Today we’ll discuss some things to consider before beginning to study for a finance exam. Finance is a very mathematical field, so you should review the formulas for any tests you may have to take in the future. But keep in mind that it’s not just about plugging numbers into your calculator; it’s also about mastering concepts that will be extremely useful for the rest of your career and will assist you in learning finance.

Finance is one of the most important topics that students who major in finance will learn throughout their academic career. We begin learning about Math in elementary school and continue to expand our knowledge in college and high school with more in-depth finance classes. It is almost always a requirement for students pursuing a business degree.

Pay Attention in Your Finance Class

Although it may appear obvious, paying attention in class is essential for succeeding in university-level finance classes. When your professor goes over the concepts with you, they will also help you brush through the logic of the idea, making it easier to understand and digest. It is always easier to understand information when someone else teaches it to you rather than grinding the content yourself. To improve efficiency, avoid being distracted in class by not scrolling through social media platforms or responding to text messages from friends.

Take Handwritten Notes

Handwritten notes can be kept on paper or on a tablet device like an iPad. Because there are always a lot of complex formulas and inputs required when solving finance-related problems, handwritten notes are extremely useful. If this was typed on a laptop, it would be extremely complicated.

Writing also helps with memorization too, making it easier for you when solving problems.

Read the Finance Textbook When Needed

Professors create their notes and slides based on the textbook. On the syllabus of every course, professors will explicitly state which learning materials should be used to supplement the lecture materials.

Some of the commonly used textbooks for university-level introductory finance include:

• Introduction to Finance: Markets, Investments, and Financial Management by Ron Melicher and Edgar Norton
• Fundamentals of Corporate Finance by Stephen A. Ross
• Venture Capital and the Finance of Innovation by Andrew Metrick and Ayako Yasuda
• Fundamentals of Financial Management by Dr. Eugene F. Brigham

Note: Please check your schools’ course syllabus for the exact textbook used by your professor as the learning materials varies from school to school

Understand Basic Finance Concepts

All aspects of finance begin with the fundamentals. Before diving into financial formulas, you learn about financial accounting; before building financial models, you learn to analyze income statements. Everything begins with the fundamentals and progresses to more complex equations as more conditions and variables are introduced into the formula. As a result, if you don’t understand the fundamental concepts, it will be extremely difficult to build on top of them.

Attending class and taking handwritten notes will help you improve your understanding of fundamental concepts. However, if you continue to struggle after hours of staring at questions, there are numerous support systems in place to assist you in passing the course.

For example, you can reach out to your professor or teaching assistant (TA) to schedule an office hour for them to walk you through the ideas, you can reach out to help centers at your university that have upper years who can help you as well, you could find a private tutor who could help you 1 on 1 to resolve your burning questions, and finally, you could also access homework help apps like Kunduz to help. The problem with the first two options is that these resources are not available all the time, and thus it would take quite some time for your professor or TA to respond to your problems. For private tutoring, it is expensive, as tutors often cost more than $50 USD an hour! Thus, we recommend that homework help apps be the best option for students.

Kunduz helps students in a wide range of subjects including Finance, Accounting, Economics, and many more. They are available 24/7 and respond to questions as fast as 15 minutes while providing step-by-step homework help. It has a vast network of 40,000+ tutors globally and has answered 58M questions in 11 different subjects. It offers one free and two paid subscription plans:

• Free: free question credits for any subject matters
• Standard Plan: $9.99 USD / month for 50 questions
• Unlimited Plan: $14.99 USD / month for unlimited questions

Thus, if you are looking for an affordable solution that can provide you with 24/7 Finance support, Kunduz would be an excellent supplement to your lectures, allowing you to excel in your Finance class!

Kunduz is YC backed global EdTech platform that aspires to democratize education

Go Through Examples Provided in Class

There’s a reason why professors go over examples in class! These examples illustrate key concepts that students will learn in that lecture, and to be honest, the actual exam will most likely have similar issues.

Furthermore, some university professors may not provide practice exams or problems, making learning even more difficult. As a result, it is critical to fully comprehend the in-class examples in order to be prepared for exams.

Practice! Practice! Practice!

Most finance classes will have practice problems for students to use to enhance their learning. Some take in the form of textbook problems, some take in the form of assignments. Frankly speaking, concepts such as time value of money, capital budgeting, and WAAC integral aren’t very challenging once you know how to solve them. It’s more mechanical than abstract, which is why practicing these equations will directly translate to significantly better scores. We recommend students to complete as many practice problems as they can before exams to be fully comfortable with the material.

Additionally, if your instructor gives past tests, that’s a big bonus! Past tests reflect the instructor’s approach of creating questions, and through past tests, students can have a gist of the difficulty of the actual test and format as well!

If you are stuck on a textbook problem, an assignment question, or a past test question, definitely check out Kunduz to get the fastest problem-solving approach and solution from its network of expert Finance tutors!

This article should give students a good idea of how to study finance! If you follow all of the steps outlined in this article, you are very likely to do well in class because it covers some of the most important steps in learning a new subject. Along the way, keep in mind that when you’re stuck on a concept, tools like Kunduz can help you get through it!