Course Organization:

Announcements

May 03:	Please click  here  to see  your final exam mark and unofficial letter grade
	for the course. Also, please note that your official grade will be sent to you
	by the Registrar's Office upon the approval by the Senate.
	HAVE A WONDERFUL SUMMER!
April 04:	As it was announced earlier, the final exam is scheduled for Friday, April 13th
	from 9 A.M. to 12 P.M. in CLH G. The exam will be "open book and open
	notes"; however, use of the solutions manual will not be permitted. The exam will be
	comprehensive, covering the entire year's work according to the Course Schedule,
	but with an emphasis on more recent material from the second term.
	Regarding the coverage of the exam, there will be NO questions on the following
	parts of the text-book:
	Section 2.10: Compound Discount at a Discount Rate,
	Section 4.4: The case of payments that form an arithmetic progression,
	Section 5.4: Sum-of-the-Digits method.
	From Section 6.7 you will be responsible only for the Method of Averages, from
	Section 7.4 - only for the Straight-Line-Method and the Constant-Percentage Method.
	On the material from Sections 8.2 and 8.3 the focus will be on probability questions
	that involve life and death, not dice, cards and balls in boxes.
	Finally, EXCEL related questions will require:
	Correct use of all the built-in financial functions from the course handout;
	The ability to read and/or produce EXCEL formulas that answer simple "text-book
	style" questions;
	The ability to answer questions that are based on the print-out of an EXCEL
	worksheet.
	The use of a portable computer or programmable calculators during the exam
	is NOT allowed.
March 29:	Please note that Test #4 papers will be returned in the class on Friday,
	March 30.
March 20:	We will write Test #4 during the lecture period on Friday, March 23.
	On the test you will be responsible for all the material covered in class from
	Sections 6.5-6.7, 7.1-7.4 and 8.1-8.4 of the text-book. Please note that
	from Section 6.7 you are responsible only for the Method of Averages, and
	from Section 7.4 you are responsible for the Straight-Line Method and the
	Constant-Percentage Method only. The test will also cover all of the financial
	functions built-in to Excel that are on the Financial Functions Crib Sheet as well
	as certain basic Excel concepts, such as the use of absolute and relative cell
	references in Excel formulas. The use of a portable computer or programmable
	calculators during the test is not allowed.
March 11:	Please note that the exam schedule has been published to the Registrar's web site.
	The course web page has been updated to show exam date, time and venue.
	However, it is your responsibility to check with official York web site in case
	of last minute changes.
February 20:	Please note that Test #3 papers will be returned in the class on Wednesday,
	February 21.
February 02:	As it was announced in the class today, we will write Test #3 during the lecture
	period on Friday, February 9th. On the test you will be responsible for all the material
	covered in class from Sections 5.1-5.3, 5.5-5.7 and 6.1-6.5 of the text-book.
	Please note that there will also be questions that ask you to write down an Excel
	formula that will produce the answer to a given problem. At this point you are
	responsible for knowing only how to use the basic Excel financial functions given
	in the file FinFcnsCribsheet.doc except IRR and NPV. The use of a portable computer
	during the test is not allowed.
January 02:	Please note that Test #2 papers will be returned in the class on Wednesday,
	January 03.
November 29:	Please note that errata are available for the text-book, posted in MS Word .doc format.
November 24:	We will write Test #2 during the lecture period on Friday, December 01.
	On the test you will be responsible for all the material covered in class from
	Sections 2.9, 2.10, 3.1 - 3.6, 4.1 - 4.4 and 5.1 of the text-book.
October 26:	Please note that Test #1 papers will be returned in the class on Friday,
	October 27.  I am making available  solutions  to the test questions.
October 10:	We will write Test #1 during the lecture period on Wednesday, October 18.
	On the test you will be responsible for all the material covered in class from
	Sections 1.1-1.5 and 2.1-2.8 of the text-book.
	Please note that office hour for Friday, October 13 has been cancelled.
October 06:	Please note that there is no classes on Monday, October 09.
	Happy Thanksgiving!
September 06:	Welcome back!
	To view and/or print  PDF  files you need to download the Acrobat Reader

Course Information

Course Description: Theory of interest; annuities certain; amortization and sinking funds; evaluation of bonds and other investments; depreciation, depletion and capital cost; insurance, including mortality tables, principles of life annuities, premiums and reserves. The first four-fifths of the course deal with most of the above topics, with applications to simple and general annuities, perpetuities, loan payments, capital budgeting, and internal rates of return. In the last few weeks of the course, the theory of interest is applied to life annuities and life insurance. Students will use EXCEL, a spreadsheet available in the computer laboratory in the Steacie building. This spreadsheet operates on both the Macintosh and IBM-compatible platforms. EXCEL will be used to simplify and illuminate equation-solving, amortization of loans and mortgages, bond schedules, depreciation tables, and mortality tables. No previous computer experience is assumed. With the help of notes and class instruction students will be introduced to the spreadsheet and to its use in mathematics of finance. The emphasis will be on practical problems. For a more detailed list of topics with references to the text-book, please see Course Schedule.

Course Schedule

(subject to any changes announced in class)

Note: The course will cover nearly all the sections of each chapter as well as some additional material on spreadsheets. A component of the course will be devoted to an introduction to the use of spreadsheets for financial calculations. We will be using MS EXCEL which functions on both PC and Macintosh platforms. Some class sessions in the second term will be devoted to demonstrations of this software but students will be expected to work on their own in the computer laboratories scattered throughout the campus; some of these are open 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. The software manuals for EXCEL are on 2-hour reserve at the desk in Steacie library; but you should rarely need these because the program itself has substantial on-line help files. To access these programs and course-related data files, you will require a personal "ACADLABS" account; this is the name of the server on which EXCEL resides. To obtain such an account, follow the instructions available at the Computing Commons or at this website, ACADLABS accounts. Note that this account is different from your e-mail account.  For information about our course-specific files, please read the following information:  ACADLABS access to course-specific EXCEL files.

Homework  

Throughout the year, the everyday homework assignment is to do as many of the problems from the textbook as you find necessary to develop your understanding of the course material. These will not be collected for grading and hence will not directly affect your grade. While these will not directly affect your grade, it is extremely important that you complete as many problems as possible. There is nothing like a bit of computation to strengthen understanding in mathematics! Successful students must keep up with homework and seek help for points they do not understand as soon as possible. Do not fall behind! It is recommended to read the relevant sections of the text-book before every class. Next to the classes, working out the answers to the problems is the most important preparation for the tests and exam that will contain for the most part but not exclusively, questions very similar to those from the text-book. I will occasionally make specific suggestions concerning problems to do or to avoid.. It is quite practical to work on your own or together in small groups. Each student should do at least two hours of independent study for every lecture hour. The amount you learn in this course and the grade you receive will be proportional to the amount of time you spend working on problems.

Exams Information

Lecture/Exam Rules:

Please turn off all cell phones and pagers before entering the lecture hall. For tests and exam cell phones, digital dictionaries, palms, pagers or other electronic devices are not allowed. All such devices as well as all books, papers, knapsacks, and briefcases must be left at the front of the lecture hall. Anyone caught with electronic devices will be charged with Academic Dishonesty (see the next page). The only items you may have at your seat are pens, pencils, student ID, a non-graphing, non-programmable calculator and purses.
You are responsible for all material covered in lectures.
Note: Photo identification and signing-in are required at all tests and exam.

Final Grade:

The composition of the final grade is as follows:
Four Class-Tests (50 minutes each written tests held in lecture periods): 15% each (Tentative dates for the tests: Wednesday, October 18; Friday, December 01 of 2006, and Friday, February 09; Friday, March 23 of 2007).
Final Examination (3-hour exam scheduled by the Registar's Office): 40% of the overall grade, will take place on Friday, April 13 of 2007 from 9:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. in CLH G.
All test marks you receive should be interpreted as raw scores and not "percentages". The statistics of scores will be announced for all tests. Students have seven days from the date of the return of a test paper to appeal their marks. Cut-off for converting midterm scores into letter grades will be announced prior to the drop date.

Make-up Policy:

No permission will be given to a student to write tests in advance of their scheduled dates. No make-ups will be done for the class-tests. Missed tests will be counted as zero, except under extreme circumstances in which case the corresponding percentage of the overall grade will be "forwarded" to the final exam. If you miss a class-test  for medical reasons you must turn in  within one week following the test a copy of the medical report form provided  here after getting it filled in by your doctor. No other type of medical note will be accepted.  However, missing tests is extremely dangerous and not recommended. As experience has shown, students who miss class tests because of some 'mysterious illnesses' will usually average 30% on the final exam. A student who misses the final examination will be allowed to write a make-up exam only if both of the following conditions are met:
    1) the student notifies me (raguimov@mathstat.yorku.ca) or the Department of   Mathematics and Statistics (Undergraduate Office, N502/503 Ross Building, 416-736-2100, Ext. 55902 or 33969) in advance that the exam will be missed,
    2) the student submits a copy of the medical report form provided  here after getting it filled in by his/her doctor within one week following the exam.
Students who miss the final examination and do not meet both conditions will receive a grade of F. It is student's responsibility to fill out and submit the Deferred Standing Agreement Form.
Note: Do not make vacation/job plan until the final exam date is known: having a plane ticket for Hawaii or Las Vegas on April 20 is NOT a legitimate excuse for absence from a final exam on April 25.

Religious Observance:

 York University is committed to respecting the religious beliefs and practices of all members of the community and making accommodations for observances of special significance to adherents. If any of the dates specified in the course schedule for in-class tests pose such a conflict, students should contact me (raguimov@mathstat.yorku.ca) within the first two weeks of classes. Please note that if the final exam date poses a conflict, students must complete the Final Exam Accommodation Form, which can be obtained from the Registrar’s Office

Academic Honesty:

Conduct that violates the ethical or legal standards of the university community or of one’s programme or specialization may result in serious consequences. Refer to the Senate Policy on  Academic Honesty.

Communication:

Individual questions can be discussed by e-mail, or in person after class, or during office hours. Please send all e-mail notes as plain text within the body of the message. Do not send attachments nor HTML-formatted mail. Also, if the name of your account is an alias, I will not know who the mail is from unless you sign it; it also risks being accidentally discarded as junk mail. The course web page will be up-dated regularly to include important announcements made in class, such as the material to be covered on the tests. E-mail notes requesting such information contained on the web page will be answered the last.

Links and Other Resources

1-  York Undergraduate Math Program
2-  Inflation Calculator

Questions and comments regarding this Web page please send to raguimov@mathstat.yorku.ca

© 2006, All Rights Reserved, York University & Iouldouz S. Raguimov

Last modified May 03, 2007