FINS5513 Term 3, 2022

Final Exam Information and Instructions

Overview:
Who needs to sit the exam? All students
Date: Friday 25th November 2022
Exam time: 2:50pm – 5:00pm Sydney time
Venue: At home exam administered through Moodle
Exam Duration: 130 minutes including 10 minutes reading time (however, you can
commence answering questions immediately if you choose). Students are permitted to answer
the questions in any order and will be permitted to come back to questions if they choose.
Format:
Part 1: 40 MARKS. 20 multiple‐choice questions. Each question is equally
weighted – 2 marks each
Part 2: 30 MARKS. 10 short answer questions. Each question is equally weighted –
3 marks each
Part 3: 30 MARKS – 2 multi-part short answer questions worth 15 marks each
Weight: 55% of the overall grade
Coverage: All lecture weeks except week 1. While you have already been tested on the 1st
half through the mid-term major quiz, the 1st half of the course sets up a lot of theoretical
foundations. Therefore, a lot of knowledge from the 1st half continues to be used in the 2nd
half.

Resources allowed/ not‐allowed in the exam

Allowed:
• Use of any Moodle materials: lecture notes, excel spreadsheets etc.
Not allowed:
• Any form of collaboration
• The multiple-choice questions are ALL RANDOMISED. So, no two people will sit
the same exam.
• The exam must be completed on your own. Working with another person will likely
mean you have insufficient time to finish the exam because it was designed with an
appropriate time limit for a single person working efficiently on their own.
Formula sheet
To encourage you to prepare your own comprehensive notes tailored to your preferred
method of approaching a problem, no formula sheet will be provided.

Coverage
• The exam covers all lecture weeks (except week 1) with more content drawn from the
2nd half than the 1st half, particularly where the 2nd half develops on concepts from
the 1st half
• There is a high degree of mathematical/quantitative questions with numerical answers.
About 70-75% of the exam is quantitative and 25-30% is conceptual/qualitative. There
are no “proof” questions
• The questions are focused on the lecture materials rather than the textbook readings

Exam tips

PART I
• 5 options per multi-choice question
• For Part I all questions are worth 2 marks each – 20 questions in total
• Although the questions are randomised, it is likely that around 8-10 questions you
receive are conceptual/qualitative and the remainder are numerical/quantitative
• This section is randomised and the questions are drawn from a large question bank with
many new questions
o Not only will your question order be different from other students, but the actual
questions you receive will be different
o It is likely that you will receive no more than 3 questions from the Practice
Exercises you have seen (it is possible that you will receive more
or none)
• You are permitted to leave questions and come back to them later
• 40 marks (20 questions worth 2 marks each) in total for Part I

PART II
• 10 questions - 8 quantitative and 2 written
• Slightly more difficult that multi-choice
• Response area is blank so no ability to “guess” answer like multi-choice
• Students are encouraged to show working
o For each question, if you enter the correct answer, you will receive full marks
(even if you don't show working). If you choose to show working, and get the
answer incorrect, you may receive part marks. If you simply enter the incorrect
answer and do not show working, you will not receive any part marks.
• You are permitted to leave questions and come back to them later
 • 30 marks (10 questions worth 3 marks each) in total for Part II

PART III
• There are 2 short answer questions, worth 15 marks each as clearly stated in the
exam
o The 2 short answer questions are mainly numerical/quantitative based, although
sometimes a written explanation is required for a certain part of the question
o The marks for each sub-question to each of the 2 questions are also variable but
clearly stated in the exam
• Each of the 2 short answer questions are from a separate major subject area of the
course
o All questions are new and not drawn from any source you have seen
• Note that the number of sub-questions to the 2 short answer questions are extensive
(both have sub-parts a-l)
• Don’t be scared by the number of sub-questions as they are being done for your benefit
o Effectively, they mean that, to an extent, you will be receiving marks for
working
o So, as an example only, rather than asking you for the information ratio, I might
ask you to derive the alpha (numerator), then the unsystematic risk
(denominator), then I would ask you for the information ratio – so if this were
one of the questions, you would be getting marks for each step in the working in
3 separate sub-questions
• It is often NOT the case that to complete the next sub-question, you have to solve
previous sub-questions already. So don’t give up - and read each part carefully – you
can miss some parts and still answer other parts
• You are permitted to leave questions and come back to them later
• 30 marks in total for Part III (15 marks each) with variable marks per sub-question as
stated on the exam

Submitting Answers for Part II and Part III

FINAL ANSWERS
• Your final answer to each question and sub-question must be shown clearly in the space
provided. If it is not shown clearly, you may not receive full marks
• Questions often require answers to 2, 3 or 4 decimal places. Each question clearly states
how many decimal places you need to enter. Read carefully and always follow the
question instructions for the number of decimal places. Entering more than the directed
number of decimal places is fine – but not less
WORKING
• All papers will be manually marked, allowing for part marks for appropriate working
 • For Parts II and III, we encourage you to show working. SHOWING WORKING
ALLOWS YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO EARN PART MARKS
• For each question in Part II and sub-question in Part III – if your final answer is correct,
you will receive full marks regardless of working (even if the working is wrong)
• For each question in Part II and sub-question in Part III – if you choose to show
working, and get the answer incorrect, you may receive part marks. If you simply enter
the incorrect answer and do not show working, you will not receive any part marks.

“Passing” requirements
As per the course outline, in order to pass this course, you must achieve a composite mark of
at least 50 out of 100. Since the weightage of the final exam is 55%, this is a good
opportunity for you to improve your total marks for the course.

Preparation tips
• Review the Moodle quizzes and other resources such as PASS
• Do the lecture question examples again and understand them conceptually
• Attempt end‐of‐chapter questions
• Read the exam questions carefully
• Use the reading time to have a broad overview of the exam paper and determine a plan:
Quantitative/qualitative, chapters/lectures, easy/hard, familiar/unfamiliar etc
• Have a plan: always do easier and familiar questions first. This helps boost your
confidence
• Move on to other questions if you are unable to answer a question: Give that question a
good thought and move on, you can always go back to that question later

ALL THE BEST!