preparing for IB before first year - need advice

Book is kind of overkill. Go understand what IBD actually does (because I assure you if you have zero financial knowledge, you have no idea). Go watch Bill Ackmans everything you need to know about finance. Maybe also complete asimplemodel.com's courses on modelling (even this is overkill for right now). Go understand how the stock market works, plenty of YouTube videos for this. Go understand what other asset classes exist. Use investopedia, Google, whatever.

Go read the FT everyday and Google what you don't understand.

Thanks, I will make sure to utilise those. Could you possibly help me understand what finance societies usually include? although I'm sure they do vary university to university. Am I going to be expected to come in with a solid pre-existing understanding of finance, especially if I want any shot at positions of power with the society, since the ultimate goal here is to bulk up my CV.

Well you'll find out. First years don't tend to get leadership positions. So you have a year to figure out what leadership does. I have no idea what finance societies do since I've never been a part of one. But I imagine if they operate like normal societies, it's just organising sponsorship, events, talks maybe even conferences. If it's an investment society then I guess they pretend to invest/write research reports.

Interesting, you have never been part of a finance society. I read your guide on what to do if you don't secure an internship, and assumed naturally you had either succeeded or tried the process yourself. Is this the case? I always thought participation, and usually an important position within the finance society was vital for internship and job applications.

Hello, I'm a soon to be (fingers crossed) law student commencing my first year this September. I have little, arguably zero knowledge of finance. What can I do to get a greater understanding, i.e. any book recommendations, and how can I prepare for participation in the finance society. I don't want to join and be useless due to being ill-prepared or incompetent in regards to finance. Also, just to be clear, I do want to break into investment banking and would be planning to apply to as many internships as possible, so I'm trying to build the relevant knowledge to succeed before I actually begin my first year.