last day of summer holiday

i think i have written a similar topic before, but today is the last day of the summer holiday, :)
today is a little cold, but fine. i get up early than yesterday, do some lunch, watch some Tv show- two man and half man, that is really fun. as fun as Friends, i think. then go for shopping. today is a special day- in lunar calendar. today is Lantern Festival, 15 days after Chinese New Year. traditionally, in this day, all the family member should get together for dinner. i do not know why, just culture, i think. in this special day, people should eat rice glue ball, of course, Chinese people. so, as Chinese, i buy some rice glue too. i thougt i should eat it in supper, but after supper, i am afraid my stomach has no more room for them, maybe i will eat it tomorrow for breakfast or lunch. when i come back from shopping, i just check email, browse some website, the time goes so fast...and prepare for supper. after supper, i am preparing for the new semester. download the unit outline from Blackboard and print them out. and then look into them. there are totally four units as same as any semester before. 2 compulsory courses- AFF 5100 and AFF 5130, and so far i have not get the unit outline of AFF 5130, some students say that AFF 5130 is not easy. i have no idea. also there are two elective, i selected MGX 9230 and MKX 9550. some of my friends select MGX 5700 and say that that unit does not have final exam. well, MGX 5700 is about the BPR, Business Process Reengineering, i do not interest in BPR, and in the last semester, i learned AFX 5130, some topics in AFX 5130 are about BPR, i did not think that is an easy topic. about my elective unit. MKX 9770, this topic is about the marketing, and talk about some fundamental concents in marketing. i hear that the marketing is not hard, but need some skill in speaking and writing. i hope i can handle this unit well. anthor unit- MGX 9230, it is called Public policy. i have no freaking idea about this one. i chose this unit becasue there is no final exam in this unit. but the ongoing assignment is huge. there are only two assignments, i could not remember the exactly number of words, but totally, two assignment need 8000 or 9000 words, that is really huge.anyway i hope i can handle it well too. God bless me, please~
there is a good news for me, about the credit shall of Virgin Blue, my friend Rex helped me to spent it. one of his friends need to buy a ticket, and use my credit shall. LOL. and two days ago, i received an email from TPG, my internet service supplier. and told me that i have a chance to migrate to ADSL 2+, and give me a link to do that. but i tried again and again, in the window, it always showed that i have not successful migrate to ADSL 2+. and i replied the email, TPG said sorry to me, stated that there was still no ADSL 2+ ports in my region. i need to wait more....well... what should i say...maybe nothing...
anyway, wish me luck.LOL, WOW

weather of Melbourne

i do not like the weather of Melbourne, it changes randomly, sometimes you go out, and the sky is blue without cloud and wind. but maybe 10 or 20 minutes laters, it changes. cloud full of the sky, the sky turns dark, and start rain. and the difference in temperature is huge. sometimes, the highest temperature is 35℃, but the lowest one maybe 20 or even lower. in the situation, people are easy to get sick such as cold or fever. but maybe the Aussie strong enough or already are used to the weather, i do not hear Aussie complaint about the weather. in constrast, some students like me, you know international students, are often complaint about the weather. especially me.
before i went to Liaoning Uni, i lived in a small city called Dandong in the northeast of China, and east of Liaoning Province. it is a small city without so many crowd, and not developed, but still developing. not busting like other big city such as Beijing or Shanghai. but i think the weather of Dandong is perfect, not too hot in summer, and not cold in winter. and because of the location of the city, the air there is not too dry. every stuff about weather in Dandong is very good. i really mean that. i travelled a lot, and have been some cities, but none of this city can compared with Dandong in weather perspective. some cities are too hot in summer such as Sanya and Hong Kong. and some cities are too cold in winter such as Harbing. some cities do not have clean air such as Fushun. after graudated from high school, i entered Liaoning Uni, in Shenyang ,the capital city of Liaoning Province. because my grandma lived in Fushun, i go to Funshun every year, Fushun is very close to Shenyang, so sometimes i went to Shenyang for shopping when i was young. in my memory, the air of Shenyang was not so clean due to some heavy industry. but when i went to Shenyang for studying, i noticed that Shenyang has Changed a lot, the air gets clean. very good. but in spring, the wind is so so big. when there winds, the air is no more clean, full of sand. what a pity. after two years study in Liaonning, i went abroad, LOL. come to Melbourne. at first i thought the weather here was good, because the sky is so clean, and the air is clean too. but when i live here for a while, i noticed that, i could not stand the temperature, it changed so quick. Melbourne is good, but its weather is not good as the city. and i believe that the people work in the Melboure Weather Bureau is not easy, esspecially weather expert, because the weather here changes so quick and random, it is not easy to forecast the weather. but i also noticed that most of the weather forecasting is correct, very good job.

Goodbye Summer

the new semester is coming soon, on 1st March.

this is a long summer holidya, it started on 16 Nov 2009, and will end on 28 Feb 2010, more than 3 months holiday. it should be the longest holiday i ever had. maybe the last holiday, because next winter holiday will be very short, maybe just around 20 days

during this summer holiday. at first i had a short trip, from Melbourne to Canberra, then to Sydney, then back to Melbourne. and that was the first time to Canberra. Canberra is the capital of Australia, but it is a new city. and very small. i stayed there about 2 days, and visited to Parliament, the War Memorial Museum, Royal Mint and ANU. very luck, we saw Kevin Rudd- the PM of Australia in the Parliament. there was a dedate about refugee issue. that was the first time i saw the leader of one country. and Royal Mint is a small place, but very funny. in there, we saw how the coin produced. Wow, so many coins there. and i heard that the Old Royal Mint is in Melbourne, and just in the inner city, but i have not noticed before. in Sydney, noting new, just the famous places of interest such as Opera House, Sydney Bridge and Bondi Beach. the Opera House is not white, it is a little yellow, that was beyond my imagine, because in all the post or picture, Opera House is white. 

after the short trip, i began my summer course, and i have written a before. then Xmas and New Year. and on the New Year Eve, there was a firework in city, but i have not been there, because there should be so many people in the city, i do not like it. i came there in 2008 New Year Eve, OMG, that was the first time i saw that much people. but the year, there was a small accident in the NYE, there was big shower on that night...i do not know the consequent, i hope everything is fine...the final exam of summer course was on 10 Feb, after that i spent almost all the time at home, that was unlike me. i pursuaded myself that i need rest, and the result is that i have a rest everyday...almost everyday is the same, surfering on the line, watching movie, playing some game. on some days i went to shopping, but just for food.

anyway, the summer is passed, the new semester is coming, and i hope that i get a good mark in the new semester. of course i hope i pass the summer course, i believe i can pass it. LOL

AFF 5050 past exam paper (4)

Semester Two Examination 2008

QUESTION 1

Competition in the deregulated financial markets may have contributed positively to


recent bank crashes. Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?


5 marks
same as before


QUESTION 2
What are the ‘Special Drawing Rights’ (SDR)? What is the purpose of the SDR and which is


the responsible international body for SDR?


5 marks


same as before

AFF 5050 past exam paper (3)

Semester One Examination 2009

QUESTION 1

Excessive competition in the deregulated financial markets may have been the reason for recent global financial market turmoil. Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?


5 marks


same as before

QUESTION 2
What are the major functions of international banks? Discuss.


Arrange trade financing


Arrange foreign exchange

Offer hedging services for foreign currency receivables and payables through forward and option contracts

Offer investment banking services

Offer commercial banking services



QUESTION 3
Drafts/Bills of Exchange are commonly used in international trade finance. Identify different types of draft and discuss their main features.


5 marks


Sight draft: when the shipment has been made, the draft is presented to the buyer for payment.


Time of payment: on presentation of draft

Goods available to buyers: after payment

Risk to exporter: disposal of unpaid goods

Risk to importer: relies on exporter to ship goods as described in documents

Time draft: when the shipment has been made, the buyer accepts the presented draft

Time of payment: on maturity of draft

Goods available to buyers: before payment

Risk to exporter: relies on buyer to pay

Risk to importer: relies on exporter to ship goods as described in documents

AFF 5050 past exam paper (2)

Semester One Examination 2008

QUESTION 1
Most international banks’ products and services are similar to those of domestic banks. Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?
5 marks
No. international banks do everything domestic banks do and:
Arrange trade financing
Arrange foreign exchange
Offer hedging services for foreign currency
Receivable and payables through forward and option contract
Offer investment banking services


QUESTION 2
What are the common criticisms against the International Monetary Fund (IMF)?
5 marks
No. international banks do everything domestic banks do and:
Arrange trade financing
Arrange foreign exchange
Offer hedging services for foreign currency
Receivable and payables through forward and option contract
Offer investment banking services

AFF 5050 past exam paper (1)

as mentioned before, the teacher of AFF 5050 posted the past exam paper on the blackboard, but did not give the answers to them. in the following post, i will attach the answers of mine, but i am not sure the answers right or not, just for reference

Semester Two Examination 2009
QUESTION 1
Excessive competition in the deregulated financial markets may have been the reason for recent global financial market turmoil. Do you agree with this statement? Discuss with examples from the Sub-prime mortgage issue in the United States.
5 marks
this is an open question, but this question must be shown on the exam.
my answer:
Yes. High competition motivate banks to take higher risk, and deregulation makes it possible for banks to do so. (then talk about subprime mortgage crisis, discribe how and why it happened. in the lecture, the teacher shows a video about this staff, just discribe the video in your own words)
financial market is also need regulation and prudential supervision, because:
1. there is a need to protect the consumer
2. to chck the abuse of oligopolistic and monopoly power
3. to protect the public from crimal activities
4. to deal with the effects of externalition.

QUESTION 2
What are the major functions of international investment banks? Discuss.
5 marks
investment bank is a bank whose function is provision of long term equity and loan finance for industrial and other companies, particularly new securities. four functions form the role of investment banking activities:
1. underwriting and selling of shares and bonds to investors
2. making markets in these securities
3. advisory services: M &A, IPO's, corporate restructures,
4. Supplememtary business streams- investment managementFX trading, securitisation, project financing, venture capital, leasing and financial engineering

about Monash (7)

OK, in the last 4 posts, i introduced 4 units which i learned in the last semester, and in this one, i will say the unit which i learn this summer- AFF5050,international banking
from the name of the unit,you can figure that this unit is about banking and financial. that is sure. and as said before, i do not like learning finance unit. and i am not so interest in this unit. i learned it, because the unit is the only one i can learn during the summer, and everyone said it is an esay unit.

about Monash (6)

in this one, talk about - AFX 5330
how to say this unit, uh, a little hard or not hard at all. for me, i think it should be middle of them. this is not a hard unit, because all the concepts in this unit are basis. but for me, all the concepts are new, so a little hard.
there are two parts of this unit, theorical and practical. in the practical part, it is main about SAP, not SPA, LOL. it is a very popular soft, at least i belivev it. but unlucky, so far, i do not understand how to handle it. in the theorical part, it is about something like ERP, it talks about how can an enterprice works effective and efficiency. at the begining of the unit, i could understand some concepts, but as time goes on, i totally lost.
there are two assessments, first one is a presentation. u can choose an article you like or choose from the teacher given. group presentation, up to 3 people. i chose an article which i read when i learned MYOB, i thought it should be easier that read a new article, but i was wrong. i did not get a good mark for

about Monash (5)

Ok, this one, let's look at AFF5150
the teacher is female, Dr Birt, and good teacher. but in this unit she really did not teach so much. in the most time of seminar, the students did the the preseatation. very long presentation, up to 1 hour. usually, in the first 30 minutes or 1 hour, Dr birt taught some accounting theory which related to the following presentation, and sometimes there was no theory time, just the presentaion. then, the first group would give their presentation, up to 1 hour. and after that, a 20 minutes break will be given. then the second group came up, gave the presenataion. then, 3 hours passed, class dismisse. almost every seminar liked that. i learned a little in this unit. really, i was not interesting in the other groups, maybe because i did not understand what they talked about. in the most time of the class, i sleap except one seminar, the one i needed to give the presentation. 4 people made up one group. one we spent maybe 10 hours to read the article which we should talked about. one sentanse by one sentanse. very hard for us. because of lack of some statistic knowledge, we were not understanding the paper well at first. but after we had meeting with teacher, we knowed the paper. and finanly, we got a high mark on the presetation. they other assessment was hard too, and i worte about it in the earlier post. that was 4000 words. and we needed to do a lot of reseach. we downloaded 50 annual reports, and found out the number we needed. then put these number in the Excel, then run some statistic process, then get the conclusion. we got a reasonable mark on this assessment, not too high, but OK.
about the final exam. in the exam, all the questions were about the paper which we did presentation in the class. there were 20 or more paper, we should remember. include the name of the authors, the conclusion of each paper. i am not good at member. test about member means nightmare for me. i spent two days to remeber these stuff. and did not go to sleep on the night before the exam. but in the exam, i still did not remeber the authors name of some paper. i got C in the unit. fair for me. i thought.

about Monash (4)

in this one i will talk about one course, AFX 5120.
this unit is about auditing, assurance, fraud. i like this unit. it is a little hard, not the teacher is strict. there are 3 parts of the unit, assurance, government and fraud.
the lecturer of assurance is the unit coordinationer, and i think this part is very similar like auditing which i learned in my bachelor degree. and the difference is AFX 5120 is more specific in internal control, maybe this part is only about internal control. unfortunately,so far i am not quite sure the term "assurance". but i understand what is audit. i remember that in the first class of the unit, the teacher asked us, what was the audit. that was just about check...simple answer huh?LOL. i think the teacher is good, he can explain the question very well. and there is only one assessment, a small test. the questions were not difficult, very similar as what he taught in the lecture.
the second part is government. i think this part is the link of the rest two parts. because company needs government to governance its internal control. and if a company's government is not good, the fraud will happen. the teacher is a tall, thin man. i feel he is good too. but sometimes, i can not understand what he said. maybe that was my problem. there was one assessment too. a essay, 1000 words and group assignment. but i did it myself...the assignment was easy, but not esay to start, because the question was asked about one company has good financial performance without good corporation government. believe me, its not easy to find out such a company like this. i spent one day or maybe more to find it. a very good example of this kind of company is Harvd Norman, but this example was from the teacher, so we could not write about it. i found two example, one was westfield, and the other one was a small company, i can not remeber the name of it. but i thought the problems of HN or westfield are not big deal. both these two companies have one same problem, their chairman is also the director of the company. and my friend told me that, if one company has a problem of corporate government, it would not state it in the annual report. and i also belive it.
the third part is fraud. there is one problem of this teacher, at least i think. her voice is too low. this is a female teacher. sometimes i really could not hear what she said clear. besides fraud, this part is also about CSR, CORPORATE SOCIAL RESEPONBILITY? i guess. maybe the spell is wrong, but such a thing like that. there was one assessment too. but i can not remeber, maybe about some questions in the textbook. oh, there were three case study in this part, and i like one case about WorldCome,i like this one, and i also did a oral presetation about this case. through this part study, i felt very confused about the accouting firm Andrew Anderson. a former one of the BIG FIVE. the three case study all about the fraud happened in these companiese, and these three companies use the same accouting firm- AA. also, the most famous case- Enron, it also used AA as its auditing company. i could not understand, why AA was so famous, but did so many mistakes?
in the final exam, there were three parts too. but the questions were not simple. some question was about reading material, but i have not read it, so i made it up. LOL. i got D in this unit. better than at least half students of the unit.
in the accouting part, i like taxation law and auditing, but they are harder than the rest units. but i like them. i heard that in the accouting firm, taxation consultant and auditor are making a lot money, i hope i can do that too, in some days.

about Monash (3)

in this one, i will talk about one cours which i learned last semester.

totally, i studied four subjects, and i will start with the easy one- GSB 9001

from this code, it implies that this course is not about the accounting or financial, but most Monash master students should learn this subject. i do not know why, but i do know i don't like this kind of subject. this kind of subject called Personal Development, or Professional Development. when i studied in VU, some of friends learned PD in bachelor degree, and they told me that, that course was like IELTS Class, told the students how to write or how to read, and how to speak. and when i learned this subject, i had the same feeling too. maybe because of the language, i do not like this unit. but it is not a hard unit.
there are two or three assignment in this unit- a debate, a report and i am not sure whether there is the third one...the first one is just three minutes debate. the teacher will tell you the topic and you can choose your side- for or against. it needs careful, because i choose a wrong side, and not easy to talk about the topic. the second one is longer, 1000 words report, individual report. 1000 words are not so much, but before you start your report you need to read about 20 articles. and your report should base on these article. and i have not got a good mark on this assignment. honestly, i do not know how to get a good mark on this assignment...but some students really got a high mark, and i do not know why. there are may be more than half dozen of tutors in this subject. maybe there are some subject factors affecting the marks, maybe, i hope.
and the final exam is not hard too. the teacher will distribute the past exam paper and practice exam paper. also , there is a good news for international students such as me, in this exam, you can take a dictionary. if you do not have one, when you enter the exam place/arena, and before the exam began, you can ask the staff for the dictionary. actually, i always take a dictionary to exam when i study in VU, but rarely use it, because i only have accounting Chinese-English dictionary, but the words which i do not understand are not about accouting. so i have not bring the dictionary to the GSB 9001 exam. and when the staff asked me whether i need a dictionary, i said no. and this thing should add to my list of regress.
to summary, i do not like this unit, and i do not know how to study this unit. WHAT A PITY...and overall i got D in the unit. but as memtioned above, there are more than 6 tutors in this unit, and i hear that most of these tutors are male, and pretty cool. this should be a good news for the female students. LOL.

about Monash (2)

in the last post, i said i thought if i studied accounting, it would be easier. but i was wrong. accounting in Monash is not easy for me. really. especially the assignment. now i will explain it in details.
when i started my study life in Monash, say, first entering the lecture, i felt that , the lecturer was good, and i could understand what she said. and in the nexting days or weeks, i felt that, nothing difficult. Monash was so so. but i was wrong, when i prepared my first assignment, i felt that it was more difficult than what i learned in the lecture. i did a lot of research for the assighment. i felt that just understand what the teacher teached was not enough, research was the key for the assignment. the most difficult assignment was the report of AFF 5120. 4000 words report. fortunately, that was a group assignment. 4 people set up a group. that assignment was about analysis the relationship between accounting number and share price. in the assignment, there were a lot of statistics concepts, but i did not know. what a pity. in VU, i learned statistics, but rarely know the knowledge about it. i needed to know the statistics knowledge as well as some accounting knowledge which related to the assignment. that was really a tough time for me. and we handed in the assignment just 10 minutes before the due time. there was another assignment difficult, AFF 5330. i said it difficult because that subject was not only about accouting, but also about IT or computer. before the final exam, i spent almost one week to review this subject. but i just got C in this subject.
last semester, i took 4 subjects, and in the following day, i will state about them one by one.
in the last post, i said that some of my friends and schoolmate changed their subjects in the master degree study. luckily most of them passed the subjects. but some schoolmates who learned financial failed their subject in Monash. bad luck...Monash is famous as its financial courses, it can be illustated by the courses provided by Monash business and economic faculty.
they provided a lot of courses about financial compared with accounting courses. so i think maybe financial teachers are more strict than accouting teacher.

TODAY IS A LIITTLE HOT...

about Monash (1)

many students choose Monash as their undergraduate or postgraduate school, so am i.
but the reason for i choose Monash is very simple. in a simple way, there are only two reasons.
first one. about the major. i learned accounting in VU for bachelor degree. and i really did not want chance the major when i study for the master degree. the reason is simple too, that is i am lazy. many friends of my choose study Financial in their master degree, but for me, financial is a totally new subject. if i studied it, all the knowledge was new for me, i shold study hard, cause i know nothing about the financial. but if i chose accouting, some knowledge already fimilar for me. maybe sometimes i do not need work so hard. so i chose not change the major for the master degree. of course, all the above is what i thoght before i entered Moansh for master degree.
second one, about school. i did not want to change the major, that is to say i still study accouting in the master. so i need choose a school which famous on its business department. of course, in Aus, there is Group Eight. so what i need is just pick one up from these eight schools. and i don't like change the place. i live in Melbourne for two years, and i do not want change. OK, from thses, you can figure that i am a person who do not like changing. yes, that me. and back for the topic. there are two shools on Group Eight, one is Monash and the other is Melbourne Uni. but Melbourne is famous for other subjects but not accounting, at least i think.LOL. and Mel Uni's tuition fee is very very high. in contract, fee's of Monash is very high...Monash's business department is very famous, so finanly, i chose Monash.
and about the first semester life in Monash, i will write about it in the next article.

Happy New Year

i think this one is a liitle late, 14 Feb is Chinese New Year.
i hope everyone happy in the new year.
at the end of last year, it was tough for me. so many things happened to me.
first one is about the dispute on my credit. i though the transaction has been sovled, but the bank told me that, it was not. and i should continue disputing on this staff. i hope this thing can be solved ASAP
the other thing is about the immigration law changed in Aus. i don't know why, but the immi law has been changed three times since 23rd Sept 2009. and i am now an accounting student. and some media claims that the new law which will come out in Apr will not be a good news for accounting and hairdressing students. i just hope the new policy will.... i don't know how to say, just hope it as same as currency policy. i hope it will not change so much.
and this year, i chose not go back China for the Chinese New Year, i don't know whether it is a good choice for me. although i did not go bach China for New Year last year, i felt nothing. becasuse some friends also in Aus to celebrate the Chinese New Year too. but this year, almost all my friends go home, and some stayed here, however, they lived so far from me...what a pity. i feel a liitle lonely, but i think i can handle it.
i am 24 now, and according to Chinese culture, i need to wear red underpants at the New Year Eve. i do not like red underpants, but considering what happened to me, i think i'd better wear it. and before the New Year Eve, i went shopping, bought 3 underpants in CK. 2 are red, and the rest one is blue. the CK is in the new DFO- frontwater. that was quite cheap. normally, one CK underpants will cost A$30, but in the DFO, 3 underpants only cost me A$50. but that was the first time bought CK underpants, i did not know which size i should wear. i bought 2 M size, and 1 S size, and it turned out that S size is too small for me.
the new semester is coming soon, at least, i think.LOL. there are only two semesters for me, and after that i will say goodbye for the student life. i need to find a job , a real job after that. god bless me. i hope
anyway, i hope everything goes well. ~~~~~~~~~~