The Awesome Study Guide, Tips & Tricks To Make You A Financial Management (FM) Guru!

The BOMB of year 2013-14, FM is back again!

Usually I follow the routine of introducing my subject first, but this subject cannot be introduced in a better way than this, because if you are appearing for your T.Y.BMS exams post the 2012-13 batch or even a few batches after them you will know what a huge uproar was caused during the FM exams and if you didn’t then it’s my job to fill you in while we discuss this subject in detail.

Financial Management is a subject of the 5th Semester when students give their University exams for the first time and are already scared stiff while appearing for the papers as they have been scared by teachers, college staff, coaching classes, seniors and of course the burden from home is just way too unbearable. Along with all of this the University also adds up to your fears by launching one missile question paper every year for Sem 5 which we popularly call as the Bomb Subject.

You must be well aware of this concept as it has been happening since a long time. The bomb subject is simply that one subject where you have a really difficult paper set which beats all the very easy papers that you will come across in the semester. In the case of the FM paper of year 2013-14 it was the most difficult paper in a record of 12 years and had questions that were of C.A exam level, so you get the mass KT numbers that were churned out that year for this subject!

Students protested at the University, the University promised certain things, then they didn’t do what they had said, they did something totally different and eventually a lot of students passed with grace marks and yet spent the money and efforts for KT plus revaluation so it was really messed up.

This year though after that fiasco we assume that FM will be clean and they will not repeat the nuclear warfare twice on the same area, but then we can’t trust anyone where exams are concerned so let’s prepare for the worst, because when you get a KT in your university exams, it really breaks you apart and going through that kind of hurt is really not something we want you to go through.

What is Financial Management and Why should I study it?

Financial management is not accountancy, yes it is related and for a non accounts person it’s all the same but we have done accountancy in all its three forms plus taxation in the past so BMSites you better know the difference. Financial Management is practiced by business owners and top level financial experts in the company to help maximize gains and reduce losses. Now this sounds a lot like accounts but No, this is different; it examines and evaluates the cash aspects, the credit aspects and deals with all the aspects of managing funds and capital in a company.

We need to study it as we are students of business studies and like it or not but the knowledge of such aspects are very crucial for you to be able to start a business of your own or take up a job as a business manager post your education. It’s important because of the kind of syllabus it covers and the approach it teaches you while you analyze your funds and capital.

Is it Difficult?

No the level of difficulty of the sums is moderate and if you stop fearing and start practicing it there will be no problems in this subject. You need to be aware of what you can go through, if you take this subject lightly, which is why I was transparent in my introduction about the problems this subject brings with it but by doing so I didn’t mean to scare you. You need to put in efforts is the simple message I am trying to convey here and it will be a big help if you take it in the right spirit.

Is FM Boring?

No not at all, it is quite interesting. If you hate practical subjects then start solving FM sums from the easy chapters you will start liking it a lot. I myself was a pure theory person and found it really difficult to cope up with the pressures of practical subjects. The only way I started understanding and liking the subject was when I stopped running away from it and focused on learning it the right way.

As soon as that happened, I myself was marveled at how I enjoyed studying this subject and passed in the first attempt without any KT with a decent score too!

Do I need to join a Coaching Class for this subject?

Yes, you surely do and the earlier you do it, it will be better for you!

What is the Syllabus for this subject?

1.  Introduction To Financial Management
2. Estimation of Working Capital
3. Receivable Management
4. Cash Management
5. Cost of Capital
6. Capital Structure
7. Leverage
8. Capital Budgeting
9. Sources Of Short Term & Long Term Finance
10. Estimation of Working Capital
11. Business Restructuring

For detailed syllabus you can click HERE!

How Do I study this subject to score Good Marks?

“Practicing hard is the only way you can score good marks in a subject like Financial Management” says Hardik Thakkar Sir, proprietor of Thakkar tutorials. “No subject is a complete practical theory in the last year, these are all hybrid subjects and you can’t possibly ignore the theory for the sums” adds Nimesh Shah, topper from Kapol College.

“Whatever chapters you solve make sure you do them completely, 7 complete chapters are more valuable than 11 incomplete chapters”, says Professor Thakkar.

The 5 Golden Rules of scoring good marks in FM as per Professor Thakkar are as follows:

1. Do not ignore theory, do the theory well before you start the sums so that you know what the sums are all about.
2. FM needs a lot of practice, devote 2 hours everyday to practicing FM sums.
3. Students usually make mistakes in exams when they forget the formats of different type of sums, which is why practice is very important.
4. You need to solve a lot of test papers because students solve questions easily which are worded in the same fashion as their textbooks but go blank if there is a slight change in the question pattern. Try solving University question papers as they are very helpful.
5. Avoid silly mistakes and calculation mistakes, as one mistake in the start and your entire effort is wasted.

We asked Nimesh to tell us how did he study for his exam and method was a lot like the 5 important pointers given out by Professor Thakkar.

“I was always fond of practical subjects and I would have loved a chapter full of nothing but sums, but no such luck I did have to deal with some amount of theory in FM. My method was to read up a chapter before I start and then bifurcate the sums as per their types.

Once I was done doing that I would practice 2-3 sums of every type thoroughly and then go about to the other types so that I knew I was covering my entire syllabus in time.  I followed this routine and completed my entire syllabus and then started upon the remaining sums from the textbook which had been left out.

It wasn’t that difficult as I had already done 3 sums earlier of that type. Once all the sums were covered up, I started solving university question papers and my college question papers.

The thing that helped me the most was creation of formula sheets for all chapters, it truly makes a difference if you simply revise these formulas once a day, it will take barely 10-15 mins of our day’s time but the results will be very encouraging.”

Following Nimesh’s Routine will be very helpful, add these few pointers to that and you are good to go:

1. Be confident.

2. Focus on learning your formula’s and formats well.

3. Practice sums from two different textbooks or reference sources as they have different question types.

4. Solving university papers are a must.

5. You need to practice so much that once you are done, you open any page from any chapter and solve the sum without thinking twice.

You find the Reference notes for FM here:

 FM refrence notes- BMS.co.in

FM Melodrama and what we learnt from it all!

I have this brilliant friend who studies in a Kandivli college very strict for its attendance and when he pinged me the night of the result (yea, the results were declared at night at a weird time around 10 pm, but that’s nothing new) with all those tensed whatsapp smileys I was  quite taken aback.

Here I was going around the house with a little crazy dance routine singing I am a half graduate, yay! to everyone for the millionth time in person, via conf-calls, Facebook status update, whatsapp status updates and those maniacal chats.

I was so expecting to read SUCCESSFUL on his chat that I had my copy-pasted ‘congrats’ followed by a string of dancing smileys pasted, which for some reason I luckily did not send! UNSUCCESSFUL, he sent and then it all began.

I called my bestie of 3 years and my half-sister for all practical purposes and she was crying, I pinged on the various BMS student whatsapp groups I was on because of my BMS internship and there was a series of people crying and upset and at different levels of shock. All of us realized that what we had feared came true the FM BOMB had given out far too many casualties then we could manage. 

Hopes were shattered and the passing ratio was pathetic, in my class only 6 of us had passed and believe those 15 days while we got the marks in hand were like living hell for those who had passed. The others literally hated us and made sure we realized every bit of it wherever we went.

The brilliant friend of mine I just mentioned a few para’s above he and a group of his friends went to the University for one month straight everyday talking to everyone they were permitted to and literally tried out all the tricks they could think up of but there was no positive response, after a long time of yes and no’s eventually University declared that everyone with 14 and above had passed owing to certain technical regulations. 

Now my bestie or the brilliant friend had managed 13 and 11 respectively so it was doom’s day for a few marks all over again. They had put their papers for revaluation and plus attempted the KT exam. The fun part was that both of them passed in the revaluation itself scoring much more than what I had scored!

So a month and a half of humiliation and depression, a lot of money and time down the drain and the a simple pass in the revaluation! basically all’s well that end’s well but we did learn a lot many useful lessons from this entire story that all of us must keep in mind:

1. The University has never prescribed any fixed textbooks or stated the level of difficulty they may set the paper with so they are justified in whatever they do, sounds really harsh and feels painful too but this is the reality we all must logically accept.

2. Depression and humiliation has prompted many students to take many bizzare and illogical decisions, even if you are faced with a situation like this do not make any life changing decisions on the spot, have patience you never know it might just be an admin-error in counting the marks.

3. It’s just an exam and it does impact me, but very little on the grades front. In my case my skills got me my job I had not even given my Sem 6, but usually these grades determine post-grade admission criteria or your first job criteria, that’s all no one is going to remember them post that, not even you!

4. What will matter is what you studied and how you studied it, because the knowledge of FM helps you in your career, helps you to start your own business and know how to analyze your profits or losses and helped me write these blog posts as a part of my job to help you BMSites. My marks didn’t matter what I had learnt and how I applied it did!

5. Life is not always going to turn out the way you planned it especially in the case of the University and the papers it sets, so work hard but don’t make it a matter of life and death, there are way bigger things to be achieved in life!