[McUsed]

I took this course during the Winter 2012 session with Professor Jordan Fortino. This course is open to 3rd and 4th year students who are not enrolled in the Commerce program.

As the name of the course suggests, this class is all about personal finance. Essentially, taking 4FP3 will provide you a better idea as to how to make financial decisions in your life. This includes learning how to budget and manage your money, how to make investments in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and real estate, how to file your taxes, understanding different types of insurance such as health, life, and auto insurance, retirement and estate planning, and credit and debt management.

For most students taking this class, a lot of the material is new and can be overwhelming (especially since it's only opened to non-commerce students). However, Professor Fortino made our tests and final exam non-cumulative, which helped us out a lot!

How we were evaluated:

2 midterms worth 30% each
exam worth 40%

Some stats:

1st midterm average: 76.52% (113 students wrote the first test, with 52 students getting over 80%. No one got above 95%.)

2nd midterm average: 69.83% (111 students wrote the second test, with 20 students getting over 80%. No marks above 90%.)

Both the midterms and exam were multiple choice. A formula sheet was also provided in the first test. As well, you don't really need to purchase a financial calculate for the tests. The Casio fx-991 calculator is good enough. The calculations themselves aren't that difficult. Usually you just plug in some numbers in a formula to get an answer. Both tests I found to be fair.

Textbook:

You can get by in this course with the lecture notes alone. In fact, the lecture notes contain word-for-word text straight from the textbook. However, I would buy the textbook nonetheless as it contains practice problems at the end of each chapter. Thse will essentially help you determine whether you understand the concepts or not. Also, the text provides further clarifications about concepts that are discussed in lecture using examples.

Prof:

Professor Fortino is a young and charismatic guy who is passionate about what he is teaching. Although at times he does assume that we already know some of the concepts, he does his best to make sure everyone is on the same page. He takes the effort to get to know his students and enjoys giving financial advice (buy Bank of America and purchase low, sell high).

Should I take this course?

YES! Regardless of what mark you end up getting in this course, this is a valueable and informative class! I found this course more relevant and applicable to real life than any other of my science classes. Before I took 4FP3, I knew nothing about investing or how to file my taxes or retirement planning. This is a user-friendly course designed for non-commerce students. You learn how to make financial decisions for different stages of your life. I honestly believe that every student should take this class!

I concur with the previous post. I also took it this year, and all that the OP has said is true. In order to do well, you must buy the textbook and you must attend lectures. There are times when things are said in class that are not mentioned in the textbook. And you'll definitely benefit if you read the textbook before each lecture. I like finance, so I liked the course more than the average person who took it to get an easy A. You can definitely do well if you have an interest.

Can anyone comment on Dr. Cheung?
The master timetable has him listed as the instructor for first semester.

Originally Posted by OldSpiceGuy

Can anyone comment on Dr. Cheung?
The master timetable has him listed as the instructor for first semester.

http://www.ratemyprofessors. com/Sh... 35236&page=1

Originally Posted by apples12

http://www.ratemyprofessors. com/Sh... 35236&page=1

Note that these reviews are from 2007, so the course itself may have also changed over the past few years.

This is all hearsay but my friend took 4FP3 with Dr. Cheung during the Winter 2011 session and they mentioned that the tests were cumulative, didn't have formula sheets, and that the averages tended to be lower in contrast to when I took it with Dr. Fortino. That being said, I don't know Cheung's teaching style but the information that you learn in this course can be applied in the many stages of your life and I wouldn't be too concerned with the grade that you end up getting after you have completed 4FP3.

Are the tests straight from the lecture notes?
I've never taken any commerce course before, so I'm a little reluctant to experiment with this course.

How easy is it score 11 or 12 in this course?

Could anyone provide a more recent review for this course? The Master Timetable doesn't say who's teaching next year, though.

Anyone?

Alright I took this course during Winter 2015 when it was offered as an online course for the first time. The mark breakdown was as follows:
10% for weekly readings - full marks were awarded after completing questions based on the readings. Incorrect answers did not count against you.. the online textbook continued giving you questions until you had answered enough correctly (apparently you could buy a hard copy of the book with a "connect" code to do all this but I just bought the online book for simplicity sake)
10% was for weekly problem sets. Some of these were difficult for me, particularly the math questions, but it was good practice for the exam (which was much less difficult) - every week there was at least one problem set, sometimes two
20% for mini-case assignments (2 x 10%) - these were done in groups that were assigned by the course administration and were different for both. One was completing a tax return for an individual described in the case-study and the second involved mortgage-related questions (calculating payments, the remaining value of your mortgage after a given time, proportion of payments that was interest vs. principle). I found these difficult because I had no relevant background, but again, good practice (exam was much easier)
20% - Personal Financial Planner assignments. Most of these were worth 2% but the last two were 4% each. There was one due most weeks but sometimes every other week. They involved "planning" your finances and were related to the topics covered that week (including creating a budget, determining your insurance needs, comparing the cost of renting vs. buying, comparing the cost of buying on credit vs. with cash...etc.). These were useful activities BUT not very applicable to most of us at this point in our lives. However, they were marked easily and it was still helpful to illustrate the importance of preparation in setting yourself up for financial success.
5% for Avenue Discussion forum participation. Each student had to sign up for ONE discussion topic (i.e. Banking, Investing, etc.). Each of these was associated with a "Guest Lecture" video interview and relevant discussion questions, which each student had to answer on the discussion board for their assigned topic. Additionally, everyone had to comment on at least one other students post. There were actually fairly strict requirements with respect to what they were looking for, however this was not made very clear so if you are taking this course, look around on Avenue for their expectations.
35% for the exam. 100 multiple choice questions. We had an exam review session after classes ended and it was very helpful. The exam was definitely fair. I found that it tested the key take-away topics and the things that were most important to know going forward. There were a few questions that were more in-depth/specific, but the majority were very fair and general knowledge stuff that I would expect most people will benefit from knowing for understanding and managing their finances.

There were lectures online (which I never watched because there was too much to do every week already) but I found that the textbook was sufficient, at least for doing well in the course and on the exam. This was the first time the course was administered online, and I suspect changes will be made in the future to "iron out the kinks". Overall, I wound recommend this course. It was quite a bit of work every week but the exam was fair, there were lots of ways to improve your mark and the content was applicable to everyday life. Just need to keep up with the work because there is a lot of content and although you probably won't feel prepared to manage your money, the course will, at the very least, make you feel more confident in your understanding of the basics of saving, budgeting, investing, etc. and finance-related jargon.

Originally Posted by shelbs

Alright I took this course during Winter 2015 when it was offered as an online course for the first time. The mark breakdown was as follows:
10% for weekly readings - full marks were awarded after completing questions based on the readings. Incorrect answers did not count against you.. the online textbook continued giving you questions until you had answered enough correctly (apparently you could buy a hard copy of the book with a "connect" code to do all this but I just bought the online book for simplicity sake)
10% was for weekly problem sets. Some of these were difficult for me, particularly the math questions, but it was good practice for the exam (which was much less difficult) - every week there was at least one problem set, sometimes two
20% for mini-case assignments (2 x 10%) - these were done in groups that were assigned by the course administration and were different for both. One was completing a tax return for an individual described in the case-study and the second involved mortgage-related questions (calculating payments, the remaining value of your mortgage after a given time, proportion of payments that was interest vs. principle). I found these difficult because I had no relevant background, but again, good practice (exam was much easier)
20% - Personal Financial Planner assignments. Most of these were worth 2% but the last two were 4% each. There was one due most weeks but sometimes every other week. They involved "planning" your finances and were related to the topics covered that week (including creating a budget, determining your insurance needs, comparing the cost of renting vs. buying, comparing the cost of buying on credit vs. with cash...etc.). These were useful activities BUT not very applicable to most of us at this point in our lives. However, they were marked easily and it was still helpful to illustrate the importance of preparation in setting yourself up for financial success.
5% for Avenue Discussion forum participation. Each student had to sign up for ONE discussion topic (i.e. Banking, Investing, etc.). Each of these was associated with a "Guest Lecture" video interview and relevant discussion questions, which each student had to answer on the discussion board for their assigned topic. Additionally, everyone had to comment on at least one other students post. There were actually fairly strict requirements with respect to what they were looking for, however this was not made very clear so if you are taking this course, look around on Avenue for their expectations.
35% for the exam. 100 multiple choice questions. We had an exam review session after classes ended and it was very helpful. The exam was definitely fair. I found that it tested the key take-away topics and the things that were most important to know going forward. There were a few questions that were more in-depth/specific, but the majority were very fair and general knowledge stuff that I would expect most people will benefit from knowing for understanding and managing their finances.

There were lectures online (which I never watched because there was too much to do every week already) but I found that the textbook was sufficient, at least for doing well in the course and on the exam. This was the first time the course was administered online, and I suspect changes will be made in the future to "iron out the kinks". Overall, I wound recommend this course. It was quite a bit of work every week but the exam was fair, there were lots of ways to improve your mark and the content was applicable to everyday life. Just need to keep up with the work because there is a lot of content and although you probably won't feel prepared to manage your money, the course will, at the very least, make you feel more confident in your understanding of the basics of saving, budgeting, investing, etc. and finance-related jargon.

Do you know if the course is easy to get an 11 or 12 in if you keep up with all of the work?

Is this course 12able?

Yes, it is 12able. The average going into the exam was at least mid to high 80's, if not in the 90s. Very fair course, just a lot of small assignments and stuff to do every week which was annoying

Originally Posted by shelbs

Yes, it is 12able. The average going into the exam was at least mid to high 80's, if not in the 90s. Very fair course, just a lot of small assignments and stuff to do every week which was annoying

Thanks for the reply! Also, what prof did you take the course with?

I took this course with Fortino during Winter 2015. It is definitely 12able! The course load isn't too bad either, there are problems sets and readings that you have to complete online every week but those will take you max 3 hours to do. There are two assignments that you complete as a group and then there's the final exam which is fairly easy.