquiries about updates, it takes valuable time away from material prep. I have provided many of the dates for the publishing of practice question sets in the study planner, but that is because we have a specific schedule for writing those. However, the publishing of notes and other materials are not able to be scheduled because we cannot predict how long each set is going to take to prepare. There are many hours spent preparing these materials.

Regarding the learning objectives not aligning in the videos, there are learning objectives that need to be added, but the videos that are currently published are very relevant. Our curriculum analysis spreadsheet will show you that GARP retained most learning objectives from previous years and just added some new ones (there are some that have been removed).

 

[jawele]

Hello

I decided to go the GARP+BT road. I'm studying QA book now, and I'd like your advice on whether I should first go through all of the chapters in GARP and only then pick BT, or rather learn a GARP chapter, take the associated chapter of BT, and move on in that way? I'm currently following the second approach, but the problem is that as BT's problems are integrated (which is great), I struggle with concepts that aren't necessarily addressed in the chapter. For example, in chapter 2 of QA, problems involved calculations of correlation and covariance, which were more or less new to me. So I thought perhaps if I read the whole QA book, it would become easier to navigate the BT problems. What do you think?

However, it's also possible that FRM students may be assumed to know certain concepts, including correlation, covariance, in advance. Is that the case?

Thanks

 

[Sixcarbs]

Hello

I decided to go the GARP+BT road. I'm studying QA book now, and I'd like your advice on whether I should first go through all of the chapters in GARP and only then pick BT, or rather learn a GARP chapter, take the associated chapter of BT, and move on in that way? I'm currently following the second approach, but the problem is that as BT's problems are integrated (which is great), I struggle with concepts that aren't necessarily addressed in the chapter. For example, in chapter 2 of QA, problems involved calculations of correlation and covariance, which were more or less new to me. So I thought perhaps if I read the whole QA book, it would become easier to navigate the BT problems. What do you think?

However, it's also possible that FRM students may be assumed to know certain concepts, including correlation, covariance, in advance. Is that the case?

Thanks

I recommend GARP chapter then BT chapter. Stick with it and those integrated BT questions should help you pick things up faster.

I don't think GARP assumes you have any prior statistics knowledge, although it would certainly help.

 

[dtammerz]

Hello,

I purchased the BT Advanced package over the weekend to start preparing for the Nov 2020 Part I exam. So far I'm reading the study notes for P1.T1.
When do you recommend finishing all of the material? I wanted to pace myself in a way that leaves enough time to digest the material and take plenty of practice questions. For example, would one aim to finish all of the BT Study Notes by 4-8 weeks prior to the exam? When would it be best advised to start taking mock exams?

For reference, I have been working in Banking for about 10 years now. I recently moved from a back office function into the Risk department but am very rusty on finance concepts learnt in university.

Thank you.

 

[EmreDegirmenci]

Hello,

which strategy would you recommend? Is it enough just to study the practice questions and exams?

 

[Stierlitz]

Hi all,

is there any study / PERFORMANCE TRACKER / planner on Excel basis? I would be grateful if someone could upload here one. There are plenty online / excel study planners on the Web for CFA but I could not find any useful / current version for FRM (I am doing Part 1, October 2020).

I could find one from Finance Train (s. attached), it is back from 2013, hence, too old. Does anyone have similar one related to 2020 exams (Part 1 is appreciated)? I have looked through this thread but no excel file with a performance tracker.

Thanks,
Stierlitz

 

[EmreDegirmenci]

Hi,

is there only one BT Mock Exam (2020) avaiable? Do we have access to previous Mock Exams from BT?

Best regards,
Emre
@Nicole Seaman
@David Harper CFA FRM

 

[anandcp]

Hi all,

is there any study / PERFORMANCE TRACKER / planner on Excel basis? I would be grateful if someone could upload here one. There are plenty online / excel study planners on the Web for CFA but I could not find any useful / current version for FRM (I am doing Part 1, October 2020).

I could find one from Finance Train (s. attached), it is back from 2013, hence, too old. Does anyone have similar one related to 2020 exams (Part 1 is appreciated)? I have looked through this thread but no excel file with a performance tracker.

Thanks,
Stierlitz

Thank you.

 

[Nicole Seaman]

Hi,

is there only one BT Mock Exam (2020) avaiable? Do we have access to previous Mock Exams from BT?

Best regards,
Emre
@Nicole Seaman
@David Harper CFA FRM

Hello,

Yes, there is currently one Mock exam available for each Part. If I somehow can find the time to prepare a second mock exam for each part, I will do that, however, we are currently working very hard to update the focus review videos, while continuing to update notes and practice questions. The mock exams take many hours to organize, prepare, and publish. However, there are over 2,000 practice questions for each part in the study planner that our members can study from for Part 1, including the interactive quizzes that are provided with the advanced study packages.

 

[ProfZero]

Dearest Bionic Turtle Admins and Community, good day!

Thank you for providing such an amazing and high-quality prep service! Getting ready to gauge Part I this December.

Colleagues I just cleared all the practice questions in the .pdf files (total count: 1,711), and all the GARP exams of previous years (thanks for uploading!). I noticed though that on Bionic Turtle website there are actually some more questions (after a quick-and-dirty filter I see a grand total of: 2,139, updated August 26). I was just wondering - would there be a straight way to skim the "new" question from those in the .pdf files (i.e. ca. 428 questions)? Simply to avoid having to check line by line (my retinas won't forgive me)!

Thanks all again!

Malfurion

 

[Nicole Seaman]

Dearest Bionic Turtle Admins and Community, good day!

Thank you for providing such an amazing and high-quality prep service! Getting ready to gauge Part I this December.

Colleagues I just cleared all the practice questions in the .pdf files (total count: 1,711), and all the GARP exams of previous years (thanks for uploading!). I noticed though that on Bionic Turtle website there are actually some more questions (after a quick-and-dirty filter I see a grand total of: 2,139, updated August 26). I was just wondering - would there be a straight way to skim the "new" question from those in the .pdf files (i.e. ca. 428 questions)? Simply to avoid having to check line by line (my retinas won't forgive me)!

Thanks all again!

Malfurion

Hello @Malfurion

Welcome to Bionic Turtle! I see that you just purchased one of our study packages recently. I'm sorry, but I'm not sure what you mean by the "new" questions. Our new practice questions are all published in the PDF files in the study planner. They are first posted in the forum here: https://forum.bionicturtle.com/forums/todays-daily-questions.53/ and then when we have a full set of questions for that specific reading or chapter, they are published as a Practice Question PDF. The only new practice questions that I have not published yet are the ones that were posted in the forum this week on Monday for Topic 10. Those will be published in a PDF set today.

We retain the older questions in the PDF set if they are relevant, but the new practice questions are always added at the very top of the PQ set so you don't need to go line by line (sorry I'm not really sure what you are referring to here...are you referring to the airtable XLS where we list all of our practice questions?) If so, that is updated once per month with the new practice questions that were published. You will see that there is a column that says "Active" and the answer for each practice question will be "True" or "False" which means they are either still relevant or not relevant to the current curriculum. This is a guide for those who would like to see what we offer for practice questions and it also helps us to keep our practice questions organized. As a member, you don't need to use that XLS to find the new practice questions, as they are always posted in the forum and then published in the study planner.

Also, I update this thread every time a practice question set is published so you can easily see when new PQs are added to the study planner: https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/2020-part-1-new-and-updated-published-materials.23056/. We also have a very useful FAQ page here that explains our practice question process: https://www.bionicturtle.com/bt-faq/what-do-your-frm-practice-questions-include/ . I hope this helps to explain our process, as we have tried to make it as easy as possible to quickly find the new PQs.