This class was particularly difficult. There’s a TON of material to absorb. I had read to make sure to take this class right after C213 and, after discussing with my mentor, she agreed to move the class up. There’s a bit of overlap with C213 at the beginning of this class, namely financial statements. That helped.
After watching the workshop videos provided under the Course Tips section, I went ahead and took the PA. I passed but wasn’t confident enough to take the PA so I spent a few more days going through the worksheet and then watched the infamous Dr. V video. That video covered most everything I saw on the OA.
There’s a 150+ question worksheet also provided (with a separate answer key). I used that to get the concepts and calculator processes down.
After a few days of working through the worksheet and referencing back to the videos, I decided to take the OA. I found that the split between conceptual and mathematical questions was about half, maybe slightly heavier on conceptual. There were a few questions toward the end that were completely foreign so I took educated guesses. I suspect the keys to those questions were found in the text which I didn’t use.
The OA was by far the longest time I took for an exam, not only for the MBA, but also for my undergrad work.
The course highly recommends a TI BA II Plus financial calculator. I had bought one for the undergrad accounting courses and it was instrumental for completing this course.
Note: The videos repeatedly point out some formulas aren’t provided on the OA, specifically CFO, CFI, and CFF. There must have been some sort of update since the videos because all three were provided by a sidebar formula window during the OA.