Fnst

bubs

Well Guys

My first FNST is on Thursday and I'm a little nervous to say the least. I'm self studying and passed all of level 3 first time but FNST is my first exam at level 4 and i'm nervous. Level 4 is certainly a step up from level 3 although I am enjoying it. For those of you who have recently sat FNST, do you have any tips?

I am considering whether to now study with a provider for level 4 (either Kaplan or BPP) because I think it might help me to be more focused as they seem to be more exam focused.
Bubs

stephleedz

Hi,

Firstly good luck. I sat my FNST exam 4 weeks ago so can't comment 100%. My exam was very much the same layout as the mock AAT cbts. Unfortunately as we have no idea what questions can be asked all I can say its learn as much as you can about the 21 standards. The framework is a big part of section 2's last question 2.3 so scrub up on that also. Ratio questions were a little different than I thought due to having only been made familiar with gross profit, interest cover, gearing, and 2 others which I can't seem to remember so had to wing it a little and hope for the best.

bubs

Thanks Stephleedz

vickie88

Practice your ratios and what they mean.


I would recommend Kaplan I have done all my studies with them and they also offer government funding x

Tracyevans14

Make sure you know your sfp and income st, also know your ias's. The ratios will help you towards your financial performance exam too.

SarahJS

Personally I would recommend trying a different module self study before buying the full level from a provider. I found all the exams relatively easy to self study, with FNST being the hardest by a long way to get a gauge on what is important to know.

Good luck for FNST!

bubs

Thanks for all the feedback. A couple of hours to go before I sit the exam. I guess I will wait to see how I feel before deciding on whether or not to go school as opposed to continuing with self study. I prefer to self study as it allows me more time.

Will let you know by lunch time how I get one.

bubs

And so the story ends. I sat the exam and felt really okay up until Section 2 (everything balanced in both sets of accounts and I knew nearly all questions etc in section 1. Got to section 2 and managed to calculate the ratios (at least I felt I remembered them) HOWEVER, giving an analysis did not go so well and I'm really worried now that I have messed up having breezed through secton 1. I also started questioning whether I needed to round up the figures in the ratio calculations to the suggested one decimal place. Does anyone know if you lose marks for not rounding them up. I usually do when I have attempted the pratice assessments and passed but yesterday I did another practice assessment (assessment 4 which is new to the AAT site) and my rounded up calculations did not match the answers because it appears the answers are not rounded up and so I decided not to round the figures in the actual exam. Anyway, apologies for going around the houses etc., (you can tell I'm anxious).

So my question is (just to put me out of my misery) does anyone know the actual marks they attribute to each question for a particular Section. I'm assuming more marks are given to Section 2 as there are only three questions? Im trying to convince myself that I might be lucky but I have a real sinking feeling that I've failed.

I managed to give an analysis of the ratios which I think was okay but my final advice (to sell or keep shares) was pants! So I think I may have failed on this alone in conjunction with not rounding up my figures.

Another question, has anyone looked at practice assessment 4 on the AAT website. The answers on the analysis of ratios as to whether the incorrect £180,000 posting to dividends received has any bearing on advise - there does not appear to be an answer to this in the published answers. Any ideas?

Thanking you all in advance and apologies for my lengthy going on but I'm disappointed and because I don't have a tutor to answer any questions, I'm feeling out on a limb.

Bubs

uknitty

The actual marks allocated per section don't really matter that much. The criteria to pass is that you have to score 70% in both section 1 and 2.

In regards to section 2 there is no definitive "right" answer to give - as long as you can form an opinion based on the information provided and back it up with calculations then that is the main thing.

FNST is definitely the hardest paper at level 4 - and it is really hard to tell how the paper went - going to be a long six weeks I know, but try not to worry too much about it . I'd advise cracking on with your studies and I'd suggest Budgeting next as it is probably one of the most straightforward units at level 4 ( I found that almost everything had already been covered in C&R at level 3). FNPF is much easier if you have already done BGT and FNST.

Good luck and let us know how you get on

bubs

Thanks so much uknitty. You are right I need to crack on with the rest of my studies and I will take your advice and start with budgeting next. thanks by the way for your advice on IAS 27 and IFRS 3 way back a little, it was really useful. I always enjoy reading your posts.

I wonder if you could give me your opinion on something. Even if I manage to scrape a pass on FNST I still don't feel confident with the ratio analysis and I would like to be more competent in this areas. Because I have been self studying I have no idea how to progress in this area unless I book the complete FNST course at Kaplan or BBP which I feel is a waste of money since I fell Im fairly competent on the rest of the module.

Did you self study yourself? I'm considering studying Budgeting with Kaplan or BBP and may hoping the tutors might be willing to give me a little refresher on ratio analysis. the only other option would be to pay for a private tutor.

Your opinions are very much appreciated and taken on board.

Many thanks

Bubs

vickie88

I was adamant that I had failed FNST I didn't even balance but I passed, and on the written section i found it quite easy i just blagged it.

But FNPF has 2 written sections and they are a lot harder in my opinion as i keep failing on the written sections. I think the written questions are worth a bulk of the 70%.

I would recommend budgeting, credit management or audit next as i found them the easiest units to do x

bubs

Thanks Vickie. Perhaps I could scrape a pass then considering my statements actually all balanced and I also blagged the written section on ratio analysis.

I think I will start with budgeting. I forgot that I have already completed credit management (exemption because I took level 3 which included credit management before the AAT criteria was changed last year) which is a bonus.

Wishing you the best of luck with FNPF. When is your next exam?

Bubx

MWAUGH1983

if you are doing it with kaplan I believe they start in sept with budgeting then financial performance then FNST is sometime in march I believe. Think the cost for bgt and fnpf is £480 which inc revision class I believe - know what you mean about cost as fnst is over 600 quid!

Martin

Morpheus1980

bubs, it sounds like you do not need to worry AT ALL! It sounds to me that you know what you're talking about and that you only suffered the most minor of minor blips. I managed to pass and my Cash Flow statement did not balance and I got one of the performance indicators completely wrong. Was convinced that I had failed so if I can do it, you have no need to panic!

Good luck x

bubs

Morpheus1980 wrote: »

bubs, it sounds like you do not need to worry AT ALL! It sounds to me that you know what you're talking about and that you only suffered the most minor of minor blips. I managed to pass and my Cash Flow statement did not balance and I got one of the performance indicators completely wrong. Was convinced that I had failed so if I can do it, you have no need to panic!

Good luck x

Thanks Morpheus. That's encouraging. On reflection though, my practice is usually to give my answers a once over before leaving the exam room but this time I panicked when I saw that I was the last one in the room with 30 minutes to go and so I decided to leave without checking my answers over (not good). Having now had time to consider my ratio analysis I really don't feel I answered it correctly. In other words my analysis did not really match my final advice because I panicked and left the exam room too early.

Ah well, you live and learn. No point in getting older if you don't get wiser so I will know better next time (AND NEVER LEAVE THE EXAM ROOM WITHOUT HAVING DOUBLE CHECKED YOUR ANSWERS). I will await the results (5 weeks from tomorrow) but in the meantime I am still reviewing course material so that i can book a resit fairly quickly. Im also waiting on the budgeting books from Kaplan and Osborne so that I can start the next self study module.

Bub X

Let's wait and see.

aaron0121

tbh Bubs that was a bit reckless, you still had 30 minutes left on your clock so why would you
leave the exam room just because you was the last person left. You could have easily double checked your
answers and still have enough time to try and answer the ratio analysis question better.
There is a few people in my class who think that it's some kind of a competition or race on who can be the
quickest to finish the CBA exam.....most of the time they fail the exam. The ironic thing is they start
wondering how on earth they failed the exam I'm waffling on a bit now, but what my point is don't get
distracted or start panicking on how many people are in the exam room or if you are the last one in the room -
focus on your exam and the time remaining :thumbup1:

Whirlwind

In the test centre I attend I always sit facing a wall and hope no one sits next to me - less distracting. With FNPF I was the last to leave, bit then I.hadn't pressed 'start' until I'd written a few formulas down so started a few minutes late.

bubs

Thanks Arron0121 and Whirlwind. No need to rub it in - I know it was reckless and I'm already giving myself the hardest time. As I already mentioned in my previous post it has never been my practice to leave the exam room early (ever) but for this particular exam I really don't know what came over me (I think I went into some sort of denial). Those who ignore the mistakes of the past are condemned to the repeat them in the future so I most definitely WILL NOT be doing that again.

Onwards and upwards it is. I am already reviewing FNST in the event of a resit and am about to get cracking on Budgeting.

Bye for now

Bubs

Folander

Hi Bubs,

Don't be so hard on yourself, you live and you learn. Not checking your answers is not the end of the world and if you have enough faith in your knowledge and prep for the exam you don't need to check your answers. Say you checked and you had spotted something wrong in your written question, you could have deleted it all and started it again but panic as you have limited time to answer. This could lead to an answer much worst than the original one. Even if your original answer is not bang on, the examiner can't deduct marks, only give them.
I personally try to do what whirlwind does and sit near the front. Don't worry about others in the exam. You pass your exam, let them do what they want.

Good luck on the rest of level 4.

Folander

Whirlwind

Hey Bubs,

So sorry, didn't mean anything other than I totally understand being affected/distracted by rest of room.

On Monday had a guy sitting right by me, I knew it was highly likely doing same unit so I jumped to section 2 as felt like we were racing against each other - yes I have an over active imagination!! Also, he kept sighing and getting up to get drinks, I had to really focus. Also, on Monday I did go back over my answers thought it was fine until I left centre then realised I made a massive error on the wrirten section!!

The post-exam replay is worse than actual waiting to go into exam room, so try not to be too hard on yourself - I know I'm trying not too!

NicF

Folander wrote: »

Hi Bubs,

Don't be so hard on yourself, you live and you learn. Not checking your answers is not the end of the world and if you have enough faith in your knowledge and prep for the exam you don't need to check your answers. Say you checked and you had spotted something wrong in your written question, you could have deleted it all and started it again but panic as you have limited time to answer. This could lead to an answer much worst than the original one. Even if your original answer is not bang on, the examiner can't deduct marks, only give them.
I personally try to do what whirlwind does and sit near the front. Don't worry about others in the exam. You pass your exam, let them do what they want.

Good luck on the rest of level 4.

Folander

It's good exam practise to go back and check your answers, although I know a lot of people (usually younger people) don't. The reason it is good practise is that you may have made a mistake with a calculation and going back and checking your answers gives you the chance to put this right. It also gives you a chance to re read the questions and make sure you have answered the actual question asked. I used to loose marks on practise papers for exactly these reasons. I would never recommend deleting an entire answer and starting again, especially with the written questions, but you may find you have missed important points, or you may think of something else when you go back over it. It's unlikely that rechecking your answers is going to make a huge difference to the marks you get (unless you find a major error or have missed a question entirely), but if you have skme difficult questions it could mean the difference between a pass and a fail.

Bubs - try not to worry too much. There is nothing you can do now and unless you were boarderline then checking your answers is unlikely to have had a significant impact on the overall result. I know what you mean about being the last person in the room though. I had that with one of my CRMC exams. Everyone else was doing a level 2 exam and they all left fairly early on so I had been the only person in the room for nearly a hour when I completed the paper and I felt really obvious or something so I left without checking. The only other time I left without checking was my FNFP exam, but I felt so ill that I couldn't concentrate anymore and thought I would probably do more harm than good going back over the answers. Fortunately I passed both exams.

Fingers crossed for you.