[jainash]

Hey Guys

I desperately need your help...
...I am presently pursuing my MBA. I have 3.5 years of work experience in IT.
At this point of my life, I feel that financial sector is opening up and providing huge opportunites and I think I should also get into it.
I know that I should not get into it just because everyone is getting into it, but I feel that I should also give it a try.
Now the problem at my end is that since I have 3.5 years of IT workexperience, no company would short list me in campus placements and hence, I would be deprived of all opporunities in financial sector.
I had thought of doing CFA, but this year the CFA litigation has also left me in ambivalence.
I have recently come to know of FRM exam and I am presently in a delimma whether I should sit for it this Nov or not. I have my lateral placements lined up in december and then final placements in jan end.
Should I go for FRM exam? Would such an exam provide me shortlists for banks visiting the campus? Can I prepare, if i work really hard, for the exam this November?
Somebody please advice....

Thanks in advance!

[brij17goel]

Hi guys

i hope everyone is doing fine with thier preparation. I am studying from Schweser notes and Jorian handbook. I wanted to know that " Is there an important part that i might be missing by not referring the core readings. I mean there is a big diference betwen Scheweser and the handbook , so i wanted to know if there is stil some very imp stuff in core readings which is not thr in the handbook.." I think it will be helpful to a lot of people
Please reply as soon as possible.

Thanks

[malghani]

Originally Posted by Frm_Blues

Hi everyone!
Does anyone have soft copy of the Schweser 2007 study material. I am not in india so canot take photocopies. I am ready to share the cost with yoy. Pleease to help.

Thanks in advance

You can email me to rmalghani@yahoo.com

[nitya34]

many thanks for the thread
and to Prayagraj also
I believe many have missed his message
hence i am copy pasting the same for junta
regards

Regards,
Nityananda
http://nitya34.blogspot.com

____________________________________

Originally Posted by prayagraj

I just saw this thread and was surprised to many FRM aspirants. Indeed its a good and a very practical course. The key to clear it, is to remain patient and have a presence of mind. The paper isn't though but is rather very practical. You would not be asked questions which needs huge calculations. There would be hardly few of them. To crack this thing one needs to interpret things. The questions are not hard but are rather very tricky. And yes be ready for unpredicted questions. Do go through the Amaranth case study. We were expecting it last year, however it wasn't in the syllabus and I am not surprised that they have included it this year. I would suggest all of you who are appearing to go through the Garp Risk Review and Garp Risk News for few mins daily. It really helps.
Some important areas I think one can focus:-

Quant - Focus on GARCH, EWMA models, Monte Carlo Simulations (You can expect a simulated model to be thrown at you and would be asked to identify the error in it).

Market Risk - Read Hull (you will have to until and unless you have a Fin background). Also read Tuckman for Fixed Income.
Do try to read on German-Kohlagen model for FX though its not in the course. A bit on Exotics. We had a problem on Knock In-Knock out put option in FX.

Credit Risk - Focus on that research paper by Ashish Dev. Its very irritating but its very important. You can be tested on questions such as the philosophical difference between S&P and Moody's. So do get your fundamentals clear over there. CDS pricing is surely imp. Also they have added more of Securitization this year. So do focus on that.

Operational Risk - Not many of us are masters in this field. So I believe its easy to crack this section. Basel will make or break. Expect atleast 10 questions on it. Also you will be given questions on Ethics which forms a part of this section. Unlike CFA where you are given a situation, here you will be given a situation as well as a responsibility such as - If you were the CFO of the company, If you were the CRO of the company.....etc.
These kind of questions are very irritating by nature and all the options seems correct.

Investment Management- Hedge Funds strategies. Do gulp them. Also they have added a reasearch paper this year. Focus on the formulas such as Sortino ratio, treynor ratio etc. it will definitely come. Coz no one tries to remeber it very carefully. This is the section where most of the people flunk. Thats what I have heard. But not very hard to crack.

Having said all this, do remember there are sectional cut-offs. So one cant just get away by scoring heavily in one section. You need to get sectional cut-offs and a overall cut-offs. A friend of mine got sectional cut-offs clear but didn't manage to get the over all cut-off i.e. 75% of the top 5% candidates (which is also same for all the sections).

But at the end of the day, you need to believe in yourself and as I said before one has to have patience.

And if anyone of you are wondering about the future prospects, its an open ticket to bank's treasury (though I am not working in any).

One can clear without a CFA or a Fin background. But if one has an engineering background it definitely helps in understanding things quickly. I cleared it which I had just finished my 1st year of PGDBA and I hardly had any Fin background. But definitely one has to work really very hard.

So guys do prepare well and after all its just another paper.

Just remember "There are various degrees of excellence... The danger lies, not in failing to achieve perfection, but in giving up the chase..."

Do let me know if I can help you all. I would definitely, if I can.

Apologies for the long reply

Prayagraj Patel

[rambhakt04]

Thanks to Prayagraj and Nitya!

My question is :

Are there any sectional cutoffs? I would be grateful if somebody could clarify on this.

TIA

ram

[sipanivishal]

Yes, there is sectional cut off and it follows the same pattern as the passing criteria of the exam

[rajatb]

Originally Posted by sipanivishal

Yes, there is sectional cut off and it follows the same pattern as the passing criteria of the exam

Where have you got this information from???

Last time a friend of mine passed the exam even after getting less than 25%ile in the Operational Risk section,so I would believe there is no sectional cutoff.

[DerivativesGuy]

Hi everyone,
Have been following the discussion around sectional cutoffs and this is my reasoning:
GARP clearly mentions that the 2 papers of total around 140 multiple choice questions will contain mixture of all sections. This is from the FAQ on the site:

• Are the questions presented by category, e.g. Market Risk, Credit Risk?

No, an FRM Candidate is expected to be able to address risk-related issues in a comprehensive way. Questions will be presented as if the candidate to address and formulate a response to an issue in a real-world environment.

Since, there are no explicit sections in the paper, how can we talk abt any cutoffs?

I had mailed GARP regarding the same. Their response was neither in the positive or negative.

If anyone has any more info to share, please do so.

[rajatb]

Originally Posted by DerivativesGuy

Hi everyone,
Have been following the discussion around sectional cutoffs and this is my reasoning:
GARP clearly mentions that the 2 papers of total around 140 multiple choice questions will contain mixture of all sections. This is from the FAQ on the site:

• Are the questions presented by category, e.g. Market Risk, Credit Risk?

No, an FRM Candidate is expected to be able to address risk-related issues in a comprehensive way. Questions will be presented as if the candidate to address and formulate a response to an issue in a real-world environment.

Since, there are no explicit sections in the paper, how can we talk abt any cutoffs?

I had mailed GARP regarding the same. Their response was neither in the positive or negative.

If anyone has any more info to share, please do so.

There are no explicit sections however all the questions are still slotted in a category.During the time of the results you are told how you performed in each section(%ile) wise to the other candidates.

However it still does not imply there are sectional cutoffs.

[shashi]

I had seen the collection of all FRM readings at one shop in Bersarai. If I remember correctly, it was Bharat Book Depot. Bersarai anyway doesn't have too many bookshops, so you can always go and check. You'll definitely find it there.

Originally Posted by manu_chandhok

A lil late though, But ne1 aware of photocopier(s) in DELHI where i can get photostat of FRM CORE MATERIAL readings...knowledgeable junta plz hep!!!

~Thnnx In Advance