FAQ Before Exam Good news! we can share GARP's prior FRM practice exams

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David Harper CFA FRM

David Harper CFA FRM
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I just wanted to share some good news. Because @mh2452 asked us here if we can share GARP's old practice exams, we asked GARP if they would articulate an updated policy (a few years ago, we did publish them to the forum, but GARP asked us to remove them, so naturally we took them down and stopped updating the forum with them).

The good news is that GARP's updated policy does allow for us to share them. Yay! @Nicole Manley will soon be adding them to our Resources section at https://forum.bionicturtle.com/resources/categories/frm-practice-garp.16/

However, please read GARP's carefully worded caveat to us which I have copied below ("we would urge caution in using older practice exams as part of a candidate’s exam preparation"). We already fully agreed with this view, for what it's worth. We understand why candidates want to see older practice exams, but I have always urged caution. As a general rule, in my view the older the exam, the less relevant it will be for your preparation. GARP's own expertise has evolved. There are many examples of old applications or concepts that are outdated, or more likely, more nuanced or sophisticated. Here is just one example: several years ago, if a question included a 10-year coupon-bearing bond, you could assume its duration was approximately seven years (and you likely didn't need to worry about which flavor of duration). Today's FRM would never make such imprecise assumption, realizing that we have at least two key duration types (Macaulay and modified, not to mention effective), and duration is variant to yield, coupon rate, etc. I like my own example :p because it's relevant to the times: what is the impact of extremely low/zero yields on duration? There are many examples like this, they render older questions obsolete to the most recent syllabus. Nevertheless, we understand the interest in prior practice exams.

Here is the core text of GARP's reply to us, when we asked them, Can we share old practice exams?
"While we appreciate the interest in sharing older practice exams and understand a candidate’s desire to have more practice questions to work through. However, we would urge caution in using older practice exams as part of a candidate’s exam preparation. The FRM curriculum is reviewed and revised as needed on an annual basis. As such, older practice exams may pertain to subject matter and/or be associated with reference readings that are no longer part of the curriculum. In addition, GARP has refined its question style and format over the years and older practice exams may not accurately reflect current question style or format.

Partly as a response to the requests of candidates and exam prep providers, GARP made available full-length FRM Practice Exams for the first time in 2016. In constructing these exams, older practice exams were reviewed and many of the still-relevant questions were ported to the 2016 FRM Practice Exams. Sometimes this was done with minor updates in reference reading associations, question stem and/or answer choice wording, etc. in an effort to ensure that questions were presented in a manner consistent with the 2016 curriculum. As such, much of the value a candidate might hope to extract from older practice exams is already contained in the 2016 FRM Practice Exams. In addition, effort was made to try to balance the distribution of content coverage and difficulty to give candidates a reasonable sense of what to expect on the 2016 FRM Exam.

In summary, we will leave the choice of whether or not to share older practice exams with you. However, we feel strongly that the 2016 FRM Practice Exams is the preferred preparation tool for the reasons discussed above."
 
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Xin Zhan

Member
thank you, David. Could you check if GARP provided the wrong answer for 2015 practice exam question 10? I got C, 9.52%.
 

David Harper CFA FRM

David Harper CFA FRM
Subscriber
Hi @cindyzhan See https://forum.bionicturtle.com/thre...-true-or-what-garp16-p2-33-garp15-p2-10.9592/ (also for similar comparison) https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/garp-2016-practice-question-33-garp16-p2-33-garp16-p2-6.9988/

We did report it to GARP. not for a wrong answer but rather for an imprecise question as many candidates would understandably select 9.52%. Given 10% hazard rate, the year 3 conditional PD (i.e., conditional on survival through two years) is 9.52% and the year 3 unconditional PD (ie, probability of default from the perspective of today) is 8.61%

btw, protip, we started to use forum tags for GARP's previous questions. So, if anybody wanted to look into this question, they could use Search Tag at https://forum.bionicturtle.com/tags/ and begin to type "garp15-p2-10" but just entering "garp15" brings up any of the 2015 question discussions that are (so far) tagged. Thanks!
 

Nicole Seaman

Director of CFA & FRM Operations
Staff member
Subscriber
Hi @David Harper CFA FRM , I would also like to know the answer to this - even just in terms of level of difficulty as I have found the BT exams to be much more difficult than the GARP practice exams. Just for my own mental preparation!

Many thanks
Hello @thelastfurlong

BT practice questions have always been a higher level of difficulty compared to the GARP practice questions. David writes these practices at a more difficult level to ensure that our members have learned the concepts in-depth for the exam. Unfortunately, we do not receive copies of the actual GARP exams to compare, but you may find answers here in our feedback threads, where members have posted about the actual exam.
Hope this helps!

Nicole
 

thelastfurlong

New Member
Hello @thelastfurlong

BT practice questions have always been a higher level of difficulty compared to the GARP practice questions. David writes these practices at a more difficult level to ensure that our members have learned the concepts in-depth for the exam. Unfortunately, we do not receive copies of the actual GARP exams to compare, but you may find answers here in our feedback threads, where members have posted about the actual exam.
Hope this helps!

Nicole

Thanks @Nicole Seaman - info and links much appreciated!
 

Nicole Seaman

Director of CFA & FRM Operations
Staff member
Subscriber
Can anyone provide me with PDF copy of the FRM Part 2 practice exam. I have passed the FRM last year and I want to refresh my knowledge. My email: [email protected]

Jamal
Hello @JAMALRISK

Please note that I moved your question here. As discussed above, we created a GARP practice exam section in our forum resources for previous GARP practice exams. I uploaded the 2016 exams this morning now that the 2016 exams are over. I hope this helps!

Nicole
 

Nicole Seaman

Director of CFA & FRM Operations
Staff member
Subscriber
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