Sometimes things are answered that weren't ever covered in the course. Also, id appreciates it if you'd try to be consistent with the naming of variables during the course as it becomes confusing for whom the topic is new.

Course is good, but some of the more complex concepts are not given enough time in the lectures

Instructor has a strong accent, sometimes hard to follow. The optional learning part is not clear

Instructor was only reading from the screen, explanation should be in details.

I spent all the lesson time reading the subtitles due to the approximate level of English, so I couldn't go through any slide.

Clearing the Advanced Valuation and Strategy Exam marks a significant achievement in the realm of finance, emphasizing proficiency in advanced valuation techniques and strategic financial decision-making. This certification underscores expertise in analyzing complex financial scenarios, assessing business strategies, and making informed investment recommendations. Exam Overview: The Advanced Valuation and Strategy Exam is designed to test candidates on a range of advanced topics crucial for financial analysis and strategic decision-making. Key areas typically covered include: - Advanced Valuation Techniques: Mastery of discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, relative valuation methods (comparable company analysis, precedent transactions), and option pricing models. - Strategic Analysis: Evaluating business strategies, assessing competitive advantages, and forecasting financial performance based on strategic initiatives. - Financial Modeling: Building robust financial models that incorporate scenario analysis, sensitivity analysis, and risk assessment. - Case Studies: Application of theoretical knowledge to real-world business cases, requiring candidates to analyze financial statements, assess industry trends, and formulate strategic recommendations. Difficulty and Complexity: The Advanced Valuation and Strategy Exam is known for its challenging nature due to: - Integration of Concepts: The exam requires candidates to integrate various financial concepts and apply them in a strategic context, demonstrating a holistic understanding of financial analysis and valuation. - **Depth of Analysis:** Analytical skills are tested through detailed case studies and complex financial models, requiring candidates to interpret data, identify key drivers of value, and recommend actionable strategies. - **Practical Application:** Emphasis on practical application ensures candidates can translate theoretical knowledge into actionable insights that support strategic decision-making in real-world business environments. **Preparation Strategies:** Preparing for the Advanced Valuation and Strategy Exam requires a focused and structured approach: - **Comprehensive Study Materials:** Utilizing comprehensive study guides, practice exams, and specialized courses to deepen understanding of advanced valuation techniques and strategic analysis. - **Hands-on Practice:** Building and refining financial models, conducting case studies, and practicing scenario analysis to hone analytical and modeling skills. - **Peer Learning and Discussion:** Engaging with peers, mentors, or study groups to discuss complex topics, share insights, and gain diverse perspectives on strategic financial analysis. **Personal Reflection:** Clearing the Advanced Valuation and Strategy Exam has been a testament to my dedication to mastering advanced financial concepts and strategic analysis. It has equipped me with the skills and confidence to navigate complex financial scenarios, provide strategic insights, and contribute effectively to organizational decision-making. Conclusion: In conclusion, achieving success in the Advanced Valuation and Strategy Exam represents a significant milestone in advancing one's career in finance. The certification not only validates expertise in advanced financial analysis and valuation but also positions professionals as strategic advisors capable of driving informed decision-making and creating value in dynamic business environments. Aspirants should approach this exam with a commitment to continuous learning, meticulous preparation, and a passion for mastering the intricacies of strategic financial management.

I earned my MBA in 1998, and have performed very little Corporate Valuation work in my career. So it was good to refresh my skills and learn some new things (like option games). However, this is definitely an advanced course. There are simply too many things here that you ned in your toolkit before tackling this course. I found myself digging through my old copy of Brealey Myers to refresh my memory. Also be prepared to answer questions in quizzes and tests on things not covered in the course. Sometimes the slides are blank when you download the PDF. And some concepts are not explained at all. So this course will take some work and some effort. But if you're willing to put in the work, and if you have the proper background, it is a good way to refresh some skills and learn a few new ones.

First of all, I started this course as a complementary activity to my bachelor degree's final project but along the days and weeks I became addicted to the way the course was explained and simplified as much as possible, so ended up giving priority to get the certificate instead of focusing on my project.

Thanks to the teachers for providing me with new and additional knowledge of Real Options trough Game Theory, company's valuation, etc.

I'm really happy of finishing my first Coursera course and hope to pass more in the future.

The course provides a good framework for option valuation in projects and Private equity, i believe the course is designed either for finance professionals who are already working on private equity , project finance or valuation or for students withthe required background.

the course is practical , given is a 5 week course on a topics that could last more weeks or hours.

Quality of videos is good.

Professor explanation is Very good.

Really good course, but there are several incongruences on the peer-reviewed grading directions(Honor's portion) and the questions asked. Instructors should be more objective in what information they want in answers and not expect students to guess what to answer. This forces us to waste time correcting answers that are not wrong per se, but have been downgraded by peer-reviewers that followed the grading directions by the letter.

This course is insane!!! Help me get such a deep understanding about Corporate Strategy and its correlation with competitors in the market. It emphasizes on valuing assets/ company by using variety of methods and simultaneously illustrates its impact on management's decision. Very straightforward and highly recommended!

great course for linking valuation and strategy in the mentioned fields, but the knowledge is also applicable in other decisions under uncertainty with major impact with regards to path dependencies i.e. for personal life. I recommend it for finance professionals.

It was challanging and the first part might get you frustrated, but the course is rich with resourses and I 100% would recomend this to whom ever wants to learn more about corporate finances.

perfect course

This course has amazing value for its price.

Professor Hans Smit managed to pack a lot of content into only about 3 hours of videos.

You will still have to supplement the videos with reading and/or online research. In this regard, I suggest reading Chapters 1, 2 and 3; plus, the first parts of Chapters 4 and 5 of the Professor’s “Strategic Investment: Real Options and Games” for a more complete grasp of the theory and concepts discussed in the videos. For more practical examples, I suggest resorting to recent editions of “Principles of Corporate Finance” by Brealey et al. Brealey is especially relevant for those that, like me, never priced options in college or in a professional setting. I have not touched Game Theory in 10 years, but the Professor’s explanations, plus the practice exercises (and some parts of Robert Gibbons’ “Game Theory for Applied Economists”) were enough. Google will also yield decent tutorials.

The course is scheduled for completion in 5 weeks – but I managed to conclude the course in 2 weeks (I skipped the honor assignments), by studying at nights and during my weekends.

The quizzes can be infuriating, because of the rounding criteria – you will get all the exercises right, but the application will rate you with a lesser score, because your rounding is different from the rounding of the instructor. This is especially true in the NPV and ROV quizzes.

The first quiz is incredibly stressful and should not be used as a prelude to the rest of the course. The course is rigorous; but because of the videos, and if you “do your work” (as the Professor says in one of the videos), you will successfully understand the content and how to apply it. So, if the first quiz seems intimidating – do not worry.

In summary – if you love valuation, you will greatly enjoy (and benefit from) this course. The only problems are the first quiz and the rounding problems in the following quizzes.

Pretty high/quality level of contents. Too fast explanations for complex concepts.

Comprehensive approach to modern valuation techniques

Great learning experience!

EVERYTHING WAS GOOD BUT IF IT HAD A GOOD SLIDES AND SOURCES TO FOCUS MORE ON THE CONTENT, IT WOULD BE EXCELENT

Excel support would be appreciated

While I appreciate the knowledge provided by the course (for which I would rate a 5), the execution in delivery took away from the value of the lessons (for which I would rate a 0), thus resulting in giving the course 3 stars. This is a challenging course and the inconsistencies made it unnecessarily more challenging than it needed to be. That said, I am appreciative for what I learned as it aligned with my learning objectives. To those who will take this course, a great deal of time and patience will be needed to navigate the inconsistencies in order to arrive at the golden nuggets of knowledge.

Han Smith is very difficult to understand in English, even with the subtitles it took some re watching to understand what point was being made. Additionally compared to other finance courses offered by LMU and Yale, this course was more about testing your math and excel skills vs. actually understanding the content. I felt like only about half of what was on the credential quiz was covered in the videos and readings and this required some outside research and studying to actually pass the quiz and understand the content which I did not experience with other courses.

While the course provides a great alternative perspective on investment decisions, the course structure could use some improvement. At times, there key pieces of information missing for quizzes. Moreover, it also occurs frequently that there are multiple topics in the exams that have not been touched upon during the course. Overall, this course is interesting, but be aware that a fair amount of previous knowledge is required.

The content is interesting and very relevant. The videos are nicely done. However, in the assignments there are questions that are not covered neither in the videos nor the readings, resulting in a lot of time wasted re-visiting the material with no success and frustration. Also there is some unnecessary repetition of concepts and others are covered rather quickly.

There was a bit of struggle with answering questions related to numbers.

It was not clear if the number should be entered in full e.g $1000 000 Or entered in short $1m particularly in the first assessment towards the certificate on DCF Valuations.

Other than that, the course was fine.

Lot of examples where explained mechanically without giving 100% clarity, for example while calculation option games , the payoff calculation for example was unclear.

I think the course is based on an interesting premise of incorporating real growth options and game theory in the valuation, but I have been slightly disappointed as I consider the applicability limited. As acknowledged in the final note the key to utilizing this sort of analysis is obtaining the highly uncertain values under different scenarios for different players. In an Advanced course like this I was hoping to get at least some guidance on how to estimate these payoffs for different players under different scenarios while only having limited information, so I could take it out of the theoretical context and apply it in practice.