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What material should I refer to for FRM-I?
We would divide this into three categories: Must do, Should do and Can do.
Must do:
You should refer to Schweser material as well as FRM Handbook. In our opinion,
certain concepts have not been dealt with in required details in Schweser
Material. However Schweser material contains list of previous FRM questions,
which can give you an idea about how tricky FRM questions can get at times. You
should also refer to FRM Handbook by Jorion. However Jorions FRM Handbook is
Disclaimer
We, at FRM Buddy are not associated with Schweser or Bionic Turtle
or the author of the FRM Handbook or author/proprietor of any
other resource mentioned in this document. This document has
been developed using our judgment on how to go about FRM
preparation based on our experience of guiding hundreds of FRM-I
takers both in class and on webinars. Neither GARP nor Schweser
nor any other institution endorses these views nor have we sought
anybodys endorsement of the same.
About us
FRM Buddy is a Facebook page for guidance on FRM-I preparation.
We offer features such as Question of the day and answering
students queries. Visit us online on our Facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/FRMBuddy

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for both FRM-I and FRM-II combined so you will have to figure out what all topics
from that book are relevant for FRM-I.
Ideally you should also refer to book Options, Futures and Other Derivatives by
John C. Hull. That book is like Bible of derivatives and if you wish to learn enough
about derivatives required for FRM-I, this book you should definitely refer to.
Dont be overwhelmed by the size of the book. Not all chapters from the book are
relevant for FRM-I. You should refer to following chapters from the book for FRM-
I:
1. Introduction
2. Mechanics of futures markets
3. Hedging strategies using futures
4. Interest rates
5. Determination of forward and futures prices
6. Interest rate futures
7. Swaps
8. Mechanics of options markets
9. Properties of stock options
10. Trading strategies involving options
11. Binomial trees
12. Wiener process and Ito's Lemma (Don't go too much into detail in this
chapter. Only formula for Brownian motion is important from this chapter)
13. The Black-Scholes-Merton model
17. Greek Letters
20. Value at Risk

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21. Estimating volatilities and correlations
These chapters are from 7
th
edition of the book. If you are referring to any other
edition, the numbering of the chapters might change so you will have to figure
out the relevant chapters from the edition you are referring to.
Some students ask us: can I not refer to John C. Hulls book and study the
concepts of derivatives from only Schweser notes. We sincerely suggest students
not to do that. In addition to derivatives, John C. Hulls book also covers concepts
such as valuation of bonds, duration and convexity of bonds in a real nice way. At
times FRM questions can be really tricky. You will require a good grasp over the
concepts in order to answer such questions. If you refer to John C. Hulls book,
you will be better equipped to answer such tricky questions.
If Mathematics is not your strength
If Mathematics is not your strength or if you have not been in touch with
Mathematics for several years (which would typically be the case with working
professionals), you will need to brush up your concepts of basic Permutation and
Combination and Probability from high school or junior college Mathematics
textbooks.
Should Do
We would definitely suggest material of Bionic Turtle under Should do heading.
The webinars and videos offered by Bionic Turtle are really good. Their question
bank is also exhaustive. However several students have reported to us that the
material is too vast and they cannot spare enough time to go through the whole
material. Further, when student is just beginning the preparation for FRM, the

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very size of the material might appear a little overwhelming. Still if you can spare
time for Bionic Turtle material, we would definitely suggest that under Should do
heading.
Can Do
If you want to learn everything right from scratch, GARP core readings is the best
source to refer to. GARP core readings are the relevant chapters from the
different books suggested by GARP in FRM AIM statements. This is the source of
everything related to FRM. However the GARP core readings are really exhaustive
and run into several hundred pages. Typically students cannot spare enough time
for that. However if you can spare time and if you want to learn everything right
from the basics, GARP core readings is the best resource you can refer to.
How to prepare for FRM-I?
FRM exam is fairly tough and questions can be really tricky. You cannot get them
right unless you understand the concepts well. So make sure that you do not
unnecessarily rush through the syllabus. First internalize all the concepts and only
then move ahead. There is a section-wise cutoff so if you are falling short of time,
make sure that you do balanced preparation of all the sections.
FRM questions can be theoretical as well as numerical involving problem solving.
Preparation for both should go hand in hand. You will be able to reinforce the
concepts only if you solve numerical problems and you cannot solve numerical
problems unless you are familiar with the concepts.
Because derivation of any formula is not testable in the exam, several students
tend to mechanically memorize the different formulae in the syllabus. However,

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we would like to draw your attention to the fact that there are tens of different
formulae in the FRM-I syllabus. If you try to memorize everything, that is likely to
turn out to be more difficult than you could probably imagine. Further you might
think that you know the formula properly fixated in your mind when you are
preparing in the comforts of your home. However understand that pressures of
exam can confuse you in real time and forgetting the formulae in examination hall
memorized is very likely. Therefore our sincere suggestion is that you should not
mechanically memorize the formulae. As far as possible, you should try to
understand the exact logic for the formula and how the formula is derived.
Believe us that process is not as difficult as you might think it is. If you dont
understand the full derivation of a complicated formula such as Black-Scholes
Formula, we can understand that. Very few students that we have trained (if at
all) managed to understand the derivation of Black-Scholes Formula. However
that is not the case with most other formulae. Even if you cannot understand the
derivation of the formula completely, try to associate the formula with some
other formula so that you can remember it well. Typically you need to really
remember only at max five or six formulae and all other formulae in the syllabus
fall in place once you know those five or six formulae. We will post some hints on
how to remember those formulae and their derivation on our Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/FRMBuddy.