New Course! Exam IFM Preparation.

Wednesday, November 7, 2018 - 12:00am
iowa

With early registration for Spring 2019 currently underway our department will offer a new exam preparation course for Exam IFM (ACTS:4160).  Attached please find a preliminary course syllabus.

Syllabus

Why offer a new course?

As you know, Exam IFM (Investment and Financial markets) has replaced the old Exam MFE since July 2018.  Roughly speaking, 50% of IFM is about derivatives (Topics 6 to 10) and the other 50% is about corporate finance and investment (Topics 1 to 5).  The derivatives portion is adequately covered in ACTS:4380 (Mathematics of Finance II) and many of our students take FIN:3300 (Corporate Finance) to earn the VEE credit as well as to learn the IFM corporate finance topics.  However, FIN:3300 does not always use the IFM corporate finance textbook (Berk & DeMarzo) and its coverage may not be at the right level for an actuarial exam.  This motivates us to develop a prep course that complements FIN:3300, provides an in-depth treatment of the more mathematical corporate finance topics, and, most importantly, is geared towards helping you pass Exam IFM.

 

What will the new prep course be like?

ACTS:4160 is a one-credit pass/fail course that is dedicated to the corporate finance and investment portion of Exam IFM, with an emphasis on the more quantitative and demanding topics.  It will be offered in the second half of the spring semester, from March 4 to May 3, after you have grasped the essentials from ACTS:4380 and FIN:3300.  Although the focus of the course is on solving exam-type problems, you will also get to see and understand the underlying corporate finance concepts thoroughly.  No textbooks or study manuals will be required; the instructor's course package will be made freely available to all registered students.  While the prep course has no formal written exams, full attendance is expected and short in-class multiple-choice quizzes (in the same format as IFM exam questions) will be regularly given to assess students' understanding.  Together with ACTS:4380 and FIN:3300, the prep course will equip you with the necessary knowledge and skills to pass the July 2019 IFM exam.