Transcript for:
Key Takeaways from SBL Webinar 2025

Hi, good afternoon everybody and a big welcome to all of you in today's webinar series for SBL for June 2025 attempt and this is Hassan Dosani with you. I hope you guys are keeping well and a big welcome to all of you in today's session. So as always uh Vify organizes the global practice to pass webinars to help all students and the SBL webinar is spread over two days. It will be today and tomorrow same time which is 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Dubai time. Right. So let's get cracking. So what we will cover in our two-day webinar? So on the first day uh I will cover a brief introduction to SBL. Then we will cover all the formats which are testable in your paper. I will teach you all professional skills. Today there are five professional skills and how you can score maximum marks for professional skills. And most importantly today I will talk about all the exam techniques relating to SBL. Exam techniques are extremely important. In fact SBL is all about the right exam techniques. So today I will cover all the basic stuff so that your foundation is strong and then tomorrow we will proceed with uh discussions with high scorers uh prize winners technical articles. I will talk about the latest technical articles tomorrow. Then we will do one drafting as well. So we will solve uh one past paper question one task so that you get a hands-on idea how to link how to draft the answer and then I will share the list of important topics and finally the study plan for last three weeks. Okay. how to ask questions. So this webinar is all about discussions and and uh clarifying your doubts and answering your questions. So I really encourage all of you to ask question are certain rules around it. Okay. So the first thing is because of the large uh number of students attending this global session you will not be able to ask verbal questions using your mic. That option I have disconnected. So the only option you have is that you type your question in the chat box and after couple of slides I will pause. I will go through the chat box and answer your questions. Okay? But what you need to keep in mind is please do not flood my chat box and only ask questions which are relevant or applicable to the slide or to the topic under discussion because I will not be answering any out of scope question that will disturb the flow of the of the lecture. Any nonrelevant questions I will definitely take towards the end of the session but while we are going through the session please limit your questions to the topic or to the slide which has been discussed. All right. Now um a lot of students they ask me that do they have to watch previous webinars. So not really okay but those of you who are self-study students who do not plan to take any of the classes if you are a self-study student then you should watch these two webinars. It's available on YouTube March 2021, sorry, December 2021 and March 2022. Okay, only these two webinars you must watch, but only if you are a self-study student. Those of you who are already enrolled with me, no need to watch any previous webinars because I will be covering everything in our paid live classes. Okay. Uh, very quick introduction. Well, most of you already know me. So, I am basically a chartered accountant and I am working as a CFO in an insurance company based in Dubai for last 15 years and I have been teaching um, SBL for two decades now. I've taught more than 15,000 students and uh but most importantly is this thing you you see this is my WhatsApp number. This is my personal direct private WhatsApp number. So you might want to save it because if you have any doubts in future or any questions in future you can always message me and I will be very glad to assist you. All right. Also, you know, I manage a global WhatsApp group for SBL. It's a free group where students they share their uh they ask questions, they share their information and all those things. So, if you are already part of any of my global WhatsApp group, then it's okay. No need to join this one. But if you are not then this is the link to join the global WhatsApp group. Okay. [Music] Uhhuh. Mar uh thank you very much. Uh give me one minute. A lot of students are not able to join. Uh so because of the capacity issue. Uh give me one minute. I'm just calling the admin team. Dia as I mentioned please do not ask irrelevant questions. I will take these questions towards the end. Okay. So we need to maintain the discipline. All right. So the admin team is uh increasing the limit. It will take 5 to 10 minutes. Okay. Mas if you can just message on the groups where students are waiting. All right. So March attempt was a good attempt and there was there was a lot of high scorers in my batch. This is a very small list but uh there were so many students who scored in ' 70s and in 60s. So it was a very great result. Uh SBL pass rate. So you can see that the global passing rate for SBL for March was 53%. You see this 53%. It is very high for SBL. In fact, it is one of the highest in all the attempts and SBL consistently has been ranging from 51% to 53% pass rate which is in fact the highest passing rate in or amongst all your strategic professional papers. So yeah, I mean you guys stand a very good chance to you know uh pass uh this paper. My pass rate is like close it's between 64 65%. Yeah, it's better than the global average. Now SBL is very very different. I'm repeating these things because I'm sure that there are students who are joining for the first time and they have limited ideas. So I will just talk about important stuff only. So SBL is very different from all your other ACCA papers. A lot of students don't realize this but trust me SBL is very very different and those students who are already enrolled with me you would agree right because now you have an exposure about SBL so it's very very different from all your other papers why is it different because knowledge of topics is less important application of knowledge is more important And this one 50 more than 50% of the paper is common sense. This is a very dangerous thing that more than 50% paper is common sense. What do I mean by common sense? That that you don't require any theoretical knowledge. you will be given some information and you will have to think with your logical mind and give a logical answer. So this is good news for some students and this is bad news for some students. So those students who are street smart who are intelligent and smart they will benefit from this. Okay. But those students who are less street smart, they are more bookish, more theoretical, they love to read and memorize chapters and notes and models. You guys will struggle here because you know you need to forget the theories and apply your logical mind. So nonetheless this one is more than 50% of the paper. So we cannot skip it right. So you have to make sure that you do enough practice so that you get an idea how to handle a common sense question. Okay. So this is a technique which has worked again and again and all my high scorers and all my prize winners including three global prize winners they have applied this technique and I I thought that I will share this with you in the start so that you can start practicing this from now on. So since SBL is a different It requires a different approach. So don't don't think like a student or don't think like an accountant, right? If you want to score good marks in SBL, start thinking like a CFO or start imagine yourself that you are a CFO of that company or you are a finance director of that company or you are a senior leader of that company. Once you start imagining that you are a senior leadership of that company, automatically your brain starts working. H So I know most of you don't even have any working experience and you have not been the CFO yet. But is there any harm in imagining yourself or feeling like a CFO? I mean you can imagine yourself hanging out with a nice girl right so why can't you imagine yourself uh being a CFO so this really helps and when you are drafting your answer don't imagine that you are writing to the examiner imagine that you are explaining your point of view to the board now the board is a noninancial cial people right you are the finance expert but the rest of the board are not finance experts some of them are marketing guys some of them are HR some of them are IT so when you are drafting you just imagine that you are explaining your point to the board they are non- finance professionals so your point should be simple basic and logical so that they can understand all Right? So this technique has been tried and tested. So better you start applying this when you are solving SBL questions and the quality of your answers answers will definitely improve two or three types. Right? Any questions so far? All right. I'm just checking with my technical team. Give me a minute regarding the access. Crazy man. All right. So the next portion is your CBE platform. So as you know that your paper will be on the ACCAS CBE platform which is an online platform and you will have to solve your paper directly on the CBE platform. So I think most of you are aware of the CBE platform. You have seen the SBL paper, but those of you who have not seen the paper, would you like to see the CBE platform? A quick overview. Yeah, I'm getting mixed answers. Yeah. So my paid students, you are already very hands-on but you know those self-study students uh who have not yet joined. So I'll just take a very quick thing because um uh it's important uh for exam techniques as well. So once you log into your CBE platform, you just go to strategic business leader this portion and then you go to ACCA official resources and you go to any uh past exam library and you can open any paper assign yourself any any paper. So let's see I assigned myself uh March June 2024. Okay. Once you assign it, it will pop up pop up here somewhere. SBL where is SBL past March June. So I will resume it. All right. So once you open up the paper this is March June 2024 the name is mentioned on the top left. Okay. So this will this page is called the landing page and in this particular paper how many exhibits have been given? There are four exhibits plus the pre-secene material which was already published beforehand will also be provided to you on your exam day and there are tasks. Okay. And then the response option like word processor, spreadsheet and slides. So exhibits are very simple. You just click on them and they will open up and they will provide you some information which you are expected to read and then you're expected to use them uh in drafting your answer. Right? So these are various exhibits. For drafting purposes we will always use word processor. Okay. for drafting purposes for in SBL. Now all this is restricted to SBL only. So for SBL we will only use word processor. We will never use spreadsheet. Slides we will use. So when do we use slides? If the question specifically says prepare a presentation slide. If the question says prepare a presentation slide then you will use slide and for rest of the questions we will use word processor is just a blank thing okay it's just like a word document but we will never use spreadsheet because there is no use of spreadsheet in SBL it's not a calculation uh paper. It's purely a uh a theoretical write up paper guys. I'm worried about students. Oh, they are they are telling me to restart. Just just give me a minute. I need to understand what they are saying. Oh, it's working now. Yeah. Just just uh just 2 minutes uh give 2 minutes for students who are joining. We will wait for 2 minutes because now uh student count is started increasing. We will wait for 2 minutes while more students are joining. Now Kazir as I mentioned just ask questions which are relevant to the slide under discussion. Okay. I will not be able to take questions like these during the class. At the end I will take such questions. Okay. We will wait one more minute as students are joining in. So let us resume. So first of all those students who were not able to join on time because of this uh number of uh participant restriction. My apologies to you guys. It was an oversight by the my stupid technical team. I am thinking of getting rid of them and firing them. So my apologies. So like uh I basically I was just discussing the very basic stuff about SBL the introduction and how SBL is different and the pass rates. So you have not missed anything important right now. Okay. The important stuff will uh start after a few minutes. Right? But one thing the new students who have joined later you need to keep in mind is that I will be taking questions in the chat box only but please restrict your questions to the slide under discussion. H any non any questions outside that slide under discussion hold it and then in the end I will give sufficient time for all sort of questions. So I was right now just going through the CBE platform. So the important thing which I want to show the important thing which I want to show on the CB platform where a lot of students they make mistakes. So where where is the requirement? Can you see where is the requirement here? Where can I find the requirement? Let's see task one. Ah, so this task section, this tasks is basically your requirement and in SBL there are supposed to be three tasks totaling 100 marks. Okay, but here you are only able to see one task you know. So where are the rest of the tasks? How do we find about the rest of the task? Okay. Yes. So we press next. So you see a button here. Next. So I will press next. So it will go to task number two. And then again I will press next. Oh, what is this? It is saying you have not viewed the entire screen. Please use all scroll bars. Okay. So you have to scroll down this this scroll bar. You see this scroll bar? You have to scroll it down to the fullest. And then on this right corner there's a scroll bar. You have to down it to the fullest. And then you press next. Understood. And then previous. Again I have to scroll down. Previous. And then again I to scroll down right. So this is one thing that if you are not able to move your screen then you have to make sure that all the scroll bars are down. Even this horizontal score bar sometimes this also needs to be to the extreme right. Is that clear? Yes or no? Because if you don't remember this in the exam, you will just get stuck in one task. You will not be able to move to the next task. So you have to make sure that all the scroll bars are moved to the end so that you can move to the next screen. The other thing is a lot of students they ask me do we need to write the question number when we are answering. So there is no need because each task has its own word processor. So you see task number two there's a separate word processor. Task number three there is a separate word processor. So there are three tasks. So there will be three word processors. So it is automatically implied it's understood that when you are solving on this word processor this is task number three. Okay. So there are three separate word processors. So you don't need to mention the task number. Clear. One last thing that in your real exam sometimes the copy pasting function does not work properly. Sometimes uh for example you open a word document and you want to copy from this exhibit. Let's say I want to copy these lines from my exhibit. So I will so the easy way is I will press Ctrl C and then on the word document I will press Ctrl V. So you know this Microsoft Word commands Ctrl C is copy and Ctrl +V is paste you can also copy uh you know like that but sometimes when you copy the CB platform does not copy properly for example it doesn't leave any space in between so it looks like gibbrish so what to do in that scenario when your copy pasting is not working properly then you just copy copy paste but don't try to fix it. Okay, you just cop after copy pasting you just start drafting your answer. Don't try to fix or correct the copy pasted item because the examiner knows that this is a CBE platform bug. All right. One technique if it is if the copy pasting is not working, you might want to refresh the screen. So this is the refresh button, right? So if I if you press refresh. So 70 80% chances that your copy pasting will start working. Okay. Tamana I will cover all these okay so we are done with the CBE platform now it's very important to understand why students they fail SB and basically I read all the examiner's comments to understand the weaknesses and the issues why the examiner has failed students and this is a list of the most common errors as per the examiner. So the first thing is examiner is saying answers are not linked with exhibits. Obviously it's a applicationbased case study based paper. It is mandatory to link all your answers with the information and the scenario. If you give general answers or answers which are not relevant to the scenario even I will not give you any marks. Forget the examiner. So it's mandatory to link your answers with the exhibit. Now, how do you link your answer? I will show you I will teach you uh I will teach you today and I will show you tomorrow once we do a real drafting. Okay. Then the examiner says students they copy paste information from the exhibits without adding own comments or explaining their point. Now you understand copy pasting is definitely allowed but if you just copy paste and move on you will not get any marks. Do you understand what a lot of students they do? They think the examiner is stupid. They think the examiner is a fool and they just copy the exhibit and paste it as their answer and they move to the next question. I will not give marks. Right? So yes, you are allowed to copy paste or pick up some basic relevant information from the exhibit but then you have to explain it that why this point is important. What is in your mind? Why you have picked up this point? what is the impact of this on the business. So it's very important to add your point of view or your comments a certain information. Is this clear guys? All of you English please. Huh? This is a global batch. The third most common reason is that students they overspend time on one particular question. You know there's a allowed time for each question right based on marks allocation but students they tend to overspend time on one particular question and I call it time trap questions. The examiner deliberately gives gives one or two such questions where students uh they are forced to overspend the time and it disturbs your time management. And if you overspend time on one particular question, what happens? Basically you are hijacking the time of the next question and ultimately the student is not able to complete the entire paper. If you if you miss 10 marks or 15 marks or 20 marks because of bad time management, you can never pass SPL. In fact, in my opinion, time management is the number one priority. If you want to pass as well, you have to attend at least at least 95 marks paper. Okay? So, make sure that you do not fall in the time trap. Make sure that you attend at least 95 marks paper. And there are exam techniques how to manage your time which I will teach you in today's session. And then the fifth reason is more than 50% questions are common sense questions. So those students who are very theoretical or bookish you normally they struggle uh in handling common sense questions. Okay. So all of you know your own strengths and weakness. If you feel that you are weak in common sense question, you have one month from now do a lot of practice of common sense questions so that you can handle it properly because more than 50% paper is common sense. So those of you who are already in my regular batch reset batch you are aware of this right? We did like two or three common sense questions. H it's very very important and we will do more questions during the during next month in our revision badge. The sixth most common reason is that some of the students not understanding the requirement correctly. not understanding the requirement correctly. Obviously, if you misunderstand the requirement, you will start answering in the wrong direction, right? And even though you you gave a good answer, you will not get any marks because you did not understand the requirement in the first place. So it's very very important that you understand the requirements so that you're able to pass and this is very common because under in your exam you are stressful right it's a stressful moment for the students so there are high chances that you might misunderstand the requirement so these are the top six most common reasons why student fail fail SPL right the reason I'm sharing this with you is you can start working on these areas from now there are some more um uh reasons uh this one number nine is important students not doing practice or mocks on the CBE platform so most students they do not do timebased mocks on the CBE platform. They are not hands-on with the CBE platform. So obviously it will reflect in the quality of your paper. This one is very important. And sorry guys, I got disconnected. Give me a a few moments to just check everything is okay. Uh all right guys uh am I audible and clear? Yeah I sorry I got disconnected so I'm back now. So in my experience I have seen it many many times that students who gives two papers they tend to fail SBL 90% of the students who give two papers they fail SBL 90%. Y if you give if you're planning to give SBL plus any other paper like AAA or SB or APM whatsoever I have seen that 90% students they fail SPL and the reason is it's it's not because of your preparation the the main reason is that the exam techniques and the approach for SBL is extremely different from the other papers. Right? So when you are giving two papers and preparing for two papers, subconsciously you mess up on the exam techniques and then SBL gets stuck. Okay. So it is my job to identify the risk areas. SBL is an expensive paper. So how many of you are giving two papers in June like SBL plus one more paper 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 15 20 25 30 30 35 all right I approximately 40 students in today's batch are giving two papers so I really wish you all the best 90% students they fail but 10% students they pass Right. So now since you know the risk it is not because of your preparation it is because subconsciously you you mix the tech exam techniques. So you have to be very careful, very mindful that SBL has a very different technique and you do not mix the other subject techniques with SBL and vice versa. All right, a little bit about your paper. So the precine case study will be published 2 weeks before your exam. So your exam is on I guess 3rd 2nd or 3rd of June right? When is your exam? 3rd 3rd of June. So around 20th of May your precen will be published. Now what is a precen thing? that the examiner will publish the case study two weeks before this case study will be tested in your exam. So the case study is normally 10 to 12 pages long and uh it contains information about the company and it contains information about the industry. So, so you you exactly know 2 weeks before which scenario is going to come in the exam. So, is that good or is that bad? What do you think? I think it's really good. I think it's really good. And you can see from the pass rate. So the the precine was introduced in September 2023 and then from September onwards the global passing rate has crossed 50%. So a lot of students are able to pass because you know in advance which industry, which company is going to be there. But do you know a lot of students they make one mistake? They make a one mistake. Once the precin is published, a lot of students they start memorizing the precin research about that industry and gathering all the information about that industry. That's wrong. Okay. The why is it wrong? Because in your exam you are supposed to use precine information just 10%. What did I say? In your exam you are supposed to use the precine only 10%. So what about the 90% of your drafting will be done from where? From the exhibits. Absolutely correct. Right. And in case if the exhibit does not have the relevant information then you will use precine. But students they overfocus on precine and they try to solve the paper using the preene and ignoring the exhibit. You will never pass. Your primary source of information is the exhibit. So those of you who are enrolled with me or planning to enroll with me, don't worry about the precin. I will be conducting a 2day workshop on the precine and I will be guiding you on precin. So do not overstudy the precin right let me lead the show. So the precinct will be there two weeks before and we will go through the preceding. We will try to predict possible questions possible topics. It's a guesswork. Then additional exhibits and tasks will be given on the exam day. Normal three tasks are given. There will always be three requirements and 3 to four exhibits. The paper duration is 3 hours and 15 minutes. So I see there is a lot of confusion about the timing. So the paper is 3 hours and 15 minutes. Okay. And some of the students they ask whether the preceding material will also be available on the exam day. Yes, definitely the precen which was published will also be there. Right? You see this pass paper the preceding information will also be there in case you want to pick up some information from the precin will also be there lia what did I say the paper is 3 hours and 15 minutes so what's the point of asking this question. All right, let me take some questions. So Amy is asking, is the precin study applicable to all the three tasks? Yes, the precin is applicable to all the tasks, but remember we will just use 10%. Precinel, I will ask take these questions later on. Guys, please don't ask questions which are not related to the slide under discussion. I will take such questions in the end. Libera, can you please follow the current one? Okay. Don't cause confusion. Don't be over skeptical. All right, done with the questions. Now are you guys ready to solve SBL question now? Now you have an idea about SBL. Are you guys ready? Not at all. I like your enthusiasm but you guys are not ready. Why? Because you don't know all the formats. So let's go through each format one by one. So the most commonly tested format is this one. either a report or a briefing paper or a briefing note or a memo. So all these have the same format. So 70% of the time this format on your screen will be used. Guys, can you please stop asking irrelevant questions? How many times I have to say this? I'm looking at your questions. I'm deliberately not answering them because they are not related to the slide under discussion. I will lock down the chat box if you keep if you don't follow discipline. You are flooding my chat box. Act maturely. You only ask question which is on the slide right now. Other questions I will take in the end. So report format, briefing paper, briefing note or memo they have the same format. It's very simple. It is basically to from subject date. You have to memorize this to from subject and date. Then you have to give an introduction and then you have to give the closure. Okay, these three are the formats to from subject date introduction para and the closure and your real answer will be here. Your drafting will be here this section after introduction and before the closure you will be typing your actual answer in this portion. Is this clear? Yes or no? Right now it's easy to identify too right the question will tell you that who is asking you for this report you can identify to the from the requirement from is your role again your role will be clearly mentioned h so it's easy now regard Starting role. There are two possible roles in your exam. Either you are an employee of the company or you are an external advisor or an external consultant. So what are the what are the two types of roles? either you are an internal person like an employee of the company or you are a outsider like a external consultant or an external advisor. Okay. So you need to uh determine very very clearly that your role is it internal or is it external. Why is it important? because your drafting tone will be according to your role. H if you are an internal person like you are an employee of the company then you will use words like us we because you are part of the company and if you are an external person external consultant or an advisor then you will use a outsider third party tone like you is this clear. Okay. Uh Raindra is asking what if the date is not mentioned? Raindra in in all your latest papers in the precin format the date will always be given on the landing page. Okay. And in case the date is missing then you just leave it blank. But it the date is always given now. Muhammad Asf very very petty question just follow the format which is in front of the screen. Siman is asking do we need to write in bold or underline? No, please don't waste your time on the format like bold or caps or underline because time management is more important right bakar yes you are right but just simplify and use the same format in all these things simplify your life in the exam there is no hard and fast format right so all this format can work in any type of thing I'm just going through questions okay so subam is asking if the role is NE supposing you your role is NE what is NE you are a non-executive director so Then are you internal or external? My paid students they know right we have done it but new students a non-executive director is internal or external. A non-executive director is also internal. Okay. in keep it internal because a non-executive director I know he's a he's an independent director he's not an employee but he is part of the board a non-executive director is part of the board of directors right and the board is considered internal so even though you are an NE adopt a insider tone okay Now subject where do you pick the subject from? The subject has to be very short and brief. So a a easy technique for subject would be that you just mention the name of the topic. When you read the requirement you will know the topic right? Yes or no? When you read the requirement you will know the topic. If it is it may be external environment it can be big data it can be staff sat dissatisfaction it can be technology so you know the topic right so just mention the name of the topic here short and sweet not more than two or three lines or two or three words and then introduction is also very simple you will write the you will type this report and then you will copy paste the requirement that's it no need to write anything extra and I will show all this tomorrow when we will solve a question right okay now couple of things I want to point out the first thing is are We supposed to write a conclusion in the end? Do we do we are expected to write a conclusive paragraph or a recommendation? No. Do not give any conclusion at the end of the report or do not give any recommendation unless specifically mentioned in the requirement. If the requirement mentions prepare a report and recommend or conclude then of course yes but if the requirement is silent it does not talk about any conclusion or recommendation then no need. Okay. The second thing is sometimes um there are two requirements let's say task 1 a and task 1 b okay and both of them are supposed to be done on the same format on the single format so let's say it says draft a report and then it says 1 a and 1 b so Both of them are to be drafted in the same report. So how do we handle that? So it is it is a combined report right? It's a consolidated report which should include both 1 A and 1 B. So how do we handle that? It's very simple. In the subject you will write the first subject, one A subject and one B subject. And in the introduction you will write 1 A requirement and then you will write and and then you copy paste 1 B requirement and then through the main headings you can segregate between 1 A and 1 B. Yes, the recording will be published. Clear guys? Okay, let me uh clean this a bit. All right. So we are done with the reporting report or a briefing paper or a briefing note or a memo. 70 to 80% of your paper revolves around these this format. Any questions with this format before I move to the next format? Now what you need to keep in mind is that when you are making the format you have to be very fast because if you spend more time on just making the format it will leave you less time for drafting portion. Right? So you have to be mindful that you make the format very quickly to from subject date introduction and the speed can many questions on the CB platform and automatically your speed will be there. Do not waste your time in beautifying the format because it will reduce your drafting time. Okay, done. Another format which can be tested is that the examiner will say draft a section of a report. Draft not a full report but it says draft a section of a report. So it's very simple. You will give the heading. You will give the heading section of a report. Thus, no to, no from, does the subject, introduction. And then your main body of the answer and the closure. Okay. A section is a of a report is a smaller format. It does not include to from date but the rest are the same like report formatting. So you need to memorize these formats. Okay. Any marks for formatting. Obviously the professional marks covers your formats and your presentations. Professional marks uh includes all these things. The third format which can be tested is draft and email. Same format like report almost same you just give the top heading email to from subject date. give an introduction paragraph but don't give the heading of introduction and then your main answer and then the closure. So the only difference between email and report is that introduction heading the heading is not there rest everything is same. Okay. Now this one very very important in almost all paper almost 80% of the papers you are asked to prepare a presentation slide. Okay. You are asked to prepare a presentation slide and although it is very easy but for some reason students they get confused in this because you overthink. So please unlearn undo your previous knowledge and try to understand what I'm going to explain in very simple way. So whenever the question says prepare presentation slide, the first thing you need to do is on your CB platform, you will open up the slide section. Whenever a presentation slide is required, then you will not use the word processor. Instead, you will prepare the slides using this option. Can you see this option slides? You'll click on slides. Okay. When you click on slides, you will see two things. You will first see slide number one. Can you see this slide number one? And so it's a box. Okay. Slide number one. And then underneath this slide you will see slide number one speaker note. Okay. So slide number one has two component components. Number one is the actual slide itself followed by slide number one speaker notes or sometimes they call it uh accompanying notes or supporting notes whatever doesn't matter. So each slide will have two component. The main slide followed by the speaker node. Then slide number two followed by slide number two speaker node. Are you clear up till now that each slide will have two portions? The main slide followed by its accompanying or speaker notes. Okay, good. So now the next question is what do we write in the slide and what do we write in speaker notes? Why there are two things right? So I will show it on my screen. So you see the purpose of a presentation slides normally the presentation slides are always bullet points. Okay, if you have seen any good presentation in your organization, the slides do not have long stories or long paragraphs. Slides are normally bullet pointers, right? Clear. So in the slide you will your points will be in bullet form and where will be the explanation of these points. So obviously when you are giving a bullets you will have to explain your point of view right. So that drafting that paragraph will be done here in the supporting notes. I will repeat that the the first page the main slide will only have bullet pointers and the your drafting your paragraph explaining these points will be written in the supporting notes. Is this clear? Yes or no? Right. The third thing is supposing you gave three bullets on your slide which means you will talk about three points right. So how many paragraph should I expect to see here under supporting notes? Exactly three. Yes. So if there are three bullets, so the supporting notes will have three paragraphs or explaining each point in one paragraph. Okay? So you can you just follow the sequence. For example, my first bullet is high turnover. So my first paragraph will talk about high turnover. No need to give subheading. it will waste your time. My second point is low staff morale. So what is in your mind? What are you trying to explain? That will be a second paragraph. And the third point, so you just follow the sequence and just explain. Is this clear? It is very simple. But because of your previous I don't know learning or misguidance a lot of students they get nervous when they uh come across a slide. Keep it very simple. It's just like a normal point. It's just that the headings the headings will will come here as a bullet point and the explanations of those headings will be given here as supporting notes. If there are two bullet points here, there will be two paragraphs here. If there are four bullet points here, then you have to write four paragraphs here, one for each point. That's it. Ranav, I will cover this after a few minutes. And don't give subheadings here, okay? because you'll be wasting your time. As long as you follow the right sequence, each point and each paragraph, it's understood. Ark is saying the bullet points will be in the task. No, this is your answer. It will be from the exhibit. So you will pick up your points from the exhibit and then you will give the right headings according to your points which you have picked up and then you will explain your point. Clear? concede. I will cover that later. If if I am doing this on the CB platform, slide number one, I will give three bullets here and slide number uh one speaker notes. I will give three paragraphs here. Okay. How many bullets on one slide? It depends on the marks. Okay, it depends on the marks. I will teach you when I'm explaining marks allocation. All right. So, we are done with the presentation slide format. Huh. Let me just um clean this up a bit. It's all very so dirty now. All right. The next format is a letter. A letter. This letter format has been tested very very rarely. I think in it's just been tested two times, maximum three times. But uh nonetheless you need to be familiar with this format. Okay. So I will just explain the format. Just a second guys. Um so the letter again you will need to memorize this format. On the top you will give the heading letter then the date then you will write dear CEO or whoever you need to address to then you will give the subject then you will give the opening paragraph or the introduction that this letter that's the introduction paragraph then your main answer will be here followed by the closure the same components but in a different sequence so you better u um learn this format. Okay. Then there is something called press release or website release. Again this was this is tested very very rarely one or two times only but I thought I will just share the format just memorize it. When the question says draft a press release or a website release. So you give the heading. Can you give the subject, name of the chairman or the CEO, name of the company and the date. This will be your opening sentence or introduction. Your main answer will be here. And this will be the closure. Okay? It's a different format. Rarely test it. So uh just um memorize this format. Okay. name of the chairman or the CEO because any press release is only authorized or uh released by the chairman or the CEO. Now again a very specific thing sometimes only I think one time only the examiner wanted you to prepare a business case it's a very specific topic business case it's a it's relating to a topic called project management all right so business case is a document under project management so very specific requirements so if you get a business case there are three main headings. The first heading you have to give is current situation or current problem. So you will write one paragraph on what is the problem. Then you will talk about various options here and in the last you will give select an option. Okay just a very simple format for a business case. is just tested once in five years. Then again another format for under project management it is called project initiation document or in short form is P. So, P has a uh these are the standard headings of a P. So, I'm not going into explanation because it is a very technical topic. You need to be familiar with project management topic. It's in my top 25. But in the exam, this has been tested two times. The good news is the examiner will not ask you to prepare a P. You are you will it have never asked to prepare a P. They will give you a P ID as an exhibit. Okay. So in the past it has been tested two times and both of the times the P was provided to you in the exhibit and you were asked to identify the mistakes or missing elements. So how if I give you a P ID and if I ask you can you identify the missing elements. So how will you do it? It's very simple right? If you know the content these are the contents of a P right this is the standard content. If you remember these contents then you can compare and whatever heading is missing you just say that this these are the missing elements right okay so very rarely tested but I have given this I will share this handout okay I will share this handout tomorrow after the webinar so that all these formats That's you can revise and memorize. Is that okay? The last thing which I want to talk about for under format is many times the examiner asks you to identify a weakness and give recommendation. Okay, you see these words, these are very important words. Identify weakness and give recommendation. So there are two things right. First of all you need to identify the weakness. So from the exhibit you will identify the weakness. You will talk about the impact of that weakness that what damage the weakness can do right and then you have to suggest how they can fix those that weakness. So when the so there are basically two requirements right one is identifying the weakness and then once you have identified the weakness you have to give a recommendation. So in this kind of a question I always suggest a tabular format in your CV platform you can easily make a table. So on the left corn column you will talk about the weakness you will write the weakness here including the impact and in front of it you will give a recommendation. Then again weakness number two and then a recommendation and then and so forth. weakness number three depending on the marks. Same thing can also apply on risk management if the question says identify the risk and give recommendation. So on the left corner you will identify the risk and discuss the impact and on the right column you will give the mitigation recommendations. So always try to use a tabular format. It will simplify your answer and uh and it will look neat and clean, more organized. All right, let me look at the question box. Uh Rajat, the top 25 is 2 years old. That doesn't it's okay doesn't matter because the important topics are still the same. There is no change in the syllabus. So please you can easily use them. What else? Weakness in internal controls. Yes. Correct. Can we insert table in a report or a briefing paper? Absolutely. Yes. If you're making a report, you can insert a table. So, do you know how to insert a table? Let me go to my CV platform. I will open the word document. And it's very easy to insert the table here. Okay. You go here and here you see this box. This is the table. You will click on this. table and then how many columns I need? Two columns. How many rows? I need let's say five rows. It will include a table. You will write here weakness/impact. You will write here recommendation. And then you will start drafting your points here. Again guys, you're asking nonrelevant questions. So I kind of I have to ignore them. Please keep them towards the last. Okay. I will answer those in the last. All right. So we are done with the formats. So now you guys knows all the formats. Now now you think you will be able to solve a question. Yes. No. Now most of you know know this. Yes, you are not ready. Why you are not ready? Because professional skills you need to understand all the five professional skills before we start drafting. Right? So guys uh I will talk about professional skills and then I will give a break. Is that okay? All right. So do you know how many professional skills are there in SBF? How many professional skills? Five. Why people are writing 20? Don't you hear the question properly? How many professional skills are there? Five. Evaluation skill, analysis skills, commercial acumen, communication and skeptical skepticism. All right. There are five professional skills. Now, how many marks does professional skills carry in total? 20 marks. Yes, professional skills carries 20 marks. Now my third question. Professional skills represent what percentage of your total marks? Professional skills marks represent what percentage of your total marks? 20%. That's a lot. 1/5th or 20% of your total marks is just professional skills. 1/5 of the paper. So if you score good marks in professional skill, do you think it will give you a solid start? Obviously, right? So, supposing professional skills is 20 marks and you are able to score 15 marks. It's not possible to score 20 out of 20. Okay, that's it's a theoretical paper. But let's say you score 14 or 15 marks just on professional skills. That's great, right? because then you just need to look for uh 35 more marks to pass. So I call these I call I don't call them professional marks. I call them cash marks. This these are cash marks. Yes, they are lowhanging fruits. No technical theoretical knowledge is required. No model is required. As long as you understand what these skills are, you can easily score 14 or 15 marks. These are cash marks. You should never miss these marks. Try to score maximum here. Okay. So a lot of students they ask me sir what is the most important topic we should prepare if you want to pass and I tell them professional marks because that rep because that represents 20% of the paper in and it's there in every attempt short it's there in every attempt you know so vetana is saying we cannot score professional marks If we struggle to answer the question, absolutely correct. So if you struggle to answer the question then you will not get professional marks. Right? But if you manage to answer the question reasonably okay. Okay. You might get good professional marks. Right? So let me quickly explain you or teach you the professional skills marks. So the first one is called evaluation skill. The examiner will say demonstrate evaluation skill. So each question will clearly tell you which skill you need to demonstrate. Do you understand that each task will clearly tell you that in this task which professional skills you need to demonstrate. So you exactly know which skill to focus on. So the first skill is evaluation skill and again those students who have learned from other teachers or other sources please undo or unlearn and try to understand in very simple words I will explain. I will not go into theoretical or philos philosophical explanations. I will just give you focused exam oriented technique to solve evaluation skill. Evaluation skill simply means that when you are drafting your answer, you have to include both advantages and disadvantages. When you are drafting your answer, your answer should include both positive points and negative points. When you're drafting your answer, your answer should include both pros and cons. So you have to when we say evaluate, you have to cover both sides. the good side like advantages or pros or favorable as well as the negative side like uh disadvantages or cons or unfavorable or risks. Understood? So as long as your answer includes both positive points and negative points, you will get evaluation skills mark. Is that clear? Yes or no? Okay. So my next question is supposing you are expected to write 10 points. Okay. The question requires 10 points. So how many positive points and how many negative points? So my paid students already know this but new students they are saying five each. It's not like that. It all depends on the availability of information. It all depends on the exhibit. If the exhibit has more positive points and less negative points, I will just follow that flow. If the exhibit has more negative points and less positive points, I will just follow that flow. Okay? So there is no hard and fast rule of equal points or 50/50 points. It all depends on the information. Is this clear? Yes or no? So the third possibility the question might say critically evaluate. So they add this word critical. The question might say critically evaluate. So what is this word means critically? Critically means critically comes from the word criticize and criticize means negative points. Find out more find out faults, find out negative points. Criticize means find the mistakes, find the missing things or negative or unfavorable. So if the question says critically evaluate then you have to focus more on negative points. Supposing 10 points are required. So you might give one maximum two positive points but majority of the points like eight or nine points could be negative because the question says critically evaluate then you have to criticize. But if the question is silent, it just says evaluate then you are not bound. then you are just follow the information and you can give pros and cons according to the exhibit. But when it says critically evaluate when you have to focus on identifying negative points they should be in majority. Is this clear? I'm done with evaluation. It's very simple. Let me recap. If it says demonstrate evaluation skill, make sure that you include both pros and cons, both positives and negatives, both favorable, unfavorable points. The split or mix should not be half and half. It's not mandatory. It just follows the information available. And the third possibility is if the question says critically evaluate then in that case majority of your points should be negative because you're expected to criticize. Prakar is asking does evaluation need conclusion? Not at all. No conclusion Baba no conclusion unless the question specifically says. Please don't overthink. Okay. Pros and cons should be in a tabular format. No. Why not? No. It can be in a paragraph form. No need for tabular. Okay. Dawn. You're absolutely correct. No. Uh sometimes you need to read the requirement to understand. Huh. Don. Uh the technical might be different requirement and professional skill different requirement. All right. Uh uh Oon is asking can you get evaluation marks when your pros and cons are wrong? No way. If your pros and cons are wrong you will not get evaluation skills. You know the professional marks is linked with your technical answer. If your technical answer is correct then you will get good professional marks. But if your technical answer is wrong your profession you will also lose professional marks. All right. Can we use bullet points for pros and cons? No. I I never recommend bullet points. Always give a paragraph style and I will cover this. Just wait. I will cover all this. Yes, Rose, you're absolutely correct. All right. The second skill is analysis skill. Again, very easy. Analysis skill simply means identifying the reason or issue or root cause. That's it. When you analyze, you're basically expected to investigate or identify the reason for variance or the root cause of any issue. Why it is happening? What is the reason for this? Okay, for example, let's say the revenue or the sales of the company has fallen dramatically. Okay, the sales revenue has fallen dramatically this year. So what so when the board when the board will see this what question they will ask to the CFO? If you are the board and the CFO is making a presentation and the sales revenue has fallen dramatically you will ask no baba why what's the reason why our revenues are down this year? So that reason or root cause or the issues when you identify them that's analysis skill. So can you give me two or three possible reasons why how sales revenue can fall. Poor quality. High competition. Low demand, poor customer service, bad marketing, economic recession, lower purchasing power, bad after sales service, pandemic enough. This is you just demonstrated analysis skill. Okay, done clear. So, analysis skill is simply when you identify the reason or the root cause or the issues, you will get analysis skills. Is this clear? Yes or no? Good. The third one is communication skill. Again very simple. Communication skill is how you are drafting your the tone of your answer. You think do you think a good CFO should have good communication skills? Absolutely right. Absolutely. Why does a good CFO need to have a good communication skill? Why? Because you see most of the board is non financial people most of the board are non- financial only you are a finance expert but other directors they are expert in their own areas they are not expert in finance. So when a CFO is explaining things, he has to explain in simple layman language so that the others can understand. Right? So do you think my communication skill is good or bad? What do you think? It's good. Thank you. Why? Because I keep in mind my target audience. I keep in mind my target audience. Who whom am I talking to? And then you know I'm explaining the point at the level which you guys can understand. Right? So same thing you will need to do in the exam that your tone of your answer the way you are explaining your point should be very simple and basic. You should not sound like an accountant. You should not use very technical accounting things. Just talk simple normal your it you need to keep your m in mind your role and whom you are addressing the report to and the format the tone whether you are internal whether you are an external person these basic things are considered as communication skill nothing extra needs to be done just explain your point in simple words. Keep in mind your role. Keep in mind whom you are writing to. Whether you are internal, you will use an insider tone. If you are external, you will use external tone. Give the proper format. And it's done. Communication skills understood. Yes or no? All right, the fourth I think. Let's take a break now. Let's take a small break. After the break, I will complete the two remaining skills and then we will talk about exam techniques. Okay. So I can give you uh 17 minute break. It is 653. 17 minute break it is 6:53 here. Uh let me write this break 17 minutes 653 and how much is 17 minutes? [Music] 53703713710 right ah let me write 71 7 1 0 is that correct 10 minutes and 7 minutes all right guys see you in 17 minutes. All right. So the fourth professional skill is called commercial acumen skill. What does commercial acumen means? that students should be able to demonstrate their understanding of the business not just finance but overall business understanding should be there. Okay. So do you think a good CFO should have a good understanding of the business and the industry dynamics? Yes or no? Absolutely. Yes. You know if if the CFO does not have understanding of the business, understanding of the industry dynamics, the macro micro environments, he can never be able to analyze the performance, make budgets or take decisions or evaluate proposals. So a very important component of any finance leader is that they should understand the overall business and just not finance. Right now all of you all of you have commercial acumen skill. I guarantee I know it. But for some reason you don't know it or you don't realize it because you might have some wrong concept about commercial acumen or some other teachers have described it in a different manner. But I can tell you right now each one of you has commercial acumen skills because you are a Gen Z Bacha H right. So let me test you. Few moments back I had asked one question that the sales revenue has fallen and what can be the possible reasons. Remember and all of you gave several possible factors that is commercial acumen. Do you remember the reasons? Poor quality, bad customer service, high competition, recession and so many other things. That is commercial acumen. What else is commercial acumen? This is it. So you understand the business. What what are the drivers behind the revenue? What are the macro internal factors? External factor. All right. Now, let me ask you another question. Customer satisfaction rating. Customer satisfaction rating. Tell me, higher the better or lower the better? Good. You have business knowledge. So supposing our customer rating has dramatically fallen. Is that good or bad? Supposing our customer satisfaction rating has dramatically fallen. That's bad, right? See you have commercial acumen. This is not accounting knowledge, right? This is basic business. Okay. What can be the possible reasons behind falling customer satisfaction, poor quality, bad customer service, absolutely poor staff. This is commercial acumen. Who says you don't know commercial equipment? Okay, let me test you in one more scenario or two more scenarios. Staff turnover. Do you know what is the meaning of staff turnover? That your staff is leaving What is the opposite of staff turnover? Uh it's called staff retention. Yes. And the staff turnover, the opposite is staff retention. Okay. Let's talk about staff turnover. Staff turnover. Higher the better or lower the better? Staff turnover. Higher the better or lower the better? Lower the better. That's commercial. Okay. Now, our staff turnover has doubled this year. Is that good or bad? That's bad. High staff, high staff turnover is always bad. What can be the possible reasons for high staff turnover? Low pay, low salary, demotivation, bad working environment, poor working conditions, lack of training, demotivation, bad culture, bad ethics, higher salary by competitors. Yeah. Lack of growth. Very good. Poor health and safety. Very good. So done guys. This is commercial acument enough. Should we go for online business? Should we consider online business? Why? What can be the advantages of online business? Global reach, lower cost, smart, able to target younger generation. It's more faster, more convenient for the customers 24/7 of target marketing, personalized marketing, twowe ah you know. So this is all commercial acumen. So we spoke about HR staff turnover. We spoke about it. We spoke about customers. We spoke about revenues. And you knew all these answers with common sense, right? This is commercial acumen. Nothing extra needs to be done. When when you reach the exhibit and you just pick up your points from the exhibit and answer based on your logics that's done. Yeah. It's same as analysis skills. Yeah. Everything is related with each other. So guys, is commercial acument clear? Yes or no? Okay, the last one is skepticism skill. Skepticism means being skeptical. And do you know what the meaning of skeptical? Being skeptical means what? Skeptical means questioning mind, doubting, being alert, being extra careful. Right? So you must have studied this in audit double A or AAA that an auditor should have a skeptical mindset or a skeptical approach. Right? Auditor should not accept anything on face value. They should probe, they should challenge, they should check, doublech [Music] check. So that is for the auditors. Now, do you think a good CFO should also have a skeptical approach? Yes, of course. In my role as a CFO, I have a big finance team under me. Okay. So whatever they do, whatever analysis they come to me, shall I accept it without checking or asking questions? No, I cannot trust them blindly. They can make errors or they do not have that experience or wisdom. So I will check their work. I will question. I will counter question. I will check some of sample bases and then once I'm satisfied I will sign off skepticism. Similarly, when I sit on the board, when I attend board meetings, there are other directors, marketing director, HR director, technology director, operations director. When when they say something, should I accept that on face value? No. I will ask questions. I will challenge them or ask questions or probe further before I agree with them but in a respectful manner. You know, you just don't probe unnecessarily. You probe, you ask the right questions in a respectful manner because we are all one team, right? We are all one company. So skepticism skill is a very important skill which you need to demonstrate. Now in your exam, how do you um demonstrate skepticism skill? There are two or three ways. Number one, you can disagree with something. So if you were use words like I disagree or it seems incorrect or it doesn't seem appropriate or it should be further checked all these words I disagree or it's it it's it seems inaccurate. This is skepticism. You are challenging. You are disagreeing respectfully. And when I disagree or when you say I disagree you have to give your reasons or argument right why you are disagree you just say I disagree and then without any reason that's unprofessionalist if you disagree then you have to give a reason or your own argument what's your point of view Then the other way is you can ask questions. You can ask a question somewhere that how have you arrived at this conclusion or what is the basis to support these numbers? It's your right. If you don't have enough information then you can ask for more information. That's a questioning tone. Okay. So, right. So, there are two broad ways in which you can demonstrate skepticism in your paper. Number one is you can disagree or challenge something. Number two, you can ask a relevant question putting a question mark at the end of the sentence. This will get you skepticism skills marks. The last thing I want to point out is supposing we require 10 points. Okay, supposing uh we require 10 points and we have to demonstrate uh skepticism skill. So should we do we need to demonstrate skepticism skill in all the 10 points? No, not at all. It's not practically possible to disagree with each and every point. So if we are supposed to write 10 points, I will adopt a skepticism tone in maximum two points. Yes puja you can maximum two points or if max two points max three points not all the points otherwise the examiner will think that you are a pessimistic person you are a sadist and you you have a personality to disagree with everything you are a loner. So in the exhibit you just pick up one or two points where you can challenge or disagree or ask question. The rest of the points will be normal tone. Only two paragraphs, maximum three, you will challenge or disagree or ask a question. Is this clear? Yes or no? Very nice. So in my opinion, skepticism skill is the most difficult skill out of the five skills because you have to deliberately change the wording or change the way you are drafting for two or three paragraphs. You have to use the word I disagree or it's incorrect or what is the logic. You know you have to deliberately insert these words in two paragraphs or three two points or three points. If you forget you will lose skepticism marks. All right. So we are done with with the five professional skills. Analys I let me just recap. Analysis uh evaluation skills we have to include both pros and cons. Analysis skills we have to identify the reason the root cause or the issues. Communication skill we have to keep our role in mind our reader or addressy in mind and the tone of our answer simple language so that non- finance people can understand commercial acument skill you just talk in business language based on the exhibit nothing extra needs to be done. Skepticism you will probe or you will challenge or you will disagree. Done. Very nice. As I said um the question will always tell you which skill you need to demonstrate. For example, let's let me open this task. You see four marks professional skills are available for demonstrating evaluation skills. So in this question what you will do you will get technical marks but no professional skills evaluation skills what you will do you will include both pros and cons positive points and negative points because it also says balance assessment balance assessment assessment means both sides of the coin. Okay? Balance doesn't mean five and five. Balance assessment means positive points as well as negative points. Question number two. Let me check task number two. 2 a Professional marks available for demonstrating communication skills. What do you need to do? Nothing. Just use simple language. B explain your points nicely in in a simple lay man language. The format, the tone, internal, external. That's it. nothing extra needs to be done. 2B demonstrate analysis skills. This is regarding some employee dissatisfaction. So again we have to analyze or identify the reasons the root cause why employees are dissatisfied. The reasons Let's look at task number three. Demonstrate skepticism skill by questioning the adequacy. It's clearly very simple. You have to demonstrate skepticism skills by questioning the adequacy of the risk mitigation activities. You will say it doesn't look uh you might say it doesn't it does not look adequate. It does not look uh complete. I disagree with this. It's incomplete. It's not effective. All these challenging points challenging drafting. But should we demonstrate in each and every point like for 20 marks we are supposed to give 10 points. Should we demonstrate skepticism in 10 points? No. Maximum two to three. And then 3B says demonstrate commercial acumen relating to e-arketing. Again very simple you will talk about e-arketing. That's automatically commercial acumen. Is this clear guys? We are done with cash marks. I want you to score very high in cash marks. Good guys. The last leg for today is exam techniques. I want your full attention and your full concentration on this segment. You know exam techniques actually decide your pass your passing or your failure largely depends on how you have handled the paper in those 3 hours and 15 minutes. So if you have studied very hard 2 months, 3 months, four months but if you screw up on the exam day, if you don't follow the exam techniques properly, you will fail. But if some student has studied less but he has followed proper exam techniques, he might still pass. So exam techniques is very very very important for SBL. Are you guys ready? Okay. The first thing is time management. As I said earlier, time management is the number one reason why students fail SBL. Most students are not able to complete the paper mainly because they fall in the time trap. What is the time? What is time trap? That they spend extra time on one particular question and in the end they run out of time and they are not able to complete the paper. So time management technique is very very important and I will explain to you. So the total time allowed is 3 hours and 15 minutes. Okay. So how do you utilize this time? So it is my suggestion that you can spend 10 to 15 minutes on reading and planning and the remaining 3 hours on drafting. Is this clear? Yes or no? So if we if we have 3 hours and 15 minutes, I always suggest that you spend 10 to 15 minutes on going through the exhibits, the requirements, planning and 3 hours on draft. Now what do we do in reading and planning when I say spend 15 minutes what are you supposed to do? So these are the things which you will do in the first 10 to 15 minutes. Normally it will take maximum 7 to 10 minutes but on the safe side I'm saying 15 but this should not take more than 10 minutes. So what are the things you will do? So when you open the paper the first thing is you will read the information provided on the landing page. That's the first thing. Let's do it. Okay. So, when you open this paper, where is the landing page? This is the landing page. Remember the first screen where you will land. Guys, can you please stop your questions? I'm not answering questions right now. Hold it. When you open the paper, the first screen which comes in front of you is called the landing page. So the first thing you will do is you will read this information. So it says here Yexarine is a company which builds cruising yachts and board repair services in Newland. Okay. It tells us the name of the company, the nature of business and the name of the country. Okay. But this information you are already aware because it's already there in the precin, right? So what is more important is is the second paragraph. X-Marine is seeking advice on a number of issues from Trenard Consultants and you work for Trenard Consultants. So this this is our role train consultants. So where you will find your role? Your role will be mentioned on the landing page. So here in this scenario we are uh we work for tren consultants. So in all the formats reports briefing paper email whatever format is required. So your role will be constant throughout you will write trout consultants. Is this clear? Yes or no? Okay. So now very good. Now tell me in this particular case study are you internal or are you external? We are an external person. We are external consultants. So your drafting tone will be an outsider tone, a third party tone like you. Instead of saying us or we, we will say you because we are an outsider. Is this clear? Okay. And then it says it is currently September X3. So what is this now? It is the date. Always a date will be given to you. So in in all the formats wherever you require date you will write September 20x3. Just one word of caution that the precin mentions a date. Sometimes there is a date given in the precinene as well which might be different from this date. It might be August 20 x3 or July 20 x3. Should we use the date of the pre-cene or should we use the date of the landing page? What do you think? Yes, landing page. Always we will always use the landing page. The date mentioned on the landing page and not the date mentioned in the Yex marine if any. Then it will tell you following exhibits are given. How many exhibits are there? 1 2 3 and four. The first exhibit is overview of investment projects. Overview of investment projects. And then here it says it b it basically includes a summary of proposals for the product development. So can you guess what will be this exhibit contains what it is something to do with some proposed projects or investment projects. The second one is strategy committee and staff reaction. So from the from the name of the exhibit you can also guess that this exhibit will contain what? It will talk about strategy committee and it will talk about staff reaction and an explanation is here as well that it is a memo from the chief executive detailing his proposal blah blah blah. Forget the third exhibit is risk mitigating activities. Can you guess by the name it will include what? Risk mitigating activities you know self-explanatory name. And the fourth exhibit is board meeting on marketing approach. So can you guess what will be in this exhibit? some information relating to marketing. Why you are saying earketing? Marketing. Huh? If you read here, it might say it's e marketing. So most of the time when you read the name of the exhibits you will know that this exhibit will contain what kind of information? Yes or no? Yeah. So let me recap. When you open the paper for the first time, you will look at your role. What is your role? You will look at the date because these two things are required in the format. And you will look at the list of exhibits to to to identify what kind of exhibit or what kind of information has been provided. If you don't understand from the name, you can either read this portion or you can actually open the exhibit and make you know you can judge but you don't have to don't have to read the exhibits. You just understand what are the exhibits about. So all this should take how much time reading identifying your role identifying the date and identifying the exhibit? I think maximum 1 to 2 minutes. Oh 15 minute. All this what we did. How much time it will take? 5 minutes. You are crazy. One to two minutes max. idiots. Let me open another paper. Let's do it again. Come on. Let's do it again. And you time yourself now. Okay. Come on, boy. Wait. It's loading. Let me open specimen paper one. All right, your time starts now. I'm done. You are done. Please write done. It should not take more than 30 seconds. Max 1 minute if I'm being generous. If it takes you more then you are in trouble. So what's our role? We are an independent business analyst employed by PSS to advise the board. Slightly tricky. Let me read again. You are an independent business analyst employed by PSS to advise the board. Internal or external? Definitely external. Definitely external because it says independent business analyst and our role is to advise the board. So advisory role consultant this word is confusing employed right it's a confusing word it mainly means you know engaged but for me you are an independent business analyst engaged maybe by PSS to advise the board external why because independent and we are supposed to advise. So we are advisory role advise the board right date September X3. What are the exhibits? Contract terms to supply bad mattresses. Some terms regarding supply of bed mattresses. Staff survey result. I can guess is email from HR director. What kind of email? So I looked here. This email talks about staff training and development. Very nice email from finance director about what? I looked here issues identified by audit and risk committee. So anything which you are not able to judge from here read this and you will know. Done. Okay. So that's the first thing we did. We read the information provided on the landing page. Maximum 30 seconds to identify our role to identify the date and to identify what exhibit has been provided. Second step, copy paste all task in the scratch pad. I read again. Second step is copy paste all task in the scratch pad. Now why do we need to copy paste all the tasks? I will just explain the reason and then you will understand the importance of this. So my first question do we need to go through the requirements when we open the paper should we not read the requirements so that we exactly know what are the tasks ha of course that's the first thing we do I need to know what are the requirements But the thing is the requirements are not on one page. You see the requirements are scattered. They are not on one page. There are three pages because there are three tasks. So you have to scroll to three different pages. Right? So I open task number one and I will just copy the technical requirement. This uh bold thing. How can you copy? Click three times. 1 2 3 and it will automatically select the entire paragraph. To save time, I want to copy this only. One option is you select your mouse and you do like this. A faster one is 1 2 3 Ctrl C. Where is the scratch pad? You will see the scratch pad here on the landing page. I will paste here. Okay. 2 B CRL Ctrl V. Then where is task number two? I have to scroll down the scroll bars. Press next. And then task number two is here. I'll open task number two. I will copy. Ctrl C scratch pad A and B done. And then task number three I'm done. So what I did right now I just opened all the task one by one and I just copy pasted the technical requirement. Forget the professional marks, forget the background, forget the marks and everything. Just copy paste the technical requirement. And I copy pasted it on scratch pad. Nowhere else. Only scratch pad. How much time do you think it will take for you to copy paste all the requirements on the scratch pad? and think properly before you write. I don't want answers. I think maximum 2 minutes you know maximum 2 minutes faster the better but maximum 2 minutes. Okay. Now can any brilliant student tell me that why did I copy pasted all the requirements on scratchpad? Why did I waste my 2 minutes to copy paste all the requirements? The reason is very simple. The all the three requirements are scattered. Right? When you read the when you read task number one, you know what is there. But when you will move to task number two, you will forget task number one. And when you move to task number three, you will forget task number three. It is not possible to remember all the task, right? It this much multitasking at least I cannot do. I don't know about you. So what I did was to simplify my life I copy pasted all the requirements on one page. Now I can read them and plan myself then I don't have to go forward back forward back again and again because I have copy pasted all requirements on one page. Now I can read them. I can plan which answer should I start from. Do you understand now? Do you understand the reason why I always suggest to copy paste all the requirements on scratchpad? It will take 2 minutes, right? But it will save your 5 10 minutes going forward. So now I will read the requirement from here. So it's it says repair evaluate the opportunities and challenges which must consider in relation to the proposed contract with zeal and health. So I just bolded it B. So the topic is proposed contract with zeal and health. The second topic is explain the actions which PSDs will need to take to comply with EMAs. So the topic is EMAS. Outline the key areas which should be included in its environmental policy. So I'm just trying to identify the topic. Amy, are you are you following now that I'm now reading and trying to identify the topics? Okay, next one. Assess the issues raised by the staff in the survey. It's it the topic is staff survey and recommend actions. Draft an email which advises on how a talent management program. Talent management programs means training and development of staff. And then the third one is benefit from analyzing and using data from online customers. Benefits from analyzing and using data from online customers, threats of undertaking big data analytics. The topic is big data analytics and potential impact of the weakness. So it is something about internal control weakness. So when you read the requirement you can easily identify what are the questions and what topics what areas of the syllabus. So question number one a is something to do with some proposed contract. 1 b is something to do with eass and environmental policy. 2 a is to do with staff survey. 2 is to do with talent management program. 3A is to do with big data and online data analytics and 3B is to do with some internal control weaknesses. So these are the six topics in your exam. Are you clear up till now? All right. So we done we did the second step. Copy paste all the task in scratch pad and then read all the task and identify the topic. We done that right. Let's try to link the exhibits. So task number one a do we have an exhibit proposed contract with zeal and health. Which exhibit you think contract terms to supply in? I think this one zeal and health is the largest proposed contract. So which exhibit you think is relevant here? Very good. You will write ex1 You will write exhibit one that when I will attempt this question I need to read exhibit one. Then is there any exhibit which talks about emass and environmental policy staff survey HR? No. So this portion this does not have any direct exhibit. Is that good or bad? It's bad, right? Because when the exhibit is there, you can pick up points from the exhibit. When but there is no exhibit. That's a tricky situation. So there is no exhibit. All right. Issues raised by staff survey. Which exhibit? Is there any any exhibit for staff survey? Oh yeah, this is exhibit two. And then the 2B says talent management program which basically is training and development. Is there any exhibit about talent management program? Yeah. by the HR director staff training and development. Very good. So I will write here exhibit three benefits from big data analytics. Big data analytics. Is there any exhibit talking about big data analytics? I don't know. Oh, it's there. So, this exhibit talks about data and internal control weakness. So this will be exhibit 4 and this will also be exhibit 4. So exhibit 4 contains information covering both the requirements. We are done. So we kind of identified which exhibit belongs to which question and generally it's easy because the name of the exhibits are very selfexplanatory and if you read the requirement you will be able to match or connect with the related exhibit. Any questions up till now? Are you following it? Are you clear? Yes or no? Are you clear? Yes or no? Okay, good. So how much time you think it will take reading the requirements, identifying the topics and marking the exhibit? I think this will take five to six minutes. Yeah. If if one task takes 1 minute, 1 minute, 2 minute, 3 minute, 4 minute and then linking I think 5 to 6 minutes is okay, right? So how much time we have already spent? So 1 minute in reading the landing page and then 2 minutes in copy pasting the requirements and then five 6 minutes in reading and so total I think less around 10 minutes 7 to 8 minutes maximum 10 done it's always like that between 7 to 10 minutes depending Okay, now the last thing. So we did take a quick look and note the exhibit number. Now the last thing is decide the sequence of your answer. I you should always start with easier questions first. So it is not mandatory to follow the sequential order. It's not mandatory. You can start with the easier questions first so that you can grab some marks up front. You have to do all the questions right? Ultimately you have to attempt all the questions. So the sequence doesn't matter. Always common sense says start with easier questions first. All right. So now how do we decide which one is easier question, which one is difficult question? This is subjective. It might vary from student to students. Right? But I will give you some rule of thumb. First of all, any question which does not have any exhibit I will do in the last. So what did I say? Any question which does not have Oh What happened? Oh my god. I I closed uh my thing. Very sorry guys. Um, can you give me one minute to just give me a I closed my browser by mistake. Give me let me please open it. Huh? Sorry for that. Oh, come on Baba. This platform is as slow as you guys. Did I lose anything or did I It was automatically saved. H okay. So what were we discussing? I was giving some tips how to identify easier question. So any question which does not have any exhibit do it in the last always prefer a question which has a direct exhibit. Is this clear? Yes or no? All right. So it's very simple here that this 1B does not have any exhibit right emass. So this I will do in the last and the rest of the exhibits they have rest of the questions they have exhibits right all of them. Okay. Now how do I decide which one should I start with? So it all depends. It depends on what is your strong area. It depends what is your strong area. It depends on your practice like what kind of questions you have practiced the most. Okay. So this question number one a wants us to discuss the opportunities and challenges of a proposed contract. Do you think it's a common sense question? Absolutely yes. Every paper you will get a question on evaluate a proposal. Okay. 90% of the time there will be a question about some proposed investment plan or proposed contract anything and these questions are common sense questions. So if you are good in common sense questions, if you have practiced a lot of common sense questions, you can start with this. The second one is about staff survey and talent management. They also have exhibits. If you are good in this topic, for example, you have solved two or three questions on talent management or you have solved two or three questions on staff survey, then you can also start with this. Or the third topic is big data analytics. This is also a very frequent topic. So if you're good in big data pros and cons you can start with this. The fourth topic is impact of internal control weakness. Again it's a common sense question. If you have done a lot of questions on internal control you can start with this. All depends on your own strong area on which type of questions you have practiced the most where you are more confident in which topic. You can choose anyone. We have to do all the questions but always try to start with an easier question where you feel 200% confident. It will boost your confidence and help you gain quick marks. Any questions? Proposed changes. I don't know. Sumaya, where is proposed changes? All right. So all this needs to be done within the first 10 minutes. Are you guys clear on reading and planning? These are the task which you will do. This is part of planning, reading the requirement, linking, identifying the exhibits, prioritizing which question you should start with, which question you do in the end. All this planning is 10 minutes. 10 minutes is okay. All right. Now, once you have done this planning, now you are ready to start your drafting. Supposing we which question would you want to go for one uh the proposed contract you think we should start or the HR related question or the last question which one would you go for you see I'm getting var variety of answers. Some are saying one, some are saying HR, some are saying big data and weakness. So it all depends uh on your own strength areas, right? Let's say for simplicity sake. I decided to go with task one just for simplicity sake. So what is the allowed time? This is the formula. VU will follow 1.8 minutes per total marks. To calculate your allowed time, I suggest 1.8 minutes per total marks. What do I mean by total marks? Total marks means technical marks plus professional skills mark. Okay. So if we do if we decide to start with question number one. If we decide to start with question number one. So I will open up the task number one. 1 A right. I will open up 1 A. I will read this background. I will read the technical requirement properly and I will read the professional skills because I now I'm about to start my drafting of one a so you will need to read it but before that let's calculate the time allowed so 16 technical + 4 professional 16 + 4 20 marks so for 20 marks how many minutes I have 36 minutes you know 20 * 1.8 a 36 minutes. So now I know that in 36 minutes I have to do a lot of things. Drafting doesn't mean typing. So first I will reading this background is also part of 36 minutes reading the technical requirement. So all this reading is part of 1.8. Okay, then I will make the format. Is there a format required? Yes, it says prepare a report for the board of directors. So then I will open up my word document and I will prepare the format to from subject date introduction closure. This is also part of 1.8 minutes. Then I will open this exhibit and I will read this exhibit. It's a one pager but full page. This reading of exhibit is also part of 1.8 minutes. And then by and then when I read the exhibit I will pick up some relevant points and I will start drafting in the format which I had prepared that is also part of 1.8 minutes. So in total 36 minutes in 36 minutes I have to do so many things. I have to first read the entire requirement from here to here. Then I will prepare the report format. Then I will read the entire exhibit. Then I will start my points and do drafting and complete my answer. All this in 36 minutes. Now do you understand how why speed is important? Those of you who are slow, you might waste 15 20 minutes in in just reading the requirement and reading the exhibit and making the format. So from now your first priority should be to develop your speed and you can only develop your speed through more and more practice, drafting, more time. based mocks. So my paid students, you are aware of this right the importance of speed and we have we had done six questions. So your speed is slightly better than others because the more you will practice the more faster you'll get. So the last thing is let's say your 36 minutes are up and you have still not completed your answer. It is very much possible that your 36 minutes are finished. The allowed time 36 minutes are finished and still some of the points are remaining. What will you do exactly? As soon as the allowed time is up, you just complete that one paragraph which you are drafting. Just complete that paragraph and then you jump to the next question. Leave it incomplete and move to the next question. Why? Because if you overspend the time in order to complete this, let's say you you overspend 10 extra minutes or 15 extra minutes, you are falling in the time trap. You are hijacking the time of the next question and by the time you will reach the end, you will miss out one full question. So the the so the tip is as soon as the allowed time is up you must move to the next question and leave this question at least you have attempted 70% of it right leave the rest and move to the next question. Now it is easier said than done. Right now you all are saying that oh yeah we will move we will leave it and move. But I know from experience it is it requires guts. It requires balls to leave something incomplete and move to the next question. Do you have the balls to do it? No. Well, if you don't, if you cannot do it, I will see you again for September attempt. It's more revenues for me, boys. Honestly, I'm being blunt. It's better to be blunt now and hit you rather than you know showing a rosy picture right as soon as the allowed time is up to leave the question incomplete and move to the next question. This rule is not negotiable. Will you do it? Yes or no? Okay. So the faster your speed the faster you will be able to complete. Right? If you are slow then all right. All right. And this will only come to practice that when we will be doing our live classes our revision classes I will force you to implement this. All right. Mohammad Sulaman what a stupid question. Sulaman is asking what if I complete the question in the required time. You tell me you can check your res right. Come on [Music] man. Crazy. So, are we done with time management? That's it. It says stop drafting as soon as the time is up. And it's in red and bold. So, I'm done with the exam techniques relating to time management. Any questions on time management? ask now before I proceed to the next technique. How many pages each exhibit contains? Maximum one page. Normally they are half pages. Maximum one page. They are not very big. Siman, please ask these questions in the end. Right? If you have any question on the time management, bloody hell, ask now. All other questions, hold it. What language you understand. Okay, let me summarize time management recap. First 10 minutes reading and planning. Okay, we will always start we will try to link identify the exhibits for each requirement. You will prioritize always start with the easier questions. Your drafting rule is 1.8 minutes per total mark and as soon as the allowed time is up, you move. All right. The next one is linking with the exhibits. It is mandatory to link your answers with the scenario. General answers not allowed. Theoretical answers not allowed. Definitions no allowed. Your answer has to be specifically in relation to the exhibit and in relation with the scenario. That's it. So how do we link? So our primary source of information is exhibits. What did I say? Our primary source of information is exhibit. Okay. If there is no exhibit or the exhibit does not have sufficient number of points or sufficient information, it's a short exhibit. The marks are more H. So if there is no exhibit or the information has exhibit has limited information then your second source of information is preceding. Yes absolutely. So our primary source of information is exhibits. If we are able to complete our answers based on exhibit then no need for precinct. Precin is just a backup for you. But if there is no exhibit or if the exhibit has limited information then we will use our knowledge of pre. Is that clear idiots? Yes or no? Okay, this is my rule of thumb. So overall 80 to 90% answers you will be easily able to find from the exhibits. Okay. In my experience of your papers, 80 to 90% information are in the exhibits and just you need to use 10 20% of the precine in those scenarios where there is no exhibit or limited information. For example, this question again. So task one A 1 A has exhibit, right? So I will try to give maximum points by the exhibit. But what about task two 1B emas and environmental policy? There is no exhibit. So from where we will attempt this then we will try and utilize our knowledge from the preceding here also we have exhibits but I think I because I I have done this paper this exhibit three although there's an exhibit exhibit three But it does not have sufficient information. Okay, I know this because I have done this question many times. There is an exhibit but it has limited information. So in this one first I will use all the available points from the exhibits and then I might have to use my precine to add one or two more points according to the marks. Do you understand all this? It might sound difficult but it's not. It's common sense. Primary source exhibit backup source precinct. Good boys, boys and girls. Now always start your point with a statement of fact and I call all I also call this punchline. Each point should always start from a statement of fact picked up from the exhibit. So you will copy the relevant information from the exhibit and then you will elaborate on it in your own words. Is that clear? This is how you will link. Right? The only way to link is you will pick up information or relevant sentence from the exhibit, copy it on your word tool and then elaborate your thoughts using that opening sentence or using that point. One last thing I want to talk here is that some students are asking is there a possibility that one requirement might involve two exhibits? You understand what IS just said? Is there any chance? Right now we are just reading one exhibit, right? What if there is some more information in other exhibits? We have not read them, right? In your paper, the chances are very less. Normally 90% of the time it is a one toone exhibit. Do you understand? One to one exhibit, one requirement, one exhibit. 90 to 95% of the time there will be only one exhibit which you need to use. Okay? So it's not a big risk. You read the exhibit and you answer because 90 95% of the time it's a onetoone relation. One requirement one exhibit. Very very rarely you might there might be two two exhibits. Very rarely 1% chance. So don't worry about it. Mass BCO is a old paper. Please don't quote old papers here. Just follow what I'm saying. All right. are supposing supposing there is information in other exhibit although the chances are very very minimal 95% one is to one but supposing hypothetically speaking there is some information in some other exhibit so Whenever you will read that exhibit and you find certain point there, you can always go back and add those point in your previous answer. Right? What's stopping you? Did do you understand guys? Supposing there is there is couple of points in some other exhibit which we had not read. So whenever later on we will read that exhibit and we find a point and it clicks you oh this point I could have used in that answer you can always go back and insert that point what's the big deal so nothing to worry about okay 95% it's one is to one is that clear yes or no The third uh thing is deciding the number of points. My paid students are now very well aware of this formula. Right? So the rule which I follow is two marks for each point. So one welldeveloped point carries two marks. Okay. One welldeveloped point carries two marks. So if the question is 10 marks, how many points? And I don't want stupid answers. If a question is 10 marks, how many points? 10ide by two, five points. Kalas, who the is this? Dawn, why are you saying 526? Don't piss me off, boy. 10 divide by two, five points. That's it. If the question is worth 20 marks, how many point? 20ide by 2, 10. Now supposing we require 10 points and you are not able to identify 10 points then at least nine points one less one shot. I will repeat sir. If you are if you are supposed to give 10 points as per the marks but you are not able to identify 10 points then at least nine points. All right. What will be how many number of points if the question is 18 marks? Nine points. 18 divide by two nine points. And what if you are not able to give nine points then minimum how much? Eight points. One shot. Okay. Done. But mind you this is we divide total marks by two not technical marks but total marks. What is total marks? Technical plus professional divide by two. All right. So what is the rule of thumb? Total marks divide by two. Now supposing if the total marks is 15 15 marks then what do you do? 15 / 2 is 7.5. So we cannot write 7.5 points. So minimum 7 maximum 8 7 to eight points. But if you are not able to identify seven points then at least how much? Six points but ideally 7 to eight. Done. Everybody clear? Yes or no? Now let me add. So this was the basic rule. It will apply on 80% of your paper. Now there are couple of exceptions or a little bit complicated scenario. I will teach you that now. Supposing there is a question which says identify weakness and give recommendation. There are two portions right? You have to first identify the weakness and then you have to give recommendation. So these are two two things which you need to do right. So very simple two marks for this and you will allocate two marks for this. Is this clear? do not. So these will be considered as two points. Identifying the weakness which means you will have to talk about the impact. This will be considered as one point worth two marks and then you will give a nice recommendation. This will be considered as a separate point. So two marks for this, two marks for this. So total now listen to my question very carefully. Huh? Let me test your IQ and answer after thinking properly. First first listen to my question. Think take your time 5 seconds 10 seconds and then answer. Ready? Okay. Supposing the question says identify the weakness and give recommendation 20 marks. Okay. How many points? How many weaknesses will you identify? Five. Very nice. Very impressive. We will identify five weaknesses and we will so and we will give five recommendations. So total 10. Did you understand? Five weaknesses and five recommendations. Total 10. Is this clear guy? A lot of students in the past gets very confused. I will again repeat uh the same question so that there is no confusion. The question says identify the weakness and give recommendation. Total marks 20. The 20 we have we need 10 points right? 20 divide by two. So five weakness and five recommendations. 5 + 5. So you can divide by four. Yeah, ideally you should divide 20 by 4. So it will immediately tell you how many weakness you need to identify and know. So very simple 20 marks and we are supposed to identify the weakness and give recommendation. So I will divide by four. Two marks for weakness and two marks for recommendation. So it gives me five. So now I immediately know that I have to look for five weaknesses and then I will give five recommendation. 5 + 5. Yes. When the question says identify the weakness, it means you have to identify and give the impact. So it's not identification. By default you have to talk about the Are you guys very clear on this and same will apply on this risk management question as well. If the question says identify the risk and give recommendation same formula same concept is there. Now there is one more complication or possibility. Shall I tell you guys? Are you ready for yet one more scenario? Okay. So here the question is uh let me clean my screen first. Here the question is u the question says identify the weakness or identify the risk right but sometimes sometimes the examiner will give you the weakness meaning that You don't have to identify the weakness. The examiner will give you the weakness. Okay, these are the weakness and he would say discuss the impact or discuss the weakness and give recommendation. Do you understand that sometimes the weakness is given to you? So in that kind of scenario how do we allocate masks? I will tell you I will tell you I think uh this in this paper only let's read task number three the internal control one task number 3B H very simple it says evaluate the potential ial impact of the weakness identified. Evaluate the impact and recommend actions. Similar requirement two parts. First, you have to discuss the impact. So, you're not supposed to identify the weakness. The weakness is already given. You have to evaluate the impact of the weakness identified and give recommendations. So this one is 2 + 2 right? Two marks for impact, two marks for recommendations. Now look at the exhibit. Exhibit four. How many weaknesses have been given to you? Check this out. Internal control weakness A and B. How many weakness has been given to you? Two weaknesses. So you are not supposed to identify the weakness. Already the examiner has given you two weakness. So your answer will be around these two. What is the marks? Total marks 12 + 4 16 right Mars don't jump what is the total marks Abdul Rafh don't jump guys just answer my question what is the total marks 16 marks now how do we allocate How many weaknesses are there? How many weakness? Right. Two. So the first thing is I will allocate marks for between these two weakness. So 16 marks divide by two. Why two? Because two weakness. So each weakness is worth eight marks. Is that clear? Each weakness is worth eight marks. Eight marks for this. Eight marks for this. Is this clear? Yes or no? That's the first step that when a weakness is already given then I first calculate marks per weakness. So you will divide total marks by number of weaknesses. So 16 / by two weaknesses is tells me 8 mark. Each weakness is worth eight marks. Now easy for eight marks how many points? How many paragraph? Four paragraph. For eight marks how many paragraphs you require? Four. So how many impact and how many recommendations for first weakness? So I will give two impacts and two recommendations for the first weakness. Total four points worth eight marks. Do you want me to repeat this? Some students are saying yes, some students. Yeah, I understand that. All right. So, I will just quickly recap. Okay. So if you read this question, it says evaluate the impact of the weaknesses identified and give recommendation. So when the weaknesses are already given when the weakness is already given so then the first step is you will divide total marks by the number of weakness. That's the first step. So how many weakness are there? Two weaknesses are there. So 16 marks divide by two. So you can calculate marks per weakness. So eight marks per weakness. So for eight marks I require four points. So I will give two impacts and two recommendation. And same for this I will mention two impacts and give two recommendations total four points clear Alise you can leave now anyone who wants to leave anyone who's tired you can leave I mean who will be more tired than me. Are you guys more tired than me? I'm the one who's talking. Come on guys, take benefit of this free session. I mean there are always some students who you know don't appreciate these things. Anyways, your choice. Now similarly similarly this also happens on presentation slides I don't think there is a slide question here but supposing there is a slide question it says prepare two presentation slides it's okay it's It says prepare two presentation slides 18 marks. So what you will do first you will calculate marks per slide let's say not 18 sorry 16 uh uh okay 18 marks no 18 will be complicated 18= to 9 let's say 16 marks okay the question says prepare two presentation slides 16 marks What will you do first? You will first calculate marks per slide. So 16 marks. How many slides required? Two slides are required. So 16 divid by two. So eight marks per slide. Now it's easy. Now you know that each slide is worth eight marks. So how many points you are supposed to write for each slide? Four points. Now it's easy. So the summary is if if the number of slide is mentioned or the number of weaknesses are already there then you first calculate marks per slide or marks per weakness and then you calculate the number of bullets or number of points. Yes, four bullets or four points correct. Now this will improve through more and more practice. So those of you you know if you're not planning to join my revision batch it might be a bit risky because this all this we will be covering in the revision batch because we will be solving seven to eight past papers. Okay. All right, guys. Done. Just two more slides. Huh? Just two more slides. What time is it? Oh, really? Sorry, guys. I've overrun the time. It was 5 to8. Oh my god. Why am I so slow? Sorry guys. Okay, I'll just speed up slightly. 15 more minutes. Huh? Format of your answer. So, how do you draft your points? You must the first step is you will you will make the template. What do I mean by template or I I also call it skeleton. Skeleton or template means that if a report is required, you make the report format quickly to from subject date. If an email is required, you quickly make the format first. Get rid of the format first. Okay? Then your points should be in paragraph forms. Okay? When you are giving your points, when you are drafting your points, it should be in paragraph form. It should not be bullet points. Okay? Each point should be okay. Listen carefully. Each point should be a separate paragraph. Don't try to mix two points in one paragraph. Each point should be a separate paragraph. Is that clear? Okay. So for example, if it is a 10 marks question, how many paragraph should I see? If it is a 10 marks question, how many paragraphs should I expect to see? Five paragraphs. Why five? Because five points are required. So I expect to see five distinct paragraph. If it is a 19 marks question, how many paragraphs? 9 to 10 paragraph. Very good. 9 to 10. Yes. Okay. The third the third thing is I want you to leave one line between each paragraph. I repeat when you are typing when you are drafting we need five paragraphs okay for 10 marks but please leave one blank line between each paragraph. Why? Because it will from a presentation point of view it will look more organized more open. Each paragraph will be distinctly visible. Right? When you leave one line between each paragraph, it will look more organized. How do you leave one line? Just press enter two times. That's it. You know when you press enter two times, automatically it will give a space between two paragraph. Yes. All right. The last thing is this one. For each point, I always recommend to give a subheading for each point. Do you understand? Each point or each paras should have a small simple heading. So whatever point you are talking about just the name of that point. For example, if we are talking about more revenues, the heading should be more revenue. If you're talking about uh global reach, the heading should be global reach and then you can draft your point. Subheadings will get you extra marks because it carries professional marks. Right? Then this one is very important. Each point should start with a statement of fact. Each paragraph or each point should start with a statement of fact picked up from the exhibit and then you will elaborate on it. Okay? And if it is a identify weakness and recommendation question, I would use a tabular format which I just I discussed earlier in the formats. All right. Any questions on the presentation of your answer paragraph form? Try to give subheadings for each point. Leave one line between each point. And each point should start with a statement of fact from the exhibit. The last one is bouncer question. Very important answer question. Let me grab some fuel. What is a bouncer question? Can you guess? Bouncer question. A question which goes over your head. A question which goes over your head. It's a bouncer. It just went over your head and you have no clue what was that. It bounces off. Yes. So people who play cricket, do you know a bouncer, right? It just goes like goes and you are just standing and scratching your bum. What happened? Every paper, every paper has a bouncer question guaranteed. I repeat, every SPL paper has a bouncer question always. And it's deliberate. the examiner deliberately puts a bouncer question in each and every paper. So the first message I want to give is be prepared expect a bouncer question. You should not panic or you should not be surprised to see a bouncer question because it is mandatory it will be there. In fact you should be surprised if it is not there. Clear? So every paper has a bouncer question. That is why I will teach you the strategy for bouncer question. Now how do you first thing is how do you identify a bouncer question? A bouncer question is that question which does not have any exhibit. That's the first hint. That's the most easy hint that there is no exhibit. So you remember the question we are doing right now question number 1B on emass and environmental policy there was no exhibit so that is a red flag for me oh no exhibit bouncer that's the first sign a second bouncer question is which I have seen that yes there is an exhibit but the requirement was so complicated and the exhibit was so complicated that even though there is an exhibit I'm not able to figure out what to do that is also a possibility but this happens less so the first hint is there is no exhibit that's a bouncer question. Secondly, there are couple of topics which are which is very very slippery. There are couple of topics which are very very slippery. Slippery means you know it's difficult to manage or handle them under exam conditions. What are those topics? Culture. Yes, culture is a slippery or a very subjective topic. You might struggle even though there is an exhibit. You might struggle. And the second slippery topic is um change management. No m change management. So please write these two names on the chat box which are the two most slippery topics culture and change management. So even if there is an exhibit then also it will be very difficult to handle because of the nature of these topics very subjective very slippery topics. So I will do these questions in the last summarize. So any question which does not have exhibit last last one and any question which involves culture or change management last one. Now what what happens if there is if both of these are in the same paper supposeding in the same paper there is one question which doesn't have an exhibit and there is one question which is on culture then what you will do right so we will do them in the last. So maybe the maybe culture one I will do second last culture I will do second last because there is an exhibit and we will practice couple of questions and the one which doesn't have an exhibit I will do last it's all judgment huh it's all your own judgment at in the exam hall is it here. Okay. So now once you have identified the bouncer question, the first step is you will push it in the last. Okay. The second step is you will try to write something. There is no exhibit but there is preceding right? There is no exhibit but we know the preceding. So I will just try to link or use points from the precine or maybe points from other exhibits. Somehow I will try to write something. I will not leave it blank but I will try to use the precen knowledge or the knowledge from other exhibits we'll try to write two three points at least clear so far so the first step is I will do it in the last the second step is I will write to I will try to write few points using my precine knowledge and using any other anything which can come to your head. Okay. The third thing and the most important thing you should not spend the full allowed time on bouncer question. Normally a bouncer question is worth 15 marks average 10 to 15 marks. Okay. A bouncer question normally is 12 to 12 to 15 marks. Toyota motor is not a small one. 12 to 15 marks is a heavy marks but it's a bouncer, right? So let's say it is 15. Let's say 15 15 marks. How many points are required for 15 marks? 15 / by 2 7 to 8 points. I will never try 7 to eight points in a bouncer question. I will write two to three points because I don't want to leave it blank. But I will just write two or three points using my precin using my common sense or whatever. Okay. 15 marks. How much is the allowed time? 15 marks. How much is the allowed time? 15 into 1.8 is 27 minutes. So I will use maximum 15 minutes. 2 three points if I just write two three points I will consume 15 minutes. Okay. And then I will stop the bouncer. I will never try to complete it. I will just write two or three points and then I will stop. I will not waste my time and energy on a bouncer question. So if you save some time from bouncer, what can you do? Supposing you have saved 10 minutes from the bouncer by not doing it completely 10 to 12 minutes. What should you do then? Go back and add more points to the easier questions or if you have done if you have left incomplete question. Remember you are supposed to move to the next question. If the allowed time is up, you can always go back and add couple of points there. complete the unfinished questions rather than wasting time on bounce. What do you think guys? All the global prize winners they have used this technique. They always do bouncer in the last they just spend 50% of the time on bouncer and the remaining 50% they go back and they complete their unfinished questions. Or if they've completed the questions on time, they go and add one extra point in the easier questions. You will get extra extra marks by adding points there. Again, it is easier said than done. It sounds easy. You guys are nodding your heads. But when you actually are under exam pressure, you will screw up. And the only way to master these techniques is more and more mocks and practice which I will do in my revision classes. Raf. I will cover this tomorrow. Right guys? So I'm done with today. I just want a brief uh uh I will just share a brief information about my revision classes. Uh it is it is starting from 6th of May. We will be doing 7 to 8 pass papers. Okay. And I will check one mock script. It also includes the precine discussion. And this is the revision class timetable. So many classes right. So uh there there is a drafting s drafting session in which I will do uh these three case studies and then we will do these four mocks. Out of these four mocks, I will check one mock, mock number three. And then after that, we will do precine. After that, I will keep one extra class for some specific topics. And then the grand revision of all the past papers on the last day. So those of you who are already enrolled in my regular or reset batch, it's included in your package. Those of you who are planning to join the revision batch, this is the schedule. And uh let me increase the size. And those of you who are thinking of self-study, I suggest you consider joining the revision batch. The class timings will be in evening this one. Okay. The because the classes are almost every day. almost every day the it is after my office. So 6:00 p.m. Dubai time which means 700 p.m. Pakistan time, 7:30 p.m. India time. Unfortunately, my UK friends and uh African friends, you might be a bit late to join, but all the classes are recorded or will be recorded and uploaded the next day. So, people who have time zone issues can use the recordings. All right. All right, guys. I'm done for today. So now I will spend five to seven minutes on questions. If you have any questions you can ask now or if you want to sign off you can sign off now and I will see you guys tomorrow. Tomorrow is an important day because I will start with technical articles. Then we will draft one question so that you so that we you apply all those techniques. I will cover the important list of important topics and then I will share the study plan for self-study students. Right? So if you have questions you can stay back otherwise I will see you guys tomorrow. Thank you so much for joining. All right, [Music] questions. What is this? I can't read it. Hang on. Let me increase the font. uh nada it's very simple if it is 18 marks divide by two nine points that that's it sir we do the prejude mock ourself no tino prejude mock we will I will do in the class which is mock number four how much for the revision classes okay I will share you the price is for international students it's $110 which also includes the precine material. Raf is asking will precine be in the free webinar? No dear precine workshop is not in the free webinar. It's a 2day 6 to 7 hours class and it is a very confidential and a proprietary thing. I cannot do it free. So you might want to join the precen. So if you join the revision batch, precen workshop is included in it free of cost. If you don't want to join the revision batch, you can directly enroll in the preceding batch separately. Yes, Tamana, you can enroll in the preceding and grand revision separately, but the enrollment will start from 25th of May. Tajar in my precin workshop I will summarize and simplify everything so you will exactly know what information to pick from the precin your 2020 notes I don't know which notes are these for self-study students please use my top 25 video and top 25 handout. That's it. I don't remember which year, but top 25 is more than enough. Uh tied. No, you cannot write everything in caps. You have to follow proper drafting and all those things. Yes. Uh sirit Iran. Yes, I mentioned that Canadian friends. Oh, you Yes, you're right. You will be it will be morning hours for you. So, I'm just skipping questions which I've already answered. Fhe for Farheen I will cover this tomorrow but yes top 25 more than enough but I will cover this tomorrow. Uh money no revision batch students will not have access to my recorded lectures or theoretical classes. No for that you will have to join the reset batch. Uh Dina Dina is asking punchline should be exact copy paste. Yes, you can directly copy paste. Do not waste your time in editing it. Okay, just copy paste from the scenario. Is it important to cover syllabus of study hub? Not at all. I will talk about this tomorrow. DIA uh I will not be checking the revision classes assignments because it will be a lot of workload but I will be checking one mock and I will be sharing full drafted answer for you to compare arty I will cover this tomorrow Abhaya. No. Uh, don't start from now. Okay. It's too early. Study hub. No. So, most of the questions uh I will cover tomorrow. Yes, Rose, you're absolutely correct. Is there any group for paid batch? Yes, there is a group for paid batch. Of course, if you are already my enrolled student, there's a separate WhatsApp group for my paid batch and the QR code is on your LMS video portal. All right, guys. I think most of the questions are for uh tomorrow. Okay. So, thank you so much guys. I will see you guys tomorrow. Till then, take care and good night. Bye.