Minimum passing score?

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Klarsolo

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I think we can all agree that the exam was tough as nails. So what do you guys think is going to be the minimum passing score? I don’t see the top 5 % scoring above 90 % (which would allow for only 7 mistakes per session), which would set the minimum passing score around 63 %. Is that too optimistic / pessimistic?
 
Too optimistic. I think pass rates will be quite low this year.
 
The full exam may have been tougher due to all the material you had to read, but if I compare Level 1 FRM to the CFA, the CFA is tougher, and the passing score there is generally in the mid-to-high 60’s range.
Since the passing rate for Level 2 & 3 CFA and the FRM are hovering around the mid-40’s the last few years, I’m thinking a score around 70% seems right.
 
Well, I don’t expect a 63 % pass rate, I’m just speculating on the minimum score you need to pass. Can anybody see the top 5 % score higher than 90 % on average? I don’t see how this is possible - the exam requires too many concepts, and even as an expert quant you can easily screw up on some of the ambiguously worded questions or simply because of stress.
 
A minimum score of 70 % would require the top 5 % to have every single question right. I don’t see how this is possible. I’ve been through the CFA, and none of their levels combined as many concepts into a single question as many questions did on the FRM.
There were dozens of seemingly straightforward questions on the exam where I thought I could sleepwalk my way through them, only to not even be close to any of the answers even after the 3rd recalculation.
 
Heh, I hope you’re right… if I failed that exam there’s no way I’m taking it over again.
 
A minimum score of 70% requires the top 5% to be 93.33% correct.
 
No, the rumor I guess is that you need 75 % of the top 5 % according to Schweser. I thought it was 70 %, because this is what I know from the CFA and I thought I read somewhere that the FRM is similar.
So if we assume that the top 5 % scored 90 % (which I think is too high) then we need to have 67.5 % correct. I’d feel a lot more confident if that score was more in the low 60s instead of the high 60s….
 
According to Schweser, and I think Bionic Turtle, but I can’t remember if I heard it at BT as well.
 
I hear 75% of the top 5% was a rough guide, not a hard rule.
 
>Re: Minimum passing score? new
>Posted by: Klarsolo (IP Logged) [hide posts from this user]
>Date: November 24, 2009 04:39PM
>Well, I don’t expect a 63 % pass rate, I’m just speculating on the minimum score you need >to pass. Can anybody see the top 5 % score higher than 90 % on average? I don’t see >how this is possible - the exam requires too many concepts, and even as an expert quant >you can easily screw up on some of the ambiguously worded questions or simply because >of stress.
Klarsolo,
I thought I was the only one with who experienced what you explained above. I too thought the questions were straight forward and should have had the right answer when in fact I messed up. I didn’t have a good nights sleep - which was my fault and I believe makes a world of a difference. I did do well on the hedging questions which seems like there were a good amount. I think I messed up on the easier questions that should have been easy points as I had studied them and gone over them 100 times in my review. I can say the FRM is not this impossible and unreachable challenge that everyone makes it out to be. I am a PRM holder and derivatives and securities valuation is my strength. Also, I could have spent more time studying for the FRM and reviewing more questions. But I did put a lot on myself and had a lot going on as I wrote an exam the previous month so constantly studying like crazy.
Time for a well deserved brake.
 
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