FRM degree will come handy at some point of time.

may be when you are doing your work

some day accidentely requires some risk related concepts sort of things which may require
your knowledge gained during the frm program. You will definitely gain from the program if
not loose. i have seen people with enough work ex with the frm degree have made it to very
good positions. Even if it is not bearing the fruits right now then in future it definitely will
because many employers worldwide recognize its importance.
I know that its good to have frm then not having it if you want a career in finance. IN the end
hend you have gained if not loose anything.

Let me offer my 2 cents for these two exams. I completed CFA, FRM, CAIA, PRM, and
finishing CIPM. Too many silly letters but get it done while young right?
The scope of CFA is much larger as everyone attests to. The other challenge that people often
forget to denote is that CFA is three separate exams. I don't mean it like CFA is 3 levels and
FRM is two levels, so therefore CFA > FRM in difficulty.
Each exam requires different strategies and study methods. CFA Level 1 is fairly straight
forward when it comes to studying.
CFA Level 2 goes out of its way with its vignettes to "storybook" the clues. You have to
practice reading quickly and to not panic! Just reread the last sentence! It almost sounds
ridiculous just reading it but I think many candidates who did Level 2 would probably agree.
CFA Level 2 goes out of its way to test you on the strength of your understanding of the
material. While I'm sure there are going to be Type 1 errors (those who passed who shouldn't
have), I would surmise that the vast majority did so because they studied pretty darn hard.
The exam is written in such a way that you can easily confuse one fake clue and miss the real
clues for your answer.
Then, you have Level 3, which has an "essay/short answer response" part that makes the
exam unnecessarily difficult because for myself, I ran into huge time constraints. I never
write anything with my hand anymore. Absolutely never. Everything I do is typed so forcing
me to write for three hours is an exercise of extreme difficulty. Now, add it together with our
usual reliance on spell check / grammar check to make sure what you write is even semi
coherent, CFA L3 presents an exam where half of it will be very challenging for many. Now,
imagine how it will be for folks who do not have English as their first language. Writing for
many is very intimidating. I imagine the vast majority of folks do not write in their day-today jobs outside of email correspondences. Writing coherent thoughts in a time pressured
environment is very challenging.
FRM's curriculum is tough. 1/2 to 3/4 of the actual textbook is jargon that I can hardly
understand. I can do the computations and evaluate the results but to truly understand it is
beyond me. However, I was genuinely interested in the material. This is similar to how I felt
during the quant sections of the CFA. But imagine almost the entire exam on that topic.
While you might be able to get the question correct, I doubt many really understand the
relationships between MSR/MSE/etc and how they apply in real life. We just interpret and

move on. However, I notice that much of the exam questions can be simplified using
framework that David Harper (of Bionic Turtle) approaches them. Just think big picture and
a guesstimate will usually get you close for most questions that you might have doubts about.
The rest should be simple plug and play.
I didn't find a material difference in studying for P1 and P2 for FRM. I just found P2 to be
slightly repetitive of P1 curriculum and significantly less organized. For the most part, it was
interesting though. I think this is simply a function of maturity. P2 is less than 3 years old the first time it was offered was in May 2010.
I like the calibre of the FRM curriculum. Very fascinating reads. I just wish it is more mature.
I guess just like CFAI, it takes many years. CFAI's current curriculum is extremely well
written.
In terms of what's tougher...I guess I would put CFA L2 > CFA L3 > FRM P1 > FRM P2 >
CFA L1. But that is dependent on person. I did FRM after CFA L2 so perhaps that influenced
how difficult I found it.