FRM Level 1, - 49 days to go and study plan related advice needed.

[alexjr]

David, I need a piece of advice from you on how to organise my preparation schedule. Having 49 days left, I need to get clearer study plan and concentrate on execution. I tried GARP (bunch of articles and no structure) and schweizer (very wordy) materials in the beginning and later decided to stick solely to your notes. At least for me, your materials work the best (so far). I have finance related degree and prefer “summary format”. Today I have finished reading your 4th book (great job) and now surely need to start practicing (a lot!). I got your FRM practice questions (2 documents, 40 questions) which I presume give a general idea of what exam questions will look like. Also I downloaded GARP FRM practice exams 2009 (50 questions) and 2010 (40 questions) and purchased Financial Risk Management Handbook - 5th Edition - by Philippe Jorion with CD ROM. I am planning the following practicing practicing approach:
1. BT practice questions (40 in total)
2. End of chapter questions from Financial Risk Management Handbook (
PART ONE
Quantitative Analysis
CHAPTER 1
Bond Fundamentals
CHAPTER 2
Fundamentals of Probability
CHAPTER 3
Fundamentals of Statistics
CHAPTER 4
Monte Carlo Methods
PART TWO
Capital Markets
CHAPTER
Introduction to Derivatives
CHAPTER 6
Options
CHAPTER 7
Fixed-Income Securities
CHAPTER 8
Fixed-Income Derivatives
CHAPTER 9
Equity, Currency, and Commodity Markets

have I missed something? Problem with the book is that it does not have a clear cut between L1 and L2)

3. CD ROM questions –from Financial Risk Management Handbook
(
1. Quantitative Analysis Sample Exam (10 Questions)
4. Operational Risk Sample Exam (25 Questions)
6. Short Practice Exam 1 (20 Questions) - will have to skip L2 questions
7. Short Practice Exam 2 (20 Questions)- will have to skip L2 questions
8. Medium Practice Exam 1 (40 Questions)- will have to skip L2 questions
9. Medium Practice Exam 2 (40 Questions)- will have to skip L2 questions
10. Long Practice Exam 1 (60 Questions)- will have to skip L2 questions
)
4. End of chapter questions from schweizer notes (2009) edition
5. GARP FRM practice exams 2009 and 2010 (90 questions)

What else in your opinion I should be utilizing? I don't have much time due to workload and family commitents so I need to orginise myself properly.

Regards, Alex

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for sharing your short-term plan; I think it's interesting and probably helpful to others!.
(... thanks for f/back on the study notes. I always wonder if we should just cede that to Schweser and focus on other strengths but f/back like that encourages us to keep doing notes.)

I totally support your focus here on practice questions: it is a winning plan, IMO...

But please note we have many more questions than just the two sets of super-annotated 2010 that you cite. Please find the complete listing @ http://trtl.bz/cgLHYl

(if this direct-to-filter link does not work, please:
1. Go to practice questions: http://www.bionicturtle.com/how-to/questions/category/risk-frm/
2. Filter on Product Level > FRM L1
these PQ are also in the study planner per T1-T4 topics but here is the pure questions listing in How-To)

... and it's not going to make a giant difference but I continue to add one L1 (and L2) per day, where I am currently @ http://forum.bionicturtle.com/viewforum/47/
(if you step-up once, here is the total set of practice questions in the forum: http://forum.bionicturtle.com/viewcategory/58/)
… you don't need to focus on the forum, you can just focus on the PDFs. But if you do want to use the forums, note they are numbered so Level 1/Part 1 = 1 T1 to T4.

About the FRM handbook, I agree: it does not parse L1 & L2! Why? b/c the 5th edition barely updated the 4th, which was written before the exam split into two. But per this request (http://forum.bionicturtle.com/viewthread/4083/) I did update this XLS: http://db.tt/bsDx4TG
(but with caveats, right, it's very subjective mapping)

Hope that helps! good luck....

David

 

[Suzanne Evans]

@Alex,

There should be a total of (11) 2010 PQ documents for Level I.

Thanks,
Suzanne

 

[alexjr]

David and Suzanne , thanks a lot.