TECFEE cheat sheet

Numbers in financial listening are usually stated twice (once quoted, once confirmed); if the two differ, the second figure is the operative one and the first is a misstatement.

Direction cues that flip meaning: 'up from' / 'down to', 'net of fees' / 'gross of fees', 'revised upward' / 'revised down'. Record the preposition, not just the number.

Hedging markers ('approximately', 'in the region of', 'give or take') signal an estimate; unhedged figures in the same passage are reported actuals. Answer options that swap the two are traps.

A speaker who says 'before I hand over' or 'to recap' is about to restate key figures; the recap usually carries the tested value.

Dates and periods: 'fiscal year ending March' differs from 'calendar year'. When both appear, the fiscal reference governs reporting-period questions.

In a two-speaker exchange, the questioner's paraphrase of the answer is frequently the correct option's wording, while the original speaker's phrasing is the distractor.

Percent vs percentage point: a rate moving from 4% to 6% rises 2 percentage points, or 50% in relative terms. Listening items test which unit the speaker used.

Negative-polarity distractors: 'not unlike', 'far from certain', 'hardly a surprise' invert surface meaning; transcribe the negation before choosing.

Skim structure first: annual reports place risk factors, MD&A, and notes in fixed order. Locating the section beats reading linearly.

Scope words decide answers: 'consolidated', 'on a standalone basis', 'excluding discontinued operations'. A correct number under the wrong scope is a wrong option.

Comparison traps: 'higher than the prior year' vs 'higher than forecast'. Match the comparator named in the stem, not the one in the passage.

Time anchors: 'as of 31 December' (a point-in-time balance) vs 'for the year ended' (a flow). Mixing them is the most common balance-sheet/income-statement error.

Inference questions require a stated premise plus one logical step; anything needing two unstated assumptions is out of scope.

Attribution: distinguish what management asserts from what the auditor or regulator states. Stems asking 'according to the auditors' exclude management commentary.

Footnote cross-references ('see Note 14') often hold the exception that overturns a superficially correct answer from the main text.

Watch for 'except' and 'NOT' stems; underline the polarity before evaluating options.

Precision pairs: 'principal' (capital sum) vs 'principle' (rule); 'accrue' (build up over time) vs 'incur' (become liable for); 'collateral' (pledged asset) vs 'covenant' (contractual promise).

Accounting verbs: 'recognise' (record in statements), 'disclose' (report in notes), 'write down' (reduce carrying value), 'write off' (remove entirely). Each implies a different statement effect.

Yield vs coupon: coupon is the fixed rate on face value; yield is return relative to current price. A bond trading below par has a yield above its coupon.

Liquidity vs solvency: liquidity is ability to meet short-term obligations; solvency is assets exceeding liabilities. A solvent firm can still fail on liquidity.

Subjunctive and mandative verbs in contracts: 'the Board requires that the report be filed' (base form after 'require that'), not 'is filed'.

Conditionals: third conditional ('had the covenant been breached, the loan would have been recalled') marks a counterfactual, not an actual event.

Countability: 'capital' and 'funding' are uncountable ('funding is', not 'fundings are'); 'securities' is the plural of 'security' in the investment sense.

Modal force in regulation: 'shall' = obligation, 'may' = permission, 'should' = expectation without binding force. Exam stems turn on this distinction.

Recommendation memos lead with the decision, then the three strongest supporting figures, then risks; the reader may stop after paragraph one.

One number per sentence, with unit, period, and basis attached: 'Revenue rose 8% year on year to EUR 4.2bn on a constant-currency basis.'

Variance explanations require cause, magnitude, and offset: state the driver, its currency or volume effect, and any partial offset in the same sentence.

Avoid nominalisations: 'we decided' beats 'a decision was made'; passive voice is reserved for when the actor is genuinely unknown or irrelevant.

Hedging calibration: 'expected' for forecasts, 'reported' for actuals, 'indicated' for guidance. Never use 'will' for an unaudited projection.

Email subject lines carry the ask: 'Approval needed by Friday: Q3 hedging limit increase' outperforms 'Q3 hedging'.

Numbers below ten are spelled out in running prose; figures are used for money, percentages, and any value in a table, consistently within a document.

Sign-off and audit trail: name the author, date, and data source (e.g., 'Source: unaudited management accounts, 30 June') so the memo is defensible.

Signposting formula for updates: headline result, one driver, one risk, next milestone. Keeps a two-minute answer inside its time budget.

Clarifying a figure under pressure: repeat the number back with its unit and period ('so that is 3.1%, annualised, net of fees?') before commenting on it.

Buy-side/sell-side register: 'we are overweight' (position), 'we initiate at buy' (rating), 'we see downside to' (view). Using the wrong register signals inexperience.

Handling an unknown: state what you do know, name the missing input, and commit to a time to supply it. Never estimate silently in a client call.

Pronunciation and stress: 'vo-LA-til-ity', 'li-QUID-ity', 'a-MOR-ti-sa-tion'; misplaced stress on technical terms undermines credibility more than accent does.

Interrupting politely in a negotiation: 'May I come in on that point?' followed immediately by the substantive point; a bare apology wastes the turn.

Structuring a defence of a recommendation: thesis, evidence, what would change my mind. The third element is what distinguishes analysis from advocacy.

Pacing: a spoken answer contains roughly 130-150 words per minute; a 90-second response is therefore about 200 words and should carry no more than three points.

False friends to flag: English 'actual' = real/current, not 'current period' in every context; 'eventual' = final, not 'possible'. Verify against the sentence, not the word list.

Standard term equivalences must be fixed and reused: 'income statement' / 'statement of profit or loss', 'shareholders' equity' / 'equity attributable to owners of the parent'.

Numbers survive translation unchanged; units and scales do not. Confirm whether 'bn' maps to '十亿' (10^9) or '万亿' (10^12) in the target convention before rendering.

Date format shifts: 03/04/2025 is 3 April in much of the world and 4 March in US usage. Convert to an unambiguous form in the target text.

Legal terms carry jurisdiction: 'covenant', 'warranty', and 'representation' are distinct concepts and must not be collapsed into a single generic word.

Simultaneous interpretation: hold the verb until the subject and object are known in verb-final target languages; chunk by clause, not by word.

Passive-to-active shift is often mandatory: languages without a natural passive require the agent to be named, which may need to be inferred from context and marked as inferred.

Consistency log: maintain a bilingual glossary per engagement and apply it throughout; mid-document synonym variation reads as a change in meaning to a financial reader.