Learner Reviews & Feedback for Advanced Valuation and Strategy - M&A, Private Equity, and Venture Capital by Erasmus University Rotterdam

Excellent

Valuable!

awesome!

neat

.

The course materials were very good and the course was very well structured. The content was very relevant and well shared, with multiple videos, relevant additional readings and practice exercises. This is a course I will for sure recommend.

There was, however, a discrepancy between material delivered and exam questions, i.e. learning material was not sufficient to answer many questions in the final quizzes. I found myself researching a lot and reading further to be able to answer quizzes. While this is great on the one hand, as one learns more and develops, on the other hand I am not sure this is exactly what should happen in this online setting.

It was surprising to see that the honors assignments were a lot easier than the regular assignments.

The course was interesting and enjoyable. The DCF section was relevant and the excel exercise was helpful for someone building a DCF. The Real Options and Game Theory sections felt more theoretical, and would have been helpful to see more real-life applications of these concepts, but were still interesting nonetheless. The professor gave clear explanations though would have been helpful to have slides on the content (as opposed to reading the transcript / subtitles and pausing the videos to take notes).

The course introduces the amalgamation of basic game theory concepts and real options to provide an alternative framework for evaluating strategic investment decisions in uncertain and high stake situations. It is an excellent basic course to get started with understanding this framework. While mastering this framework for practical application would ideally require a lot more effort and resources, this is a good first course to get started.

It is a great course to grasp the underlying idea of how to do advanced valuation of investments. Given its short length, it is great. I would have loved to see more underlying explanations as I know the concepts here are provided in a very simplified fashion, with underlying assumptions, math and statistics are significantly more complex to dominate and hence apply in real situations. Great course whatsoever, it will not disappoint you!

I felt that while this course is overall very helpful and well structured, it assumes pre-acquired knowledge about some things on part of the student. For example, in a quiz, there was a question about the winner's curse while this topic wasn't covered in any of the lectures. I could do well cause I have studied Strategic Management under my MBA curriculum. Overall, there's been a steep learning curve for me through this course.

Course is one of the most professionally but together ones I've participated in. Occasionally it is a bit superficial, but it is a very good refresher for certain concepts and it does teach you a few things you wouldn't expect.

Sometimes you have to look for answers as you feel like the things asked in quizes aren't mentioned in the course, but overall I am satisfied with it. I would've regretted not completing this course.

In general, it's an interesting course that combines DCF valuation with option valuation and game theory. However, each of the 3 topics should be a complex topic, but the course only touches the surface of these topics. This course should be named as an introduction to advanced topics in valuation and strategy. Overall, it's worthwhile learning and it can help you know some interesting areas in valuation.

An awesome course with really interesting (and useful) content, but not as robust and complete as it was supposed to be. A lot of times I was forced to go out and find out, by myself, some of the contents that were required but wasn't clearly (or not at all) said during classes. To the new entrants, you will enjoy, but do not underestimate the "advanced" label this course has on its name.

Loved the depth of the course, great explanation videos and sometimes challenging exercises which required some thinking!

Main point of feedback is that I would have preferred to spend some more time on understanding some of the formula. Usually a fundamental understanding helps me in applications and understanding its limitations as well.

Great content. I would suggest providing the slides with the information in the animations. It's very important for following class and further reference. Also, additional reference material would be helpful, as some questions on the test are not covered in the videos.

Great course! Has really good and deep content on financial analysis for M&A, PE and VC. However, there are flaws in some parts, as there is missing information about important topics (such as the APV method valuation) which is still asked for on the exams.

Good course with great insights into valuation, game theory, and corporate strategy. Certain explanations were lacking at some points, which had to be looked up online. However, they were included in the certificate tests.

The course was of very high quality and the reaching by Professor Smit was excellent. Only thing, few of the explanations could have been more elaborate which might have helped me a lot (being from non-finance background)

An interactive overview of advanced valuation strategy. Classes webcasts are excellent and most assignments are challenging. Would like to see an extended class with more in depth examples and case studies.

The course is really interesting and it helps to understand and to deep an economic overview about investment.

It is really complicated if you haven't a economic background and it needs some extra studies.

More nuances with respect to in-depth calculations of certain metrics used ( beta values , factor values of u and d ) for example should be explained more explicitly with course work to compliment it .

If the screen had subtitles, it would have helped a lot. The course was compact but relevant. Some more and detailed explanation would have helped in better understanding of key concepts.

Really enjoyed the course! Technical, and testing it pushed my to properly understand the videos and readings, and for me to further my understanding in certain areas.

The course was quite good and unique and also very helpful for looking at things from a wider perspective. Helped me in understanding valuation and options concepts.

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

Comprehensive approach to modern valuation techniques

Great learning experience!