GARP SCR - don’t waste $800

Guys I paid for the SCR study materials and sat for the exam in Oct 2021 - I DO NOT recommend this cert.

  1. The materials are lengthy but the main issue resides in that the content is copy and pasted from several publicly available reports to create a ‘study’ book. It is not original content; and does not add insightful comments other than what is already publicly available. USD800 is a high price to pay for the quality.
  2. Upon receiving your exam results, GARP does not explain which qs you answered incorrectly. They provide a generic graph showcasing where you rank - quartile 1 to 4 - but does nothing to show what incorrect.
  3. The service team don’t respond to your concerns - I’ve sent several emails, all of which received an automated email response. It’s been a month and still no one has reverted.

I believe the SCR cert is a “cash grab” from a corporation that’s aware ESG/sustainability is trending and wants to capitalize on that. Pls do think twice before investing $800.

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The preparatory material costs $250 (eBook) or $300 (physical book).
source:
https://www.garp.org/scr/study-materials

The exam fee itself varies from 525 up to 750, depending on whether you are already an FRM or not and whether you registered early or not. This doesn’t include shipping costs (where applicable) and taxes, so the actual costs is a little higher.

As for (1), that’s a fair point. If the preparatory material doesn’t provide value, it’s not worth buying.

As for (2), this is expected. You can’t really expect GARP, or any such professional organization, to hold your hands and tell you exactly which questions you got wrong. Sorry to be blunt, but this isn’t high school.

Yes,to some extent,comparing this to other global exams like CPIM,SCOR-P,PMP,CSCP ,the study material for GARP-SCR is too raw,very lengthy,the printed book is costly($300) and the electronic version cannot be printed.Re-exam cost also too high($350)
Sustainability and Climate is a subject of highest concern for everyone on this earth and therefore the education in this field should NOT be focusing on earning money,rather it should be moderated/subsidized so that even the common people can afford it.
Everything seems exorbitantly costly in this program.Any education or learning program on Sustainability & Climate should focus on creating awareness to maximum possible masses,albeit not creating a cost as a barrier for people to even look at it.

How do you believe FRM started ?

I actually recommend doing the SCR with GARP, it is well regarded by employers as companies are really into ESG topics and employees need to get this knowledge somewhere and GARP has put together this great program.
I agree that the material is super heavy…
You can buy summaries of all the modules on docmerit , search for Sustainability and Climate Risk - GARP SCR- Summaries and notes.

You can buy summaries of all the modules on docmerit , search for Sustainability and Climate Risk - GARP SCR- Summaries and notes.

You can get summaries of the program on docmerit , search for Sustainability and Climate Risk - GARP SCR- Summaries and notes.

I just sat for the 2022 Oct SCR exam. This is not a fair exam. You could completely understand the text, completed 4 rounds of review and memorise everything you needed to memorise and yet still cannot pass this exam. Very disappointing. Why would GARP a reputable institution need to resort to such tactics to make money? Working adults such as myself have to make a strong commitment to put in the effort and time not to mention sacrifice family time and obligations to do this. Ended up to be such a waste of our time, effort and be robbed of our belief in the principle of reward comes with effort.

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I wished I seen this comment before deciding to take this certification.

Oct ‘22 SCR exam taker here-

I have to agree that the exam did not seem fair. Despite having a solid conceptual understanding of the learning objectives explicitly in the curriculum I felt as if the exam was cherry-picking the smallest of details to test on.

I also can’t seem to describe it but the way the questions and answers were written felt… incomplete? Sometimes none of the answers felt like they addressed the question but were were in-line with what the reading would consider correct. Sometimes the opposite would happen!

I personally found the curriculum to be insightful and timely and would recommend the SCR if it is company-sponsored (this was the case for me). I might have sprung for it out of pocket if I was looking for a career change as well. I think the exam presents a disconnect from the material that could use some refining and was my one gripe with this certification. Hoping for good news in a few weeks!

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I’m definitely writing in to request GARP conduct a review. This is ridiculous. If they are not even aware of the basics of setting syllabus and exams questions, they have no business in the education business whatsoever.

October 2022 test written here as well. Broadly agree, the tone and context of the Questions given more importance. The focus is on what could be possibly best implied, which makes it more like a scholastic test than a knowledge based test. I think GARP cannot decide between making an exam material heavy and then not require too much memorisation either so the mid path is a bunch of 80 implied questions. I also got the feeling that they dont give a lot of time to setting the questions and moderation, i mean i can see effort more effort in camoflaguing the questions rather that a grasp of the subject matter. On the positive side, the reams of material and mini encyclopeadia reading expected for 2021 exams has been heavily rationalised and made more manageable i think. I would like to see more effort in preparing case studies that require the learning to be applied.

Past trend idniciate 52-54% (percentile) qualify. Please do post your outcome, as will i,
but yes, fact of the matter is that spending so many hours you should get an idea of the outcome which didnt happen for me either, hence in agreement

Just as an aside, did you take the practice test under simulated conditions and how much did you score?

You already got the result ?

Not yet but I don’t have that good feeling. Also, I didn’t study to pass, the amount of time and effort put in I intended to excel. How disappointing!! I will admit if it’s my own fault but fail to a misaligned exam is ridiculous. I have written a strongly worded email to several members of the GARP Board of trustee. I suggest you guys do the same. Collective voice is strength. If no other reasons, we can get them to properly invest the effort in the next exam questions and syllabus setting.

I did. 3 times plus all the question at the back of each chapter. My last revision I practically aced it already because I was already familiarised with all the options. But not like any of those effort helped.

Genf, From likes of it, you would have done very well, just that you dont know it yet. GARP prefers to maintain a rather cerebral causative linkage.
I got just a 42/80 after wrtiting the practice test around 48 hours before the actual exam.Key appears to get the tone and trend correct from the questions. Unfortunately, i could not understand the answers of at least 3 of the 80 practices test questions at all, but not all would be as thick as me. In the actual exam i think it was similar with at least 20-25 questions i had to decide between 2 options and squeeze my brain cells a bit more than usual

Agee, I will share my result when I get it. Although I really don’t have a good feeling on it though. I hope in this case you are right and I happily be wrong.

Hi Everyone, Thank you so much for your expertise on this topic. I want to write the exam this April, and I wanted to know if someone could volunteer to share the GARP official eBook. Coming from
a low-income family, spending $300 is really hard for me.

Here is my email id bajaj.paras92@gmail.com

Many thanks again