OFFICE HOURS: Check schedule outside my office. For other hours, please make some arrangements after class.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: In this course, the student will focus on successfully working problems based upon the entire calculus sequence, statistics and financial mathematics in preparation for sitting for the tests administered by The Society of Actuaries.
From the college catalog: Various problem solving techniques will be employed. Applications of linear algebra, the calculus sequence, and other undergraduate mathematics courses provide a comprehensive review of these courses. This would be an excellent course for students considering a career in actuarial science.
This course counts as three hours of mathematics credit.
PREREQUISITES: MAT 222 (A student currently enrolled in MAT 222 can take the course with the instructor's consent.)
INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES/TECHNIQUES: The nature of the material requires that the students each actively participate in classroom discussions and in the presentation of various solutions to the assigned problem sets.
Graduate students are expected to serve in a leadership capacity and will be assigned additional work related to the mathematical derivation of many of the implemented formulas.
MATERIALS REQUIRED: ACTEX Calculus Review, 2005 Edition.
The optional textbook ACTEX Study Manual for the SOA Exam FM and CAS Exam 2, Fall 2007 Edition deals with Financial Mathematics.
Online problem sets are found on the Society of Actuaries web site.
INTERMEDIATE - POST ASSESSMENT: Students will be expected to participate in classroom discussions/problem solving. Each student is expected to keep a folder containing a record of their work on the problem sets. Graduate students will be expected to have a larger number of problems worked with many problems of greater difficulty including the derivations mentioned above. The instructor will assign a grade to the work included relative to the student's effort and the correctness of solutions. This grade will count as one exam grade.
At least two written exams will be administered during the term covering roughly the Calculus Review material and the Financial Mathematics material. An additional exam may be administered covering the material from Statistics, time permitting. Problems for these exams will be similar to the problems that appear on the Society of Actuaries study materials and exams.
Grading Scale:
A 90% - 100%, B 80% - 89%, C 70% - 79%, D 60% - 69%, F 0% - 59%
ATTENDANCE and MAKE - UP TESTS: Univerity policy states that any student who is absent for more than 25% of the class meetings, whether excused or unexcused, automatically receives a grade of F in the course. Students are expected to take tests on the day they are assigned. Make-up tests will be given only in the case of an extreme emergency, which should be made known to the instructor prior to the test. The responsibility for missed work rests entirely with the student. There are no makeups for missed quizzes.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: Students are expected to do their own work. Refer to the following web site: www.mc.edu/publications/policies/219.html.