Symphonic Etudes was published four times. In the fourth edition, Clara and Brahms published five variations which were undiscovered before in Schumann’s autograph of twelve etudes. That is why there are many differences in the performance order of the pieces in this work. After observations made on each number, this thesis will focus on investigating the relationship between the original etudes and these added variations, in order to reach a rationale in combining the twelve etudes and five variations. Meanwhile, understanding Schumann’s musical language and characteristic becomes easier after such study. This paper is divided into three chapters: the first chapter explains the features in Schumann’s music as well as the Symphonic Etude’s background; the second chapter looks closely into the twelve etudes; the final chapter not only looks into the five variations but also investigates the correlation between these etudes and variations in the present choice of order.