FIN3101 - Corporate Finance
Prereq: FIN2004/FIN2004X (this mod - Intro to Corp Fin- has its own prereq, ACC1002/ACC1002X)
What's it about: The most useful things I picked up from this module are corporate share valuation and capital budgeting (calculating NPV of a project). These are hard skills you can expect to use in a future executive/analyst position. If you're a non-biz student you MUST observe how your biz friends set up their excel spreadsheets (you get grilled about it in the Q&A for your final presentation). Other stuff that is less common in real life: mergers/acquisitions, efficient market hypothesis, capital structure.
Exam tips: 1. Don't take cheat sheet for granted; study the relationships between company decisions and the important financial ratios/indicators. For example, stock splits and their effect on P/E ratio, dividend policy on share price. 2. Be able to show, in working, the difference between all the available capital budgeting and structuring decisions. Eg for capital structure: show, in working, what is the difference to a company's market value if it issues XXX of debt instead of issuing new stock worth XXX?
Continuous assessment: The composition changes from year to year, and includes two written critiques of other groups' case studies (group), tutorials (group), one case study with final presentation (group), 3 class quizzes + class participation (up to 10%), midterm (20%), final exam (30-40%). As you can probably tell, if you are zai and score full marks in the midterm and final (it's possible), it will still not be good enough. Good group work is not hard, generally all groups do similarly well compared to each other. IMO, speaking up in class is the key to anything above a B+. Plus it benefits your learning (because the prof is really nice and, no matter how stupid your question is, always uses your question to start a discussion and learning point).
Case study: My group did common share valuation in evaluating Keppel Corp's acquisition of Keppel Land. I can't remember the exact details about the other cases, but they all required setting up some cash flow analysis in Excel. To get the A, you need to have a clear understanding of the assumptions and data manipulations that you used in your excel model (everyone's model is different, your classmates will compare them to the other groups who did the same case). Every detail matters, for example, which country's risk free rate you chose and why? And also, be able to justify which share valuation method (where there's more than one) is the most appropriate to your case. To get the A PLUS, do a sensitivity analysis of your model and find out which factor accounts for the highest fluctuations in share price.
FIN3102 - Investments and Portfolio Analysis
Prereq: Same as FIN3101
What's it about: The relationships between risk and return for the three classes of investments: stock, bonds and derivatives. You also learn about efficient market hypothesis here (there are some overlaps with FIN3101), but you go further in applying the theory to portfolio construction and optimization.
Exam tips: Be prepared for questions that combine stocks and bonds/ stocks and derivatives. There was a question about comparing the profit from short selling a stock and buying a put on the underlying stock.
Continuous assessment: Same as FIN3101. For this mod, class part is more intense; you need to do the assigned questions at the end of the lectures, make sure your working can be explained clearly, and really FIGHT for the chance to present them in class, very competitive.
Case study: CHOOSE YOUR GROUPMATES WISELY! If you a non-biz, make sure you have biz people in your team. This mod has something of a reputation as - I am not kidding - one of the most difficult modules in NUS even for biz majors. Financial modelling experience is a plus, but those complex portfolio construction and regression problems (in EXCEL format, no less) will be quite new to the biz ppl as well. Be prepared for lots of data-intensive and tedious work.
I am doing a very bad job of selling this module. In fact, I highly do NOT recommend it unless you own the textbook beforehand and have done some self-study on financial modelling. If you are non-biz, frankly speaking FIN2004X is not adequate preparation. Unless you are a programming or math genius, take some other level 3 FIN mods to get a feel of what finance mods at this level require before taking on this.
Tuesday, 11 August 2015
Friday, 3 April 2015
quick update on whats going on
I've been busy on other blogs. This is a heads up on what they are:
My debate blog
My American political thought blog
My Singapore foreign policy blog
My debate blog
My American political thought blog
My Singapore foreign policy blog
Saturday, 3 January 2015
Space Movie Review - Interstellar and A Theory of Everything
I am too poor to travel to beautiful cities like Prague and Vienna, but I take comfort in knowing that there is still Taipei. Cozy mountain cafes overlooking the city, cheap and delicious food, big and clean bookstores that you can sit and read in all day, historical streets with the charm of the Japanese colonial era, private hotsprings, and just the slower pace of life in general.
I must have been having a space-craze while I was there, because I also visited the Taipei Astronomical Museum and Planetarium. I wouldn't recommend the guided tours if you are not fluent in Chinese, because you definitely won't understand the astronomy jargon. but anyway without the tour admission is cheap, and it opens from 9 to 5, so that is worth a visit.
A Theory of Everything
This is one of those films which can be rather forgettable, but has a feel-good vibe to it. Maybe because of all the excessive crying I did, which was, in a word, cathartic. As a neuroscience student I really do understand the extent and depth of cruelty of a neurodegenerative disease, not just as depicted in the movie, but like, how everyone easily forgets how incredibly delicate and vulnerable the brain is, how lucky we are to be born with the ability to do the things we take for granted, like speech, expression, body language. The cast delivered Oscar-worthy performances; a lot of well-written poignant moments, deep conversations, small gestures etc, that made the characters very relatable and real.
Eddie Redmayne, who plays Stephen Hawking, is one of those people you'd like to invite out on a delightful coffee chat. His interviews are always interesting. Video link
Interstellar
It wasn't just me, but most people I know who watched it thought it started out really dry, had no idea as to where the plot was headed, but I was so glad the pace picked up sometime into the movie after the wormhole part, because I honestly don't expect Christopher Nolan to make disappointing movies (after The Dark Knight, duh). But it was disappointing for me, because of the very fact that it only truly "began" from the halfway point.
But in hindsight there were a lot of big and interesting ideas, like using gravity to manipulate space-time. I'd love if the time machine were actually invented in my lifetime. o.o just saying though, the music is still my absolute favorite thing about the film. Don't believe anything the Screen Junkies dude says in the Honest Trailer: that it was hard to hear the dialogue, or that it sounded like Hans Zimmer fell asleep on his organ. Hans Zimmer is still one of the best film composers out there. And organs are perfect for the space theme.
I must have been having a space-craze while I was there, because I also visited the Taipei Astronomical Museum and Planetarium. I wouldn't recommend the guided tours if you are not fluent in Chinese, because you definitely won't understand the astronomy jargon. but anyway without the tour admission is cheap, and it opens from 9 to 5, so that is worth a visit.
A Theory of Everything
This is one of those films which can be rather forgettable, but has a feel-good vibe to it. Maybe because of all the excessive crying I did, which was, in a word, cathartic. As a neuroscience student I really do understand the extent and depth of cruelty of a neurodegenerative disease, not just as depicted in the movie, but like, how everyone easily forgets how incredibly delicate and vulnerable the brain is, how lucky we are to be born with the ability to do the things we take for granted, like speech, expression, body language. The cast delivered Oscar-worthy performances; a lot of well-written poignant moments, deep conversations, small gestures etc, that made the characters very relatable and real.
Eddie Redmayne, who plays Stephen Hawking, is one of those people you'd like to invite out on a delightful coffee chat. His interviews are always interesting. Video link
Interstellar
It wasn't just me, but most people I know who watched it thought it started out really dry, had no idea as to where the plot was headed, but I was so glad the pace picked up sometime into the movie after the wormhole part, because I honestly don't expect Christopher Nolan to make disappointing movies (after The Dark Knight, duh). But it was disappointing for me, because of the very fact that it only truly "began" from the halfway point.
But in hindsight there were a lot of big and interesting ideas, like using gravity to manipulate space-time. I'd love if the time machine were actually invented in my lifetime. o.o just saying though, the music is still my absolute favorite thing about the film. Don't believe anything the Screen Junkies dude says in the Honest Trailer: that it was hard to hear the dialogue, or that it sounded like Hans Zimmer fell asleep on his organ. Hans Zimmer is still one of the best film composers out there. And organs are perfect for the space theme.
Long overdue module recaps for Sem 1 2014/15 - BSP1004X, GEK1542
BSP1004X- Legal Environment of Business
At this level content is fairly standard. What you learn are relevant statutes (eg Unfair Contract Terms Act) and common law cases, tests (how courts administer "rules", eg what are the standard requirements for a contract to be established) and the occasional theorem (the philosophical principles behind the rules) for each subject area. The major subject area you will encounter is contract law, which is quite useful, because it shows you how contracts are actually made, and how to resolve disputes in a contract.
Lecture + Tutorials:
There are webcasts! And, tutorials are participation graded. You never know how much you are supposed to speak up to get the full participation points, because this is (I think) confidential. The general guide is to speak up as much as you can, but competition for each question is intense. Even more intense is how the lecturer handles it: get everyone who raised their hand to answer. To be safe, be comprehensive in your answer so that you always have something to add on to the person before you.
Finals:
Open book! Both suggested textbooks are equally useful and have the same content. The only difference is that she based the last lecture, answering questions about contract law, on a sample contract in Prof Ravi's textbook. The one set of past year questions she supplied are quite sufficient for finals preparation but if that's not enough for you, she also provided optional past year papers in the business library.
On a side note, I found someone selling the past year papers online. Beware the scammers.
GEK1542 - Forensic Science
I finally succumbed to the hype. I took it, and have mixed feelings... Such fuss over the bid points when it is the content people should be worrying about :/ The whirlwind one-lecture-per-topic tour - from medical forensics to insect forensics to blood and gunshot pattern analysis - was comprehensive in hindsight, but it was definitely quite a bore sitting through the bits where they talk about insect life cycles and how they measure the angle of blood spatter and other very technical details. Despite this, I don't think the module can be considered any help if you are considering a career as a forensic analyst... but it is a useful introduction to what is meant to be a very broad, inter-disciplinary science. Fun fact: it takes 15 years to become an official senior forensic pathologist (including 5 years of med school).
Lectures:
Some of the lecture notes are mostly just news articles and photos, and some are actually useful; clear and organized. But every topic is important, so if the lecture notes are bad, just read up around the topic a bit because the lecturers also provide some supplementary things.
Practical
Follow instructions, know your notes well, and keep an eye on time management.
Essay
Make sure you know exactly what the lecturer wants with the question. Because there are odd questions like "How did Sherlock Holmes change the face of forensic science" or something. Ask directly or email, and enquire about useful sources for research.
Final:
100 MCQs aren't honestly that bad (compared to the BSP1004X final, which is 2 hours of non-stop writing) If you know your stuff, you can pull through with time to spare. Maybe because the profs are all former prosecutors and all, there was disproportionately large emphasis on the legal aspects, like law of evidence, hearsay, role of coroner etc. Don't take my word for it, though.
At this level content is fairly standard. What you learn are relevant statutes (eg Unfair Contract Terms Act) and common law cases, tests (how courts administer "rules", eg what are the standard requirements for a contract to be established) and the occasional theorem (the philosophical principles behind the rules) for each subject area. The major subject area you will encounter is contract law, which is quite useful, because it shows you how contracts are actually made, and how to resolve disputes in a contract.
Lecture + Tutorials:
There are webcasts! And, tutorials are participation graded. You never know how much you are supposed to speak up to get the full participation points, because this is (I think) confidential. The general guide is to speak up as much as you can, but competition for each question is intense. Even more intense is how the lecturer handles it: get everyone who raised their hand to answer. To be safe, be comprehensive in your answer so that you always have something to add on to the person before you.
Finals:
Open book! Both suggested textbooks are equally useful and have the same content. The only difference is that she based the last lecture, answering questions about contract law, on a sample contract in Prof Ravi's textbook. The one set of past year questions she supplied are quite sufficient for finals preparation but if that's not enough for you, she also provided optional past year papers in the business library.
On a side note, I found someone selling the past year papers online. Beware the scammers.
GEK1542 - Forensic Science
I finally succumbed to the hype. I took it, and have mixed feelings... Such fuss over the bid points when it is the content people should be worrying about :/ The whirlwind one-lecture-per-topic tour - from medical forensics to insect forensics to blood and gunshot pattern analysis - was comprehensive in hindsight, but it was definitely quite a bore sitting through the bits where they talk about insect life cycles and how they measure the angle of blood spatter and other very technical details. Despite this, I don't think the module can be considered any help if you are considering a career as a forensic analyst... but it is a useful introduction to what is meant to be a very broad, inter-disciplinary science. Fun fact: it takes 15 years to become an official senior forensic pathologist (including 5 years of med school).
Lectures:
Some of the lecture notes are mostly just news articles and photos, and some are actually useful; clear and organized. But every topic is important, so if the lecture notes are bad, just read up around the topic a bit because the lecturers also provide some supplementary things.
Practical
Follow instructions, know your notes well, and keep an eye on time management.
Essay
Make sure you know exactly what the lecturer wants with the question. Because there are odd questions like "How did Sherlock Holmes change the face of forensic science" or something. Ask directly or email, and enquire about useful sources for research.
Final:
100 MCQs aren't honestly that bad (compared to the BSP1004X final, which is 2 hours of non-stop writing) If you know your stuff, you can pull through with time to spare. Maybe because the profs are all former prosecutors and all, there was disproportionately large emphasis on the legal aspects, like law of evidence, hearsay, role of coroner etc. Don't take my word for it, though.
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