Registered for FRM, already overwhelmed

Thanks in advance, I hope you are well.

I recently completed the CFA and decided to undertake the FRM.

I registered about a week ago and have the GARP official FRM study material and the 2012 Schweser material a friend gave me, which looks about 95% consistent with the 2013 curriculum.

Over the last three years I got really comfortable with the CFAI way of doing things, which for me was reading the CFAI text and doing the thousands of questions in their text, and condensing everything on the second go around through Kaplan’s material.

Now that I have the FRM material, I feel lost. There don’t seem to be nearly as many practice questions or in general as much structure to the study program. I have read a few “how to pass the FRM” threads, but I can’t tell if they are advertising propaganda by Bionic Turtle or if their program really is the way to go.

I would definitely appreciate the feedback of anyone who has passed Level I. My plan is to read the entire FRM text and then Schweser and do all of the questions in both and then the GARP and Kaplan practice exams. Is this sufficient or is there a better way?

Hi,

what I have heard from some colleagues of mine (FRM cleared already) that the FRM material and Kaplan material are enough to crack the exam. You can refer to the reference books for in-depth understanding.

hope this helps.

All the best.

p.s.: I am also taking the level 1 test this November.

regards,

Abhas

agree EastCoastJ

CFAI is very clear on what they need from us and what we need to do to pass the exam. their material is huge but sufficient. after getting FRM material i feel confused. only 15 questions with answers at the end of 300 pages book (fin mkt and prod) what the heck. right now just trying to keep myself calm as it is some what similar to the derivatives part of CFAI curriculum but sure they need to include more practice questions in their (250$ + more than 100$ shipping + 50$ wire transfer bank charges) official curriculum.

From what I’ve read in the forums and my own personal experience, get Schweser for theory and the way they approach the materials is somewhat similar to what they do with their CFA materials but definitely get Bionic Turtle for the sample questions and exams, wouldn’t hurt to get their videos too. Passed Part 1 with all topics in the upper band last November by going through the Schweser books, watching the BT videos and doing BT problems/exams (got their excel sheets too but ended up not using them). Studied for maybe less than 2 months but also did CFA L2 the June before so maybe that helped in the preparation. I did not purchase the official FRM materials, btw.

I guess that you could also pass using only Schweser but BT’s problems are harder and more representative of what’s gonna come out on exam day, which will give you a better chance at passing. Also, it doesn’t hurt that for that the BT books/exams and videos for BOTH Parts 1 and 2 only cost $600 if you buy them all at once.

For the record, this is not advertising propaganda from BT. haha I’m a huge fan of Schweser for CFA exams and used them exclusively for all 3 levels (will see how they are for L3 when the results come out) but for FRM, BT is really the way to go.