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