FAQ Before Exam Resources for refreshing math skills

[Nicole Seaman]

Here is an updated list of resources that we have compiled to help those who need some help learning the basic math concepts for the FRM exam and for those who just need a refresher Please feel free to add any other resources that you have found helpful!!

General (covers all areas)

• Carol Alexander | Market Risk Analysis
  • Quantitative Methods - Volume 1
  • Practical Financial Econometrics - Volume 2
  • Pricing, Hedging, and Trading Financial Instruments - Volume 3
  • Value at Risk Models - Volume 4
• Financial Theory and Corporate Policy (Copeland)
• Quantitative Methods (Teall)
• Risk Management in Banking (Bessis)
• Risk Management and Financial Institutions - 4th Edition (Hull)
• Modern Portfolio Theory and Investment Analysis (Elton & Gruber)http://trtl.bz/2a30u24
• An Introduction to VaR (Choudhry)
• Beyond Value at Risk (Dowd)
• Paul Wilmott Introduces Quantitative Finance
• Finance Math Refresher by Gunter Meissner
• Engineering Mathematics series by K.A. Stroud
• Khan Academy
• PatrickJMT
• Tutor Pace

Algebra

• Algebra for Dummies
• The Humongous Book of Algebra Problems
• Math Planet

Calculus

• Calculus for Dummies
• The Calculus Lifesaver: All the Tools You Need to Excel at Calculus
• The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems
• The Power Rule of Integral
• Basic and simple explanations
• UCLA Calculus lectures
• Free online calculus from Princeton
• Calculus by Larson, Hostetler, and Edwards

Statistics

• Understanding Advanced Statistical Methods (Westfall)
• Statistics and Data Analysis for Financial Engineering (Ruppert) and Statistics and Finance (Ruppert)
• Mathematics and Statistics for Financial Risk Management (Miller)
• Statistics of Financial Markets (Borak)
• An Introduction to Statistics (Woodbury)
• A Course on Statistics for Finance (Sclove)
• Probability and Statistics for Finance (Fabozzi)
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics
• Statistics for Dummies
• Statistics, 4th Edition by David Freedman
• Fundamentals of Mathematical Statistics
• Statistics 101 (YouTube)
• Stat Trek
• Open Culture
• Carnegie Mellon University Prob & Statistics Course
• Online statistics book
• statistics.com
• yourstatsclass.com
• Mathematical Statistics with Applications by Wackerly

Econometrics

• A Guide to Econometrics by Peter Kennedy
• Gujarati's Basic Econometrics
• Econometrics for Dummies
• Econometric Models and Economic Forecasts (Pyndick & Rubinfeld)
• Intro to Econometrics (Stock & Watson)
• Basic Econometrics (Gujarati)
• The Basics of Financial Econometrics (Fabozzi)
• Undergraduate Econometrics by Hill, Griffith, and Judge

 

[stephenjohn]

Hi Nicole - When studying my undergraduate Math degree I found the most useful books to be the Engineering Mathematics series by K.A. Stroud (especially when it comes to calculus and matrices)

The best thing about this book is that it does not skip any steps

I hope this helps.

Stephen

 

[Nicole Seaman]

We've updated this thread with a new list of math resources! Feel free to add any other resources that you have found helpful!

 

[hellohi]

it great material thanks Nicole

 

[hellohi]

hello every body

I wanna ask the friends who have experience about the calculas or the algebra that needed for FRM part 1

there is a recomanded book from @ShaktiRathore called "The Calculus Lifesaver: All the Tools You Need to Excel at Calculus" it is mentioned above in Nicole post, but the book include 30 chapter and about 750 pages. which chapters we should to study according to FRM part 1.

another question:
regardless of the above book, any suggestions about what the calculas or algebra concepts we have to master related to FRM part 1?

for example: @David Harper CFA FRM advice me to master the concept of power rule for integrals.
thanks

 

[stephenjohn]

Hello @hellohi - Have you studied any finance in the past (either at university or in something like the CFA program)?

Have you also looked at the solutions that David provides in the answers to the questions he writes? They are quite comprehensive so in order to save you time, my suggestion is to look at his solutions first and if you do not understand them, refer the mentioned book. That is the approach I am taking as I have not studied Math in 10 years and I recently used the Stroud book (mentioned above) as a refresh in infinite series to understand the derivation around certain formulae.

Regarding what you need to know, from what I have seen so far in FRM syllabus (I am currently on Financial Markets and Products), you should probably need to know how to do basic differentiation and integration as it is useful. Differentiation is useful for deriving the formula for the minimum variance portfolio integration calculating the area underneath a probability distribution function.

You should also know how to expand brackets, factorise them, and know the rules of logarithms. It will also be useful to understand simultaneous equations for portfolio management. The simple trick with algebra is to remember that whatever you do to the left hand side of the equation needs to be done to the right hand side as well (and vice versa)

If you still feel that the recommended book it too big you can try Volume 1 of Market Risk Analysis by Carrol Alexander. She explains things very clearly and if there was one minor criticism I have, its that she does not provide any practice questions (but you can always supplement this with another book). As a plus, Volume 1 of Market Risk Analysis also covers some of the statistics material.

I hope the this helps and can people please add to the above encase I have missed something.

Thanks,

Stephen

 

[hellohi]

Hello @hellohi - Have you studied any finance in the past (either at university or in something like the CFA program)?

Have you also looked at the solutions that David provides in the answers to the questions he writes? They are quite comprehensive so in order to save you time, my suggestion is to look at his solutions first and if you do not understand them, refer the mentioned book. That is the approach I am taking as I have not studied Math in 10 years and I recently used the Stroud book (mentioned above) as a refresh in infinite series to understand the derivation around certain formulae.

Regarding what you need to know, from what I have seen so far in FRM syllabus (I am currently on Financial Markets and Products), you should probably need to know how to do basic differentiation and integration as it is useful. Differentiation is useful for deriving the formula for the minimum variance portfolio integration calculating the area underneath a probability distribution function.

You should also know how to expand brackets, factorise them, and know the rules of logarithms. It will also be useful to understand simultaneous equations for portfolio management. The simple trick with algebra is to remember that whatever you do to the left hand side of the equation needs to be done to the right hand side as well (and vice versa)

If you still feel that the recommended book it too big you can try Volume 1 of Market Risk Analysis by Carrol Alexander. She explains things very clearly and if there was one minor criticism I have, its that she does not provide any practice questions (but you can always supplement this with another book). As a plus, Volume 1 of Market Risk Analysis also covers some of the statistics material.

I hope the this helps and can people please add to the above encase I have missed something.

Thanks,

Stephen

really thanks @stephenjohn
it is great post, for me I studied finance but Iam not that good in calculas or algebra, so, many times when I try to understand what other memebers write when they solving the questions I face huge wall front of me, today I studied well the concept of the power rule of integral and really Iam happy for this progress and later on ill go to the books and concept such as : how to expand brackets, factorise them, and the rules of logarithms, that you mentiond above....thanks a lot, your post very useful.

thanks

 

[stephenjohn]

No problem at all

 

[hellohi]

this tube is very useful for understanding the whole concept of : the power rule of integral

thanks

 

[Arumugakumar]

Hello Everyone,

I am new to this forum, Recently I gave my CFA level 1 exam, and I am waiting for my results, I am interested to pursue FRM programme.
But the problem is that I am not that good in quant and statistics. But still optimistic if sumbody help me to understand the concepts from the foundation level.

Bionic turtle team can you please advise?
Really need your help

 

[emilioalzamora1]

First of all it is key that you a get a solid footing in statistics and quantitative concepts using (among others) one of the following books (authors in brackets):

1. Statistics and Data Analysis for Financial Engineering (Ruppert) and Statistics and Finance (Ruppert)
2. Mathematics and Statistics for Financial Risk Management (Miller)
3. Econometric Models and Economic Forecasts (Pyndick & Rubinfeld)
4. Intro to Econometrics (Stock & Watson)
5. Basic Econometrics (Gujarati)
6. An Introduction to Statistics (Woodbury)
7. A Course on Statistics for Finance (Sclove)
8. Risk Management and Financial Institutions - 4th Edition (Hull)
9. Modern Portfolio Theory and Invetsment Analysis (Elton & Gruber)
10. Understanding Advanced Statistical Methods (Westfall)
11. Quantitative Methods (Teall)
12. Statistics of Financial Markets (Borak)
13. An Introduction to VaR (Choudhry)
14. Beyond Value at Risk (Dowd)
15. Paul Wilmott Introduces Quantitative Finance
16. Probability and Statistics for Finance (Fabozzi)
17. The Basics of Financial Econometrics (Fabozzi)
18. Quantitative Methods in Finance Vol. I (Carol Alexander)
19. Financial Theory and Corporate Policy (Copeland)
20. Risk Management in Banking (Bessis)

These are not mandatory readings (at least not all of them) for the exam, but are indicative to get you going.

Hope this helps.

 

[Arumugakumar]

Hi @emilioalzamora1,

Thank you so much for your help.

Regards,
Arumugakumar

 

[emilioalzamora1]

Pleasure!

 

[Nicole Seaman]

Hello Everyone,

I am new to this forum, Recently I gave my CFA level 1 exam, and I am waiting for my results, I am interested to pursue FRM programme.
But the problem is that I am not that good in quant and statistics. But still optimistic if sumbody help me to understand the concepts from the foundation level.

Bionic turtle team can you please advise?
Really need your help

Hello @Arumugakumar

Welcome!! Please notice that I moved your question to this thread, where other members have provided some great recommendations. We always suggest using the search function in the forum before posting a new thread, as many questions like this have already been answered. I hope this is helpful!

Nicole

 

[Arumugakumar]

Hello @Nicole Seaman ,
Thanks for moving my thread in this section, even I noticed the same after posting this question. Later I got to know the similiar question has been posted by few forum members. I am sure this forum is one of the great asset for FRM candidates.

Thank you so much for your help

Sorry to ask you this question. Bionic turtle offers any discount for those student who comes from financially not strong.
Regards
Arumugakumar

 

[Nicole Seaman]

Hello @Nicole Seaman ,
Thanks for moving my thread in this section, even I noticed the same after posting this question.
Later I got to know the similiar question has been posted by few forum members.
I am sure this forum is one of the great asset for FRM candidates.

Thank you so much for your help

Sorry to ask you this question.

Bionic turtle offers any discount for those student who comes from financially not strong.
Regards
Arumugakumar

Hello @Arumugakumar You're welcome! Our forum has been very helpful to many FRM candidates

If you fall into one of the categories listed below, you may qualify for a discount:

• Returning bionicturtle.com customer (a copy of your previous invoice can be found under My Account)
• Full-time student status (Please provide your current schedule or transcript)
• Veteran status (Please provide discharge papers or similar proof of veteran status)
• Competitive purchase from another GARP-approved FRM preparation provider. (Please provide your receipt)
• International Purchase – Only approved countries are applicable. (Please send ID for proof)

Please contact our customer support team to request a discount.

 

[kevolution]

To be fair, I felt like there was more necessity on learning how to use your calculator to plug and chug equations than needing to know actual math. A lot of the questions, once you know the concepts and which formula/numbers to use, then you just need to type it into the calculator correctly.

 

[a_ishrat1973]

My favorite youtube calculus teacher is Krista King

Hi David

Please let me know if there are other math teachers like Krista King for other quants topics. This will be helpful to brush up since it has been long time since i had left college.

Also, would like to know the topics which have high probability of testing for all the subjects.

Thanks and regards

 

[Nicole Seaman]

My favorite youtube calculus teacher is Krista King

Hello @a_ishrat1973,

Regarding testability on specific readings, David gives a good explanation about why we do not provide high/low testability ratings for the readings here: https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/r19-p1-t3-hull_ch7_topics-swap_valuation.10645/#post-51851. I hope this is helpful!

 

[hnoorshn]

Hello,

I will try and keep this short. I am interested in FRM but the math/quant is extremely intimidating. I have always been bad at math and the only math I know is, what one can call, GMAT level math, which is quite basic.

So where should I start ? Or should I just not bother with FRM.