How I passed the Full FRM Exam

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BethesdaCFA

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I used study materials from Bionic Turtle and Schweser (PremiumPlus) to pass the exam. I found the FRM Handbook and the GARP curriculum readings to be more useful as reference materials than as primary resources.
Which was the most helpful to me between Bionic Turtle and Schweser? Hands down it was Bionic Turtle!
STUDY NOTES
The Bionic Turtle study notes are vibrant and filled with many colorful diagrams. With BT you are provided with PDF files that you can print or read on your computer. At least last fall when I was studying for the Full FRM exam Schweser did not offer its customers the ability to obtain its FRM study notes in PDF format.
VIDEOS
I watched all of the weekly Schweser videos (they were offered live on Wednesday nights for 3 hrs at a time), but I didn’t seem to get much out of them. I felt like a lot of the time in the Schweser live online seminar was spent on “administrative” items. Also, the Schwser live online classes cover so much in so little time that I felt like the concepts were just being glossed over. In contrast, I found the Bionic Turtle videos to be far more substantial. BT devoted far more time to videos than Schweser (there are literally dozens of hours of videos that you an download that cover all areas of the curriculum). I felt like the BT videos took their time and really covered the concepts well.
IN RETROSPECT
If I had to do it all over again I would use Bionic Turtle, and I would consider adding the Schweser materials as a supplement only if my company paid for it and there was no money leaving my pocket. It looks like right now one year of access to Bionic Turtle is going for $399 compared to $1,118 for PremiumPlus for levels 1 and 2 of Schweser. BT is such a bargain!!!!
Schweser is fantastic for CFA and I am using it to study for CFA Level 3 this June. I haven’t found a study provider better than Schweser for CFA. However, with respect to the FRM exam I found the Bionic Turtle Materials to be far more helpful. If the guys at Bionic Turtle are reading this, PLEASE consider offering a CFA study solution!!!
I hope this helps! :-D
 
If I were to do it over again….I would use Bionic Turtle….I may get it for reference material.
 
i used solely the schweser stuff… no handbook, no bionic turtle
 
I don’t know how I passed. I referred only Schweser and that too only for a week!
 
I used both bionic turtle and schweser. Bionic Turtle was my favorite. I passed.
 
i used schweser completely … 2009 was a damn hectic year…. cfa I in june, caia I in sep and frm in nov… glad all the madness is over…
the nerd in me wants to go for caia II in march but i cannot do it now… too exhausted with studying… will go for cfa II in june directly…
 
I used BT predominantly - while I went over the video I took enough notes but never got a chance to review.
second pass was with Schweser (I shared it withone of my friend) so just had enough time to skim through to see if BT missed anything and to my surprise for most part BT was way better in explaining (Similar to Stalla for CFA)
Then I religiously took a lot of QBank and at one point I came to realize that QBank is more of refresher quiz and so I started doing practice exams - I spent the last 3 weeks taking only exams (bt qns, schwe qbank, mock exams and FRM exams)
I had plenty of qns in FRM handbookk but never had time togo over…
my 2c :
Use BT for understanding concepts
use Schw to skim thru’ - use it as a review material
Take all possible exams = use qbnk as a quiz stuff
** important - take any possible previous FRM exams (you get a good feel of the real exam -eventhough FRM full morning exam was no where near what I took while prac’g)
and Pray a lot that you pass.
 
Schweser all the way:
CFA All 3 levels,
FRM Full
and CAIA level 1. The next level in March this year
If you do have more time would recommend a revision of schweser !!
 
I used Schweser and surprisingly passed.
Right on exam day I felt badly underprepared. Schwesers Q-Bank gives a false sense of security, the questions are too easy, IMHO. Do have a good look ate the GARP provided sample exams!
Schweser videos are not worth the money as they are very superficial, but the Final Review Guidebook served as a good starting point for retention exercises.
I occasionally used the Risk Manager Handbook as a reference.
If I were to do it again I would probably get Schweser AND BionicTurtle, since the hand-on approach of BT is appealing to me, thought I have not tried any BT material yet.
I also got the Hull book, incl. the Student Solution Manual, after the exam, and can highly recommend the book. It feels way more complete and comprehensive then the Schweser books. If you want to get anything of the assigned readings, thats a book I’d buy. Also, I found the Basel II readings in Schweser left out a lot after I went through the original document over the holidays. So, following Schwesers suggestion to have a look at the original Basel II material can’t hurt, but I didn’t do it.
 
I did very little studying, knowing many overlap with CFA (I passed all 3 levels). I put most concentration on Credit Risk and OpRisk, while studying very little case studies. I think I spent at most 50 hours studying. I thought I was marginal but now I think I did better than many passed candidiates. We will find this out soon! :)
BTW, used Schweser only.
 
Same as Monki. I read the Schwesers and then spent the Friday before D-Day doing more than 500 questions. That got me over the hill.
 
I did Schweser & Handbook
Saw BT videos as well
was initially finding very tough to grasp higher calculas in handbook…but towards end…just ignored that…
I think doing all possible questions/exams worked
I must have put 250 odd hours for all this
 
@bethesda: “I haven’t found a study provider better than Schweser for CFA.’
How about the CFAI?
 
Purely Schweser, never knew about BT, never opened the handbook. I have bought it now as I want to go through it properly.
Went through 2 past exams, 3 months preparation, followed schweser’s study calendar.
FRM in my opinion was as brutal as CFA L2. Don’t underestimate this sucker.
- Blueswan, CFA, CAIA, FRM
 
blueswan Wrote:
——————————————————-
> FRM in my opinion was as brutal as CFA L2. Don’t
> underestimate this sucker.
>
> - Blueswan, CFA, CAIA, FRM
I second that. Don’t underestimate the difficulty of this exam. It’s easily as much to study as any given CFA level, but the questions on the FRM exam were trickier on average.
 
I used Schweser as my primary prep material and skimmed through the past exam questions in the hand book. Also checked out few BT videos on Youtube available for free.
Schweser FRM material didn’t cover the concepts in-depth some of the important concepts had superficial or confusing explanation. Answering some of the FRM exam questions need in-depth knowledge on concepts hence using Schweser material is not a good idea.
Even though I checked out few BT videos on youtube the concepts are explained in-depth and makes you feel confident tackling the tough questions in FRM exams.
The hand book is huge its hard to go through the entire material but I felt some of the FRM questions are entirely based on the FRM hand book examples that were used for explaining the concepts . This kind of makes sense because the FRM test creators may be referring this handbook while setting the questions. Which again makes you feel confident in cracking the FRM exam.
If I were to do it again I would use BT as my prep material and refer hand book to clarify doubts on tough concepts and may be Schweser for review.
 
——————————————————————————————————
>@bethesda: “I haven’t found a study provider better than Schweser for CFA.’
>
>How about the CFAI?
The CFA Institute curriculum makes for very interesting reading. The selections are from some of the leading minds in the field. I do occasionally refer to a CFAI reading or two when I have the time. However, the CFAI readings are much more lengthy than the corresponding readings from Schweser. If you have unlimited time the CFAI readings would probably be better than Schweser. However, given the limited amount of time I have to study I prefer Schweser to the CFAI readings for the CFA exam.
 
Core readings for quant (helped me to get 1st quartile in quant )
Read Hull Chapters (since 20 odd chapters are from Hull text thru out the FRM Curriculam)
Skimmed through Schweser
Studied Handbook and diligently solved all the Handbook questions ( except credit risk and Investment management)
I think I was better off studying Hull which helped me get 1st quartile in market risk and 2nd quartile in Risk models
schweser is horrible for ops risk and credit risk . I found FRM Handbook ops risk way superior to any other readings I wouldnt have even thought about getting 1st quartile in ops risk if not for Handbook
I also watched few videos of BT and was diligently following the BT forum and solving the ‘question a day ’ those questions were one notch above FRM questions and were very involving .
Took off from work for a week before exam and solved Handbook questions and schweser practice tests .
If I were to do it again I would read complete Handbook along with Hull and quant core readings , omit schweser , read BT Materials and watch BT videos
 
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