FRM Syllabus

[APC]

I am new on this site and in this domain. I am right now confused about the syllabus of FRM.

As CFA has fixed syllabus and books are provided for the same, which covers that syllabus in pretty much detail. On the other hand in FRM, its like xyz book, chapter a, b, pretty unorganized as compared to CFA.

I am wondering if there are some organized material, for beginners in this domain. I am a software professional and I am interested in FRM. I have a nice mathematical background. But I am in need of some central place, where I can go and study, and on completion of tht material, I am confident in terms of knowledge required and not in hanging state.

Does such material (self sufficient in itself in terms of syllabus coverage and suitable for beginners) exist for FRM ? As in CFA, we have 6 books provided by CFA Institute.

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Hi APC,

GARP does not publish something comparable to CFA Institute's books (which only recently were packaged into the cirriculum; the CFA is more mature). Instead, candidates often use training providers (like us) for materials; in a sense, training providers are rendered more relevant/important only because they do not pre-package such one-stop materials.

However, your crititique (IMO) will be still be valid, to a degree, regardless: the CFA rigorously builds a (more) coherent and well-organized cirriculum; GARP's cirriculum is selected from various authors. Overlap is therefore somewhat inevitable (e.g., this year, there is a acute sense of redundancy among fixed income topics); coherence is clearly less for the FRM than the CFA. (one recent commenter on our blog called it a hodge-podge. While I can't use that term, I think it is a defensible view).

There is arguably a silver lining: GARP can select best-in-class authors for each sub-topic. But this is easier for folks with experience to appreciate. To new learner/candidates, my sense is that this appears to be less a virtue and more like an overwhelming (and disjointed, at the margin) pile of readings. But, I will say, in GARP's defense: this approach allows for a more dynamic cirriculum. CFA has the benefits of being more mature, but their cirriculum cannot update as rapidly as can the FRM (e.g., take this year's current issues, topic 9. A entirely new topic that includes masterworks by, say, Gary Gorton).

... Hope that helps, David