What the 2025 CFA Curriculum Updates Mean for You
The new 2025 CFA curriculum has been released for all three levels. This article will summarize all of the important changes to the curriculum and how it affects your preparation.
Updates to the Level I Curriculum
The 2025 CFA curriculum retained the numbering system from 2024, again using Learning Module (LM) numbers by topic area. The 2024 curriculum had transitioned to this LM structure, offering bite-sized lessons with enhanced visuals and practical content. This structure remains unchanged in 2025 for both the pre-readings and the level 1 readings.
A few small changes of note are in the Ethics readings. A new Standard I(E): Competence was added to the Standards. The Code and Standards Reading 2 underwent a rare update, with some edited language. However, this did not substantially change anything in terms of how to study the standards themselves. In Standard V(B): Communication with Clients and Prospective Clients, some edits were made to require disclosures about the nature of the services provided by members and candidates and the costs to the client associated with those services.
Thirdly, within Standard VI: Conflicts of Interest, the Board changed the name of
Standard VI(A) to “Standard VI(A): Avoid or Disclose Conflicts” and revised the standard to require members and candidates to either avoid conflicts of interest or disclose those conflicts.
Unfortunately, the same misleading formula linking the AM, HM, and GM returns is included in 1 QM 1 (top of page 16) as it was in the 2023 curriculum. This equation only holds for n=2, and not for larger sets. But it is presented as a general formula, which is incorrect. Even their own example following this equation shows it to be false, so this is not included in our study materials.
Updates to the Level II Curriculum
The 2025 CFA curriculum for Level 2 underwent a few significant changes, but only in specific, targeted areas.
Obviously, the Ethics edits noted for level 1 also applies to level 2.
In addition, reading 1 QM 4 "Extensions of Multiple Regression" had a Cook's distance formula that was never correct, and was edited in error over the course of a couple of years. This was finally removed from the reading altogether. However, one result of using Cook's Distance is an influence plot. They left in "influence plot" in a summary statement even though Cook's D was removed, so this should be ignored.
In reading 2 EC 1 "Currency Exchange Rates: Understanding Equilibrium Value," they made several corrections, but missed a minor error in the Exhibit 2 mislabeling, where the text refers to 1, 5, 10, and 15 years, where the exhibit actually claims to 1, 6, 12, an 24 years.
Reading 2 EC 3 "The Economics of Regulation" from last year's curriculum was deleted.
Reading 3 FSA 7 "Financial Statement Modeling" from last year's curriculum was deleted.
In reading 4 CI 3 "Cost of Capital: Advanced Topics" on p.149, #4, they use expanded CAPM but call it "extended CAPM." This should refer to GCAPM and ICAPM instead.
In reading 5 EV 6 "Private Company Valuation" I decided to leave in the Asset-Based Approach since it's mentioned 7 times in the curriculum, even though it's unclear whether it's still considered a main method by the authors.
Reading 8 AI 2 "Overview of Types of Real Estate Investment" was overhauled so completely, it is essentially a new reading. So, I wrote all of those lessons in recent months, treating it as such.
CFA Level III Updates
The 2025 level 3 CFA curriculum is where the major change took place. This includes:
Core and Specialized Pathways: The curriculum is now divided into a Core section (70% of the exam weight) and Specialized Pathways (30%).
Core Topics: All candidates study core topics such as Asset Allocation, Portfolio Construction, Performance Measurement, Derivatives and Risk Management, and Ethics.
Specialized Pathways: Candidates choose one of three pathways: Portfolio Management, Private Wealth, or Private Markets.
Essentially, last year's level 3 candidates were all on the Portfolio Management pathway. This is the standard, default path that defined this part of level 3 in prior years. The pathway separation now adds a lot of detailed information in the areas of private wealth and private markets for the candidates choosing to focus in those areas instead.
Reading 1 AA 4 "Principles of Asset Allocation" has a new Section 6 on "Adding Constraints..." for optimization approaches.
Reading 2 PC 4 "An Overview of Private Wealth Management" was overhauled, to pull out much of the detailed information needed for that pathway, writing this to be more generic to those not moving toward that field. However, this included a section "The Impact of Different Tax Rates, Sources of Return, and Inflation" that introduced an equation that multiplied a PV by two different 1+r factors simultaneously, leading to erroneous numbers. I tried to figure out a way that this could still be presented without the error, but I was unable to see any value. So this section was skipped entirely in our materials. My assumption is that this will be corrected in a future update.
Reading 2 PC 6 "Trading Costs and Electronic Markets" is listed as a new reading; it's actually a reading that was removed from level 2. So, if this material looks very familiar, that's why.
In the new Private Wealth pathway, the reading "Investment Planning," p.239 has "The Impact of Default on the Return of a Bond Index" box with errors; there appears to be a mix-up between 5 years, and 10 years there, then 110% needs to be 10%. Various smaller errors to be corrected there.
Other edits were rather minor; there was some reworking of text, corrections of past errata, and some minor reductions in readings. All updates are reflected in our 2025 materials with the aforementioned judgement calls made as best as I could, to ensure that our students are best prepared for this year's exams.
Summary
Candidates that have prepared using the 2024 curriculum will have a great head start in preparing for the 2025 exams, but all candidates would do well to explore our updated curriculum fully, with these changes in mind. As always, feel free to reach out to the Bloomberg Exam Prep team for any questions and help. Happy studying!
About the Author
Dr. Aaron Johnson is the Academic Director of CFA Programs at Bloomberg Exam Prep. He teaches courses in economics, finance, and mathematics at universities in the U.S. and Europe, at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Aaron earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics at the Walton College of Business, served as an MBA program director, and as a non-profit finance director. His research interests are focused in development economics, specifically micro-lending and poverty alleviation efforts, with working papers also in ODA and family economics.