UofT Course Review-ACT230

I’ll be reviewing one of my favourite electives, a finance course for non-actuaries. It gives a general introduction to financial concepts which I think everyone should be at least familiar with since financial literacy is one of the most important life skills. Once again, this is my personal experience and is affected by the exact instructor teaching and specific assessment methods.

Taken: Fall 2024

Prerequisite: Any first-year calculus course

Course Average: C +

How I Did: Above Average

Workload: Average

Content Covered

Introduction to financial mathematics, interest measurement, present value calculation, annuity valuation, loan amortization, consumer financing arrangements, bond valuation.

Lectures

Lectures were once a week where we learned a new concept roughly each week and did a lot of practice questions related to the topic. The instructor was really good; very straightforward, clarified questions with ease and went through all the different tips and tricks with certain topics. The best part was we were told what kind of questions would appear on the exams, which I’ll get to in a bit.

Tutorials

Each week, we had an online tutorial where we went through a few questions related to the week’s topic. The TA’s were awesome at explaining and really broke down questions step by step to get to the answer. I liked that these were online so they could be done from anywhere without the hassle of rushing to class.

Evaluation Methods

Quizzes, Midterm Exams, Final Exam.

Quizzes

Every 2-3 weeks, we had an online quiz with 3 questions related to the previous weeks’ material. These quizzes were single attempt with a 30-minute time limit, so speed and accuracy were important. We had 5 in total, with the best 3 being counted towards our final grade. The questions were on the easier side, being straightforward with the computations and all relevant information given. They were also in the multiple-choice format, so you could plug in and verify the answer.

Midterm Exams

We had 2 midterms throughout the semester. Each were 50 minutes long and tested material up to that point. The first one was 6 long answer questions, which was quite difficult to finish in that time frame. The questions themselves weren’t too bad, but the time was too short in my opinion given we had to show all working. Luckily, I was able to finish in time, but with only 3 minutes to spare at the end to check over. The second one was better, with 3 multiple choice (still had to show all working) and 2 longer questions which were a lot more manageable in 50 minutes. It also helped that we were allowed a formula sheet, which was half of 1 side of an A4 page.

Final Exam

The final was 2 hours long and had 10 questions with some parts. The questions were for the most part straightforward but a few challenging and time-consuming ones. This time, we were allowed a full side of an A4 page for formulae, which was quite helpful (all formulae could fit on 1 side). I finished with quite a bit of time to spare and was able to redo all of the computations, so no complaints.

My thoughts on the course

This was one of the best courses I have taken. I gained a better understanding of basic financial principles such as interest rates, loans and bonds which are very applicable to real life. The formula sheet was a lifesaver since memorizing all the formulas would have been pretty difficult. My favourite topic was loan amortization, since I got to see applications to credit cards (my latest project, you should read it!) and mortgages, giving me a better insight into how monthly payments are calculated (useful in the future if you take out a mortgage/loan to make sure they’re not scamming you). The instructor and TAs were kind and very helpful with a lot of support though office hours and patience answering questions. I highly recommend this course to anyone (it is computation heavy, so be prepared!).