How to plan your FRM study: hours, topic weights and the last weeks
A study plan for the FRM® exam has to answer three questions: how many hours you really have, where they should go, and when you stop learning and start rehearsing. This guide gives a method you can apply to either part, with an example you can copy. For the shape of the exam itself, see how the FRM exam is structured.
Start from the hours you really have
Work backwards from your exam date. Count the weeks, subtract a week or two for the end rehearsal, and be honest about how many hours a week you can protect, not how many you hope for. Twelve weeks at ten hours a week is 120 hours. A plan you can keep beats an ambitious plan you abandon in week three. If the hours you have look too few for the part you are taking, that is worth knowing now, and it is a reason to move the exam date rather than to skip topics.
Split the hours by the topic weights
The topic weights are shares of the questions, so use them as the default split. For Part I (20, 20, 30 and 30 percent), 120 hours is 24 hours on Foundations of Risk Management, 24 on Quantitative Analysis, 36 on Financial Markets and Products and 36 on Valuation and Risk Models. For Part II (20, 20, 20, 15, 15 and 10 percent), 120 hours is 24 on each of Market Risk, Credit Risk and Operational Risk and Resilience, 18 on each of Liquidity and Treasury Risk and Risk Management and Investment Management, and 12 on Current Issues.
Then move hours to your weak spots
An even split by weight is only the starting point. Take a diagnostic or a first set of practice questions in every topic, and move hours from the topics where you already answer well to the ones where you keep losing marks. A topic you answer correctly nine times in ten needs a little maintenance. A topic you answer correctly four times in ten needs most of your attention, even when its weight is smaller.
Practise early, not at the end
Reading and watching feel productive and are easy to mistake for learning. The reliable test is answering questions without the notes. So:
- Answer practice questions as you finish each outcome, not after the whole topic.
- Read the explanation of every question you get wrong, and of the ones you guessed.
- Keep a list of what you get wrong, with the reason: a gap in knowledge, a formula slip, a misread question, or running out of time. The pattern tells you what to fix.
- Come back to wrong answers a few days later and again a few weeks later. Spaced review is what turns a fix into a memory.
Know the formulas cold
The quantitative parts of the exam are mostly applications of a modest set of formulas, and time spent working out which one to use is time you do not have. Make a card for each formula with what every symbol means and the conditions under which it holds, and go through the cards regularly, not just before the exam.
The last weeks: rehearse on the clock
Keep the final two weeks for rehearsal rather than new material. Sit half a paper, and then a full paper if you can, under the real time limit: 100 questions in four hours for Part I, or 80 in four hours for Part II. Afterwards, spend more time on the review than on the paper. Look at where the time went, which topics lost the marks, and whether the errors were knowledge or carelessness. Use what you learn to spend your last hours where they will count.
Common questions
How many weeks should I allow for an FRM part?
It depends on your background and on the hours you can protect each week, so plan from your own hours and your own diagnostic rather than from a fixed number of weeks.
Should I study the topics in the order of the syllabus?
You can, but the order matters less than the practice. Many candidates start with the topic whose ideas the others use, then take the heavier-weighted topics next.
How many practice questions should I do?
Enough that you have answered some from every outcome, and have reviewed every one you got wrong. Quality of review matters more than the raw count.
When should I sit a full mock exam?
Once you have covered most of the topics, and then again in the final two weeks, so that your last paper tells you what to fix with the time that is left.
Sources
- GARP, the FRM programme: what the exam is and its two parts.
The exam and the syllabus can change. Check GARP's current details before you book.