2019/2020 Curriculum Change Analysis Spreadsheets

[Nicole Seaman]

Below are the spreadsheets that we prepare every year to analyze the changes in the GARP curriculum from year to year. This analysis shows readings that have been removed, added and changed. Any readings in red have been removed in 2020, readings in blue are new to 2020 and readings in black are unchanged. Although GARP provides the Study Guide Changes, this XLS actually analyzes all of the changes in the learning objectives also.

• Part 1 Spreadsheet
• Part 2 Spreadsheet

Please see our 2020 Publishing Process regarding any new and updated materials: https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/please-read-publishing-process-for-2020.22937/

 

[ivan.jarmanovic]

Dear Nicole
Dear David

This is just brilliant - many thanks!

Just for clarification and understanding the spreadsheets:

- when you state i.e. in column F "mapping to Miller Ch 2", this means no additional updates will be performed on the existing script/exercises given GAPR's 2020 curriculum update? so the current scripts can be used immediately?
- re the new readings, I guess these will be updated in the BT scripts soon? What do you think, when will these updated scripts be available?

All the best!
-Ivan

 

[Nicole Seaman]

Dear Nicole
Dear David

This is just brilliant - many thanks!

Just for clarification and understanding the spreadsheets:

- when you state i.e. in column F "mapping to Miller Ch 2", this means no additional updates will be performed on the existing script/exercises given GAPR's 2020 curriculum update? so the current scripts can be used immediately?
- re the new readings, I guess these will be updated in the BT scripts soon? What do you think, when will these updated scripts be available?

All the best!
-Ivan

Hello @ivan.jarmanovic

Please make sure to read our publishing process for 2020 here: https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/please-read-publishing-process-for-2020.22937/. The column where we placed notes for mapping was made to help us map our current materials to the new syllabus. I left it there, as it will be helpful to our members until we can get the layout of the Study Planner updated (hopefully by next week!). These notes in that column do NOT mean that we will not be updating the materials. We will still be updating, but yes, the materials that are currently in the study planner that map to the new LOs for 2020 can still be used until we update.

Thank you,

Nicole

 

[ivan.jarmanovic]

Hello @ivan.jarmanovic

Please make sure to read our publishing process for 2020 here: https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/please-read-publishing-process-for-2020.22937/. The column where we placed notes for mapping was made to help us map our current materials to the new syllabus. I left it there, as it will be helpful to our members until we can get the layout of the Study Planner updated (hopefully by next week!). These notes in that column do NOT mean that we will not be updating the materials. We will still be updating, but yes, the materials that are currently in the study planner that map to the new LOs for 2020 can still be used until we update.

Thank you,

Nicole

Hi Nicole,

I totally missed the message on the publishing process 2020 - my bad! ...

thanks for the quick response!
-Ivan

 

[Elzbieta]

Hi Nicole,

thanks very much for listing all the changes in this informative spreadsheet. Saved me a lot of time

Have a good start into the new week,
Ela

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

FYI, on reddit's FRM thread (which seems to have grown to become the second most active FRM forum, after ours), there was posted the following good question:

Confused about the syllabus amendments in Part 1 2020:
Earlier some said in this sub that there are no changes from 2019 to 2020 curriculum for Part 1. Now, some lecturers on Youtube are saying there is a major change in the curriculum for 2020. I couldn't find the official GARP statement as well.

As our updates have been giving me much time to reflect on this (ha!), I replied as follows:

It's helpful to be specific (keep in mind that some exam prep providers, EPP, of which we are one, might be motivated to say that change is massive!).

With respect only to Part I:

• The overall content for which candidate are responsible (i.e., that is testable) is mostly unchanged. As GARP told us EPPs back in June, "FRM Part I coverage areas will largely remain unchanged," and now that looks to be true, because the 2020 Learning Outcomes (and Knowledge Points) are mostly unchanged. As evidence, you can view @Nicole Seaman 's annually updated Change Analysis XLS https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/2019-2020-curriculum-change-analysis-spreadsheets.22938/ where you will see that the "change" is mostly a re-mapping of 2019 assigned readings to 2020 GARP readings. (In other words, I agree with @gabswell : the best answer refers to a comparison of LOs, where we can see that they are mostly unchanged,)
• Why are some saying there is big change in Part 1? Simple, because GARP replaced the external readings with its own internal readings. This is a big change, but it's a remapping. For almost all (but not quite all) of the Part 1, it's a replacement of source material in a 1:1 correspondence. For example, previously Hull's OFOD chapters (the bulk of P1.T3) were assigned, and now those Hull chapters are replaced by GARP's chapters which address the same LOs as before. As I've told GARP, we don't know exactly how this will be received, as it is the first material GARP has published (albeit the hired external authors). For example again, if I personally wanted to prepare for the options, futures and derivatives in T3, in just my personal opinion, the Hull Chapters from 2019 are superior to the GARP 2020; mostly I say that because Hull gives plenty of illustrated examples, which to me, are necessary to understanding, but also, he's had 10 editions to sharpen the saw (and fix errors; already we can find errors in GARP's first edition, as you would expect of anybody's first edition).
• However, there remains some change in Part 1 as some new Learning Objectives have been added (and other removed). Again, in my mere opinion, this marginal churn is more cosmetic than substantive as the Knowledge Points didn't really change and GARP often churns more than is applicable to testable material. In any span of three years, for example, we might see a new LO added, dropped the next year, then added back the third year; meanwhile, it always had extremely low testability. So the "mostly unchanged" refers to the essential body of P1 material.

This is a choice about approach, as the answer to the question "what might be tested in Part 1 2020?" is the mostly the same as it was in 2019. I hope that's helpful ... David Harper, bionicturtle.com

See source at

https://www.reddit.com/r/FRM/comments/ehz74g

 

[Detective]

A common criticism of GARP and FRM I’ve heard is that the source text is a collection of financial textbooks with various different authors that use different terminology or contradict each either. A lot of comparisons are also made to the CFA Institute’s text which is self contained. It seems GARP’s 2020 vision was to consolidate and replace part 1 with their own text similar to the CFA Institute.

I actually liked that the text/topics were dispersed across different authors and books. Point of view and perspective is important in any field, and I liked reading each author‘s take on the same topic. Although, it seems for now at least it was only done for part 1, so a compromise; however, I wouldn’t be surprised if few years down the line, part 2 also ends up getting replaced with GARP text.

 

[Evangelia_Mintzai2]

I already like the changes in the Financial Disaster cases. The cases before were very old and not applicable into today's technological and regulatory environment. It's refreshing to see that Cyber Risk is now part of the Risk Types. I look forward to reading those cases.

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

@Evangelia_Mintzai2 I completely agree with you! I cannot take credit but for over three years, among our feedback to GARP (hardly the only focus of last years' memo, but included as an item; see my memo here) was that the stale case studies (aka, T1 Financial Disasters) needed to be updated. My view has been that, ironically, P2.T9 Current Issues churns (or has churned) too rapidly with the entire (or almost entire) Current Issues Topic swapping every single year; yet the P1.T1. case studies, which until now hadn't changed for many years, was under-updated. Personally, I think case actual studies/disasters are an essential part of any risk syllabus, so this is easily among my favorite changes in 2020.

 

[Amayer]

Hi david sir
In may 2020 exam
When will materials be out damn

 

[bvoleg]

Hi david sir
In may 2020 exam
When will materials be out damn

Was about to ask the same question

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

@bvoleg just curious, with the "damn" included, our would you manage a complete sentence, I'm not sure what @Amayer asked exactly? Where's the eyeroll emoticon, okay here it is: i.e., what question were you about to ask, presumably without checking the above discussion?

Please see https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/please-read-publishing-process-for-2020.22937/

 

[bvoleg]

@bvoleg just curious, with the "damn" included, our would you manage a complete sentence, I'm not sure what @Amayer asked exactly? Where's the eyeroll emoticon, okay here it is: i.e., what question were you about to ask, presumably without checking the above discussion?

Please see https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/please-read-publishing-process-for-2020.22937/

Hi David, just to rephrase - when we can expect to get 2020 materials?
Yes, I read the below and other related threads but it doesn't have any specific reply.
The matter is that some people prefer to start study as early as possible for different reasons. As an example, I won't have enough time in Feb-March to study, so for me each weekend matter.
So I believe that is what Amayer meant

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

@bvoleg if you read any of the threads, you'll infer that we start deploying material soon and we do not give dates. We don't give dates because it creates an impossible number of communication loops, we've learned the hard way. The question "when we can expect to get 2020 materials?" is firstly a function of the degree to which GARP makes (made) changes to the syllabus (which affects all EPPs, you might have noticed by their schedules). I realize people prefer to start studying earlier, but we are not stopping you from starting your studies. I don't want the pressure of dates, I am already working as hard as I can. Getting this question over and over and over and over is not why I host this forum, I hope you can understand. Thank you,

cc: @Nicole Seaman sorry but can you copy the statement you keep copying, i don't know why some people resist reading it ...

 

[ivan.jarmanovic]

Hi all
It is possible to work through the LO's with the current available BT scripts and exercises - just requires a bit flexibility and cross-referencing to the free GARP ebooks (from time to time)- content wise, things did not significatly change (at least as I can perceive it..).
Have a nice weekend all
-IJ

 

[bvoleg]

@bvoleg if you read any of the threads, you'll infer that we start deploying material soon and we do not give dates. We don't give dates because it creates an impossible number of communication loops, we've learned the hard way. The question "when we can expect to get 2020 materials?" is firstly a function of the degree to which GARP makes (made) changes to the syllabus (which affects all EPPs, you might have noticed by their schedules). I realize people prefer to start studying earlier, but we are not stopping you from starting your studies. I don't want the pressure of dates, I am already working as hard as I can. Getting this question over and over and over and over is not why I host this forum, I hope you can understand. Thank you,

cc: @Nicole Seaman sorry but can you copy the statement you keep copying, i don't know why some people resist reading it ...

No need to copy the statement over and over again, whose who follow your forum already familiar with it.. people just keep asking the same question for a reason.
Anyway I'm not going to distract you from material updating anymore.
Have a great weekend and looking forward to an updated material!

 

[Nicole Seaman]

Hello,

As stated above in the publishing process post, I've mapped every single 2020 reading to the 2019 materials that are currently in the study planner. There is no reason that anyone cannot begin studying with the materials that are currently published. We really need everyone's patience here. There is not going to be one EPP out there who has everything updated this early in January unless their materials are very low quality and just "thrown" together.

Half of the reason that we have not been able to get the new study planner launched with the new format is because we are asked the same question over and over about new and updated materials instead of people reading the posts in the forum that are marked with "IMPORTANT". If we have to continue spending hours answering the same question over and over it is going to take away from prep time.

 

[Nicole Seaman]

Hi all
It is possible to work through the LO's with the current available BT scripts and exercises - just requires a bit flexibility and cross-referencing to the free GARP ebooks (from time to time)- content wise, things did not significatly change (at least as I can perceive it..).
Have a nice weekend all
-IJ

Hello @ivan.jarmanovic

Yes, thank you for your very good question Please see the post that I made directly above this (after you posted) for information on how you can study with the current materials. I also added the wording from the publishing process thread that shows you how to use the curriculum change XLS efficiently until we get the new study planner launched.

 

[Champaklal Chodoo]

Below are the spreadsheets that we prepare every year to analyze the changes in the GARP curriculum from year to year. This analysis shows readings that have been removed, added and changed. Any readings in red have been removed in 2020, readings in blue are new to 2020 and readings in black are unchanged. Although GARP provides the Study Guide Changes, this XLS actually analyzes all of the changes in the learning objectives also.

• Part 1 Spreadsheet
• Part 2 Spreadsheet

YOU CAN STILL BEGIN YOUR STUDIES WITH THE 2019 STUDY PLANNER THAT IS CURRENTLY PUBLISHED

GARP does not change the entire curriculum every year. There are MANY learning objectives that have remained the same and I have mapped every single one of those learning objectives to the new 2020 curriculum. In the XLS spreadsheet below, you will see in Column F that the 2019 reading is mapped to the 2020 reading. This will help you to navigate the current study planner until we launch our new study planner VERY soon!!

Please see our 2020 Publishing Process regarding any new and updated materials: https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/please-read-publishing-process-for-2020.22937/

Hi Nicole,
Hi David,
Last year David had written a letter to GARP and suggested some improvements to FRM curriculum. It seems GARP has taken a note of that letter and made substantial changes to FRM curriculum (at least in part 2 syllabus. Besides, GARP also published its own study material for Part 1) . I would like to know the opinion of David Harper on these changes. what does he think ?? What exactly has changed and how does it help FRM students ?? Is David satisfied with these changes ?. If he could write a post on this it will definitely help FRM candidates and members. Thank You

 

[flyingpan]

Hi I am just wondering what everyone thinks about the Part II syllabus change. It seems the change is significant, with a completely new Topic being added. As of now, the Kaplan Study Notes will not have the complete materials published until March. Given the exam date of mid May, does anyone feel the anxiety as I do for the time available for preparation? I don't understand why the syllabus change was so drastic and has to be announced so late in the game that do leave enough time for the prep providers to prepare for the new required materials. I am not sure that for all these new materials, would David have enough time to prepare the sample questions. I am pretty sure those good questions BT provides for the past exams did not get there with a short period of time.
So David, I would appreciate it very much if you can give your honest opinion on the nature of the syllabus change, and from your view point, do you think we would have enough time to prepare for the May exam?
Thanks a lot