Took the exam today. I have to say I am underprepared. I have to guess 1/3 or even more from out of the 140 questions. My gut feeling is that I will fail… 
It’s much harder than the CFA level I exam I passed in June. Also there are a greater percentage of calculation questions than CFA and previous FRM exams… I also found many people didn’t even show up; in my test center; at least 50% didn’t show up. What do you think about the exam?
Me too cubed-- I took the exam today, underprepared, expected to fail. I took FRM simply because I was unprepared for CFA level 3 last June and passed. But I missed the fun part (aka preparation), so I thought I would make it up by doing FRM and enjoy the learning process. Well, I was even busier than before and ended up even less prepared than before. My exam center (Philadelphia) has about the same show-up rate. There were 38 seats, but only 25 candidates showed up. Some people left even before I finished half of the exam. Even though I have every reason to believe I failed the exam, I don’t think FRM exam is anywhere near any of the CFA level 1, 2 or 3 in depth, breadth and difficulties. True, FRM has materials in all 3 levels, but that’s just the “curriculum”. The questions were much easier. If I had 3 more days to prepare, I think I would have passed it. I only had a couple of days to go through the sample exam. Marked down materials that I needed to look into, but never had time to actually look into them. The exam is shorter, 2.5 hours in the morning and 2.5 hours in the afternoon. 70 MC questions each - no set items, no essay questions. Compared to level 1, 120 questions each in 3 hours, FRM is much less energy-draining. Hey, in our test center, we were even allowed to have a glass of water on our table. The exam process was lax, we can bring in books etc into the exam room. Just had to put them along the wall in the front of the room. If I fail as expected… well, there’s always next year.
how many hours did you guys put into the FRM? I’m possibly taking it next Nov.
100-150. I think I overprepard the CFA level I; but underprepared FRM… I do think it was pretty hard.
what study materials did you guys use? just jorion ?
I just read the handbook. A terrible mistake!!!
can you explain why? so you are saying not to get jorion?
Its far tougher than CFA CFA Qs atleast follow the LOS and you have plenty of resources to practice from (Although that way it becomes easy to guess the Qs) depth of the FRM Exam requires Practical Risk manager Experience and knowledge outside LOs 70-80% Qs are comprehension type.Hence 2 mins is very less time Overall its a fantastic exam and GARP is small but well organized body I feel,papar is always tough ,every year but the PASS/FAIL mail will be “SUPRISE” gift on 16th Jan 2008 take care (pls note,Schweser is not so helpful and QBANK is simply useless)
Well I think Jorion’s book is very condensed. Sometime you will have to fill the gaps yourself. It’s not geared towards the FRM exam. I think I learned a lot; however, I may still fail the exam. I didn’t buy Schweser; I don’t know if Scheweser alone is good enough for FRM exam…
What do you mean every year PASS / FAIL will be surprise? I will be truly surprised if I pass…
we have not done well but we may PASS-thats the point here tougher exam is always easier to PASS i feel,schweser is not meant for FRM(in CFA ,case is different.They r pretty good.Although i prefer CFAI notes ) I learnt a lot and i simply love the FRM syllabus its pretty well defined(ALthough it has only one level) 140 Qs and almost 667 LOS(sub sections included)-just imagine many of the LOs will never be touched in the coming exams-hence it will remain tougher in years to come
so what you guys saying is: there is basically no real textbook to study with?
they have plenty written by PH D Profs who deal with eigen vectors and n X n matrix follow the GARP notes www.garp.com
I think you may want to follow GARP’s suggestion about the core readings. Also your real experience in this field may help… Nitya; I think I may just scored 60% or worse… I would be extremely surprised if I pass. Did GARP count no shows when they determine pass rate?
I’m confused. So the Kaplan notes are not that good for tackling this test?
According to Nitya; that seems to be the case. I don’t like the FRM handbook either. So following the suggested core readings might be the only safe choice.
Is there a special bundle for the course readings? What motivates you guys to take the FRM besides gaining the additional knowledge? The median study time is apparently 250 hours and the exam is often compared to CFA-2 in terms of difficulty.
Time to relax and enjoy now these Exams teach you a lot but drain resources like valuable family time i feel 60% is genuine PASS they wont count NO SHOWS also passing is based on percentile(they call it quartile) i feel candidates should first learn the material rather than cramming it Cramming means you will FAIL FRM surely you cant learn it from notes like schweser will enjoy life as Indian candidates cant register for L-II 
lxwqh Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think you may want to follow GARP’s suggestion > about the core readings. Also your real experience > in this field may help… > > Nitya; I think I may just scored 60% or worse… I > would be extremely surprised if I pass. Did GARP > count no shows when they determine pass rate?
"depth of the FRM Exam requires Practical Risk manager Experience and knowledge outside LOs " How much of the test would you say is composed of questions that need this? FRM sounds really hard…
lxwqh Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- … > > I also found many people didn’t even show up; in > my test center; at least 50% didn’t show up. > … Well, count me in.