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Hello John,
Could you give me some guidance as to how to go about writing the written elements of the report without doing the calculations first?
The calculations are extremely lengthy as we know and I want to be able to maximise my time available to make a decent attempt at the calculations knowing I still may not be able to finish them,I believe the Own Figure Rule applies to written elements too and this could be engineered to our advantage
Regards
It is extremely unlikely that anyone can get pass marks on question 1 without some calculations.
However, certainly you can get the professional marks and include any written parts of the question in your report without doing any calculations.
My suggestion would be to head up the first page as ‘appendix’ and make a start on the calculations. When you start to get stuck or start to be going over half the time allocated for the question, then leave a page or two blank (but still headed up appendix) so you can come back to the calculations if you have time later. Then head up the next page as ‘report’ and start writing what you can.
The own figure rule does apply, but there is a limit as to how useful it will be. Certainly state obvious things (such as stating that if the project gives a positive NPV we will accept, even if you have not calculated the NPV), but it is important to get through as many of the calculations in the appendix as you can.
I believe I wasn’t able to explain what I meant,
I meant, is it possible for me to
Utilise my initial time available for question 1 on writing ALL the discursive elements only of both the report and other parts, (about 40mins?) and then spend the rest of the time available completely on calculations. ( as I’m yet to be able to finish calculations in the time available so far)
(Q1 would be the last one I attempt)
I’d like to know how to go about writing the report independently of the calculationsBy all means write all the discursive elements of the report first, although that should not take 40 minutes because apart from any purely discursive parts of the question there is obviously a limit as to how much you can write without having done any calculations (even with the own figure rule – there is a danger of inventing a figure and writing about it, then going to the calculations and getting the correct figure and then having to waste time changing bits of what you have written).
Virtually nobody will finish question 1, and that doesn’t matter – the main thing is to prove that you know what you are trying to do. Whether you have just explained in writing or whether it is clear from your workings that you are trying to do it the right way even if your figures are wrong.
I cannot say more about how to write the report independently of the calculations because it depends on the question – every question is different.
Have you watched my ‘Revision Kit Live’ lectures? I work through a few past question 1’s and although I obviously do work through the calculations I spend time discussing the approach.
Thank you, John for your helpful insight, and yes, I watch them before I navigate my way around the kit, although, some I haven’t as of yet as I’m not on Risk management, this exam seems more exam technique focused, a huge step up from f-levels, so, i’m trying to perfect my technique in the short time left, any other tips on exam technique would be highly appreciated or if you could point me in the right direction
for example if im stuck on WACC calculation, I can just stop and state an assumed reasonable WACC figure for the for discounting the next part of the working
thanks againYes – if you are stuck calculating the WACC then by all means assume a figure and then you will still get the rest of the marks (provided, obviously, you are using your figure correctly).
However do make it very clear that you are assuming a figure – otherwise the marker might waste time trying to see how you calculated it and then get a bit annoyed 🙂
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