Can someone advise me of the best way to study for FRM 1?
I am writing in November and cannot start until Sept.1.
Bionic, Kaplan, or GARP notes?
Adivse is greatly appreciated, thank you!
In my opinion, you can pass with only schweser. But, the problem with schweser is that there is not enough practice questions to drill. So, I feel BT being the great supplement for practice questions although many of the BT questions are hard and challenging.
I suggest you start off with schweser notes (reading the notes and answering practice questions in there) before doing online question bank. KEEP the schweser mock exams at last 2 weeks.
If you want to pass comfortably, then I recommend buying the basic package from BT @ $249. With that, you will get BT notes, practice questions, and 5 mock exams (25 questions each) if I’m not wrong.
I hope that helps.
FYI, I scored 84 and 81 for the two schweser mocks respectively and 1,1,1,1 in May’14 Part 1 exam.
That is great advice. Thanks.
Did you also purchase BT?
Yes, I used BT for part 1, and I’m going to use for part 2.
For BT, remember that there are some practice questions and mock questions tested on the topics that are no longer relevant on the exam. However, I still believe BT’s practice questions are excellent resources to practice and understand the concepts. IMO, schweser is still the priority.
Also, since you already passed level 2, many of the topics (especially topic area: Quantitative Analysis worths 20%) are something you already learnt in PM, QM, FI, and derivatives sections (note: I passed level 2 last June). There is a topic area called Valuation and Risk Models (worth 30%) that I think you’ll find it about 90% new to you (comparing it with level 1 and 2 curriculum). The good new is this gonna help you when you study level 3 curriculum especially on risk management about VaR.
Starting early September is more than enough time to pass the exam (I put about 250 hours).
I hope this is helpful to you.
This is very helpful. May I ask what your background is in? I am going to go with the Schweser material. Good luck on Part 2.
Management field (so kind of non-finance background).
What I like about schweser is that it assumes one does not have any prior knowledge to those topics, so the notes are easily to follow and read for someone who is new to those topics. On the other hand, some BT notes are written by assuming that one has some prior knowledge to those topics. So, I suggest going through schweser materials as the main priority. And again, it is just my opinion.
Good luck on your part 1 too and hope you pass!
Great advise! I am in the same situation as OP and I was wondering the same thing. Goodluck with Part 2!