Syllabus for MATH 3760Financial Mathematics

Fall 2015

Course: MWF 9:00-9:50, Ritter Hall 120

Professor: Prof. Jim Gill

Office: 307 Ritter HallPhone: 977-2494 (Office)Email: jgill5@slu.edu

Web Page: http://mathcs.slu.edu/~gill/3760_2016.html

Office Hours: Tuesday 1-2, Wednesday 10-11, Friday 10-11, or by appointment.

MATH 3760: Theory of interest material for the Financial Mathematics exam of the Society of Actuaries.Prerequisite: MATH 1520 (Calculus II)

Text: Samuel Broverman, Mathematics of Investment and Credit, Sixth Edition ISBN: 9781625424853.Beware, the 5th edition is also around. Probably one can get by with the 5th edition, with the caveat thatdoing the right homework problems may be slightly difficult.

Calculator: A financial calculator will be essential for this class. I recommend and will use in class theTexas Instruments BA II Plus or BA II Plus Professional. If you have another financial calculator and knowhow to use it, feel free to. If you are actually planning to take the actuarial exam, I recommend the BA IIPlus Professional.

Homework: Homework will be assigned but not collected. The purpose of the homework is to prepare youfor the quizzes and eventually, for the FM exam.

Quizzes: Each Friday, unless otherwise specified, there will be a short quiz. The topics for each Friday’squiz will be given no later than Monday. Your worst 3 quiz grades will be dropped from your grade.

Attendance: Attendance is not required. Most of the time in lecture we will be doing examples, not theory.You should probably come for the quizzes on Friday.

Expectations: It is expected that you may spend 5 hours a week outside of class working on the homeworkproblems and reading the textbook. It is possible that you should complete more than just the assignedproblems in order to prepare for the quizzes. You are responsible for figuring out what it will take so thatyou can pass the quizzes.

Final Exam: Monday December 12, 8:00-9:50

Grading:

Quizzes 70 %Final Exam 30 %

Scale: The scale will be 92 for A, 90 for A-,88 for B+,82 for B, 80 for B-, 78 for C+, 72 for C,70 for C-, 60for D, 0 for F

Academic Honesty: “Students are expected to be honest in their academic work. The University reservesthe right to penalize any student whose academic conduct is, in its judgement, detrimental to the Univer-sity. Such conduct is, in its judgement, detrimental to the University. Such conduct shall include cases ofplagiarism, collusion, cheating, giving or receiving or offering or soliciting information in the examinations,or the use of previously prepared material in examinations or quizzes. Violations should be reported to yourcourse instructor, who will investigate and adjudicate them according to the Policy on Academic Honesty ofthe College of Arts and Sciences. If the charges are found to be true, the student may be liable for academicor disciplinary probation, suspension, or expulsion by the University.”

Disabilities: “The university policy is that a student with a disability must be approved for academicaccommodations by Disability Services prior to receiving accommodations for a particular course. Studentsnot approved for accommodations through Disability Services should not be given traditional academicaccommodations normally provided only to students with documented disabilities.”

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