Preparation plan for May 2012 Level I exam

Hello, everyone, I plan to take FRM Level I exam in May 2012. To my knowledge, new preparation materials will be published only in January 2012, please correct me if I am wrong. Thus, until January 2012 I plan to prepare for this exam using the following Swcheser FRM 2011 materials: Study Notes, QBank, Practise Exam Book, QuickSheet, Final Review Pack. Starting from January 2012 I plan to refresh my knowledge and learn new concepts by using new, i.e. 2012, study materials from Bionic Turtle (video tutorials -> spreadsheets -> study notes -> practice questions -> live webinar reviews). Also, in the final stages of the preparation process I plan to solve those freely available FRM Practice Exams from GARP. Due to rather strict work commitments, most probably I will be able to spend only 20 hours per week for the preparation, although I plan to take vacation, say, 2 weeks before the exam. By the way, I am a fresh graduate with major in Finance, thus, most of the concepts do not look unfamiliar. Does my preparation plan seem ok to you? Would you add something to it? I would highly appreciate any other comments or suggestions related to this issue. Best regards,

The FRM materials this year were available in mid February. Your study plan should work if you spend the time necessary which should be 200 hours or 10 weeks if you can spend 20 hours per week. I personally used the FRM core readings and Bionic Turtle and spent about 300 hours to prepare for level 1 last November. I recommend you compare the 2011 and 2012 study guides to see which readings will still be valid. In addition, I recommend that you do as many questions as you can find because it will be key to passing the exam. Good luck!

CFAFRM, just to make sure, are you saying material for the may 2012 exam won’t be available until Feb 2012? Both schweser and curriculum? looks like you also have CFA, can you give any thought comparing the CFA exam to the FRM? I also just got my CFA last year and planning to do FRM. Did you take both FRM levels at the same time? Also share how you prepared? Many thanks.