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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Fundamentals of Quantitative Modeling by University of Pennsylvania

4.6
stars
8,969 ratings

About the Course

How can you put data to work for you? Specifically, how can numbers in a spreadsheet tell us about present and past business activities, and how can we use them to forecast the future? The answer is in building quantitative models, and this course is designed to help you understand the fundamentals of this critical, foundational, business skill. Through a series of short lectures, demonstrations, and assignments, you’ll learn the key ideas and process of quantitative modeling so that you can begin to create your own models for your own business or enterprise. By the end of this course, you will have seen a variety of practical commonly used quantitative models as well as the building blocks that will allow you to start structuring your own models. These building blocks will be put to use in the other courses in this Specialization....

Top reviews

AP

Jun 15, 2019

Very clear and articulate explanation of the concepts. He doesn't skip a step in the sequencing ideas, drawing comparisons and differences, and illustrating both visually and story-telling. Excellent.

NC

Jul 30, 2019

Very nice course for beginner, the mathematic level is not high (around french baccalaureat) so available to everyone. I enjoyed a lot this course that show how simple math can be used in real life.

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76 - 100 of 1,701 Reviews for Fundamentals of Quantitative Modeling

By peter a

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Jun 8, 2017

Excellent, clear presentation. One would be well advised to know pre-calc beforehand. This would be a more complete course if multiple math exercises were offered as well as more detail about the math formulas. But the concepts are well presented, and one can still pass the tests without being a total 'math-head'. The transcripts of the lectures could really use editing.....really!

By Shreshth V

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Nov 18, 2019

It was an amazing course. I could understand how to make sense of the data available using regression modeling and other mathematical modeling concepts. This course has taught how I can use data available to predict certain outcomes based on confidence intervals, to forecast the future possibilities and to optimize the data to pursue required objective. It is a really helpful course.

By Agasthya R

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Apr 20, 2020

A great and widespread introduction to the fundamentals of quantitative modeling. Prof. Richard Waterman explained all the concepts exceptionally well with different scenarios & the accompanying tests helped me gain a practical sense of understanding of quantitative modelling. I would definitely recommend the course to anyone looking to learn the fundamentals of financial modelling.

By Mar G A

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Aug 27, 2018

It's a very basic course on quantitative modeling. This is perfect for those who forgot their statistics class or their Quanti subject in MBA. Hehe. Like me. It's a refresher.

What I liked about this course and the professor is he uses business language and applications so that your model can be easily understood, or how would you present your model to your audience or your boss.

By Gopi K H

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Apr 23, 2017

This is an amazing course modelled to know the nuances of quantitative modelling. I would request the course moderators to include excel sheets with the given models done. Especially it would be helpful for me if you were given how to make practical use of logistic regression in cases like buy or not buy a share, take or not take a subscription sort of examples. Thank you.

By Ricardo S

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Oct 24, 2017

Very clear exposure of topics. Professor is a master of the topic and delivers it with joy and enthusiasm. The subject is sometimes dense and potentially boring at this phase (before real application and manipulation of models), but the course material keeps the key concepts front and center, which I think is a great way to build solid foundation for the student. Thanks.

By Brett C

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Sep 28, 2020

Very informative. Overall, I feel like I have a very solid understanding of how models work and a good overview of how to use them. My only recommendation would be to implement some sort of real-life examples. I.e have us work through our own regression analysis of a company's financials or something like that. Regardless, this was very informative and highly recommend.

By Priti A

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Oct 30, 2019

A wonderful and well-structured course for any beginner in the field of quantitative modelling. Professor Richard Waterman introduces even the complex topics so smoothly and effortlessly that a student can understand it in a single sitting. Grateful to the coursera and the University of Pennsylvania for putting together such a brilliant course up. Deeply thankful.

By Sam P

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Jul 25, 2020

Very informative however was also very information-dense (which is not necessarily a bad thing). I had to watch things multiple times to get a good grasp on concepts because things were run through too quickly. That being said, information was explained clearly and the course helped me develop a more detailed understanding of models and their functionality. 5/5!

By Nikhil T

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Sep 29, 2019

This course sets the foundation for the quantitative modelling. All the techniques introduced in the course were well planned with a lot of examples to learn from. I also like the use of numerical questions in the quiz. The course really helped me understand the basic of what modelling is all about. I thank coursera and Wharton online for offering such a course.

By Soumya S

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Jan 15, 2020

Mr Richard Waterman is an amazing professor. The way he explained the topics and kept coming back to previous examples by introducing slight changes in it to raise its difficulty level a notch higher is worth mentioning. Furthermore, this course added to my knowledge of basic models and encouraged me to continue other courses in the specialisation.

By zunaira z

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Jun 16, 2021

It's a wonderful course. I learned a lot and really enjoyed online learning experience of Wharton. Professor Richard's teaching methodology is easy to follow, highly engaging and very effective. The lectures explore depths of all topics and are at the the right pace and difficulty level. Moreover, quizzes test knowledge of all lecture concepts.

By yannick

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Aug 28, 2019

I was very surprised and pleased by the quality of the content since I was not expecting such a high quality of lectures. Very well explained with good examples. And if all courses of the specialization in Business and financial modeling are that high, I really think that I will feel totally confident to apply this knowledge at work if needed.

By Grégoire N

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Feb 10, 2016

Very good introduction to Business in general (stats, profit, elasticity...). Many topics are approached and it was very interesting to refresh my memory on important modeling concepts that I encountered during my bachelor.

Very well explained, without being too detailed, the focus is on the main characteristics of business modeling concepts.

By Marika B

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Mar 23, 2020

Very Informative and organised course for those who are beginners in Model building. I have been introduced not only techniques but the idea of interpretation data analysis and usage of models to represent underlined story in a most realistic and reliable form. Thanks to Coursera and Wharton Online for great opportunity and funding!

By Rajat A

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Apr 2, 2018

The instructor was a bit robotic and boring in his delivery and it was a bit too technical. I would have appreciated if the instructor would have explained the concepts more clearly and given a couple more practical examples. Overall, it's a very good course, worth the money and time and I will highly recommend people to take it.

By Janice N C W

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Jan 20, 2019

A very good introductory course to Fundamentals of Quantitative Modelling. Professor Richard Waterman's explanations are clear and concise. Definitive examples makes it so much easier for students without mathematical backgrounds to grasp the concept and encourages us to think of applying these theories to real life problems.

By Sinduja

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Feb 13, 2019

I really enjoyed learning with examples. There were certain aspects of basic modelling which I was unaware of but the specific illustrations and characteristics of the basic modelling techniques really helped me enrich my knowledge.

One thing that stayed with me "All models are wrong but some are useful".

Loved the teaching!!

By Godwin S C

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Jul 8, 2018

Very insightful course. Will recommend this for any student. One will need to read the recommended book earlier on in the course the appreciate and understand the course more, especially if your stats and probability is a bit rusty or absent.I enjoyed the examples in the course as well. Very practical and I can relate to them

By Federico L

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Nov 25, 2020

The course manages to explain complex functions in very straight-forward terms. It is easy to follow and presents the information in such a way that it is rememberable. Personally, I would include more "real-life" examples within the Modules' Questionnaires, as there is very few of them and a lot of theoretical questions.

By Ronan H

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Jul 16, 2020

This really is the first course I have seen which truly deals with understanding the intuition behind the fundamentals of quantitative modelling, rather than just giving the math. For someone comfortable with the topics, you may find it's a slow pace. But for someone looking for the core understandings, I would recommend.

By Fernando N

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Dec 13, 2018

As the name of the course states, we went through the fundamentals of quantitative modeling. I come from an Economics background, so the course was not very challenging but the quality of the course is very high and I do see how other people with no background in business/finance/economics could immensely benefit from it.

By Nihal D

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Mar 31, 2018

A great course conducted by a great professor! I would recommend this course to anyone who has an interest in learning about Statistics and the fundamentals of how it's used in modelling. If you have a perpetual fear of math, don't worry, this course is made super simple by the professor and even a Math novice can ace it.

By Ritesh G

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Apr 26, 2021

Introducing the students to statistical analysis, the course Fundamentals of Quantitative Modeling sets a benchmark for quality coursework. I praise the instructor, Richard Waterman, for focusing not only on the mathematical modeling practices but also on the interpretation of business jargon from the real world.

By Pui K L

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Dec 13, 2022

It is a very good introductory course on financial modeling. It covers the basics, as well as mathematical principles necessary to understand different models. It also includes sufficient contents of a higher level of difficulty to keep it interesting to students who already have some foundation in the topic.