My Dear Friends,
Good Day to All,
Firstly, let me congratulate each one of you for facing this exam with a lot of courage and confidence. Passing or failing is the next chapter but facing the mountain with courage that's what matters the most. Keep your fighting spirits and confidence high for the rest of the exams and hope for the best in upcoming days.
Secondly, in this article, we will do a pointwise analysis on Strategic Financial Management Paper (Old Syllabus) to find out how the paper was framed in this attempt. Do give your comments or ratings below to see how you have made your day with this paper.
1. Length
The length of the paper was moderate. SFMs paper is generally not very long since the long questions will have just one-page answer or even less. It all depends on how the students, prepared themselves with the subjects. By looking at the length of the paper, all questions can be solved within three hours. Further paper gives you the extra time for revision before submitting it to the examiner.
2. Difficulty Level
Here comes the ordeal. Since in most of cases, students by looking at the length of the paper itself get depressed even before starting off with the paper. But in this attempt the length of the paper was set to moderate, the difficulty level of the paper was Easy when compared to the previous attempt in May 2019. Chapters like F&O, Portfolio were not touched in detail, further Swaps were not even asked in the exam. Hence due to the absence of these chapter the difficulty level of the paper was very low and any student can secure at least 50 plus easily.
3. Marks Distribution
Chapters like International Financial Management, Mergers and Acquisition, Security Analysis, and Capital Budgeting & Leases itself account for more than 80 marks in the exam. The detailed analysis is given below:
- International Financial Management - 19-20 Marks
- Merger and Acquisition - 24-25 Marks
- Security Analysis - 18-20 Marks
- Capital Budgeting & Leases - 21-22 Marks
ICAI has not asked the questions in much detail from chapters like Portfolio Management, Mutual Funds, F&O, etc., If these chapters were asked in the exam then the difficulty level of the paper would be high since these chapters need more practice and conceptual clarity for attending questions in exam.
However, in this attempt, the paper was framed very easy by ICAI, and there are huge chances of students getting exemption in this paper.
4. Source
As expected, most of the questions were asked from Study Material and Practice Manual. Also, it was seen that there were repetitive questions from past exams. Those who have studied SM, PM, RTP and Suggested Answer would have easily managed the paper within three hours and get exemption. It is advisable to students that one should not skip ICAI materials at any cost while preparing for the exam since most examiner pick the question from that and change the numbers or pattern according to the current situation and year.
Way Forward:
Students are yet to face Group 2, my sincere advice is to stick to the plan and give your best shot. Don't think how Group 1 went, maintain the same level of confidence and write your group 2. You will achieve success. You will be Victorious.
All the Best!!
Will come back soon with another analysis on question paper.
Dear Friends, the above analysis is based on my personal views. I have tried my level best to provide insights on this question paper and your comments on this article will motivate me to write more such articles in future.
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