With the opening of registration for the 2023 CFA^® Program exams comes the release of the 2023 curriculum. Read on to see how the 2023 CFA Program curriculum reflects the knowledge and skills candidates need.

The CFA Program Continues Its Evolution

Extensive work through practice analysis and curriculum development has resulted in major revisions at Levels I and II for 2023. These changes, coupled with the updates made for the 2022 cycle, will better equip candidates with relevant knowledge and skills that reflect current investment practice. And by leveraging the experience the Learning Ecosystem (LES) platform can provide, changes for 2023 also keep learning technology and adult learners’ needs central.

Level I

The single biggest change in the curriculum in recent years comes in Level I Derivatives and Alternative Investments content. By revising the material to a learning module structure—designed with an “LES-first” mindset—we have aligned the content with learning best practice to meet candidates' needs.

Each module is designed to be completed in an evening of study, and formative assessments are included throughout. The modules incorporate more visuals, spreadsheets, and realistic content, plus expert demonstrations followed by opportunities for candidates to practice the skills.

New readings for Level I include

• “Introduction to Geopolitics,” a completely new module to reflect the new Candidate Body of Knowledge line. Structured as a learning module, it includes formative assessments within new content.
• “Corporate Structures and Ownership,” a new learning module that sets out organizational forms used throughout the curriculum. The reading emphasizes corporate structure but includes general partner and limited partner structures used in Alternative Investments.
• “Business Models” includes new content that sets out what a business model consists of and ties it to drivers in financial modeling. It also includes a section on alternative business models within an industry and risks associated with different business models.

Readings have also been revised and updated in the Corporate Issuers and Portfolio Management topic areas. Notably, the “Fintech in Investment Management” reading now includes new content on DeFi and blockchain.

Visit our website to see list of topics and readings and a key to changes for Level I.

Level II

Here are just a few highlights of what is changing at Level II for 2023:

• Multiple regression content has been divided into four learning modules and updated with investment-focused datasets. The material now includes information on evaluating outliers and influential observations as well as expanded content on logistic regression, an important foundation for neural network estimation.
• A “Financial Statement Modeling” reading that replaces “Industry and Company Analysis.” The reading introduces spreadsheets in the LES for financial modeling and includes additional content on behavioral biases in forecasting.
• “Cost of Capital: Advanced Topics” covers some of the content of the previous “Return Concepts” reading. With a focus on how to estimate required rates of return for equities and fixed income as well as how to construct the weighted average cost of capital (WACC), the reading explains top-down and bottom-up factors that affect the cost of capital.
• “Corporate Restructuring” focuses on all types of corporate restructuring and how to model them using expanded coverage of spreadsheet modeling. This reading replaces the previous “Mergers & Acquisitions” reading.
• Three integrated modules covering various topics in Real Estate, including investments through private vehicles and publicly traded securities. These replace and consolidate the material in the previous two real estate readings at this level.
• “Application of the Code and Standards” includes a new vignette to ensure coverage of all the Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct.

The readings dropped from Level II (and moved to Level I) follow:

• Introduction to Linear Regression
• Capital Structure
• Capital Budgeting
• Return Concepts (with some content moved to Level I, and remaining content moved to the new Cost of Capital: Advanced Topics reading).

We invite you to visit our website to see list of topics and readings and a key to changes for Level II.

Level III

Content at Level III will remain frozen from the 2022 curriculum to accommodate the shift in exam windows for 2023, which allowed us to support results release by moving grading sessions away from end-of-year holidays.

To find out more about the 2022 Level III curriculum, download our Guide to 2022 CFA Program Curriculum Changes.

Visit our website to see a list of topics and readings for Level III.