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July 31, 2026
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When you say starting from scratch, do you have at least a fundamental understand of accounting / corporate finance? If not, I would highly advise at least covering an Accounting 1 course. If you have an undergrad business degree, you should have the basic skills to get started. When you say you want to learn modeling, u should know there are different types of models that serve different purposes for determining the value of a company. I think what would make sense is attempting to build a full 3 statement operating model, then understand fundamentally how a dcf works, then learn how to build a dcf, then from there you should be able to progress to an LBO, and other types. Best resource in my opinion is the wall Streep prep online courses. A bit pricey, and they expect that you have at least some basic understanding of Corp fin, but they go very in-depth. They have a ton of resources / lessons. Once you can build those models from their lessons, building another model from another template should be relatively straight forward.
Great advice. Without accounting knowledge you are going to be forecasting line items that might not make sense to you. One thing I might add is that repetition of companies in different sectors will give you a better understanding of how different models can be (ex. Young companies with no revenue versus companies who are well established and very profitable but less growth). Good luck
Thank you for advice - I have undergrad degree in finance and have a solid foundation of accounting. Just have no experience building/working with any excel models at all.
Sure. I’m also spending more time myself working on my modeling skills (undergrad senior from undergrad b school). For the most part I’ve been following the Wall Street prep guides. Super helpful,super detailed. Way more detailed than any undergrad would reasonably be expected to know, but doesn’t hurt to stay ahead of the curve. 2c of advice if you decide to use WSP: remain flexible. Different models from diff templates may have slightly diff ways of doing things, so don’t take the first way you learn something as bond. 2nd, do your best to “understand” not “memorize.” you’d be surprised how you might fly through the first half of a model after a couple reps bc you’ve memorized the steps, but don’t understand why you’re doing it. So w. Every step ask ur self “why” is this being done this way. Lastly, get exposure to many diff templates. Do the WSP, pearl n rosenbaum, and anything else u can get ur hands on. Best of luck. And tbh it’s good to practice but a lot will be taught in ur ib analyst program.
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