Knowledge Varsity Blog

ONLINE - CFA Information Session FREE

2011-12-06T08:34:00.000+05:30

This session will help you familiarize with the CFA Program.
To register - Click here

Agenda
- Understand the structure of the CFA
- What are the weight-ages of different topics in different levels
- How CFA Institute decides on the passing score
- How much effort is required to pass the examination
- How to study for the CFA Program
- Which topics you should focus to get the maximum advantage
- How the CFA course will benefit you
- Career Prospects after completion of CFA
Registration Link - https://student.gototraining.com/rt/3185742921228004608

We have schedule the information session on the following 3 days
1. Thursday, 15th December
2. Thursday, 22nd December
3. Thursday, 29th December

You can register for the session as per your convenient timing. Seats are limited.

To register - Click here

CFA Level 1 Coaching For December 2011

2011-07-31T00:37:00.002+05:30

CFA Level 1 Coaching For December 2011 -

CFA Level 1 Examination Quantitative Study Session 2 Free Concept Lecture Notes

2011-07-31T00:34:00.002+05:30

CFA Level 1 Examination Quantitative Study Session 2 Free Concept Lecture Notes

New Scholarship Scheme For CFA Re-takers

2011-07-28T12:52:00.003+05:30

Knowledge Varsity is proud to announce scholarship scheme to the candidates who are planning to re-attempt the CFA Level 1 Examination in December.
The scholarship details are below:-

Candidates are eligible for UPTO 25% SCHOLARSHIP
You need to Submit Your CFA Level 1 Examination Result
Based on your performance in the last exam, Knowledge Varsity will provide scholarship
There is NO Requirement that you should have gone through a training provide to avail the scholarship

For more information on Scholarship, please email to cfa@knowledgevarsity.com or call 94487-06666 or 98863-16649.

2011-07-26T18:42:00.002+05:30

CFA Institute has declared the CFA Level 1 and Level 2 results for the June Exam.
Level 1 pass rate is 39%.
Level 2 pass rate is 43%.

Knowledge Varsity
www.knowledgevarsity.com

CFA Institute has declared India as centre

2011-01-27T12:09:00.000+05:30

CFA Institute has got the permission from Honourable Delhi High Court to conduct examination in India for the June Examination.
CFA Institute has declared the following cities as centre for the examination

Bangalore
Chennai
Kolkata
Mumbai
New Delhi

Candidates who had registered earlier can change the centre to any of the above.
For list of complete centres please visit
http://www.cfainstitute.org/cfaprogram/process/Documents/june_test_centers.pdf

Knowledge Varsity
www.knowledgevarsity.com

CFA Level 1 result is declared

2011-01-25T19:03:00.000+05:30

CFA Institute has declared the CFA Level 1 result for December Exam.
The pass rate is 36%.

Knowledge Varsity
www.knowledgevarsity.com

CFA Level 1 Early Registration Deadline

2010-03-17T17:35:00.000+05:30

17th March is early registration deadline for the June exam.
The cost of the Level 1 will be $1020.
After this date the cost of registration will be $1110 till 24th August.
For more information please visit http://www.cfainstitute.org/cfaprog/register/fees.html

Knowledge Varsity

CFA Level 2 Coaching in Bangalore

2010-02-04T23:48:00.002+05:30

Knowledge Varsity has launched CFA Level 2 classes in Bangalore.
For more details, please refer the brochure below

CFA Level 2 Coaching Bangalore -

CFA Institute allows registration for India center

2010-02-01T23:13:00.000+05:30

CFA Institute has updated that students can register now with India as center as they have received provisional permission from honourable Delhi High Court.
Candidates who had earlier registered for abroad can change the center to India.

For full details please check the link
http://www.cfainstitute.org/aboutus/worldwide/asiapac/india.html

Thanks
Knowledge Varsity

FRM Level 1 Coaching in Bangalore - Money Back Guarantee

2010-01-08T14:16:00.002+05:30

Knowledge varsity has launched FRM Level 1 coaching in Bangalore which comes with money back guarantee, please see the attached brochure, this an also be downloaded from

http://knowledgevarsity.com/brochure/FRM_L1_Training_Program_May_2010.pdf

FRM Level 1 Coaching in Bangalore -

CFA Coaching in Bangalore - Free demo class on 3rd January, 2010

2009-12-11T18:56:00.001+05:30

CFA Coaching in Bangalore -

CFA Coaching in Mumbai - Classes starting from 6th February

2009-12-11T18:53:00.001+05:30

CFA Coaching in Mumbai -

Exam Day Tips for CFA Exam

2009-12-03T02:58:00.006+05:30

1. Do not aim to score 100% in the exam. Passing marks may range from 65% to 70%. An aggreagate score above 70% is the requirement. There is no sectional cut-off or individual paper cutoff.

2. Have a good sleep before the exam day, a few hours of study the day before the exam day may do more harm than good. Take a heavy breakfast as it will provide the fuel for your brain.

3. You might find one exam to be difficult and one exam to be easier, which exam is easier or difficult depends on preparation level of indvidual. You may find mornign exam tougher than the afternoon exam, whereas your friend might have the opposite feeling. Do not get disheartened if the morning exam doesnot go well, keep your focus and crack the afternoon exam. On the other hand if your morning exam has gone well, keep up the tempo and do well in the afternoon exam.

4. Remember to fill in the bubbles after 5 or 10 questions. Alternately you can fill the bubble after each section (though it is not advisable for bigger sections like FRA). Filling the bubbles periodically will reduce the chances of filling in the bubbles for the questions you have missed or wrongly filling it. Remember that mistake in filling bubble has cascading effect. One of my friend who was a brilliant chap, got poor rank in IIT JEE (though he was better student than me) because in rush he filled in one of the bubble mistakenly and it got repeated in all the subsequent questions.

5. Do not write anything after the procter announces time over, this is against institute's code of ethics and also it is unfair to other candidates. And this is being taken seriously, you may be barred from taking examination for certain number of years or may be expelled for life.

6. Keep track of time, you have 1.5 minutes for each question, please make sure that you do not spend more than 3 minute in any question, if a question is taking that much time, most probably you have not understood what is being asked, leave it that time and revisit it once you have attempted all the questions.

7. Keep marking the skipped questions on the answer sheet or question paper so that you know which questions to visit later. Also at the end make sure that you fill all the bubbles by making intelligent and random guesses. Please do not leave any question unanswered. If you are guessing, do not guess 2nd time, go with the first guess, if you are lucky you will score.

8. Most of the questions are designed to test your concepts and not your calculator usage skills, hence the numbers are fed up such a way that many of them cancels off. So you will not find many calculation intensive problems in the exam.

9. Please make sure that you understand the problem statement, pay attention to what you are being asked to find. In the mock exams conducted by Knowledge Varsity, we found that students chose the correct statements when they were asked to find the least likely correct. When solving questions involving most likely correct/incorrect, least likely correct/incorrect, first underline this phrase. Next step is to look in for the correct and wrong statements, then choose the option which is required in the question.

10. Make sure that you read all the ethics questions carefully, a good score in ethics can really make the result in your favour. CFA Institute's questions are un-ambiguous so do not try to break your head by evaluatiing what all situatuoions are possible. The best way is to read the questions carefully and then fo through the answer options. The questions in the exam are not big and you have enough time to attempt all the questions, but the questions are tricky and it will make sense to go throug the handbook one day before the exam.

11. Last, do not discuss the morning examination questions with your friends during the break. During discussion it might happen that you marked an answer incorrectly and the moment you realise this, you will not be able tto focus on your lunch or for the next exam and it is sure to hamper your performance in the afternoon exam. This advice was given to me by my IIT JEE coach (Mr K. K. Mishra) and i abide by it till now.

CFA Mock Test Series

2009-11-03T01:45:00.003+05:30

CFA Test Series -

CFA Level 1 Coaching in Bangalore from 9th August 2009

2009-08-04T17:46:00.003+05:30

We are launching second batch for CFA Level 1 coaching from August 9th, 2009. Please see the brochure for more information.

To register for the class email ratan@knowledgevarsity.com or call 9886316649

CFA Level 1 Coaching in Bangalore -

Free Demo Class for CFA Coaching in Mumbai

2009-07-20T18:34:00.002+05:30

We are launching free demo class on August 1st and August 2nd for CFA Level1 coaching classes in Mumbai. Please see the brochure for more information.

To register for the free demo class email priyanka@knowledgevarsity.com or call 9833610726

CFA Level 1 Coaching Mumbai -

CFA Level 1 Coaching in Mumbai

2009-07-20T18:04:00.003+05:30

Knowledge Varsity is proud to launch CFA Level 1 coaching in Mumbai.

The instructor, Ms. Priyanka Baxi has passed her CFA Level 1 and has appeared for CFA Level 2 examination for which results are awaited. She will be assisted by Ratan Gupta, who has passed all the 3 levels of the CFA examination.

The coaching program will be a unique opportunity for candidates to interact and get the best out of the course and also crack the exam. We will assist the candidates in the form of class notes, class problems, homework problems and online and offline module tests.

We will ensure that the candidates are adequately prepared for the exam by having numrous interactive sessions in November.

Please reach out to priyanka@knowledgevarsity.com for more details.

KV Team

CFA Level 1 December Exam will be held in India

2009-07-20T17:56:00.004+05:30

As per update from CFA Institute, Delhi high court has allowed CFA Level 1 exam to be held in India.
In a week's time, CFA Institute will come up with the test centres.
We believe that Mumbai will defintely a test centre, but along with it, there are high chances of New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore to be centres.

This comes as a relief to the candidates who were planning to take the examination outside India.

Please see the release from CFA Institute
http://www.cfainstitute.org/aboutus/worldwide/asiapac/india.html

Industry Interaction Workshop

2009-07-17T11:32:00.001+05:30

Industry Interaction Workshop -

CFA Level 1 Coaching Bangalore

2009-07-07T07:32:00.004+05:30

We had a good response to our free demo class on 5th July.
The coaching classes are starting from 12th July. Candidates can avail special discount offers till 10th July. Contact 9886316649 for more details.
The structure and fee of the program can be viewed at
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/8156549/CFA-Level-1-Coaching-by-Knowledge-Varsity

CFA Level 1 Coaching by Knowledge Varsity -

Finance and Marketing Club Workshop

2009-07-07T06:52:00.005+05:30

Knowledge Varsity is proud to announce the first marketing and finance club workshop in Bangalore. This would be useful for the students who want to pursue a career in finance, marketing, transfer pricing,KPO, taxation, advertising, market research, data analytics, branding etc. This would provide them the insight of corporate world.
The workshop poster can also be viewed by clicking on the link below
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/8156509/Finance-and-Marketing-Club-Workshop

Finance and Marketing Club Workshop -

Procedure to register for CFA Level 1 Exam

2009-07-07T04:41:00.003+05:30

I am getting lots of request from the candidates on the procedure of registering for the CFA Level 1 exam. For the benefit of the candidates, I have prepared a document which has screenshots and steps to register for the exam.

The document can also be viewed on docstoc
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/8156528/How-to-register-for-Level-1-exam

How to register for Level 1 exam -

FREE CFA Level1 classes in Bangalore on 5th July

2009-06-28T22:17:00.001+05:30

Knowledge Varsity has launched CFA Level 1 coaching for december in Bangalore.

Soon to be launched in Mumbai.

The coaching is a blend of live face to face classes and videos.
The videos are much much better than Schweser and have been recorded by eminent faculty in finance.
The face to face sessions will be delivered by a FRM and CFA level 3 passed IITian.
For more details, please visit http://knowledgevarsity.com/courses.php?course=cfa
or mail to admissions@knowledgevarsity.com and a representative will get in touch with you.
Brochure Link : http://knowledgevarsity.com/brochure/CFA%20Training%20Program%20for%202009.pdf

CFA Training for 2009 Exam

2009-06-09T00:32:00.013+05:30

This training program is conceived to provide the best guidance to the candidates who are preparing for the CFA examination conducted by CFA Institute
Please download brochure

For more details visit Course Page

Why Knowledge Varsity
Knowledge Varsity is in the space of education consulting and content development business. The firm has a network of highly qualified and experienced faculty both from India as well as from abroad. Knowledge Varsity faculty have worked with several Universities in USA for collaboration programs in Business Management. Knowledge Varsity is best equipped to bring the best resource to your benefit.

About the Faculty
Ratan Gupta, FRM: Mr. Gupta has passed all three levels of CFA. Mr. Gupta is a BTech in Computer Science from IIT Kharagpur and has extensive Financial Services consulting experience. He has been engaged in teaching CFA aspirants for the past one year.
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ratan-gupta-frm/0/308/221

Our USP
• Structured course and complete coverage of the entire curriculum
• Excellent study material which focuses on problem solving and concepts
• Reduce your study time by up to 20% (as compared to self study)
• Small and interactive class
• Support through face to face discussion, phone, email and chat till the day of examination
• Blend of online and offline content and course for optimal utilization

Teaching Mode
• Face to face classes will be held on weekend
• Per weekend one class of 4 hours duration
• Homework assignment in each class
• One doubt class once a month

Tests
• Online part tests to cover each area and to make sure that the preparation is on track
• State of the art test engine that will help you analyze and improve the weak area
• Two full length offline tests

Fees
• INR 15,000/- inclusive of service tax
• Avail 10% discount if you are joining in a group of 2 or if you pay the full fee by 15th June
• Avail 20% discount if you are joining in a group of 3 or more

Classes will start from 28th June 2009
Demo Class on 14th June, 2009 at
Knowledge Varsity, #572, 21st Main, 36th Cross, Jayanagar 4 ‘T’ Block, Bangalore - 560 011
Hotline – +91-80-2664-3993 and +91-94487-06666

Speak to Ratan at 9886316649 for more details

Dealing with difficult times

2009-06-06T21:06:00.001+05:30

Yesterday I met with a young person, about 26-28 years old, who happened to have lost job during these difficult economic situations. What came across to my mind all along the conversation was his obsession to get back to some job. I perfectly understand – losing a job is very unhappy experience. Besides the financial implication of not earning (which was not the case with this person), job loss alters one’s daily routine. You will not know what to do during the day. You will not like to socialize much. You will not like to sit at home either. But mere empathizing with this problem would solve the problem. The problem of job loss is real. And there has to be a real world solution for that.

While in the obsession of getting back to some job, this individual had almost forgotten the rich and varied experience he had till now. He had a solid four years of experience with exposure to multiple domains. He had an MBA from a school of repute. He had accomplishments about which he felt good till now. One event (of losing the job) has made him forget all those and he now begins to doubt the quality of his experience and of his own abilities to accomplish.

Showing desperateness to get back to any job will not help. This is the time to sit and think long term. This is the time to record what one has accomplished and to try and tweak the future. Perhaps meeting some career specialists would help. The need of the hour is to add some thing to your previous accomplishments such that it becomes more holistic and thus a strong value proposition. For instance, enrolling into to a professional development certification or training activity, doing an ad-hoc project of interest, writing on some topic of your interest and publishing it or even teaching part time.

The day to day busy schedule of work place would not have allowed luxuries of learning and of dwelling into academic style of enquiry. But now is the time to make up for it. Document it in your resume. Show it off to the prospective employer and be frank enough to say – you just tried to convert this crisis into an opportunity – by making up for what you thought you always wanted to do –but you could not do while working.

FRM Training for 2009 Exam

2009-06-03T09:12:00.002+05:30

FRM Training Program for 2009

This training program is conceived to provide the best guidance to the candidates who are preparing for the FRM examination conducted by GARP.

Why Knowledge Varsity
Knowledge Varsity is in the space of education consulting and content development business. The firm has a network of highly qualified and experienced faculty both from India as well as from abroad. Knowledge Varsity faculty have worked with several Universities in USA for collaboration programs in Business Management. Knowledge Varsity is best equipped to bring the best resource to your benefit.

About the Faculty
Ratan Gupta, FRM: Mr. Gupta has also passed all three levels of CFA. Mr. Gupta is a BTech in Computer Science from IIT Kharagpur and has extensive Financial Services consulting experience. He has been engaged in teaching CFA aspirants for the past one year.
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ratan-gupta-frm/0/308/221

Our USP
· Structured course and complete coverage of the entire curriculum
· Excellent study material which focuses on problem solving
· Reduce your study time by up to 20% (as compared to self study)
· Small and interactive class
· Support through face to face discussion, phone, email and chat till the day of examination
· Blend of online and offline content and course for optimal utilization

Teaching Mode
· Face to face classes will be held on weekend
· Per weekend one class of 4 hours duration
· Homework assignment in each class
· One doubt class once a month
Tests
· Online part tests to cover each area and to make sure that the preparation is on track
· State of the art test engine that will help you analyze and improve performance in weak area
· Two full length offline tests

Fees
· INR 15,000/- inclusive of service tax
· Avail 10% discount if you are joining in a group of 2 or more

Classes will start from 6th June 2009 at
Knowledge Varsity, #572, 21st Main, 36th Cross, Jayanagar 4 ‘T’ Block, Bangalore - 560 011 Hotline – +91-80-2664-3993 and +91-94487-06666

Ingredients of a Brand Manager

2009-06-03T09:05:00.003+05:30

Through my several years of experience with MBA students, most of them who are attracted to marketing tell me that they want to pursue a career in branding and that they are seeking brand manager’s position. And they talk about their creative bent of mind in support of their candidature to brand manager’s position.

There is nothing wrong in seeking to be a brand manager and being creative. Yet the logic seem does not work. While being creative is useful in any job and every job, to think that some how brand managers are the one’s who create labels, advertisements, run campaigns does not fit well.

Let us say – National Institute of Design (NID) – produces every year the students who are the best in Designing products, product communications, portals designs, apparel designs etc. If a NID grad is creative enough and would create what a company wants, why would the company hire an MBA to do the same job?

Alternatively, let us think that a company wants to run a promotion event in a retail mall. Puma (the Shoe brand) did it in various retail malls during IPL cricket event. PUMA mobile stores were parked right at the main entrance of the malls with visibly attractive images painted on it. And PUMA will hire event managers to run these special campaigns ad not necessarily brand mangers!

The crux of the question is what does a brand manager do? At the highest level – a brand manager is a strategic partner and member of the team that makes most important decisions at the top. He or She will work with Sales Manager, Product Manager, and Channel manager on such issues as brand repositioning, brand extension and branding of new products and services. He or She holds the key to communication to the consumers and any thing goes wrong – he or she would be necessarily be letting down the efforts gone into creation or improvement of the product (by the product manager) and in achieving the targets (by the sales manager)

If we arrive at this conclusion (that the brand manager is in charge of communication), then the next question could be “how does on get the communication right?” Is it by creativity? Is it by designing events? Is it by launching the ad campaign? Is it by crating road show? Is it by celebrity endorsement? Is it by Public Relations management?

OR is it by gaining insights into the consumers’ mind on an ongoing basis to find out how various brands (yours as well as your competitors) play out on an ongoing basis? Is it by finding new associations in the consumers’ mind by understanding that very hidden language which we want to decipher and use in effective brand communication? Is it by trying to be a partner with the product/Sales managers to identify newer needs that reinforce your corporate brand of being “Innovative?”

Once you understand the core of Brand managers’ job is to be the student of consumer life long and to be master on consumer behavior – rest all falls in place. As a brand manager, you decide whether to hire an ad agency to create communications or to have an internal team to work on the concepts; whether to hire an external event management firm to do the campaign or to set up an internal team to run the events; whether to hire an external PR agency or set up an in-house PR team?

Once a budding brand manager sets this (of being a student of consumer’s mind)as his/her core career objective, the starting point could be any thing. You can study the consumer behavior in action when you start our career as a sales person or a sales manager. You can gain insights into consumer behavior by being a market research executive; you can understand consumers while being a retails ore manager and so on. Regardless of the starting point of your career, you must always be curious to understand why consumers buy what they buy and most importantly who or which category of consumers buy.

2009-06-01T21:11:00.003+05:30

CFA Level 1 - Quant Focus Area
1. Time value of money – You should be able to solve annuity problems, make sure to draw timelines
2. Holding period return, Effective annual yield, bank discount yield, bond equivalent yield, money market yield – make sure you remember the formula
3. Money weighted, time weighted return
4. Mean absolute deviation, standard deviation
5. Chebysev’s inequality – VERY IMPORTANT & easy
6. Coeffecient of variation, Sharpe ratio, Roy’s safety first rule – make sure you are able to analyse a set of portfolios on these measures
7. Make sure you know the location of mean, median, mode in skewed distribution
8. Know what kurtosis mean and implication in peaked distribution
9. Understand the probability concepts – important ones are joint probability and bayes therorem.. should be able to solve the problems which would come
10. You should solve problems to find out the standard deviation of portfolio where probability of the various return scenario is mentioned
11. You should be able to find the probability for a continuous probability distribution, using the concept of area under the curve
12. Properties of continuous and discrete probability function
13. sampling error and interpretation of sampling error
14. standard error of sample mean
15. properties of estimator (read this -> theoretical but can expect one question)
16. Should be able to construct confidence intervals
17. Remember which distribution to use (Z/T) depending on sample size and distribution (normal/non-normal) with known/unknown variance
18. Understand the process of hypothesis testing -> remember the 7 steps -> can get 1 question here
19. Remember to get alternative and null hypothesis from word problem statement -> one question to be asked here
20. Significance level
21. Type I and type II error -> very important -> especially how to reduce them
22. You would be asked to find the test statistics for Chi test/F test and population mean of normally distributed pop with known and unknown variance-> no formula will be given here -> so remember the formula
23. Formula will be given for the testing equality of the population means of two normally distributed populations equal or unequal variances, and mean difference of two normally distributed populations (paired comparisons test
24. Technical analysis – don’t expect much -> no need of calculation here -> understand the bullish and bearish sentiments, contrarian view.

Knowledge Varisty

CFA - Focus Area in Financial Reporting

2009-05-29T03:13:00.004+05:30

I could think of the following as the focus area in Financial reporting for the Level 1 Exam.
Candidates should go through this and have good grasp on the following areas.
Session 7
1. Understand the key items (asset/liability etc) in financial statements (balance sheet/P&L statement)
2. Role of auditor – situation in which auditor can give adverse opinion etc
3. Steps in financial statement analysis framework
4. Role of bodies like FASB, IAS
5. IFRS framework
6. Disclosures to be done by the companies for significant accounting policies

Session 8
1. Understand the various revenue recognition methods and the applicability in various scenarios 2. Differentiate between operating and non-operating income
3. Understand and remember non-recurring items (discontinued operation, extraordinary items, unusual or infrequent items)
4. Calculation of basic and diluted earnings per share – VERY Important
5. Understand difference between dilutive and anti-dilutive, treasury stock method – sure to get one question on this area
6. Remember which items are not included in Income statement but are directly mentioned in equity
7. Understand the implication of accrual method on balance sheet – that is how it leads to asset and liabilities (deferred revenue/customer advances etc)
8. Off balance sheet disclosures and items
9. Components of owner’s equity
10. Understand the various cash flow (operating/investing/financing); should be able to calculate the operating cash flow from both direct and indirect method; CFA institute will try to confuse by putting items that are non-operating in nature; so you should remember which items are part of operating cash flow
11. Calculate Free cash flow to equity and free cash flow to firm – remember the formula
12. There are various cash flow ratios; remember to calculate them

Session 9 –This is the most important session in FRA (Inventories/Long-Lived Assets/Income tax/Lease). Questions would be analytical in nature

1. Inventory – Understand the LIFO and FIFO methods, the implication of using one method over the other on Income statement and balance sheet. Understand LIFO Reserve and what happens when a company changes its method from LIFO to FIFO – Equity increases(by Lifo reserve *(1-t))
2. Implication on financial statement when using one of the methods when prices are increasing , decreasing and stable
3. Impact on ratios due to different methods (Very Important)
4. When can a LIFO reserve decline – understand LIFO Liquidation
5. Depreciation methods – should be able to calculate the remaining book value, depreciation in a particular year, differences between the methods, understand which method would result in higher profit/cash flows/taxes.
6. Calculate average age, life of depreciable assets etc.. these figures have been tested on and off in the exam
7. Amortization of intangible – know the calculation steps
8. Asset retirement obligation – very likely to be tested in the exam – considering the activities of environmental activists
9. What happens to CFO/Net profit etc when an asset is sold at loss/profit
10. Impairment – when can that be done and what are the implication on financial assets
11. Effect of revaluation
12. Understand how Deferred tax asset and liability can be generated due to regular business activities
13. Understand the definition income tax expense, income taxes payable – questions can be asked on this
14. What happens to DTA/DTL/Income tax expense/income tax payable when taxes increase / decrease – very important
15. What happens to the DTL of a growing company – understand permanent and temporary items
16. Valuation allowance
17. Effective tax rate and the basis of comparison across different firms
18. Difference in IFRS and US GAAP from taxation point of view
19. Amortization of Bond discount and premium – very important
20. Effect of interest rate on market value of debt and associated financial ratios
21. Remember how to classify a lease as capital lease - very important
22. Capital and Operating Lease - Motivation of leasing; effect on ratios; when should one go for operating or financing lease
23. Sales type lease from lessor point of view and how is it different from direct financing lease – one question from this area
24. Understand take or pay/throughput/sales of receivables with or without recourse – one analytical question from this area

Session 10 –DuPont/ differences in IFRS And GAAP are frequently tested in the exam. New materials are added to on shenanigans, red flags and become important considering the current economic situation.
1. DuPont ratio – very important – don’t learn the formula as institute will not give straight items to calculate- expect some twist and hence you should know how the formula has come. Extended DuPont can be remembered, but make sure to understand the derivation
2. Ratios on equity/credit analysis
3. Remember all the ratios that are mentioned – institute can throw anyone – important is to understand the implication on liquidity ratio when cash is paid to suppliers etc.
4. Red flags – read the chapter and should be able to identify the warning signs
5. Shenanigans – important section and can expect questions related to all four ways to manipulate earnings (payables – stretching, financing), sell of receivable and offsetting of diluted earnings through buyback.
6. Comparison of firms by comparing the financial statements and ratios, projections
7. IFRS and GAAP – differences and common points.

Knowledge Varsity

CFA test preparation - post on pagal guy

2009-05-05T04:17:00.002+05:30

Please see my post on PagalGuy,
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/career-discussions/33439-cfa-level-1-june-2009-a-52.html#post1517667

2009-05-03T17:08:00.003+05:30

Course in Sales Management

Knowledge Varsity introduces a course on Sales Management, a must for those who are planning to take up a career in sales and marketing. In order to be eligible to attend this course, you should be in the second year of your MBA program. You must have completed the core marketing paper as part of your MBA program. The course will offer you the application skills using examples and cases thus making you ready for the job even before you complete the MBA. This course is taught by Prof. Mohan Kuruvilla; a leading authority on topics such as Sales, Distribution and Business to Business Marketing.

2009-05-03T16:55:00.003+05:30

Leap Ahead - A test series for CFA Exam

Knowledge Varsity is proud to announce Leap Ahead, a test series for the CFA program.
Testing is an integral part of the CFA program and candidates are expected to perform and excel on the test day.
These practice tests are schedule during the month of May 2009, just before the CFA tests. Mr. Abhishek Dhall, an IIT graduate who passed level 1 in June last year says "practice tests are a must". According to him candidates fail not because they could not master the subject but they lacked adequate preparation for the exam day.
Candidates are given feedback on their performance and also guided on the scope for improvement in various topic areas.
The fee for the course is Rs 1000/- for 2 full tests and Rs 650 for 1 full test.
For more details please 09886316649.