So, how can one prepare for FMWC? Actually, your success will be mostly determined by the previous experience that you have. The more you model on a daily basis and the wider range of problems you solve, the better your chances could be. However, let us just give you some quick preparation tips:
- Plan the time and place so that you will be uninterrupted for the 2 hours. Remember, you have a wide timeframe – you could stay at work later on Friday (or Saturday), wake up earlier on a weekend, make the round while your spouse puts your kids to sleep during a day or find any other time that suits you.
- Read our blog article on equipment setup – you will perform better if you use the equipment you are most accustomed to. If you mostly work at the office and plan to take stage 1 at home (where you have another keyboard or mouse), you will most probably lose some time. If this is the case, you might want to bring home your office keyboard and mouse for the weekend.
- When you run a marathon, you are advised never to run it with new running shoes. The same principles apply at FMWC – don’t try solving cases with a keyboard or mouse you have bought the previous night. You will lose time.
- Refresh your knowledge of Excel formulas (Financial, Logical, Text, Date&Time, Lookup&Reference, Math&Trig, Information), especially the new ones. We don’t plan to emphasize formula knowledge, but widening your arsenal of formulas might save you some time during the competition.
- Refresh your knowledge of the shortcuts. (BTW, our favorite summary is prepared by Corality, part of Mazars and available here: https://corality.academy/excel-shortcuts-the-full-complete-one-page-pdf/?fbclid=IwAR23zl-3HVT7hAuPRIfRP8GGFazimfjj48VSKmwTX94vj-2BiAka36WNWK8). You might be able to master 1-2 new shortcuts by the time Stage 1 starts, so think which ones could be best for you.
- Solve the sample case or some cases from other exams or competitions you have ever taken part in.
- In the future, you could get some more training by solving previous cases from FMWC.
