I have come across some posts online that suggest the GARP practice exam questions may not be all that representative of the level of difficulty of the real exam questions - with the practice questions being seen as easier.
Could anyone shed any light as to whether this is true or not? I am currently a CFA level 3 candidate (just passed L2 this year) and I have found that with the CFAI provided material, their mock exams are actually significantly harder than the real exam questions. I much prefer this as it stops you building a false sense of security when studying etc and keeps you motivated. I know Bionic Turtle take this approach too, providing questions that are deemed to be a notch above the exam difficulty level. So…should I be expecting harder questions on the real FRM exam than those encountered on the GARP practice exams?
I would agree with the sentiment on GARP practice questions being a little easier than what you would see on the exam. WIth that said I felt the GARP practice questions will give you a general idea of how GARP likes to frame their questions and generally/maybe what “type” of questions you may see on the exam. I don’t remember specific questions but I wasn’t overly surprised by the type of questions and how they were being asked. I also wasn’t shocked by the level of diffculty being a notch or two harder than GARP’s practice questions due to reading others experiences with the exam as well.
Regarding Bionic Turtle, their questions are more difficult than what you would see on the exam but I feel they are not a good representation of how GARP will ask you a question. With that said Bionic Turtle forces you to have a deeper understanding of the topic which does help in being able to answer GARP’s questions.
Thanks for the info…I wish GARP would just release questions that are representative of the exam in both style and difficulty. I know they are a younger organisation than the CFAI but that kind of material should come as standard in my opinion.
Even the text books are somewhat disjointed, with readings taken verbatim from text books that reference earlier chapters etc, and have VERY few practice questions contained within.
You mention the Bionic Turtle questions being unlike those on the exam…that’s a bit worrying as those are pretty much all I have to practice with, other than the “overly easy” GARP questions.
Could you give an example of how BT questions are not representative of the exam?