Hi,
I am planning to take FRM Part I in 2012. I wanted to know which one is better - BT or Schweser?
Also, is it necessary to purchase GARP notes, if you have subscribed to either of BT or Schweser?
Schweser sucks big times. I have it and the level of the questions is much easier than the actual FRM questions…
I studied for 4 months using the GARP Core readings and BT for the two levels and was well prepared for the exams. I thought BT had great videos, challenging sample questions, and a very active and supportive forum. The BT notes are available online, but you can print them if needed. I didn’t use the Schweser products for the FRM program. If you do a search in this forum will find that the majority of people used Schweser and passed the exam. So, it depends on what works for you. In my opinion, if you have the time use the GARP readings to learn the material more thoroughly. Good luck!
i also used Schweser products only (no GARP because of lack of time) and in my opinion they are good but they do leave quite a lot out. They are in fact NOT COMPREHENSIVE as others in this forum have suggested. Anyway I am trying not with a week to go to do as many GARP practice exams as i can in order to fill in the blanks. I get anywhere between 50 and 70 odd percent at the moment so I am certainly not extremely confident but hopefully getting there.
Shwesser notes definately leave some stuff out: I compared an official GARP core reading (25 pages) to the Shwesser version of the same reading (9 pages + quiz questions). So there’s got to be some things in the official reading that isn’t in the Shwesser version. On the other hand, I used only the Shwesser materials for my FRM1 prep, and scored in the top quartile in all four sections of the exam (while 61% of candidates failed). So whatever was missing from the Shwesser books, it was apparently mostly stuff that I didn’t need for the exam.
however it is stuff that is in the GARP Practice exams!
Would not be unprecedented for GARP to include questions in the GARP Practice Exams on content that had already been removed from the curriculum. Check the GARP Practice Exam errata; I recall that it was fairly lengthy last year. If that doesn’t clear up the discrepency, forward that GARP question(s) to Shwesser and ask WTF.
My FRM candidate friend claims that there’s a question near the beginning of the GARP Practice Exam that requires Bayes’s formula – which supposedly isn’t covered in the 2011 GARP FRM1 curriculum. You can probably disregard that question; sounds like a GARP boo-boo.
I saw a Baye’s Formula question 2 weeks ago in the Nov 2011 Part 1, and Baye’s was in the Schweser book. I am a big fan of Schweser, use then for the CFA and FRM, but agree the level of the questions from Schweser was a lot easier than the actual exam. However I felt it covered the material and Yes I needed to think a bit for some of the exam questions it was not a problem. 100 questions in 4 hours, I was worried I’d have too much time, ha. I’d pass CFA lvl 1 finishing both the monring and afternoon sessions in a little over 90 minutes. But for the FRM I really needed the time.