NTU Business & Management (BM) Electives
Module:
BU8201 Business Finance
Description:
This is an introductory course in finance for non-business and non-accounting students, which provides students with a broad understanding of the principles and practice of Business Finance/Financial Management. The emphasis is on the major financial decisions made by companies and the valuation of investments made by them. The course starts by examining the various forms of businesses and the importance of interest rates. Time value of money, and the linkage between risk and return, lays the foundation for evaluating the price of bonds and stocks. Students will learn and apply principles of capital budgeting (calculating the profitability of various projects and deciding which one to proceed) and capital structure (financing approved projects by issuing shares or bonds, or using retained earnings). The decision to use extra cash to pay dividends or repurchase shares will be analysed and the course concludes with the use of derivatives to protect and enhance the value of firms. Students intending to take this course should be numerate (good and comfortable with mathematical calculations and formulas) e.g. they should know well compound interest calculations, Sum of Geometric Progression (G.P.) calculation before attending this course.
Module:
BU8201 Business Finance
Description:
This is an introductory course in finance for non-business and non-accounting students, which provides students with a broad understanding of the principles and practice of Business Finance/Financial Management. The emphasis is on the major financial decisions made by companies and the valuation of investments made by them. The course starts by examining the various forms of businesses and the importance of interest rates. Time value of money, and the linkage between risk and return, lays the foundation for evaluating the price of bonds and stocks. Students will learn and apply principles of capital budgeting (calculating the profitability of various projects and deciding which one to proceed) and capital structure (financing approved projects by issuing shares or bonds, or using retained earnings). The decision to use extra cash to pay dividends or repurchase shares will be analysed and the course concludes with the use of derivatives to protect and enhance the value of firms. Students intending to take this course should be numerate (good and comfortable with mathematical calculations and formulas) e.g. they should know well compound interest calculations, Sum of Geometric Progression (G.P.) calculation before attending this course.
Notes:
Download here
Download here
Study Techniques: Mindmaps
ReplyDeleteNotes: (mindmap)
Results: A+
How did I study?
Essentially I did the tasks that I have listed as tips for scoring below. In addition, I finished about 12 MB102 exam papers and 5 AB102 exam papers.
Mistakes made:
Can't think of any. Maybe never practice enough?
Tips for scoring:
1. Read up the chapter before going for lesson
2. After the lectures, do your tutorials faithfully
3. Do a revision/mindmaps after your lectures/tutorials.
4. Practice all the textbook problems at the end of each chapter to familiarise with the concepts.
5. After this, review the chapter.
6. Do a final revision before the exam.
7. Try out at least 3 past year exam papers before the actual paper to familiarise yourself with the format. This can also help you in planning your time management.
Overall Opinion:
After being trained well by the rigours of MB101, this module seems like a breeze to me. In fact,
Some of my friends actually dropped this course because they don't understand the financial ratios. But it is a bad choice. Financial ratios only form a very small part of business finance. What is more important, and given greater weightage are the topics towards the end.
The seminar is a full 3 hour session for 1/2 topics (compared that to MB101). There is no tutorials. As such, self-discipline is very important. Do take your own initiative to practice.
I manage to finish all tutorials, textbook exercises and mindmaps after 3 weeks out of total 5 weeks of module (did everything fast because I initially plan to go for orientation camps during this period). I manage to do 3 rounds of revision before going for exams and camp within the remaining 2 weeks. So yup, the module is not that taxing.
The exam is 2 hours but within 1 hour, you can see a lot of people leaving the exam hall. BUT you should stay and check your paper thoroughly for the remaining 1 hour. This is how you get to the other side of the bell curve.
For people who are aiming for business minor, you have no choice as this is your pre-requisite. For others, I highly recommend that you take this as your GER(PE)
| AY2013/14 S2 | GER-PE BM | S| Recommend Rating: 2/5
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, this is a heavy module. I suggest you to take this module only if you have time to study it. Although it is just basically maths and common sense, however, the terms and formulae we are expected to memories are too much for me. The workload was relatively high as all tutorials must be completed before lesson as my tutor (sui sui kena the female one who is stricter than the guy lecturer – Daniel Ong) would check our answer sheets before lessons started.
My memory is not too clear about the course percentages here. I think there are 20% 10 MCQ midterm through blackboard, 10% group presentation on selected tutorial, and 70% closed-book finals (20 MCQs and 2 structure questions). During finals, the MCQ questions were relatively tough as they required complete understanding on the subject to be able to select the correct answers. As for the structure questions, make good use of the formulae given then you should be fine.
Also, a financial calculator is needed as there is a specific formula that would be commonly used. Lecturer and tutor teach solving methods based on the financial calculator. If you don’t have one, borrow from you NBS friend or better still, purchase a second hand from Carousell. You can always resell again easily since Business Finance is a hot module among NTU students.
My advice to study for this module is that last minute studying does not work for this module. Trust me, I regretted it therefore I S/U it. Constant understanding and practicing will make final very easy to score. Go through all PYP then you can gauge the questions coming out.
If you are aiming for an A- and above, score at least 8/10 during you midterm then you should be fine. Also, take note of week13 revision lecture, as important concepts and questions solving methods will be repeated!
Course Name: Business Finance
ReplyDeleteCourse Code: BU8201
Elective Type: Ger Pe - Biz or UE
Assessment: Mid term quiz (20% MCQ), Tutorial Attendance (20%) and Exam (20 MCQ and 2 short questions.)
Comment: This is fairly simple course with lots of calculation. There are questions bank floating around and just get them from your senior and do it. You don't need a financial calculator. You just need a Graphical Calculator as they have financial function too (youtube has the tutorial).
Also take note that the tutorial format is presentation as a team. You need to form a team and when it is your week to present the answer, you will have to prepare the powerpoint slide and then present it to the class.
Verdict: I am unsure about my grades yet as results are not yet release but i would say that this is a easy course if you study. The prof in lecture is a very nice prof who always use good example.
Take note. He always stop the recording when announcing admin matters. Make sure your friends update you about the admin issue if you are someone who "pon" lecture.
I chose a tutor who is very fierce. She expect us to complete tutorial question before attending class. However it was due to her expectation that i woould managed to do well i guess.
AY 2017-2018 Special term 1
ReplyDeleteLessons: 10 3 hour seminars
Assessment: Mid Term MCQ Quiz(30%), Seminar Attendance(10%), Exam(60%)
Grade: A+
Mistakes made: Not knowing that Past Year Papers have no solutions provided and panicked before exam.
Only doing tutorials before Quiz and Exam.
Comment: This is a very insightful course with the tutor being very knowledgeable and helpful. It delves into stocks, bonds and most importantly time value of money. No presentations or group work is needed. The class just sat and listen to the tutor explain about the business concepts and going through the calculations.
To score for this module, faithfully do and understand the tutorials along with past year papers. The majority of the questions in the exam is slightly altered from past year papers with the exception of 1 never before seen question which requires a good understanding of the topic concerned in order to get the correct solution for it.
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