AFC3540: Modelling in Finance

Within semester assessment: 60%, Examination (3 hours): 40%

freaking awesome unit, very very enjoyable, I would personally say this is the most useful finance unit alongside with AFC3340 (options). Everything you do in this unit will be VERY VERY practical in the real world and the skills you learn in this unit will stick with you forever if you choose a finance career. The unit is considered to be quite difficult, it really depends on the individual actually, some will say this is one of the hardest units however I personally think it's probably one of the 'easier' ones if you're a dedicated student. Some find it hard because there is a TON of assignments, there are 42 assignments in total, yes 42, let me break it down for you. There are weekly quizes, weekly tute tests, weekly excel spreadsheets submissions, weekly VBA submissions, weekly debates + MIDSEM + separate assignments in separate weeks. So unless you're a student that really stays on top of your game and meet your deadlines, you will FAIL this unit otherwise. There are so many assessments per week that you literally have to start them at the start of the week to finish them all. The exam is pretty hard, EXTREMELY long, and you have to really understand your stuff before you go in the exam. I suggest those that wanna do this unit should have at least done the following units to get the most of it (these are not unit preqs but simply what I recommend will help): AFC3140, AFC2140, AFC2340, AFC3340 (duh options helps with any finance unit lol). But seriously, if you do this unit, you really should do AFC3340 before or at the same time, why? Well AFC3540 has alot of programming, dw if you haven't done it before, they teach you from scratch, the programming you will be doing is related to VBA (excel) and alot of excel spreadsheets, although it isn't "mathematical" but it helps if you study mathematics as well since the logical reasoning are the same. Now AFC3540 basically takes all the things you learn in the units I listed before and turns them practical, as in it shows real life applications of how the concepts you learn are actually used in the finance world - this is extremely important as you don't just learn theory to get good marks on exams but rather you need to know how to use them once you start working. AFC3540 teaches you all of that but kinda assumes you already know those concepts already; although the lecturer does explain the concepts before he starts going into the practical aspects of them. The entire 2nd half of the AFC3540 course is based on the practical applications of AFC3340 (options and futures). Having done AFC3340 will give you a huge advantage over anyone doing AFC3540 who hasn't done AFC3340 and it will help you enjoy the subject so much more. You can certainly go into AFC3540 without learning AFC3340, however you will find the options part of the course to be quite confusing; this was the case with several of my friends (who are really high-achieving students) however they were stomped on the options part of the AFC3540 because they haven't done AFC3340.

In conclusion, I would suggest you do this unit only if you have done the subjects that I listed above, they are not monash's preqs but I would say they help you so much more and allows you to get the most of the unit. However if you feel confident enough, you can certainly do it without having done the units that I listed. AFC3540 is a very good unit, you will learn so much in this one unit.

Dr Paul Lajbcygier

1 practise exam, with solutions.

5 of 5

yes

No textbooks prescribed.

2 hour tutes per week

2012 semester 1

98 HD