Chevron Left
Back to Fundamentals of Quantitative Modeling

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

4.6
stars
8,713 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.

SS

Nov 30, 2020

for the beginer like me i have experience in banking of 8 years still for me this fundamentals are new specially quantitative modelling.Kindly provide banking related examples in here too.

thanks

Filter by:

51 - 75 of 1,655 Reviews for Fundamentals of Quantitative Modeling

By Jamal S

•

Nov 23, 2016

In a word. Excellent!

I have learnt a lot during this course.

Even though there are no direct interactions during the videos, Professor Richard Waterman still manages to keep it very engaging including excellent dry wit.

I found the course quite challenging seeing as I have very little background in Finance/Business modelling, although I have sufficient work experience to help me through.

The modules content was explained with clarity.

Thank You, Coursera, Thank You, Professor Richard Waterman!

By Luxi

•

Feb 8, 2016

I have been in IT and business areas for so many years and I need a very concise and very pragmatic way of forming useful models. I only viewed week one materials. I have to admit that the professor, the materials and the course design have been extremely impressive. I would highly recommend, to anyone, IT or business managers, professionals in all areas to take this course. Because Modeling and Data Analytics will facilitate much better business decisions and make us better thinkers.

By Yashowardhan

•

Jun 29, 2020

The course was well designed for its content and flow of revelation of contents. The course progressed in the manner it should be, from basic to intermediate level. Professor Richard Waterman was polite, calm, composed and thorough in his approach. The best part was, I was able to immediately go into discussion with one of my friends who is into modeling (some specific) from few years, and he told me that I was sounding theoretically well versed. Thanks & Regards Yashowardhan.

By Vikrant R W

•

Sep 19, 2019

This course is very extensive on the use of quantitative models. The 4 quantitative models are explained with simple practical examples which enables the learner put his knowledge in practical situations. The skills learned in this course are very essential to a maker of Financial Model where one has to use historical data and build forecast.

My personal advise to fellow learners, please do attempt the calculations on your own to make your knowledge more precise. Happy Learning

By Peter M

•

Apr 13, 2020

This was a detailed and thorough introduction to modelling fundamentals. Key takeaways that I will be able to directly incorporate into my role as a consultant:

-Discrete and Continuous regression

-Attributing different models as a solution to different business problems e.g. gap analysis, correlation, go/no go decision making

-Normal distribution values, and identifying mean/standard deviations

-Incorporating random variables; often requested by clients or external events

By Vishvendra S T

•

Apr 14, 2018

This is an excellent course for all those who wants to learn Quantitative Modeling from very scratch. This course builds the foundation block by equipping students with basic terminologies & mathematical functions required to demystify the mathematical complexity associated with the topic. The course further explains various nuances of various models (Static/Dynamic, Deterministic/Probabilistic etc) elegantly & elaborately.

Thanks to the Coursera & Wharton Online Team!

By Dionysios Z

•

Oct 17, 2016

This introductory course is perfect. It gives you time to think (you don't have to spend too much time in order to understand the material/concepts) and it is self-sufficient. I would suggest to set the playback rate at 1.25 since the teacher talks really slow. In addition, I would like to see the teacher talking like a human being instead of reading his notes in a black background but this is not super important for me. All in all, I totally recommend it!

By Wei J H

•

Jul 1, 2020

It's generally very useful to help understand the fundamental workings behind financial modelling. Professor Waterman did dump down a lot of complex details into very digestible examples so that people with very little business or even mathematics background should be able to grasp the concept rather easily. It is, however, rather easy for someone with strong mathematical knowledge and the course can be completed in less than half the time allotted.

By Fabricio M

•

Mar 28, 2020

The ability of Professor RIchard Waterman to take a very mathematical/statistical concept and beautifully explain it within business context applications is what I liked the most. Really beneficial to learn a concept from someone who you can outright tell has already mastered the concept, and now has the ability to teach it. I have taken various courses of quantitative methods, and this is by far the best fundamentals lesson I have ever attended.

By Androniki P

•

Feb 19, 2017

While a student, I couldn't understand any of these, the probabilistic, deterministic models, their types, differences and applications. I would usually memorize when to use them just to pass the course. Now, this time I feel I really comprehend them. And it happened smooth and quite easily because the instructor was amazing. The material was well presented and gradually getting more advanced. U would highly recommend the course! Thank you.

By Carlos O I L

•

Feb 25, 2016

I just finished the 3/4 week for this course and so far it's been an excellent class, however I don't understand why you need to upgrade to get your quiz graded. I understand that you should pay to get a certificate, I find it totally acceptable, but I don't agree with being charged just to know how well you did.

I plan on taking the full specialization (minus the Capston Project) and I'm hoping the next courses are as good as this one!

By Andrew A

•

Sep 18, 2021

Very nice, low level introduction to the topic. The more mathematically sophisticated student will likely find the lectures very slow, but that isn't a bad thing. Only negative comment: I feel like it is a little irresponsible to teach a quantitative modeling course and talk about how useful the normal distribution is without discussing tails. (There have been some very significant historical impacts of not worrying about tails!)

By Zarina

•

May 25, 2017

Thank you to Prof. Waterman and Coursera for a very insightful and inspiring course on the Fundamentals of Quantitative Modeling. The course instructions were delivered in a very clear manner, which helped absorb the complicated material more easily. The course allowed me to learn new and polish existing knowledge on the topic of Modeling. The course also opened the door for a further study of the Modeling and related topics.

By Austin G

•

Dec 19, 2016

This course helped me really to understand the concepts behind mathematical formulas commonly used in business analytics. I much more clearly understand the relation between variables within a function, as well as their meaning in reality. Overall, I can tell this course is great as the introduction for the Business and Financial Modeling Specialization. Very pleased with the quality and intelligence of the instructor.

By jayant s

•

Feb 23, 2016

Builds solid foundation and covers the basics of quantitative models. Nice introduction to regression. Really looking forward to next course, which would teach spreadsheet implementation.

I think this course will help professionals and students from a variety of fields, i.e. marketing, sales, banking and finance, Information Technology, etc. Keep up the good work, Coursera and Wharton Online.

By Santhosh K

•

Jul 31, 2017

Course Content is designed in such a way that it is very easy to undertsand the concepts. Although being an engineer I already have insight about these topics, this course has given a structured way of undertsanding and interpreting things which is really a great value addition in decision making. A must course for all those who want to pursue MBA or those interested in Decision Making.

By peter a

•

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

•

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

•

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

•

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

•

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

•

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

•

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

•

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

•

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!