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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Fundamentals of Finance by University of Pennsylvania

3.9
stars
875 ratings

About the Course

In this course, you’ll learn the basic fundamentals of corporate finance. Based on the pre-term qualifying courses for Wharton MBA students, Professor Jessica Wachter has designed this course for learners who need a refresher in financial concepts, or for those who are learning about corporate finance for the first time. You’ll identify foundational concepts in corporate finance, such as NPV, Compound and Simple Interest, and Annuities versus Perpetuities. You’ll also learn how to apply the NPV framework to calculating fixed-income valuation and Equity, using hypothetical examples of corporate projects. By the end of this course, you’ll have honed your skills in calculating risk and returns to optimize investments, and be able to assess the right set of financial information to achieve better returns for your firm....

Top reviews

RB

Mar 17, 2024

The teacher is very knowledgeable but sometimes passes some topics too fast and its hard to grasp the concept and the idea. The quizzes are not according to the classes that are given.

CB

Mar 21, 2022

The notes for this course were excellent, and the lectures were concise and easy to follow. Prof. Wachter is easy to listen to and is relaxed and helpful in her explanations.

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176 - 200 of 236 Reviews for Fundamentals of Finance

By Ansh A

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Jun 14, 2021

the course material was a tad tough...otherwise a good course

By Lord B S L M M J

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Dec 1, 2020

This course has helped improved my knowledge of finance.

By Ronan D

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Mar 29, 2021

explination was not very good for a new person

By Ipek B

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Aug 11, 2022

More examples to be presented in the videos

By Soumarup P

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Jun 8, 2021

This was a good course in Finance

By Ariel H

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Apr 7, 2022

Just things were very confusing

By Facundo G

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Apr 15, 2021

Really helpful

By Duy P

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Aug 20, 2021

Very good

By Henry W

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Jan 6, 2021

It's good

By Abdul

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Feb 28, 2024

tough

By Yin M

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Mar 10, 2021

Honestly speaking, my experience with this course wasn't great. Reasons are the following: 1) The content of each class was actually not much. However, because the professor spoke so slowly I had to pay extra effort to focus and make the association of different topics in my mind (maybe it's just me; but if you are also easily drained by slow talking, this is going to be a problem with this course). 2) The reading materials in week 3 was misplaced as the content in the materials would only appear in latter videos. 3) A lot of frustration on the quiz - as many students reported rounding effect leading to wrong answer. And there was no support on solving the problems unless someone else published their solution in the forum... And in the case of this class, few were still active on week 4.

By Paul W

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Dec 16, 2022

The class videos were ok, but the professor writes minimal notes and provides longwinded explanations. The professor will associate with students taking the course at random times when studying and especially when taking quizzes, which is just plain weird. Other than that, enough documentation is provided to understand the material. The course is challenging in some sections, but hard work and commitment will pay off in helping to learn the material.

By Xander V

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Jan 5, 2024

I found the course informative, but the professor moves quite quickly through the various examples and topics. I feel there are not enough examples to practice which makes it tough to pass the quizes. This is especially true if you are starting from scratch and have not used algebra in a long time. I found that the 'Introduction to Corporate Finance' course deals with a lot of the same topics but on a better pace (for me).

By Sahil S

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Jun 28, 2022

My review for this course is mixed. On one hand, the concepts that were taught were enriching, such as present and future value, NPV, bond and equity valuation, and the Internal Rate of Return. However, I found the lectures and assignments more mathematical than my liking. I definately suggest, although it isn't an official prerequisite, that potential learners have some sort of understanding of complex algebra.

By Nikita K

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Apr 23, 2021

The course itself is very "messy". Even though he main topics are covered but it feels like everything is done in a hurry without any proper background information like why, when and what for. Definitely, 4 weeks of this course is not enough. Fundamentals of Finance should set up a good basis of knowledge as it will be getting harder and harder, but it fails to do so, in my humble opinion.

By Nikolai K

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Aug 25, 2021

It has very good videos and notes but very confusing nonetheless. You need to do your own research and wont find the answers in the notes or videos. It would be great if they explained the test from each week at the end since im not really learning anything from my mistakes. Anyways great course definitely not for beginners

By Melissa D

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Jul 28, 2022

The verbage of the questions in the quizes is very ambiguous and I found this particular instructor really hard to follow and the examples not helpful. Definitely not a beginner course under her instruction but this definitely gave me a VERY real understanding of how hard this can be without the right understanding.

By Aigerim K

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May 31, 2021

The material covered on the videos is clear and easily understood. But there is a whole Week 5 (which is ungraded), which contains important topics, which are not covered by the lecturer on the videos. There are many pdf files in the end that are not straightforward to understand from just reading them.

By Weston B

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Jul 17, 2021

The content of this course was very advanced and mathematical, but I did not feel like the course design was very student-friendly. Some concepts I had learned previously in another university, so that helped a lot. But for a complete beginner to finance, this would have probably received lower stars.

By Wiktor S

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Jun 27, 2022

The notes should be more explicit or the questions/the video should be more adjusted to the objectives of the course; otherwise there are examples on the exam that require knowledge or thinking not even remotely elaborated on during the course.

By marx m

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Feb 10, 2021

I enjoyed the course thoroughly, I did find at times the Lecturer being too vague on some of the methods, purely because I found some of the questions in the quizes were not covered to the extent I would have understood them faster.

By David G

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Mar 4, 2021

Good course only gave it 3 stars because of the multiple technical issues when taking the tests which was frustrating at times to say the least. Otherwise instructor is good and the notes are great study aids.

By Johanna J

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Nov 29, 2021

The quizes were extremely difficult in comparison to the rest of the course and the hints on how to answer the questions were misleading and caused me enter in the correct answer in the incorrect format.

By Giselle L

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Apr 18, 2023

Too many of the interesting concepts in the course were skipped over and designated as optional for my preference e.g. CAPM. Instead there was an over emphasis on number crunching in the quizzes.

By Alsgren

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Dec 13, 2023

Great info, but the questions are notoriously difficult and hard to understand. Most questions arent directly discussed but you have to find the right approach to the questions yourself.