Question on BT(BionicTurtle) notes and GARP books

[bhamu]

Hello Everyone,

I am preparing for Nov 2012 FRM and wanted advise on the material I should be using. I thought of using just BT notes and signed up for their Tier 1 and looking at the notes I feel the notes are terrible as I can't quite understand what the notes are trying to teach. I have used Kaplan notes for CFA and felt they were self sufficient enough so I didn't even have to refer to CFA institute books, but BT notes don't look like they are not detailed enough to skip other materials. So my question is given that I already spent $399 on the BT which I really wish I can get a refund but I doubt they do that what do you guys suggest the best study plan. Should I order the GARP books and use the BT notes after reading the books from GARP or use Kaplan (how are they). Am I using BT not the right way? What I am doing is reading the Essential PDF files from study notes section and my thought is once I finish the essential documents I will dive into question, but the questions also seem to be non standard. For e.g. one of the practice question asks how Steve Allen classifies Drysdale bankruptcy. Does FRM exam asks this kind of questions? Doesn't make sense... Any help is appreciated.

BE

 

[ShaktiRathore]

Hi bhamu,
According to me the Kaplan shweser notes together with BT would be more than sufficient. Kaplan covers all the topic areas of frm and BT is also good in terms of referring to knowledge and understanding comprehensively. I think garp books can be used for reference otherwise i did'nt used them during my preparations for frm. I think you have enough time to go through both Kaplan and BT. And practice Questions can ask anything but focus more on understanding the concepts and theory than you can handle any Q with ease.
thanks

 

[Basu]

Hi Bhamu,
I agree with Shakti that Schweser and BT would be sufficient. Also you can refer GARP readings for topics you do not understand properly. I believe BT's most important offerings are not the study notes but the videos (David does a great job on that) and practice questions (David writes new practice questions daily). I think you should have looked at the samples and would have realized that study notes are not detailed like Schweser. Just my two cents. thanks

 

[Suzanne Evans]

bhamu,

Did you purchase our Tier 2 product? I think you might find our videos very helpful. Our notes are a summary whereas our videos are the summary + verbal communication to help with the explanation, etc. Some people aren't able to just read something and understand the concept, they need to listen to it as well. We recommend our videos as first course of study and then notes to follow later to follow-up. However, some are able to just purchase the study notes and understand the concepts without the videos. Every individual is different. If you feel the need to upgrade, you can email me directly: [email protected]

Thanks,
Suzanne

 

[ShaktiRathore]

I really appreciate the videos of BT. The topics are explained in clear and precise way in an easily understandable manner. when i watched the video on youtube I understood the topics very clearly.I really encourage BT videos to be first on frm exam givers list. I would be using the videos if at all i make a career in risk management.
thanks

 

[RiskNoob]

GARP's assigned readings are not structured efficiently (in terms of relevance and difficulty) but I found the readings are quite valuable so far - A lof of BT's practice questions's solutions are quoted directly from the assigned reading. So whenever I got wrong/stucked from the question, I re-read the quoted section from the reading to catch. So far I have read all assigned readings (I am in the middle of week 10 by GARP's published reading plan) and hopefully read(with a lots of BT's PQs) all assigned readings to the end if time permits

Everyone has a different background and available time so the above might not be applied to everyone, but just a comment from one candidate.

Risknoob

 

[chikakocheng]

So would you all recommend Kaplan for notes and Bionic for vidoes? I find myself much more efficient when reading the actual material before listening to it - just like prepping for a college class. Thanks so much everyone!

 

[anand99]

I am going exclusively with bionic's videos and study notes. I am planning on purchasing the garp assigned reading after jan 1st so I can get a reimbursement from my firm in 2013. I am not planning on buying Schwesser at all. From all the feedback I have read on different sites David just has a more mature and focused content for FRM whereas Schewsser have only recently started focusing on FRM. I also think that combined with David's youtube channel videos and the videos you obtain from the purchased content you get a pretty good idea about each topic or at least the areas where you should be focusing the most to prep for the exam. I have been at it for about a month now and I feel I am still trying to get the hang of many things, but I definitely feel I have learnt a lot of new concepts by just focusing on bionic's material.

 

[chikakocheng]

Thanks so much for the advice ! I am planning on purchasing the GARP assigned reading too as I found referring to the CFA official handbooks very helpful while I was using Schweser notes what about the questions? I find myself to be able to memorize the formula and application only by doing lots of problems...have you seen the problems from kaplan and/or bionic? Kaplan is really good with CFA questions in their CFA mock examsbut I haven't heard anything about their mock exams for FRM at all...or even their question banks...(well the CFA question bank sucks)...what about bionic? ive seen in this forum that people really like bionic questions...

 

[ArbitUP]

BT questions are the most comprehensive, but unfortunately aren't in any sort of database like the Schweser QBank. That QBank, even if some questions were too easy, was BY FAR, my best tool of learning for the CFA exams. David's questions are better but not in a user friendly enough way to do bulk practice in a fast format. Still useful as a supplement.

I also found the notes at BT roughly as good as the Kaplan notes.

The videos is where David could do a lot better. It is my main source of learning and reference material. David essentially reviews the slides, so basically you can just print out the slides and skip the audio. You aren't missing much. So in that form its a clear, concise, practice notes. I would love to see David performing more practice problems or walking through more learning spreadsheets. A lot of telling and referring and not enough showing. The focus videos are a good step in this regard

 

[chikakocheng]

I definitely agree with the Schweser Qbank - it really prepped me well for the concepts...their mock exams are really legit too! Do you think only the notes itself will substitute the vidoes? I purchased the CFA Schweser videos, but honestly, only watched 2 in Financial Accounting - not that they weren't good, simply because I didn't have time...plus reviewing notes seemed to be much effective for me although watching videos really enhances the concepts afterwards...any advice on mock exams? There hasn't seem to be a general consensus regarding which exam provider writes the best mock exams...thanks so much and happy holidays!

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

The videos is where David could do a lot better. It is my main source of learning and reference material. David essentially reviews the slides, so basically you can just print out the slides and skip the audio. You aren't missing much. So in that form its a clear, concise, practice notes. I would love to see David performing more practice problems or walking through more learning spreadsheets. A lot of telling and referring and not enough showing. The focus videos are a good step in this regard

matthanuf06 yes, thank you, I do agree wholeheartedly with this assessment. Your view pretty much reflects the emphasis of my plan for videos in 2013, thanks,