Financial Risk Manager

Membership 2009

2008-11-24T07:22:24-08:00

Hi David

Thanks for all the hard work and I am all charged up to prepare for 2009 exams after reading all the feedback. As you know I had enrolled for 2008 product with the intention of appearing in 2009. I have attached below our earlier correspondence on this for your reference but unfortunately I missed sending you the official mail on the extension of my registeration to your 2009 product. Would appreciate if you could consider my request for extension of my registration to 2009 product.

Thanks in advance

Sumit

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Sumit Posted: 29 April 2008 03:57 AM

Newbie

Total Posts: 18
Joined 2008-04-27 Hi David

First of all I would like to thank you for all your responses.

Need one more clarification

I am planning to enroll for bionicturtle product. However want to know if suppose, i skip my attempt of NOV08 and decide to give FRM in 2009, will my membership of bionicturtle be automatically carryforward to 2009 or I have to pay extra to continue my membership. I yes, than will it be a fresh membership or is there any nominal charge to continue the membership?

Your prompt response would be highly appreciated.

Thanks

Sumit

David Harper, CFA, FRM, CIPM Posted: 29 April 2008 02:18 PM [ Report ] [ Ignore ] [ # 1 ]

Administrator

Total Posts: 1286
Joined 2006-09-24 Hi Sumit,

In general, a purchase applies to the membership year (i.e., current purchases apply to the 2008 FRM).

I have tried to be fair about two sorts of exceptions:

(i) If you are going to skip 2008 as part of a longer-term plan to sit for 2009, as you are, then yes, you can pay this year (once) and we will extend you a “two year membership.” Several customers did that last year; for whatever reasons, these (statistically) seem to be our better customers (helpful in the forum), so I am happy to do this.

(ii) Also, some candidates plan to sit in the current year but unforeseen circumstances/emergencies prevent them from doing so (e.g., they are forced to defer or cancel). In that case, we extend to the following year. If it’s an emergency, I’ll refund. (I did this once last year. I have never yet had to refund out of dissatisfaction)

All that is required, for either of these, is that you give us advance notice. If you send us one or two sentences (including your email as that is the unique identifier, the email you paid with, so we can match your record in the DB), we will tag your member record accordingly. What does not work for me is to get such a request in November or after the exam.

As illustration, there are several 2007 BT customers who were retained for 2008 (without any additional payment) simply because they sent us a reasonable request in advance, with a plan like yours. But, I won’t honor current requests to retroactively honor a 2007 membership into the current year (it would reflect the lack of such a plan); I hope the policy is fair in both respects.

Thanks, David

Excel

2008-12-02T17:31:38-08:00

Hi David. I remember watching one of your screencasts where you actually recommended a website for Excel courses (for some reason a girl’s first name is stuck in my head). Could you please refresh my memory? Many thanks.

Preparation for 2009

2008-12-01T23:22:48-08:00

Hi David

Since I will be on my annual leave for 3 weeks in DEC08, I was thinking of making the optimum use of the leave to prepare for FRM 2009. Could you suggest me the way to start. Honestly, I am heavily banking on your notes which I wish would not require me to go through the core readings. But if that does’nt happen than I have to refer the core readings.

However, whatever it might takes, I have to do it. So please suggest me the approach. Also let me know should I also go through all screen casts for 2008 before starting 2009?.

Your response would be highly appreciated.

Thanks

Sumit

Hi!

2008-11-25T14:01:40-08:00

Hi, David!

exam is finished! and thanks for everything!

could i ask something not related to FRM, that is,

I am looking for historical currency option price on the web, but there is not!

where can i find it ??

cheers!

suk

My BT Experience & Membership

2008-11-25T12:59:03-08:00

Dear David:

First of all, I want to thank you for nice website and material. My experience was good, even better than what I expected. Some strengths of your program in my order of liking (a) webcasts (b) forum support (c) notes.

I have two minor suggestions for improvement which was a bit problem for me. Spreadsheets are great but they are not well-organized. Perhaps you should have a separate page where before downloading spreadsheet someone could get brief description that what is this spreadsheet about and give a reference of the same in notes which may help in finding the spreadsheet rather easily. May be above suggestion is stupid but my whole point is that spreadsheet is a great idea but I did not utilize them optimally. I downloaded many of them but I could not link some of them to text. By the way they are more practiacal than exam-oriented. They are a great asset for someone actually working. Secondly, Your study notes are great but sometimes if you do not have colour printer you can face problems e.g. I never knew sometimes that some of the aims that I worked on were not official but optional (well, that was also good in a way but...).

Moreover, I wanted to ask that (i) when my access to premium section would end? I got memebership somewhere in August, I think, so its for one year or untill december 08? (ii) either i would fail or pass. in any case, if I want to continue my memebrship what charges will I have to pay? I hope I will get your blog webcasts always for free in mail. I love them.

Best regards,

Peter

FRM round the corner

2008-11-21T01:06:31-08:00

(This is just a copy of the email I had sent across yesterday - would be looking forward to hear from you.)

Dear David,

Trust all well! It’s been almost an year since I last posted any update. Not that it had to do with too much of work, but to some extent yes. After the not-so-shocking failure in 2007 exam, I took a break and focused heavily to develop concepts.

Last exam I realized that just writing the exam should not be the ultimate motive but to develop deep concepts is more important. I have dealt with the core readings of FRM and correlated with your material which you published for 2008. Your spreadsheets gave me that extra understanding which I suppose would help me at work. Besides gaining knowledge, getting the certification is important as well and I shall make it through in 2009 without fail. This mail is for a different purpose.

I realise that you had provided me access without charge in the year of 2008. However, I suppose the same would expire in sometime and I need to re-register for 2009. Considering the appreciating USD against my domestic currency, I would have to wait to have a favorable rate. What I actually require is the access to your forum - I shall now on be posting queries, concepts and doubts for intensive discussions. Also would appreciate if, after the expiration of my account, you can at least limit my access rights to 2008 material that you had already published. For your future materials pertaining to 2009, you may barr my accesses.

My focus would not be on solving easy or tough problems - it would be more focussed towards discussions of concepts and getting into the depth. Hope you would appreciate it and consider the above.

P.S. Also do you have any idea whether there would be much changes in AIMS like the last year? Or are you expecting a similar one to 2008 for 2009… Thanks again for the wonderful efforts as it gives me sheer pride in being a part of your group.

Regards, Avishek

Chalk Talk blog - Downloads

2008-11-21T13:02:23-08:00

Dear David
Thanks a lot for all your efforts and world class service.
I am wondering if you can make all your chalk talk blog screen cast in mp4 format so I can review it on my ipod.
It will be great help if those small presentations are also in download format.

Thanks again for all your hardwork in making FRM concepts easier to grasp.

Sincerely
Ashish Patel

Thanks David

2008-11-20T22:10:58-08:00

My best regards to David for the awsome presentations and lucid voice-over movies which still reverberate in the back of my mind. It was more than 70 hours listening, hours of excel practices, and continuous sliding of your flash slides on my laptop. Amazing product and great interactive learning tool created by you.

As regards exams, its same mix feelings, no too bad nor too exciting but hoping for a positive result for sure. I’v already gone through all the feedbacks that has been posted so far after this hilarious exam. At the cost of repeating i would like to add that please add more practice real exam like questions probably attached to each AIMS and it seems as general consensus that GARP is more keen in testing your test taking abilities, rather than wider coverage of your conceptual understanding, I would definitely like to try again with FRM challenge 2009 not because I am hard pressed to pass this exam, but because I would be associated with BT and with Gem like David and in the end will enhance my learning curve.

As above, I am working with the Banking Regulator in India, I am more keen to sharpen my knowledge skills thruogh your visual and voice over learning tools. One personal request, that since I joined the BT during the last few months of my preprarations, (mid september), I could not reap the full benefit of BT. So my request is that please continue me as a regular member for at least for the full one year.

Lastly, I am volunterring myself to aid in your efforts to make BT more resourceful and more in alignment with the GARP’s test paper expectations. Kindly let me know in what manner I can contribute to your efforts.

Thanks and Regards,
Harish Kumar

Once upon a time…November 15, 2008

2008-11-15T12:01:04-08:00

The day is over.
The day for which we waited with lot of anxiety,enthusiasm,skepticsm,optimism,stress,hardwork and lot more…
First of all best of luck to all for January 20, 2009 (result day).

Thanks a lot DAVID for all your support & guidance!

FRM 2008 was really good & tough test.
It turned out to be concentrating more on VaR concepts.
Morning session was little lengthy.
Afternoon session had many descriptive numericals.
Was surprised to see questions on Binomial/Poisson distribution!
Good coverage of Basel.
Many new readings were not tested at all.
Ques were mostly based on real world applications.

In the end I felt I lacked practise of solving questions. May be preparation material could have been more exam oriented!
Why doesnt GARP issue/provide recent exam papers / sample questions covering current syllabus??

David,
request you to put some light on-
1. Passing criteria/ Quartile system
2. Number weightage
3. Role of sectional cutoff??
4. Grading system
5. How GARP is dealing with timing difference of diff countries

enjoi everybody!
~anil

Thank you

2008-11-20T13:17:54-08:00

Hi David,

Was out for a few days after the exam and had no access to the net . Would like to thank you for the course .It really helped me a lot and my knowledge levels have increased , in large measure due to you .Your screen-casts and excel sheets were excellent.
The exam went ok, quiet lengthy hence ended up guessing a few answers . There was a simple question on Marginal and Component VaR , very simple but i did not get the answer even after a few tries .But I guess all this is a part of any exam.
Atleast I did not feel any panic before the exam (I usually feel that a lot) , because I knew I had been taught well. . Not sure how the results will swing,keeping my fingers crossed .Thaks once again.

Regards
Ravi