CFA Theory seems to change a lot year to year

Hi, I noticed that the CFA body of knowledge seems to change a lot year from year, at least a significant %, while economics/finance that you learn in class rarely changes in a decade. When you look at first, second, third editions of books in finance/economics, they are pretty much the same material. Same thing with my electrical engineering degree, even though the field changes a lot, the actually theory at the undergrad level hasn’t changed that much compared to when my dad did it thirty years ago. (He can answer most questions that I do for classes at the senior level). So, what do you think? Do you think the changes are merely cosmetic, or does it represent a fundamental shift in portfolio management theory year after year? And do they do it so that you have to put the new material year after year (as in you can’t use the 2005, 2006 books, u r forced to get the 2008 material…)

I have heard criticisms of the risk management in the CFA curriculum, although I have not been around enough to say what any concrete changes have been over the years. From what I can gather the underlying theory really hasn’t changed much. I don’t think the CFA institute changes the curriculum to drum up sales. I think recent changes have put more focus on corporate governance but those are the only changes I can think of.

The curriculum / material itself doesn’t change every year. Much of the material is based on theory that has been around for over 1/2 a century. The changes are to the candidate board of knowledge (what we are supposed to know for every level). This is based upon feedback from those working in the financial industry about what a CFA candidate should be learning. Also, topics are often shifted around from one level to another. One could say that maybe the CFAI did this to force candidates to repurchase the curriculum for repeating test-takers, but now that is a moot point since the curriculum is automatically included with your registration fees (whether or not anything has changed).

I remember the CFA material being much more practical than theorectical.

you mean the check points?