0:07 I'm starting a fresh series on advanced
0:09 financial management
0:12 and as you know my style is to always
0:16 start with the end goal in mind. So I'm
0:18 starting with this introduction to give
0:21 you an overview of what the exam will
0:26 look like and we'll look at the overall syllabus.
0:27 syllabus.
0:32 What you need to learn and what is the
0:36 best approach to haste this paper
0:38 very easily.
0:40 As you know advanced financial
0:43 management paper AFM is just the
0:45 advanced version of financial
0:48 management. So definitely your knowledge
0:51 of financial management paper will come
0:54 very early here and uh I will tell you
0:57 if you need to do some revisions
1:00 you will also see it as I advance in
1:02 this series. Yeah, I'm planning to
1:05 complete this syllabus before people
1:09 writing December exams this year 2025
1:12 and um I believe if you follow this
1:16 series closely, you will be quite
1:19 comfortable to pass your exams. Yeah.
1:22 And where I'm going to start from is the
1:25 exam itself. So let's look at the exam
1:30 structure. Remember this paper is always
1:33 written on the first Friday of December.
1:36 So take for instance for this 2025 the
1:40 exam date will be 5th of December. Yeah 2025
1:42 2025
1:45 that is your end goal. Yeah,
1:48 remember that I always say to you
1:51 whatever you want to do on 5th of
1:53 December whether you want to pass or you
1:56 want to fail that journey starts now.
1:59 You don't pass on 5th of December or
2:01 fail on 5th of December. Every day you
2:04 study, every day you practice from now
2:06 on, you are moving closing to pass
2:09 closer to passing or closer to failing
2:12 if you don't study. Right? This day is
2:14 just the day to manifest everything
2:19 you've been doing. So I advise you as
2:21 you've started listening to this video,
2:22 start practicing and you start studying
2:25 for your exams. Don't wait.
2:27 So the duration of the exam is usually
2:30 going to be 3 hours paper and this 3
2:32 hours paper will be tested in two sections.
2:34 sections.
2:45 Section A is just one question.
2:48 However, this is an almighty question
2:51 because it's actually going to be
2:59 and this 50 marks
3:04 is actually divided into 40 that will be
3:07 based on your technical knowledge. So 40
3:10 will be technical marks
3:13 just testing the knowledge of the syllabus.
3:16 syllabus.
3:20 However, there will be 10 marks that
3:22 will be awarded based on your
3:29 Yeah. And professional skills is just
3:32 about how you're writing, not what
3:35 you're writing. Technical marks is about
3:38 what you're writing.
3:41 But professional marks is about how are
3:47 You can come from any part of the syllabus.
3:49 syllabus.
3:52 So you can't cherry pick to study.
3:54 Any part of the syllabus can be tested here.
3:57 here.
4:01 Please take note. Yeah. And it's also
4:03 good I mention to you that this question
4:06 one will always be required in a
4:13 The question will tell you the way they
4:15 want you to answer your question. For
4:17 example, the question might say you
4:22 should prepare a report to shareholders
4:24 or it might say prepare report to
4:28 director. Yeah. So if they ask you to do
4:30 that, you must make sure that your
4:35 answer follows that format that's been required.
4:36 required.
4:39 So that is section A of the exam.
4:42 Section B of the exam will be two questions
4:48 and each question
4:53 will be 25 marks each.
4:56 Yeah. Likewise, the same way you have
4:59 for section A here, section B questions
5:02 will also be divided into 20 technical
5:06 marks each and five professional marks.
5:08 So this is technical and this is
5:11 professional mark
5:14 and that can also be tested from any
5:17 part of the syllabus. So variably what
5:19 you seen here is that you need to learn
5:21 the whole syllabus
5:26 because you can't cherry pick. Yeah.
5:28 So in total what we are saying now is
5:32 that this exams is actually divided into 80%
5:34 80%
5:38 of technical marks and 20% of
5:40 professional marks.
5:44 So you your knowledge about the content
5:46 of the syllabus can only earn you
5:49 maximum of 80 marks. So this is about
5:53 what you know but how you present it can
5:57 earn you another 20%. So you cannot joke
6:01 with professional marks. Yeah
6:04 that is the exam structure.
6:06 Now let's look at the syllabus itself quickly.
6:26 And these seven sections
6:31 is divided into five sections.
6:34 Those are the technical content that you
6:36 have to learn.
6:38 There are two sections that is just
6:40 about the professional skills that you
6:42 need to
6:46 know how to apply and the employability
6:49 which is about the way you use computer
6:53 open spreadsheets and attachment. Yeah,
6:55 which you've been practicing all along
6:57 when you've been writing your papers.
6:59 So, but the most important part of this
7:02 is your professional skills because this
7:05 professional skills will earn you 20% of
7:12 Remember, it's not just about what you say.
7:14 say.
7:17 This is about how you say it, your presentation,
7:18 presentation,
7:21 your structure,
7:23 your argument, skepticism, communication,
7:25 communication,
7:28 all of that is being tested. So however
7:31 for this series what I'm going to be
7:34 teaching you mostly will be the
7:36 technical part of the syllabus. I will
7:38 find a section to talk about the
7:40 professional content the professional
7:43 skills. Yeah. But it's extremely
7:45 important we finish this technical area
7:48 first. So that will be my focus in this
7:51 series. So let's look at the syllabus
7:54 and we'll summarize it quickly just the
7:56 way we'll always do it. It's good to
7:59 have a broad view of everything but
8:02 later we'll start going into details bit
8:08 by bit. So the whole syllabus of AFN is
8:12 actually looking at students knowing the
8:24 So in this paper you cannot see yourself
8:28 as a finance manager
8:32 but rather you should be seeing yourself
8:36 as a senior financial executive or even
8:38 as a consultant
8:41 advising client you know providing
8:44 solutions to problems. Don't please
8:46 don't see yourself as a student.
8:48 Position your mindset like you're coming
8:50 to solve a problem.
8:54 Yeah, just like consultants would do.
8:55 And what are these rows that we are
8:58 looking at? We'll be looking at rows
9:20 We'll look at investment appraisal. You
9:25 can see we've done this before in FM. However,
9:32 this will be in advanced form. Yeah. So,
9:34 here we're not going to be using the
9:36 same method fully, but we'll be looking
9:43 in investment appraisal. So this is a
9:46 build on on what you know
9:48 when we looked at
9:52 financial management. Likewise
9:54 Likewise
9:57 this is section B of your syllabus.
10:01 Then we look at acquisition
10:04 and merger.
10:06 Yeah. which is not too different from
10:08 investment decision but slightly
10:11 specific to how you acquire a business
10:14 or merge to a business
10:17 and that will be some detailed um uh
10:19 examination there. So we will go into
10:21 more details of investment in that place
10:25 and you'll see that this is just like
10:30 alternative method of investment.
10:32 After that
10:36 we move into corporate restructuring
10:44 corporate restructuring or
10:47 or
10:49 and reorganization.
10:53 So this part is section D and
10:57 here what you learn under financing
10:59 business finance
11:03 under FM will come handy here as well.
11:05 So you see investment appraisal method
11:07 you will leverage here. Here you will
11:10 leverage financing here.
11:12 Very important
11:16 that's section D. And section E is your
11:24 Risk management that is section E. Yeah.
11:26 This is where we'll be looking so much
11:29 into derivatives.
11:31 And I will tell you argue this is
11:33 probably the most difficult part of the
11:35 syllabus. The risk management.
11:38 Yeah, remember you've looked for money,
11:41 you've done investment, you need to
11:43 manage your risk to make sure that
11:44 you're able to get the best from your
11:48 investment because your plan would not
11:52 always be your result, but you want to
11:54 minimize bad surprises as much as
11:55 possible. So you're going to learn how
11:59 to use derivatives to manage your risk.
12:05 And um it's good I tell you that though
12:09 the five sections might not be tested in
12:12 a year or in a particular exams but
12:16 there are two sections that 100%
12:19 will always be tested and that is your
12:24 section B and your section E. So in as
12:26 much as you think risk management is
12:28 difficult, it's not a part of your
12:32 syllabus that you can leave aside,
12:34 it's not possible to pass this paper
12:36 without scoring some points on risk
12:38 management. But what I'll promise you
12:40 for sure is that I will make it very
12:43 very easy for you. Trust me. Yeah. So
12:44 it's nothing for you to be worried
12:46 about. I know a lot of students struggle
12:49 a lot with this part. So promise I'm
12:52 going to do justice to that for you.
12:56 Right? So section B, section E will
13:00 always be tested in your exams. However,
13:02 that will not stop you from learning all
13:05 the part of the syllabus. Yeah. Okay. So
13:09 that's it with the overall summary of
13:10 the syllabus.
13:12 We're going to go into details of the
13:14 syllabus in my subsequent videos. But
13:16 before I go, I'll give you tips quickly
13:20 for this paper. Yeah, like I always do,
13:23 please follow this and your life will be
13:25 much easier. The first thing is you have
13:28 to have a study plan. It's not negotiable.
13:29 negotiable.
13:31 You need to plan how you want to cover
13:33 the syllabus when you want to finish it.
13:35 If you're writing December exams, you
13:38 have to finish this syllabus by October
13:40 ending. Yeah. So that you use November
13:44 for revision. Yeah. So by November, you
13:48 should be doing revision. Just revision.
13:51 And what does that mean? It means you're
13:54 just solving questions and you're only
13:56 going back to
13:58 difficult areas that you struggle with.
14:00 And once you are when you are doing your
14:02 study, please know that you have to
14:04 practice questions because that is when
14:07 you learn a lot about your professional
14:09 marks. Yeah. Don't soft questions on top
14:11 of your head. Don't solve questions on
14:14 rough paper or rough sheet. Get your
14:18 Excel and type your responses. read it,
14:20 learn how to structure your responses,
14:21 write a report and all of that. So,
14:24 please practice is extremely important.
14:27 Yeah. And once you are practicing, be
14:30 conscious to apply your professional
14:33 skills, right? And likewise, you have to read
14:34 read
14:37 examiners report what the examiners are
14:40 saying. Likewise, tech those technical
14:43 articles and news.
14:45 Yeah. That shows you what is going on in
14:46 the reality because that is what this
14:49 exam is trying to test. So listen to
14:50 what examiners are saying about why
14:52 people are failing, mistakes people are
14:54 making about some past questions in
14:57 exams. It will also help you. Maybe when
14:59 you are tired studying, you can relax in
15:02 bed and just read those articles and
15:05 those off. Right? And finally, like I
15:10 said earlier, please see yourself
15:14 as a consultant.
15:17 That will really help your mindset.
15:19 Yeah. Not as a student. Don't see
15:22 yourself like you're a student.
15:24 Look at yourself like you are solving
15:26 problem as a consultant. You're advising
15:29 a client on a problem. Yeah. So what it
15:31 means that you're going to be applying
15:33 what you know. So this paper is about
15:35 application of knowledge.
15:39 Yeah. and not you just regurgitating
15:40 regurgitating
15:43 what you know what you have memorized no
15:45 that you're not going to pass like that
15:47 you always have to apply your knowledge
15:50 so which means you don't memorize but
15:52 you have to understand and that is what
15:55 we'll be doing for the next two to 3
15:59 months okay so that will be the overall
16:02 summary next videos will be focusing on
16:04 the syllabus and we'll start with
