The Board of Evaluators, mentioned in the 2011 UFE report, that they noticed a downward trend in quants on the UFE. Today I’ll offer some tips in some aspects of quantifying info in your responses as well as time management tips for the UFE. Keep in mind that this is not a thorough guide to quants.
Within your response
A quick way to add value to your UFE response, often in PMR, Tax, Finance and MDM topics is to quantify some element of the discussion where the fruit hangs low. By this, I don’t mean you should force yourself to always quantify something but often there is an easy opportunity to quantify the discussion. I also don’t mean you should do tons of little quant exhibits as often this quantifying can be done within the text itself and this also makes it much easier for markers to follow.
- In PMR, when having accounting discussions, there is often easy opportunities to quantify the options you are discussing. When discussing an accounting policy choice you could quantify how choosing this policy would impact the financial statements. i.e. Company X can choose to account for revenue under the gross method which will result in sales of $X in 2011. Another option is for Company Y to use the net method for revenue accounting, this will result in $Y in sales. You could, in your conclusion, relate the policy choice to goals the company has with their financial statements. Often these kind of quick quants are easy to do and add that little extra value to your response that could take you from an RC to a C.
- In Tax, it’s very easy and probably necessary in most cases to quantify the results of applying tax rules. When correcting a tax return or offering advice, when the information is there, always quantify the result. i.e. You cannot deduct principle payments on your mortgage but only the interest portion, therefore your expenses must be adjusted by $X and you will owe taxes of $Y plus interest. (If there are multiple changes save the final taxes owing until the end in one conclusion). Bonus: Always good to state at that point that they will need to file an amended tax return.
- In Finance and MDM the scenarios vary a lot and these are two very quantitative areas so it’s difficult to offer general advice but again, look for easy opportunities to use case facts to add value through quants. Calculate that interest rate when the info is there for you or do that extra calculation of how much more money would be earned if retirement were put off for 10 years.
Time Management on Quants
I spent the weekend reviewing and marking 2008, Day 3, Paper 1, “Financial Plan” or “Jim and Karen” which was a good example of a case that can trap you in the quant and also push you to go over your time limit for the case. Candidates that managed their time evenly knew when to drop the quant and move on to other issues therefore scoring (for example) RC across the four indicators earning themselves 12 points. Candidates which had trouble letting go of the quant tended to score one C (or often also two RCs) on the two Finance competencies and NC on the two tax competencies earning themselves 6 or 9 points. The two tax competency indicators were easier than the two finance ones so managing your time evenly would also have made scoring higher overall easier in my opinion.
That said, I will repeat my previous advice, use and outline and plan your time before you start typing. At this point you may still be developing your judgment as to how much time you should allocate to your quant but by UFE day you should be setting timelines and sticking to them. Remember, just because there is a quant, doesn’t make the indicator is more valuable in terms of scoring, each indicator is worth the same, so a rough rule of thumb might be to treat each indicator evenly in terms of time. Of course some are easier than others so use your judgment. There is no single formula to pass the UFE.
One more suggestion, many quants end up being too big with too many items. Think about material amounts and allocate your time to tackle fewer issues (the more material ones) and do them better instead of spreading yourself thin and tackling more issues less accurately.
Bottom Line: Manage your time on quants, spend more time on fewer issues so you do a more accurate quant.
Anyone have more suggestions?