This course was wonderfully thought out and very well organized. The professor did an amazing job introducing modeling concepts and then breaking them down in very clear, concise points so you also can understand the underlying purpose of those concepts. The examples are all very well laid out to help you further understand this course. The quizzes were simple, but they did help reinforce the information taught in each module. Some questions weren't technically covered in the module, but you could easily extrapolate from the information given to come to the correct conclusion. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone who had an interest in forming a foundational understanding of basic financial models.

I'm an economics grad who passed out a few years ago and was looking to learn quant modelling. I learnt these concepts in school but the way it was taught in this course was precise and better because of the examples. The course does make more sense if you have learnt calculus in school but now you have softwares to do that. Each module has an introduction which articulates very clearly what you can expect to learn and the summary beautifully wraps up what you learnt to give you a quick overview just before the quiz. I thoroughly enjoyed this course more than I did in school. Would recommend to econ students who want to get a refresher course in econometrics!

An excellent course: it provides learners with the concepts and skills necessary for Modelling a Quantitative model for a Business. The lectures are clear and well organized. There are Quizzes for Learners that helped them to check the main concepts. The course is very objective and direct. I'm sure it will be very useful in my life as a student and as a professional. Thank You, Coursera & the faculty Richard Waterman, Professor of Statistics of the University of Pennsylvania who for providing online courses & guidance for international students. I have really enjoyed the learnings inside the course of Academic Information Seeking.

The course was very useful in introducing me to the basic concepts of modelling. I am now familiar with the necessary vocabulary to participate in conversations about modelling. It also refreshed my intuition on the basic mathematical functions. Most interesting part was the steps I have to follow when I want to construct a particular model in order to help me in answering questions about a business process.I also found out that this is a continuous process and usually I might not construct good one from the first time. I am looking forward to the next stages and so far I would definitely recommend it to my friends!

I think this was a very good course. Level of instruction and pace were appropriate for someone with 2 hours/week to spend and who wanted to improve their knowledge of these topics. Its probably more useful for someone with some previous experience, limited time and some problems they want to solve, rather than a student. It had a good balance between a lot of breadth for time invested. If you approach this as a high-level overview that will help you efficiently focus your own search for knowledge it's extremely well done; I thought knowledge communicated for the amount of time spent was quite high.

I would like to thank coursera and university of pennsilvaniya for providing me an opportunity to be a part of this course. Language used by prof. waterman was so comprehensible that even a layman could make a note of what is being taught. Knowing the fundamentals is the foremost task before advancing into anything, with the help this course I gained a brief idea of modelling in business and how these models are instruments in growth of a business .I would like to gain a more in depth knowledge of modelling and would love to enroll in all courses related to financial modelling

A great course on data modelling, this course was structured in a way that even someone with no prior statistical knowledge would be able to understand and relate to the topics. It was paced in an even, easy manner for understanding the various methods of using statistical data modelling for forecasting purposes that we come across in various situations in our lives. It was fun and highly informative and I would definitely recommend this course to people who want to further their skills in data modelling using statiscal methods.

The concepts are really well explained and the video lectures are engaging (not boring). The tone of the professor is appropriate and I really appreciated his way to explain economics modeling.

I already knew part of the topics and treat them in my university career, but it was helpful to give my memory a little boost and explore them in a different way that I'm used to.

The difficulty is less than average; I would say that is appropriate for an undergraduate course and proportional for the effort required (2-3 hours par week).

This course felt like a fun math/statistic class because all the statistical knowledge are presented with real-world examples and a quite detailed explanation on the basis of the statistical theory, which helps an ever-inquisitive mind like me who tend to question every little details. There are some things that we might need to look up in a online search engine if want to better understand it, but all the basics are covered here, in a succinct manner even for those who use English as a second language.

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!)

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.

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.

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.

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.