How long does it take to be decent at financial modeling ?

One of my friends gave me BIWS and I want to go through it over the summer. I wanted to know how long did it take you guys to get descent at LBOs, DCFs, etc to the point that you could do the technicals at the interview ? I’ll be a junior this fall and wants to have basics down. Thank you

8 Comments
 

Takes some time but you can definitely get it down. Building a model of a real company is very helpful. Start with a simple company like Apple and can work your way through a few different ones.

 

^^^ I found that once I actually built a model myself it was a lot easier to understand. Just find a good template either online or through a school organization and put it together yourself. It might take you a long time at first, but once it is complete the next should be a little easier. You can recite the typical DCF/LBO questions from memory, but it makes it a lot easier to articulate if you have experience building models from scratch

 

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