Mathematics 280, Summer 2015

Illinois State University – Mathematics Department

Instructors

Classes Meet

This class is held online.

Office Hours

By appointment. You can also make an appointment at http://krzysio.acuityscheduling.com. Contact the instructor by e-mail (krzysio@ilstu.edu), or inside ReggieNet, or Skype (krzysio1898), or Apple FaceTime (krzysio@ilstu.edu or 309-287-1711), or gmail (krzysio1898@gmail.com).

Textbooks

There will study notes, exercises and videos provided online. You can use any of the books listed as textbooks for the Course FM/2 professional actuarial examination, but the class materials posted online, as well as video lectures will refer to this text: Study Manual for the Course FM/2 Examination 2014 Edition, by Krzysztof Ostaszewski, available at Actex Publications or the Actuarial Bookstore.

Objective

The objective of this class is to present the main concepts of basic, deterministic, financial mathematics. These include: time value of money, mesurement of interest, annuities, loans, bonds, stocks and preferred stocks, duration, convexity, immunization, and derivative securities such as forwards, futures, options and swaps. The class will cover the entire material tested on the Course FM/2 professional actuarial examination. Note that the next available testing period for Course FM/2 professional actuarial examination is August 6-17, 2015, and the deadline to register for this testing period is June 29, 2015. You can find all dates for Computer Based Tests for professional actuarial examinations here.

Grading

There will be four take home mid-term examinations, and two supervised final examination. You must schedule your supervised final examinations on campus of Illinois State University or at another supervised secure location (e.g., at a local university or community college at a location where you are, or at an insurance company office). One of the two examinations must be taken by July 31, 2015 at the latest, and the second one must be taken by August 7, 2015 at the latest. You are required to work on your take home tests by yourself, without obtaining help from anyone else, and submit written solutions by sending your work as an e-mail attachment to the instructor (make it one file for each assignment) or by sharing it through DropBox.com or some other secure file sharing service. The better of the two finals will count as 40% of your grade, and the best two of the remaining five tests (four take home tests, and the second final) will count as 30% of your grade each. You will also get up to 10% extra credit for the best of the remaining tests. The grading scale will be as follows: 90% or better — A, 80% to 90% — B, 70% to 80% — C, 60% to 70% — D, below 60% — F. If you have an A after the first final, you will not be given the second final. After each test is graded, you will receive an e-mail with information on how to log in to a secure site where you will be able to view your grade(s). You will also receive a PDF file of your test with grading indicated, and you can submit any questions you might have about the grading to the class instructor. You will also receive model solutions of all tests after the tests are given.

Disability concerns

Any student needing a special accommodation for a documented disability should contact Disability Concerns at Fell Hall, Room 350.

Important dates

Illinois State University important dates information for the Summer 2015 semester is given here: http://www.registrar.ilstu.edu/downloads/calendars/summer2015cal.pdf.

Schedule of classes

• Monday, May 18, 2015: Classes start.
• Friday, May 22, 2015: You are expected to have watched all Week 1 video lectures and have studied the corresponding material, including going through all listed Week 1 exercises.
• Friday, May 29, 2015: You are expected to have watched all Week 2 video lectures and have studied the corresponding material, including going through all listed Week 2 exercises. You will receive Take Home Midterm Examination 1, covering material through May 29, 2015, given to you, and due June 19, 2054, by 11:59 p.m. U.S. Central Time, submitted by e-mail to the instructor or through DropBox.com (some other file sharing scheme is OK, as long you you deliver the file on time — submission in one file names FirstnameLastname-Test1.pdf, or analogous, is strongly prefered).
• Friday, June 5, 2015: You are expected to have watched all Week 3 video lectures and have studied the corresponding material, including going through all listed Week 3 exercises. You will receive Take Home Midterm Examination 2, covering material through June 5, 2015, given to you, and due June 26, 2015, by 11:59 p.m. U.S. Central Time, submitted by e-mail to the instructor or through DropBox.com (some other file sharing scheme is OK, as long you you deliver the file on time — submission in one file names FirstnameLastname-Test2.pdf, or analogous, is strongly prefered).
• Friday, June 12, 2015: You are expected to have watched all Week 4 video lectures and have studied the corresponding material, including going through all listed Week 4 exercises. You will receive Take Home Midterm Examination 3, covering material through June 12, 2015, given to you, and due July 3, 2015, by 11:59 p.m. U.S. Central Time submitted by e-mail to the instructor or through DropBox.com (some other file sharing scheme is OK, as long you you deliver the file on time — submission in one file names FirstnameLastname-Test3.pdf, or analogous, is strongly prefered).
• Friday, June 19, 2015: You are expected to have watched all Week 5 video lectures and have studied the corresponding material, including going through all listed Week 5 exercises. You will receive Take Home Midterm Examination 4, covering material through June 19, 2015, given to you, and due July 10, 2015, by 11:59 p.m. U.S. Central Time, submitted by e-mail to the instructor or through DropBox.com (some other file sharing scheme is OK, as long you you deliver the file on time — submission in one file names FirstnameLastname-Test4.pdf, or analogous, is strongly prefered).
• Friday, July 31, 2015: You must take your first supervised final examination on or before this date. Please schedule it at least four days in advadvance. The arrangement must be approved by the instructor. The test can be supervised by a professor at a university or a community college, or a credentialed actuary, who agrees to do this and coordinates this process with the class instructor. You can always come to take the supervised test at Illinois State University, but you are not required to, any supervised setting is acceptable, as long as approved and agreed upon by the class instructor. Please ask Dr. Ostaszewski if you are uncertain of anything.
• Friday, August 7, 2015: You must take your second supervised final examination on or before this date. Please schedule it at least four days in advadvance. The arrangement must be approved by the instructor. The test can be supervised by a professor at a university or a community college, or a credentialed actuary, who agrees to do this and coordinates this process with the class instructor. You can always come to take the supervised test at Illinois State University, but you are not required to, any supervised setting is acceptable, as long as approved and agreed upon by the class instructor. Please ask Dr. Ostaszewski if you are uncertain of anything.

All deadlines are final and will not be extended under any circumstancs. For any form of submission, the date and time sent must be prior to the deadline. Please make appropriate allowance for technology failures.

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All information contained here is, to our best knowledge, correct, but it is merely a representation, and should not be considered to be any form of professional advice. This electronic publication should not be misconstrued as the official position of Illinois State University, or its Department of Mathematics. We are glad to provide as much information as possible here, but we kindly ask that in any decision related to matters listed here you seek additional counsel and information. Comments on this Home Page are welcome and should be sent to Dr. Krzysztof Ostaszewski  at his e-mail address: krzysio@ilstu.edu.