GARP 2011 exam

[sarita]

Hi David,

Hope you are well. Perhaps others have already asked you, are you going to post the exam with annonated answers soon? or perhaps you already have.

Kindly let me know.
tx.
SY

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Hi SY,

Not soon because: I have not even started to annotate them. You might notice I am currently working, daily, AIM-by-AIM through the 2011 AIMs ...

However, I can start to (~ daily) annotate the 2011 practice exam, like I did last year?

Can i just ask for a bit of feedback/support that you do find (would find) the super-annotation of GARP's sample exam's useful?
... I would be interested as I sincerely cannot tell how many customers care about this (but I can see why you do!), as opposed to AIM-by-AIM... thank you for any feedback!

David

 

[DelightP]

Hi David,

I second the request for annotation.

Thanks in advance

 

[Edgar Oropesa]

Yes, I also would appreciate if you can do that for us. Thanks a lot David for you help

 

[de]

Personally I'd prefer you prioritize completion of the videos and study notes as-per the study calendar schedule.

That said, having all question/annotations in a single document is much easier to work from than going through the forum.


regards,

Donald.

 

[[email protected]]

I would also prefer to have the videos and study notes ready as soon as possible, especially since many of the L2 topics are published quite late (which I of course understand considering the amount of work it requires).

Br,
O

 

[RVTRVT]

David,

Super-annotated GARP 2011 sample exams are INVALUABLE in helping us get up the curve on "FRM exam literacy" which is probably 85% of the battle! De-constructing the questions (and their errors) gives us a better shot at quickly grasping the ones we'll be facing and a chance to develop the appropriate tactics to successfully address them. In my opinion, they are simply critical. Thank you!

Regine

 

[vmakkar]

Hi David,

Yes, super-annotated 2011 sample exams will be useful.

Thanks,

 

[BharatSHarma]

Personally I'd prefer you prioritize completion of the videos and study notes as-per the study calendar schedule.

That said, having all question/annotations in a single document is much easier to work from than going through the forum.


regards,

Donald.​

I agree to de...thanks

 

[cheneybeenie]

David,

I would also appreciate having the annotated exam as I think the aims have not majorly changed from last year. For the aims that have changed I think they are so limited that one could hold off on those topics until you get to them or review last years material and already have a good base for the "new" aims.

Regards,
Todd

 

[Sourav]

Hi David,

I would also appreciate an annotated exam if possible.

Regards,

Sourav

 

[Ragasy]

Hi David,

I think the exam annotated will be fantastic in the preparation.

Regards,

Ragasy

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Thanks for the helpful feedback: starting tomorrow, then, I will add to my workflow annotation of the 2011 FRM sample (~1 per day)

@de @olajuwon: I did not mean to imply this has an impact on our core videos/notes calendar schedule, or that I even have a choice in that trade-off: the core video/notes reflected in the calendar are the product "promise" that customers pay for, I can't change those terms. But just as won't defer that, it won't accelerate either: it's a fast as we can do it already. Given we already have that commitment, the most i can do is super-annotate ~ +1 exam question per day. (I already write AIM-by-AIM). But super-annotation of the 2011 will still be secondary "best efforts" behind the primary "concrete promise" that is the product

@RVTRVT: I think you articulate exactly why candidates would care about this; i.e., "Super-annotated GARP 2011 sample exams are INVALUABLE in helping us get up the curve on “FRM exam literacy” which is probably 85% of the battle!"
... I think this belief is reason enough! I think there is much truth to your statement, not to quibble, but i would take the 85% to something MUCH LOWER... I will tell you, having studied the 2011 sample already: in my opinion, it's got weaknesses this year, more than most, that would lower its going-forward relevance. A lot depends on who/how many people authored it; clues in it point to few (one?) authors. There are backward-looking mistakes (inclusion of Bayes Theorem, which has dropped). A couple of dreadful statistical errors; e.g., twice the SE of sample mean has (n-1) in the denominator (what are the odds two qualified folks would allow this error to pass? almost impossible IMO). All in, too much obsession on the sample question in the sample (no pun intended) would be an error, also. I still AGREE with your point I am just trying to back you down from 85%

@Todd: In regard to "the aims have not majorly changed from last year." As i reviewed here (http://www.bionicturtle.com/how-to/article/first-impressions-of-2011-financial-risk-manager-frm-curriculum/) I agree with your statement with respect to level 1/part 1 (and also L2.T5/T6). Just FYI, we actually apply a similar effort to the update (new videos, new notes, same practice question process) but we actually take advantage of the AIM redundancy to seek presentational improvements. I'd love to find a way to achieve better reusability in the core resources, and maybe we can soon: if i didn't have to refresh the videos/notes, I could do a lot more elsewhere (e.g., 2011 exam annotation). But i'll have to think about that AFTER i finish the current calendar which already represents a commitment.

Thanks, David

 

[Jiew Kwang]

Does anyone see the similarities between the 2 sample exams? They seem to be 80% similar to each other to me. Also, does anyone know the difficulty of sample exams and their relevance to actual frm exams?

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Hi Jiew:

I agree with the high overlap (not sure I see 80% but still ...). In my opinion, this is more a reflection of the overall weakness of the 2011 sample (e.g., they are issuing an errata is my understanding. There are several technical errors) and less a signal that repeated questions deserve extra scrutiny. To my earlier point, I think it would be a mistake to infer too much from the sample. At the same time, it contains some classic FRM questions, so expect some of these, but also expect many questions that do not appear....

So, in regard to relevance, my opinion is:

With respect to coverage/topics: applicable, but necessarily incomplete
With respect to difficultly level: looks fairly representative. The actual difficulty, lately, has seen some dispersion, such that actual includes some HARD questions; so actual will likely have a few that are a bit easier, and a few that are harder, than the average in the sample

Thanks, David

 

[teetaz]

Hi David

Will we be receiving the annotated exam anytime soon

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Hi teetaz, not before the May exam sorry. (I frankly write much better daily questions; the 2011 sample is not strong. They issued an errata based on my corrections and i've now provided them with a SECOND set of errors and imprecisions, i am totally serious. I candidly would not give it more weight than it deserves. But i will deliver an annotated set eventually). Thanks, David

 

[the luncheon meat]

hi having gone through the level 2 sample exam by garp, i feel cheateed by the width of scope. doing either 1 suffice!

i am the type of learner who learn by doing questions and the sample exam do not help at all... anyway why is "LDA at work" asked in the exam? hmm

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Hi afarty,

Agreed, as i've been saying, the 2011 samples are weak. In particular, with respect to scope. RE: LDA @ Work, also correct, should not be in there. I have been vigorously feedbacking this to GARP (b/c it is frustrating).

Thanks,
David