Author: Keshav Arora | 4th Feb 2021 | Read Time: 12-15 mins
FRM Exams Jan 2021—-that’s where the thought and idea of sharing my experience was born. While I sat giving my exams on 16th January 2021., I couldn’t help but think about sharing my valuable experience and journey with all my fellow mates and wish to (if at all) touch the life of even just a few—that’s where this comes from.
Hello everyone…this is Keshav Arora, a finance enthusiast pursuing CFA and FRM (based in Vrindavan). My interests include trading & investing activities and I am an active trader managing portfolios. Apart from that, I am an educator with about 5 years of experience and today I take the opportunity of sharing my thoughts with all the readers here at SSEI QForum.
To start with, it has been a privilege to train under the guidance and support of the prestigious teachers of SSEI in this journey. I believe, I owe my teachers and some of my fellow mates the credits for this feeling of confidence in clearing through this level —even before the results are declared!
I have never really been sure of myself being someone who could do any good in this field. The vision of me opting for it, as well as doing well enough in finance– was a present I got from my mentor Sanjay Saraf Sir.
I am a teacher myself and I believe that is something that has helped me understand what and how a student should be— to be able to absorb the right direction given by a teacher, and I feel lucky enough in myself for I am aware of it.
If I were to categorise and give a better structure to my story, then I think it shall go like this …
A. The factors that helped me build on my confidence to feel prepared for the exam are as follows:
- Question Solving: Solve as many questions as you can possibly get your hands on. In the last month of your examination time, create that atmosphere of examination day– daily, by solving Mock Papers and actually sitting for that 4hr set up as mentioned in the examination process. This helps you relax yourself and be prepared for the question-facing mindset in an actual exam hall. (I would discuss my own mindset on the exam day later in this article.)
- Talk about your insecurities: Feel free to actually be able to seek guidance and support from your teachers, family and friends. I remember how at different points of time in my journey of PART 1 examination I found myself crying hopelessly, feeling low about being not so confident to face the exam, but well, I did, want to know how?? I faced my insecurity and accepted how I felt. Even the night before the exam, I was ridiculously emotional and unsure of myself being capable of doing it, even after months of preparation! Well, apparently—that’s something that almost each student feels at some point or the other. So what can be done about this? Here’s what I did– I decided to seek help from my friends… I discussed with them my honest emotional breakdown and then listened to what they had to say. And not just heard them, I believed in them. I believed in their advises, concern and the solutions they had to offer. They all believed in me and that gave me the confidence to believe in myself once again. Infact, I can absolutely never thank them enough for this (some valuable advises and experiences I received will be disclosed to you shortly in the article.)
- Give Practical touch to whatever you study: Like I told you, I am myself a teacher and over all these years with my students, I have learnt how my students respond to cramming something, and how they respond to knowing something through practical application of the same. At SSEI, this is something that has always been taken care of. The teachers are particular in offering and in fact bringing the practical guide with textual content. They bring to us both the textual and real world on the same table and that in itself is what broadens the minds of a financial services aspirant. One should always aim to create their own examples and application of what they have learnt in each session.
- Common Sense: Yes, you read it right– common sense! Use your common sense while you gain financial literacy. It is no rocket science but common sense. The more we look at it as ‘being complicated’, the more we actually make it complicated in our heads. In the end, it’s actually all about developing the wit of financial professionalism and not cramming it, and that being said, if you really aim to achieve it, then use your common sense while learning. Think and apply. This is the first global exam that I gave and I can see the difference as to what Indian Examinations test and what a Global Examination tests.
- Derpo Program: Another contributing course to ease my journey is the Derpo Program offered by SSEI. It gave me that practical aspect to another level and only my fellow batchmates of the program will truly know what I’m implying here. It even helped me in solving 1 question on the exam day without having to spend time in solving it. (I would recommend that everyone should do trading, it’s like a cherry on a cake or your favourite ice cream. It’s absence might not change your preference, but it’s presence would certainly increase it’s value by adding that punch of taste).
- Blessings and good wishes of parents, teachers and friends: It might sound a little weird, but well, things like belief in one’s God, oneself, blessings of parents and gurus & good wishes of our well-wishers do help and I absolutely encourage all to value and cherish it in all aspects of life.
B. Some valuable advises and experiences I have received from my valuable network of friends & peers:
The whole network of financial enthusiasts for me has luckily provided me some really good connections and bonding and I’m more than glad to be blessed to have all my fellow mates by my side throughout. The positive energy and welcoming warmth of you all has been a bliss that is forever valuable.
One of my fellow friends I met through the same telegram network, taught me the significance of time management and how to actually inculcate the same on exam-day. The energy and strategy to organise and manage my time in accordance to how I can solve a question quickly and how to skip the ones I am unsure about, in order to spend my time wisely during the exam.
Another helped me to familiarise me with the atmosphere of the exam hall and how to go about it. This person’s experience and suggestions about the exam environment helped me feel pre-prepared and feel a lot more relaxed when I actually faced the FRM Exam hall setting. I was guided about small things like how to fill those OMR sheet circles, how I can possibly request teachers in the exam hall to start their introductory GARP Instructions on time so that it does not consume our Examination hours, how to fill in my details correctly, what time should I reach the assigned location, what time I should enter the exam hall, what I should do in the exam hall, how I should utilise my time before the exam begins in calming myself and actually settling in the room’s energy, preparing my mind to work efficiently for the coming 4hrs exam time and so on.
These things may seem to menial to talk about and mention, but these things actually worked in making me feel a lot better about the exam setup and run down the stress and pressure of the room and question solving because I was prepared with a plan of action with these insights and time management tips.
During the exam, I vividly remember how everything my teachers, friends and family taught me was coming to me as tools to sail through the process. I could literally recall each and every word Sanjay Sir and Karan Sir said in their teaching sessions.
The mentality of solving all those questions through different ways and different point of views gained from my dear people has been a beautiful asset all together.
My personal advice in preparing for the exam:
As a teacher myself, I would repeat to you this one thing– think what you are offered in a learning concept and think about it practically. Practice it, absorb the learnings and not cram them. Think about the point of view of the teacher, what are they here to teach you, be it the subject teacher or the friend or your family member who is helping you in anyway. Think and apply. Use common sense and don’t over complicate it when you can actually use common sense to ease it’s burden.
C. Lastly my friends, I’d like to share with you my mindset and run you through my Exam day as follows:
- On the exam day I was there at the centre by 6.45am (I suggest you to have some ‘healthy snacking’ in 15mins of time) and went in the exam hall at 7am. I think this is also one of the factors which contributed in having the right mindset in the exam hall as i was there 1 hour earlier in the exam hall and was familiarising with the environment. I closed my eyes for 15-20 min and relaxed. Had I reached late or even by 7.30, things would have been different. This extra hour that I spent in there felt like turning odds in favour, familiarising with the energy and vibe around me and being at ease and peace with my mind.
- The exam started at 8am and I was worried about only 2 things now:
- Time Management, and
- Accuracy of efficiently performing in the exam.
- When I began with my exam I had one thing clear in mind that if by looking at the question I would feel that I’m uncertain of its answer, or that it might need more time to solve, I will leave it for the time being and continue with next.
- I followed that discipline of time management and was able to solve 85 questions in the first round. Then I saw the clock and it was just 10am and I had 2 hours left. Its not that I skipped reading, instead I even read some questions twice. I am probably just a little fast at reading.
- In the process of solving and marking the answers I even gave thought to why other options are incorrect, this helped me not skip on the options or tick a answer in false fall because the options are set like that too.
- The Questions were not like super smooth to tackle but yes like I said, I studied for the exam keeping in mind what I am taught and how I can think the way my teachers would have thought in marking the correct answers or how my brother might have thought to solve his strong area of probabilities or how some other friend of mine would have thought to solve any particular question. That just made it a lot more smooth and accurate for me to mark the correct answers.
- The rest of the 15 questions that I revisited after 10am were a little tricky but well I spent time there and soon tackled another 9 out of those. The rest 6 were the one’s I actually wasn’t sure at all and I marked those in mere guess work.
- Somewhere around 10.30am I was done with my exam and left the room.
All the things mentioned above—combined together– happen to be TOOLS to actually perform well with the knowledge this course of FRM brings.
At the end I would wish all my fellow-aspirants good luck and advise you take care of your health as well. Prepare in the best way you can, give it your best.
All the best once again.
Regards
Keshav Arora
Noce