Q. What will the format of the exams
and what chapters will they cover?
A. Usually, each exam will have at least one media article with questions
(look at the Media
Articles link from the FIN 647 class website). There will be some
short questions. There will be no
definitions. For the midterm, there will probably be quantitative
questions from the following topics: valuation, cashflow estimation, asset
pricing models and financial statements. For the final exam, the quantitative
questions will be on capital structure and dividend policy. More information
on the format of the exams will be given in class. You can also look at
past exams, particularly the more recent
ones.
This year, the midterm will cover chapters 2 through 7, and will have
four questions -- one will consists of questions posed in the context
of a newspaper article; the second will be about interpreting a beta estimation
regression; the third is about computing bottom-up betas, while the fourth
consists of short questions.
The final will cover 16-19 and 21. It will consist of several questions.
One will be a media article question covering a newspaper/magazine article
on Capital Structure or Dividend Policy. There will one question, consisting
of several conceptual problems (probably non-quantitative) on Capital
Structure or Dividend Policy,which you will have to answer in brief. There
will be a quantitative problem requiring you to compute the optimal capital
structure of a firm. There will be no "definition" questions.
Here are two other kinds of questions that I might ask:
- I will give you a description of a firm (maybe from finance.yahoo.com)
and ask you to explain what sort of leverage that firm should have.
- You will be asked to prescribe the dividend policy for a firm, given
qualititative information about the firm and/or enough information allowing
you to compute the firm's Free Cash Flow to Equity.
Q. Are the exams open book or closed
book?
Ans. Click here for more
information.
Q. Can I do extra work to improve my
grade?
Ans. Sorry. I believe that in order to be fair, I have to give every student
the same opportunity to do extra work. Obviously, this is not feasible.
However, on occasion I will allow you to resubmit an assignment for grade
improvement.
Q. What can I do to check my
understanding of the material and to prepare for the exams?
Ans.
- You can do the problems from the end of each chapter. The answers
can be found on the Web.
- You can also try quizzes from past terms.
Frequently, the answers to quiz problems can also be found on my webpages.
- You can try to answer the questions at the end of media
articles.
- You can read current newspaper and magazine articles on relevant topics
and make up your own questions and articles.
Q. What do I have to study from
each chapter?
Ans. In each chapter, you should know the definitions and the meanings
of key terms, and be able to put them into context. Also, look at the
list of terms and short questions on the Some
Importants Terms and Concepts page.
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