Strategic Financial Management:-
i. Continuing with my first article “Cracking the CA Final code” – Group 1 Paper 1.
ii. Coming to my favourite subject, not to mention also very scoring.
iii. I believe one can easily do Self-Study for this subject provided one has started well in advance.
iv. Finish chapters in the following Priority:-
A. Dividend Decisions:
i. This is surely a confidence booster to start with.
ii. People like Gordon, Miller etc. might irritate you a bit but they could fetch you a good 8 marks (and even more if you are lucky) so make peace with them. Qns from SM/PM are more than sufficient.
iii. Make sure you understand the concept/assumptions behind each theory/formulae.
B. Mutual Funds:
i. Definitely it’s the next best thing to do.
ii. Again SM/PM should do well.
iii. An 8 marker again a possibility.
C. Mergers:
i. This is the easiest of the big chapters.
ii. Should not pose much of a problem.
iii. Can expect a minimum 10 marks from this chapter. (In Nov -12 around 40 marks had been asked)
D. Derivatives, Forex, Security analysis and Portfolio:
i. Start with Security analysis first.
ii. The other 3 chapters should be done in tandem as they have certain concepts which are inter-related.
iii. Portfolio is more of Formula based which may not allow you much application of the brain. However ICAI will never disappoint you on that part with the other 2 chapters.
iv. Considered the crux of the subject – Forex and Derivatives are the most important chapters (can expect 25-30 marks). These are very interesting topics too and if time permits make sure you go a bit deep to understand them (Refer other non-academic materials/YouTube etc).
v. Refer this video for Basic understanding on Forex - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLPk-EInY3s
Theory:
Generally ignored by many, I would strongly recommend doing this (Sure 16 marks) - Reason being one can never predict the difficulty level with which ICAI sets the Qn paper. So on a safer side (with the assumption that a student wants to get out of the vicious exam circle of May-Nov-May ASAP) it’s better to go through atleast the summary of each chapter given in the last few pages.
Chapters Imp for Theory:
Chapters – 1,5,8,9,10,11,13
Capital budgeting (CB) and Leasing:
i. The weightage of this topic has seen a drastic fall in the recent years.
ii. Nevertheless an 8-10 marker is expected.
iii. Give more importance to Risk analysis in CB.
iv. Leasing chapter tests your speed and accuracy more than knowledge.
v. So practice well.
vi. Also maintain a formulae book for quick revision.
All the very Best!!!
For any help, I am always there.
CAclubindia
