Success in this course:

A. General advice:

• Success in this course depends largely on your attitude and effort. Attendance and participation in class is critical.
• It is not effective to sit and copy notes without following the thought processes involved in the lecture. For example, you should try to answer the questions which I pose to you. Students who do not actively participate have much more difficulty.
• Be aware that much of the learning of mathematics at the university takes place outside of the classroom.
  • The most efficient use of your time is if you prepare for the lectures in advance. This allows you to pay increased attention whenever I discuss a topic which raised a question during preparation
  • You need to spend time reviewing the concepts of each lecture before you attempt homework problems.
  • As with most college courses, you should expect to spend a minimum of 2 hours working on your own for every hour of classroom instruction (at least 8 hours per week).
  • It can be very helpful to study with a group. This type of cooperative learning is encouraged, but be sure it leads to a better conceptual understanding. If you do your homework assignments in a group, be sure that you are able to work through the problems on your own.
• Be sure to keep informed of all announcements, syllabus adjustments, or policy changes, regardless of whether they were made on this website, by email, on Blackboard, or during class.

B. Advice specifically for this class:

There is a substantial positive correlation between success in this course and success in "engineering math" classes such as your standard Math 223 - Math 227 calculus sequence and the 447/448 probability/statistics sequence. Be mindful of the following though.

• You need to work on a much higher level of abstraction for the following reasons:
  • There will be a lot of definitions, theorems and major propositions which you must become familiar with.
  • Especially the first month or so will be very heavy on theory and less so on computational and finance related aspects. Much of this material will be presented without proofs.
  • Be sure not to get left behind in the beginning when a lot of the material presents probability theory with a strong emphasis on sets and functions.

Avoid failure:

• If you were uncomfortable with the level of abstraction in your Math 330 class and this course is just one of several options available to you, I advise you to only take it if you are seriously motivated to learn about quantitative finance and willing to spend a lot of time reading the text and that way increasing your comfort level. This is particularly important if you are worried about not bringing down your GPA. You should have some understanding of how you will be doing when you get close to the add/drop deadline. Even if you are only a little bit unsure, talk to me!
• Unless you are very certain that you will do sufficiently well in this class, keep your options open! Be sure that you can withdraw without losing your financial support or, if you are an international student, your student status!