I am planning to take the November FRM exam I and II and I just finished CFA level II. Regardless of whether I pass CFA II, assuming I retained a decent amount of knowledge from that test,
How much time do I need to study? Sounds like the forum suggests 200 hours at least for each part. So 400 hours total?
Is Schweser enough? I know BT is what everyone suggests. But if I only have Schweser, is that enough?
I came from a quantitiave background but have been in the financial industry for several years.
I come from an Engineering Background and I prepared for the FRM part 1 and 2 over six months. I just got the results today and I cleared both of them, even achieved top quartile in certain parts.
It was a lot tougher for me because I had never studied finance in my life and I spent an aweful lot of time in the statistics, probablity and the financial markets section.
I have never worked in my life and have just graduated. So, i think it’s safe to say that my knowledge and exposure to finance before taking up FRM was zero. I seem to have done just fine.
Although, I did use the FRM Handbook by Jorion. Only that. I didn’t even glance through any other material.
Having prepared for CFA as well, I would suggest that:
Skim: Foundations of Risk Management
Skip: Stats and Prob
Read Thoroughly: Monte Carlo Methods and Modelling Risk Factors
Skim: Financial Markets and Products
and the go through ‘valuation and risk models’, market risk management, credit risk management and operational and integrated risk management thoroughly. This is the main stuff you need to read. this is the only stuff you can fall short on if you do.
skim through investment risk management (portfolio and hedge fund)
Thanks for the response. So it sounds like just need to put a lot more time on part 2 instead of part 1. From first glance part 1 looks very similar to what I have learned in CFA level 2 so I feel ok with part 1. Part 2 looks very new to me so I probably need to spend a lot of time on that.
I second that. you need to make sure you understand the gravity of the above reply.
only ~40% of the people pass part 1 whereas ~55% pass part 2. and if you don’t make it in that 40%, then the entire preparation for part 2 is useless. but in all fairness, everyone included in that statistic have already passed part 1, so the proportion of the people who just show up without any motive or seriousness are weeded out.
also, FRM questions are a lot tougher than CFA questions. they’re always twisted and test your core understanding of the subject.
plus, this is an exam with four options and they’ll be very similar to one another making it really tough. unlike CFA which has only three options per question.
I personally found FRM part 1 to be a tough exam because it was numerically intensive and had 100 questions. by the end of it, i just wanted to go home and sleep.
I second that. you need to make sure you understand the gravity of the above reply.
only ~40% of the people pass part 1 whereas ~55% pass part 2. and if you don’t make it in that 40%, then the entire preparation for part 2 is useless. but in all fairness, everyone included in that statistic have already passed part 1, so the proportion of the people who just show up without any motive or seriousness are weeded out.
also, FRM questions are a lot tougher than CFA questions. they’re always twisted and test your core understanding of the subject.
plus, this is an exam with four options and they’ll be very similar to one another making it really tough. unlike CFA which has only three options per question.
I personally found FRM part 1 to be a tough exam because it was numerically intensive and had 100 questions. by the end of it, i just wanted to go home and sleep.