Supplementary / Beginner Maths Book for FRM

[Jiew Kwang]

Hi there,

I would like to know if there are any supplementary or beginner's guide to refresh maths for someone who hasnt been studying for 2 yrs before diving into the FRM materials. For instance, the logarithms, differentiation etc. Are there any good books without professor language so i can refresh my maths without getting intimidated?

I plan to take the FRM next june and prolly will subscribe to bionic turtle after i registered for frm. Are there any maths tutorials there? Thanks!

 

[[email protected]]

Fortunately there are lots of good resources, and your instinct is correct, if you don't have you basic math skills together then this exam is a problem.

Only you can assess whether you are 'rusty' (not a problem) or never knew the math in the first place. There are a couple of solutions.

A. Bite the Bullet and go back to college for a full semester (will need full stats course and some limited calculuus, fortunately the calculus doesnt delve too deep. A must if you never knew the math in the first place.

B. If you are only rusty or have spotty areas of knowledge, then there are lots of great tutorials on the web. (Just make a list of keywords from the level I quant, ln, e, normal dist etc..... and if you get these you have it covered.

C. Start to do the real material incrementally as you make progress - test yourself. But remember math may be only 20% of level I, however it is single most important topic (you are going precisely nowhere without it!)

Then start the test when you feel good about the math (that iffy feeling in the back of your mind is there for a reason - heed it.

To get you started here is a great link to natural log and e - great because it is untuitive unlike any other text I have seen. http://betterexplained.com/articles/demystifying-the-natural-logarithm-ln

Here is a nice calculus tutorial http://www.karlscalculus.org/ (Remember just learn the bits you need).

For the stats (if you are new) you will need a real resource e.g. a university course covering probability and regression - very difficult these on your own.

So buckle up - take that spare time and send me a $1 when you pass the exam.

Oh and the turtle notes - don't leave home without them.

B.

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

To add to Brian's views. My favorite, cost-effective way to ramp-up/brush up on math is with Schaum's Outlines. Because they are (i) affordable, (ii) cut right to the chase with outlines, and (iii) give plenty of practice questions (I don't know about you, but i can't retain math without working examples). See https://www.mhprofessional.com/search_results_category.php?catcode=117-3704 (statistics, calculus).

More recently, I've discovered two fantastic youtube channels:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MathTV (he can teach math!)
http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy

For econometrics, i advise just going straightaway to the assigned Essentials of Econometrics by Gujarati.

If you learn well by hands-on, this book is unique in conveying basic econometrics with Excel examples:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521843197/?tag=bt077d-20

For calculus, I like http://www.amazon.com/dp/1592575129/?tag=bt077d-20
(although opinions vary, you have many choices for calculus)
... you don't need to know all of calculus (e.g., you can get away without knowing the trig calculus), most important is ability to take a first partial derivative.

David

 

[Jiew Kwang]

Thanks to both brian and david for your kind help. I'll start digging those resources now!

 

[Finaspirant]

David,

I would like to share what I have gathered from the threads here and reviews on amazon and other places. These are the books I have collected (not finished) but they really appear promising for someone on Step 0 of FRM. A sort of pre-examination books to prepare you for battles ahead.

Statisctics:
The ultimate idiot's guide to Statistics - Robert Donnelly
Statistics - Freedman/Pisamo/Purves
Fundamentals of Statistics - Gupta / Kapoor

Calculus:
The Humungous Book of Calculcus Problems - W. Michael Kelley
The Calculus Lifesaver - Banner

Econometrics:
Introductory Econometrics using Microsoft Excel - Barreto/Howland
A Guide to Econometrics - Kennedy

The list is neither comprehensive or nor can be vouched for. But I sort of prepared it from the reviews floating around.

 

[marinahess]

To add to Brian's views. My favorite, cost-effective way to ramp-up/brush up on math is with Schaum's Outlines. Because they are (i) affordable, (ii) cut right to the chase with outlines, and (iii) give plenty of practice questions (I don't know about you, but i can't retain math without working examples). See https://www.mhprofessional.com/search_results_category.php?catcode=117-3704 (statistics, calculus).

More recently, I've discovered two fantastic youtube channels:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MathTV (he can teach math!)
http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy

For econometrics, i advise just going straightaway to the assigned Essentials of Econometrics by Gujarati.

If you learn well by hands-on, this book is unique in conveying basic econometrics with Excel examples:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521843197/?tag=bt077d-20

For calculus, I like http://www.amazon.com/dp/1592575129/?tag=bt077d-20
(although opinions vary, you have many choices for calculus)
... you don't need to know all of calculus (e.g., you can get away without knowing the trig calculus), most important is ability to take a first partial derivative.

David

thank you so much for your suggestions!

 

[Nicole Seaman]

thank you so much for your suggestions!

Hello @marinahess

You may also find this thread helpful, where we have compiled a list of different resources for refreshing math skills: https://forum.bionicturtle.com/threads/resources-for-refreshing-math-skills.8101/. You can also find some of these in our forum resources section here: https://forum.bionicturtle.com/resources/categories/math-introduction.7/. I hope this is helpful!

Nicole

 

[LisaCoy]

This is such a great thread and everyone has highlighted some amazing especially the collated one that @Nicole Seaman shared. I have benefitted from these as i was looking for math and especially calculus resources. But now that i am here and finding this useful, I would also like to share this concept explainer on z-scores that i found extremely helpful!