Hey folks! I’m an undergraduate student looking for financial modeling courses to add to my resume before graduation. I’m planning to pursue opportunities in venture capital, startups, or renewable energy project finance. I’m wondering which financial modeling course would be the most valuable, both in terms of the skills I would gain and “market/employer” recognition… (I’m based in the U.S)

Please advise… thanks!

Hey everyone,

Could somone recommend a good fmva course, that goes indepth about the 3sm which includes how to put a debt schedule, assumptions etc

My thing is, I just don't need an course that teaches me how to do excel, ratios, & how to create a good looking financial model.

I want to be industry ready

Ps:- don't recommend tvs ka fmva course or tell education & quint edge, these guys have the most basic fmva course.

Hi everyone,

I'm a finance student looking to buy a refurbished laptop, with a budget of around £250–£350.

I'll primarily be using it for Excel financial modelling (three-statement models, DCFs, LBOs and potentially much larger, more complex models), alongside PowerPoint for investment presentations.

I've been considering the following laptops:

• Dell Latitude 5420 – 11th-gen i5, 16GB RAM
• Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 – 11th-gen i5, 16GB RAM
• Dell Latitude 5430 – 12th-gen i5, ideally 32GB RAM
• Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 – 12th-gen i5, ideally 32GB RAM

I don't know much about laptop hardware, so my biggest concern is buying something that struggles with large Excel models, particularly when running multiple applications simultaneously.

I'm happy to spend a bit more if it means getting something that will comfortably handle demanding models for the next few years.

A few questions:

1. Are 11th/12th-gen i5 processors powerful enough for genuinely large financial models?
2. Would 32GB RAM make a significant difference compared with 16GB?
3. Should I consider a more powerful processor or a different laptop altogether?
4. What specifications would you recommend for someone doing investment banking or private equity-style modelling?

I'll be using an external monitor and keyboard, so screen size and portability aren't major concerns.

Is the FMVA proctored? I am still seeing on the website that the exam may be done whenever i'd like without needing it to be schedules. I have been working on this for some months now and have not been notified of any changes.

We reached round 3 for AJVC where they asked for PNL for the next 18 months. Both my founder and I are technical founders. While we have studied a lot about GTM and other topics, this specific aspect of financial modeling and projection is something we haven't done before.

The sheet they send is also not shallow. It is very in-depth and asks us to think about rent, cloud spends, and even their cloud spends on AI, database, and compute, as well as marketing spends. It then asks us to think about what the marketing funnel would look like and so on.

What I am trying to understand is this: since we have an MVP and one pilot, how can anyone at this stage be prepared to answer these questions? And what advice can any of you give me to get through ?!

Please no fluff or gpt stuff, I can do that myself.

I'm a finance student and I recently made a DCF model so I could stray away from plain Excel. I built it for my investment club pitch, then ran it on four companies. All four came out well below their market price, and I'm trying to figure out if that's a real signal or a problem with my model.

Assumptions:

• Base year: calendar 2025, rebuilt from quarterly SEC filings (Apple and Micron have September fiscal years)
• 2026E and 2027E growth: Yahoo Finance analyst averages, then my own judgment
• Risk-free rate 5.19% (10-year Treasury), equity risk premium 4.5%, tax rate 21%
• Betas: Apple 1.1, Amazon 1.3 (regression gave 1.5), Tesla 1.8, Micron 1.6 (regression gave 2.35, inflated by the 2026 memory surge)

I didn't tune any inputs to close the gap, I just used a standard template. So my questions:

1. Is a 5.19% risk-free rate plus a 4.5% ERP too harsh for mega caps right now? Would you use a lower ERP or a normalized rate?
2. For Micron, should I trust the regression beta or adjust it? And how do you value a cyclical stock in what might be a peak year?
3. Apple needing an 85% margin seems crazy. Is that a sign my terminal value is off, or is the market just paying for something a DCF doesn't capture?

Any feedback is appreciated, I'm still learning!

And yes, I know some people say DCFs are not the best tool out there. Lmk if anyone wants to see the tool.

Update: i have linked S&P 500 companies (most of them) to it, and you can now search via the ticker. I have also implemented most comments i found useful for a more accurate DCF based on MY valuations! take a look!

So I’m about to do a final round investment banking interview in a couple of days. I aced the technical rounds, but now they want me to do a 1 hour technical model in person and 2 hour presentation / discussion of the results. What should I expect? And how do I get prepared for this interview.

P.S….. I’ve been studying the top 500 IB question guidebook for a while, and I’m ~80% through the FMVA (CFI) certificate, so I’m not a complete beginner to financial modeling, but have never built my own model from scratch. Any resources I can use from now until then to get prepared? Give me advice chat

Is Certification worth it or I can also get job after learning it from YouTube and make some projects to show credibility?

I’ve been in finance for over a decade but now direct AI to build everything. Does anything still think courses or classes are worth it?

Hi everyone, I am an accounting and finance student who hasn’t done a ton of modeling. What is the best pathway/roadmap of the order you should learn models as someone who is going into an analyst role doing business valuations and financial statement analysis. Doing small M&A for businesses and basic valuations.

Hi All,

What’s the best resource to learn financial modeling fast? Any specific recommendations for someone interested in biotech equity research?

For background on me, I feel like I am starting from zero. Currently in a middle office finance role (trading and operations adjacent) and have background working on a therapeutic with a small biotech.

Hi everyone, is it worth it spending the money on this. I’m having a little trouble finding a financial analyst job (fp&a) to be more specific. It’s been one year since graduation and because I didn’t do an internship or have any experience. And internships are only available for undergrad and graduate students I thought of going back to school but I’m not trying to get any loans is too expensive. Has this certificate helped anyone with no experience land their first job in the industry?

I'm looking to learn financial modeling with nothing more than basic excel knowledge. Is CFI student self-study my best option/worth it at $250?

Curious how companies with AI-heavy products are actually forecasting their AI costs.

Tracking historical spend seems relatively straightforward now; you can see token usage, API spend, model usage, etc. But how do you actually model what that cost will look like in 6–12 months?

For example, if customer numbers grow, AI adoption increases, usage per customer changes, or you switch between models, how do finance teams translate all of that into a forecast?

Do you have a proper driver-based model for things like:

customers × AI usage × model calls × token usage × model pricing

and then use that to forecast COGS / gross margin?

Or in practice is it much simpler?? e.g. taking historical AI/cloud spend and applying a growth assumption?

Particularly interested in hearing from AI-native / AI-heavy SaaS companies where inference costs are actually meaningful to the economics of the product.

Would be great to hear how people are handling this today and whether it’s actually a difficult problem or fairly straightforward once you have the right data...

Hi Everyone,

I’m preparing for the next round for a Project Controller / Project Control role CIBC.

Recruiter explained that the next stage will be an individual ~30-minute written assessment. They said it will focus on project financials and basic understanding, followed by an interaction with a Senior Director where they may ask questions based on my responses.

For anyone who has gone through a similar Project Controller/PCO case study, what should I prepare?

Specifically:

1. What types of 30-minute project-financial case studies should I expect?
2. Should I prepare for business-case/business planning, or focus mainly on project financial analysis?
3. What calculations should I be comfortable doing quickly?
   • Actual vs forecast
   • Variance %
   • EAC / ETC
   • Budget remaining
   • Resource-cost analysis
   • Forecast/reforecast
4. What type of written recommendations are usually expected?
5. Are there any good websites, YouTube channels, books, courses or practice case studies you recommend for Project Controller/Project Financial Management assessments?
6. If you've interviewed for a similar CIBC/Big 5 Canada bank Project Controller or PCO role, what topics would you recommend practicing?

I'm particularly looking for resources that teach how to approach and structure the case, not just accounting theory.

Thanks in advance! Any advice or practice resources would be greatly appreciated.

I am trying to model cash flows for a real estate investment rental property. Does anyone have a good free resource on how to do so?

I'm trying to make a couple of DCFs for some biotech names. I know HOW to, but I can't do it fast enough and claude can't do it well enough with the speed I'm looking for. Any tips?

Lets say a company filed their S1, without price range or share count or the defined target capital to raise?

How should one model to get its pricing band assuming we have an idea of its post ipo total share count.

CFI now has a page explaining remote proctoring through Proctorio for certification final exams, but I haven't been able to confirm whether this is actually being used for the FMVA Final Exam yet.

Hi all, I'm practising my LBO modelling and am a little rusty. Would anyone with LBO / investment modelling experience be willing to take a quick look at my model today and share any feedback or flag anything that looks off?

I'd really appreciate the help and am very happy to tip / buy you a coffee for your time. Thanks!

I want to know what all certificate I can add in my resume to get job in finance after ca finals exams

Hi I’m very new to financial modeling, this is the first one I’ve made and if someone could take a look and help me with some issues in the, that’d be great! The company I’m doing is TTWO btw. I can probably send the model in DMs

I’m a finance student and recently cleared CFA Level 1. I’m planning to buy a laptop in the ₹60,000–₹70,000 range.
I’m confused between a MacBook and a Windows laptop (particularly the Samsung Galaxy Book series).
My primary uses will be:
Advanced Excel and financial modelling
Valuation, equity research and financial analysis
PowerPoint presentations and Microsoft Office
Learning financial modelling and other finance-related tools
General productivity and occasional entertainment