Course Understanding the questions organization

[FlorenceCC]

Hi @Nicole Seaman,

I have been trying to confirm/complete my understanding of the BT website / study materials as far as questions are concerned, as I want to make sure I am using it fully and effectively. I am just trying to recap everything based on the information
Let's use the Quantitative Analysis section as an example, since this is what I am studying right now.

1 - Questions in the study notes
(a) what is the difference between the "end of chapter questions & answers" and the numbered questions (e.g. 309.1)
(b) I am not sure I understand how the numbering of the questions work: I read on the forum it has something to do with the year they were written but I'm not sure I understand this - for instance, in chapt. 4 (distributions), why is it 309.1, 309.2 and then 310. Does it mean the first two questions are related?
(c) I read on the forum that questions were graded by difficulty level, where can I see that?
(d) Is it possible to link the questions to the Learning Objectives/AIMs

2 - FRM practice questions set (in study planner)
(a) All the numbered questions at the end of each chapter's study notes should also compiled be in the corresponding question set pdf right? no discrepancies?
(b)Based on what I read on the forum, I understand that all of David's daily questions relevant to a specific subsection (e.g. Quant Analysis/Miller chapters) will be compiled in the corresponding question set?
(c)In addition, the question sets also compile questions that are related to Learning Objectives?AIMs and/or material that is no longer referenced in this year GARP's syllabus for extra practice am I correct?

Many, many thanks in advance for your feedback as I believe it will help me get organized more efficiently.

Florence

 

[Nicole Seaman]

Hi @Nicole Seaman,

I have been trying to confirm/complete my understanding of the BT website / study materials as far as questions are concerned, as I want to make sure I am using it fully and effectively. I am just trying to recap everything based on the information
Let's use the Quantitative Analysis section as an example, since this is what I am studying right now.

1 - Questions in the study notes
(a) what is the difference between the "end of chapter questions & answers" and the numbered questions (e.g. 309.1)
(b) I am not sure I understand how the numbering of the questions work: I read on the forum it has something to do with the year they were written but I'm not sure I understand this - for instance, in chapt. 4 (distributions), why is it 309.1, 309.2 and then 310. Does it mean the first two questions are related?
(c) I read on the forum that questions were graded by difficulty level, where can I see that?
(d) Is it possible to link the questions to the Learning Objectives/AIMs

2 - FRM practice questions set (in study planner)
(a) All the numbered questions at the end of each chapter's study notes should also compiled be in the corresponding question set pdf right? no discrepancies?
(b)Based on what I read on the forum, I understand that all of David's daily questions relevant to a specific subsection (e.g. Quant Analysis/Miller chapters) will be compiled in the corresponding question set?
(c)In addition, the question sets also compile questions that are related to Learning Objectives?AIMs and/or material that is no longer referenced in this year GARP's syllabus for extra practice am I correct?

Many, many thanks in advance for your feedback as I believe it will help me get organized more efficiently.

Florence

Hello @FlorenceCC

I've tried my best to answer your questions. My answers are in red below. Our FAQ page may be helpful to you also, as it explains what we offer in all of our materials. There is a FAQ page for each type of material, and it explains how they are formatted and what you can expect. Here is our FAQ page for further reference: https://www.bionicturtle.com/bt-section/materials/. I hope that my answers are helpful.

Thank you,

Nicole

1 - Questions in the study notes
(a) what is the difference between the "end of chapter questions & answers" and the numbered questions (e.g. 309.1) The end of chapter questions are the Q&A that are located at the end of the chapters in the SOURCE reading. We include those in some of the study notes and PQ sets just for extra review. The numbered questions are written by David himself. He writes 6 new practice questions every week on Mon (3) and Wed (3). One day, he writes Part 1 questions and the second day he writes Part 2 questions. They follow the learning objectives in the curriculum, and when we have a full set for that reading posted in the forum, we create and publish a practice question PDF in the study planner.
(b) I am not sure I understand how the numbering of the questions work: I read on the forum it has something to do with the year they were written but I'm not sure I understand this - for instance, in chapt. 4 (distributions), why is it 309.1, 309.2 and then 310. Does it mean the first two questions are related? The numbering is actually more simple than it may seem. Practice questions labeled 200.x are written in 2012, 300.x are written in 2013, 400.x written in 2014 and so on. Practice questions that we are writing now in 2018 will be 800.x. David writes practice questions for each specific reading in the curriculum, so using your example of the 309.1, 309.2, 310 questions: David wrote these questions in 2013 for the Tuckman reading. So on one day, he wrote questions 309.1, 309.2, 309.3 which originated HERE in the forum. Then the next day, he wrote 310.1, 310.2, 310.3 which originated HERE in the forum. They are for the same reading and follow the learning objectives, so when all of the learning objectives are covered, all of these practice questions are compiled into an organized Practice Question Set in PDF format in the study planner.
(c) I read on the forum that questions were graded by difficulty level, where can I see that? For as long as I've worked for BT (since 2013) I am not aware of our PQs being graded by difficulty. I believe David has always followed the same procedure for writing and posting PQs. They are organized by Learning Objective, not by difficulty.
(d) Is it possible to link the questions to the Learning Objectives/AIMs As I wrote above, all of the practice questions are linked to Learning Objectives. Each reading in the curriculum has learning objectives. David writes the practice questions according to these learning objectives and they are then compiled into a practice question set for that specific reading.

2 - FRM practice questions set (in study planner)
(a) All the numbered questions at the end of each chapter's study notes should also compiled be in the corresponding question set pdf right? no discrepancies? We do not include ALL of the practice questions for each reading within the study notes. We do include some of our practice questions and the source end of chapter Q&A in some of our study notes. Our practice question sets (not our study notes) include ALL of our practice questions. There is no need for us to duplicate all of our practice questions within the study notes when they are already published in a PQ set PDF.
(b)Based on what I read on the forum, I understand that all of David's daily questions relevant to a specific subsection (e.g. Quant Analysis/Miller chapters) will be compiled in the corresponding question set? I answered this above already
(c)In addition, the question sets also compile questions that are related to Learning Objectives?AIMs and/or material that is no longer referenced in this year GARP's syllabus for extra practice am I correct? I also answered this above. We never delete practice questions from the forum even if they are no longer in the curriculum. However, we do retain practice questions within our practice question sets if the concepts are still relevant to the current curriculum.

 

[FlorenceCC]

Thank you very much @Nicole Seaman for the helpful and detailed answer.
Florence

 

[FlorenceCC]

Hello @Nicole Seaman, one last question about the Question Set. I did read the FAQ, promise , so apologies if I am still a bit confused.
For Quant. Analysis, I did find this question "P1.T2.719. One- versus two-tailed hypothesis tests (Miller Ch.7)" that I did not find in the question set pdf. Is it just because it has yet to be updated?
Again, apologies if this is a dumb question, I just want to make sure I am not missing out on anything!
Florence

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Hi @FlorenceCC This is because the updated Miller PQ PDF is still "staging:" we wrote an entire sequence of new questions for Miller (708 to 719) that are published in the forum, as that is where the source questions are located. Then to drill-down on a step Nicole mentioned briefly: Nicole compiles them when we finish the sequence, including captures errors and imprecisions (we are fortunate that a small minority of customers often spot problems and post the feedback, so we definitely act on any feedback before we publish the PDF); then Nicole gives me the draft for a final review (which is where Miller is right now). Then we publish it to the planner. We try to make the PDF version the best possible version. (Realistically, problems will subsequently identified and posted in the forum, we correct them in the forum and then decide whether they are minor enough to await revision at the next batch; or whether the revision warrants an immediate re-publish of the PDF). So, the newest Miller batch (including 719 obviously) will soon be published, and then it will be consistent with the latest forum. We try not to have too much of a delay between finishing the sequence in the forum, and then subsequently publishing the edited/reviewed PDF.

And I want to add just two notes to Nicole's excellent answers.

• Of course we have a massive number of questions (we will shortly be deploying an airtable table that we hope will help by providing a master, dynamic TOC). This is primarily because I have been writing new ones pretty much every week for over a decade. So there is firstly just a "large number" problem, so to speak. Our numbering system might seem like a complication. We didn't need to use this system. But there is a reason: because we have so many questions and because we are constantly "keeping up" with the changing syllabus, we wanted to be transparent to customers about the dates of the questions. In particular for the FRM, I don't like PQ databases that commingle old, stale questions with new ones. There are many concepts that have been utterly revised in interim years, in some cases (e.g., duration, portfolio VaR) even GARP used an incorrect method that was subsequently revised. We want customers to know that, when they are viewing question 212, it was written in 2012. Then we also evolved into a cluster of three; e.g., a question is a cluster of three: 212.1, 212.2 and 212.3. But the cluster is linked to a cluster of learning outcomes, rather than one question per learning outcome. Due to the way GARP writes learning outcomes (which is to say, to be really honest, they are not highly rigorous and literally testable in sequence), I found that it was more logical to write against natural batches of LOs. Sometimes a single LO deserves many questions. Sometimes a set of LOs in sequence is overly redundant and should be batched. By "batching" the LOs at natural breaks, and writing questions in batches of three, I found that I could write questions according to the source text more naturally. Put another way, the number of questions does not equal the number of LOs, and batching the LOs is a way to handle this.
• About the degree of difficulty. Just to recap, we have basically the following levels of questions
  • Per Reading: these aim to be two notches more difficult than an exam question. By design, as discussed extensively in the forum, this is to help candidates "train tough" such that exam questions can be handled with confidence. Admittedly some are tedious and detailed, beyond any exam questions, but that is typically where we are sincerely diving deep to allow certain customers to achieve genuine mastery with a quantitative technique.
  • Per Topic (e.g., P1.T2. Quantitative or P2.T5. Market Risk): these aim to be less difficult than our Per Reading questions, but still at least as difficult as the exam questions. Purpose here is just plain old practice.
    • Interactive Quiz
    • Topic Review
  • Per Part (P1 or P2): these include both Per Reading (regular) and Per Topic (interactive quiz) questions to give a range of more difficult and then some easier questions.
    • Interactive Mock

 

[FlorenceCC]

@David Harper CFA FRM , @Nicole Seaman, all of this makes sense now, I thank you for that.

 

[tornellFRM]

Hi @David Harper CFA FRM,

About the questions organization, sometimes questions do not seem to be entirely aligned with the content of the study notes (SN). For example, the PQ (ex. expected price) of T3.C10 refer to the SN T3.C11 or questions in PQ T3.C8 to the video T3.C11 (basis variance). I understand that in general the chapters refer to Futures but sometimes it takes more time to try to solve the questions because there was no theory in advance. This is just a piece feedback, hope it helps to improve the BT as well as the experience of the BT users

ST

 

[Nicole Seaman]

Hi @David Harper CFA FRM,

About the questions organization, sometimes questions do not seem to be entirely aligned with the content of the study notes (SN). For example, the PQ (ex. expected price) of T3.C10 refer to the SN T3.C11 or questions in PQ T3.C8 to the video T3.C11 (basis variance). I understand that in general the chapters refer to Futures but sometimes it takes more time to try to solve the questions because there was no theory in advance. This is just a piece feedback, hope it helps to improve the BT as well as the experience of the BT users

ST

Hello @tornellFRM

Please see these forum threads, where this has been explained a bit more:

• https://forum.bionicturtle.com/thre...responses-and-best-practices.23058/post-81013
• https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/finding-bt-questions-very-tough.23161/

 

[tornellFRM]

Hello @tornellFRM

Please see these forum threads, where this has been explained a bit more:

• https://forum.bionicturtle.com/thre...responses-and-best-practices.23058/post-81013
• https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/finding-bt-questions-very-tough.23161/

Ok, thanks for the links although it seems that those refer to the relationship between the BT questions and the GARP's material and I was only providing feedback in terms of the alignment between the BT questions and the BT study notes. Also those links refer to complains of other users which it is not my case. I appreciate the toughness of the BT questions. Anyway, thanks for the reply.

Stefanie