CFA® Program Study Sessions

Study Session Outlines

The curriculum is organized into study sessions and each study session contains readings. There are learning outcome statements at the beginning of each reading.

Below you'll find current study session outlines by level. Each study session includes learning outcome statements (LOS) and source references for the readings.

For each level, you can also view the full curriculum readings for Study Session 1, and all study sessions combined.

2019 Level I Study Sessions

2019 Level I Study Sessions index
2019 Level I Study Sessions combined

Topic	Exam Weight	Sessions
Ethical and Professional Standards	15%	Study Session 1 Readings 1-5
Quantitative Methods	10%	Study Session 2 Study Session 3
Economics	10%	Study Session 4 Study Session 5
Financial Reporting and Analysis	15%	Study Session 6 Study Session 7 Study Session 8 Study Session 9
Corporate Finance	10%	Study Session 10 Study Session 11
Equity Investments	11%	Study Session 14 Study Session 15
Fixed Income	11%	Study Session 16 Study Session 17
Derivatives	6%	Study Session 18
Alternative Investments	6%	Study Session 19
Portfolio Management	6%	Study Session 12 Study Session 13

2020 Level I Study Sessions

2020 Level I Study Sessions combined

Topic	Exam Weight	Sessions
Ethical and Professional Standards	15%	Study Session 1 Readings 1-5
Quantitative Methods	10%	Study Session 2 Study Session 3
Economics	10%	Study Session 4 Study Session 5
Financial Reporting and Analysis	15%	Study Session 6 Study Session 7 Study Session 8 Study Session 9
Corporate Finance	10%	Study Session 10 Study Session 11
Equity Investments	11%	Study Session 12 Study Session 13
Fixed Income	11%	Study Session 14 Study Session 15
Derivatives	6%	Study Session 16
Alternative Investments	6%	Study Session 17
Portfolio Management	6%	Study Session 18 Study Session 19

2020 Level II Study Sessions

2020 Level II Study Sessions combined

Topic	Exam Weight	Sessions
Ethical and Professional Standards	10–15%	Study Session 1 Readings 1-3
Quantitative Methods	5–10%	Study Session 2 Study Session 3
Economics	5–10%	Study Session 4
Financial Reporting and Analysis	10–15%	Study Session 5 Study Session 6
Corporate Finance	5–10%	Study Session 7 Study Session 8
Equity Valuation	10–15%	Study Session 9 Study Session 10 Study Session 11
Fixed Income	10–15%	Study Session 12 Study Session 13
Derivatives	5–10%	Study Session 14
Alternative Investments	5–10%	Study Session 15
Portfolio Management	5–15%	Study Session 16 Study Session 17

2020 Level III Study Sessions

2020 Level III Study Sessions combined

Topic	Exam Weight	Sessions
Ethical and Professional Standards	10–15%	Study Session 1 Readings 1-3 Study Session 2
Economics	5–10%	Study Session 4
Equity Investments	10–15%	Study Session 9 Study Session 10
Fixed Income	15–20%	Study Session 7 Study Session 8
Derivatives	5–10%	Study Session 6
Alternative Investments	5–10%	Study Session 11
Portfolio Management	35–40%	Study Session 3 Study Session 5 Study Session 12 Study Session 13 Study Session 14 Study Session 15 Study Session 16