After high school graduation (1957), Fridman attempted to enter Moscow Physics and Technology Institute, but was failed on the oral math exam as often happened to Jewish applicants. He spent this year at Kyrgyzstan University in Frunze, then entered the Kazan University (1958) where he did undergraduate research with Prof. A. Petrov. In 1958, at the age of 18, Fridman passed the first exam, mathematics, in the series of Theoretical minimum, with Lev Landau.