The ill effects of procrastination..!!

In all the hullabaloo over AIMCATs and completing the application formalities of certain "Early Bird" institutes like IIFT, IRMA etc, I almost forgot about an important test that I had enrolled for nearly a month ago. I'm talking about NSE's Certification in Financial Markets or NCFM as it is commonly known as. It is an online testing and certification programme introduced by the National Stock Exchange over a decade ago to test the practical knowledge and skills required to operate the financial markets.

I have initially registered for two modules - Commercial Banking in India & Currency Derivatives. This whole idea has been filled with hiccups right from the start where there was payment trouble initially (The amount was debited from my card but was not credited to NSEs A/C). After sorting this out, I did not get my study material in the duration prescribed by the NSE (7 days for the curious lot), in fact I did not get it for 15 days from the time of payment. After hours of incessant calling, I got to know that NSE had dispatched the material well on schedule and the fault was with the courier company which said that it could not deliver the material for 3-4 days because of, believe it or not, rain. Now you may get the idea that there was some kind of a deluge in my city of residence, but the truth is the rains the courier guy was talking about was just few odd drizzles. Sigh! Except for 2-3 odd courier companies, the Indian Postal Services are much more timely and accurate guys.

Anyways. Got my material around 17th and in my usual procrastinating way, stacked it up to study later and forgot all about it until today when I heard the word "NSE" from someone. I have the exam on 4th for the Commercial Banking module and am skimming the study material as I'm writing this.

The material is to the point and has oodles of information on the banking industry. A must read for everyone who is from the Non Banking & Finance background but is interested in the same. Great thing is, the material is available free of cost at NSE's website and is open to everyone (no registration required even).