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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Modeling Risk and Realities by University of Pennsylvania

4.6
stars
2,184 ratings

About the Course

Useful quantitative models help you to make informed decisions both in situations in which the factors affecting your decision are clear, as well as in situations in which some important factors are not clear at all. In this course, you can learn how to create quantitative models to reflect complex realities, and how to include in your model elements of risk and uncertainty. You’ll also learn the methods for creating predictive models for identifying optimal choices; and how those choices change in response to changes in the model’s assumptions. You’ll also learn the basics of the measurement and management of risk. By the end of this course, you’ll be able to build your own models with your own data, so that you can begin making data-informed decisions. You’ll also be prepared for the next course in the Specialization....

Top reviews

JN

Apr 12, 2018

covers good amount of material and exactly what is in the outline, presented with enough detail to follow. Good walk-through of the spreadsheets helps understanding, easy to follow along and practice.

LC

Dec 18, 2016

Material was very well presented. Week 3 was challenging, but taking time to print out the slides, work through them rigorously proved very helpful. I found all sections very, very informative.

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201 - 225 of 315 Reviews for Modeling Risk and Realities

By Dionysios Z

•

Nov 21, 2016

Nice course, probably the best so far in this specialization. I really enjoyed Sergei Savin's lectures - they were simple & clear. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for Senthil Veeraraghavan's lectures -he tried to explain an introductory 2-3 months statistics course in just one hour-absolute failure. I definitely recommend the course but I would like to see some improvements in the future sessions with more examples on excel instead of reading mathematical formulas from ppt files.

By Clem T

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May 10, 2020

Fascinating material, but one minor complaint. The slides for these Classes were unnecessarily long. We don't require 5 different slides that add one point to a theme. You can give us 1 slide and we can follow along in the proper order. At times, the slides were 60 pages or more, when they could have been 15 or 20. Not very eco-friendly. Its a small point and the education delivered was top notch. Thank you.

By Sid M

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Dec 3, 2017

I just wanted to commend Sergei Savin. Throughout the duration of the course he takes his time and explains every step in detail. In addition, he also explains the reason behind what he is doing. I really appreciated the logical approach that he offered. I also wanted to compliment Senthil Veeraraghavan, he did a solid job of explaining the concepts included in the week three sessions. Thank you both!

By Tania G U D

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May 27, 2020

Module 1,2 and 4, excellent modules. Clear information and great content. Powerful modules. Module 3 was confusing and I don't understand how this module 3 matches with the whole specialization program. Explanations do not contain all the information needed and it's difficult to understand. My suggestion is that module 3 can be structured again to have the high quality observed of the entire program.

By Nicolas O

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Aug 5, 2019

I found useful how to obtain a histogram for discrete distributions. Yet, I think it would have been really important if the professor could have explained more methods to test what kind of distribution the data is related with. All the methods we used relay on know what probability distribution we are working with but if we are not sure which one we have, then the methods would not be as helpful.

By JUAN P R

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Nov 9, 2017

really, good, and the excel models, rock!! However week 3 was a little messy, hard to understad, teacher introduced lots of math formulas that came with no explanation, and no use. I dont think this course is for matematicians but for buisness administrators of financial related fields, so getting deeper into math formulas that will never be used is pointless, in real life we will use just excel

By Leonel G

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May 21, 2020

The course is good. The explanations and material presented by Prof. Savin are excellent. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the material and the explanations provided for the sessions conducted by Prof. Veeraraghavan. It is the quality of the sessions conducted by Prof. Savin that give 4 stars to the course. Otherwise the rating would be much lower.

By Tom d V

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Mar 14, 2017

It was an interesting insight. Especially for beginners I would recommend it. Is also suits the previous courses well (Fundamentals of Quantitative Modeling and Introduction to Spreadsheets and Models). I study finance and economics, so it was a bit too basic though. The Excel features are nice though and something that you would use yourself so easy.

By Scott H

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May 31, 2020

Good intro course. I learned how to use excel to build models and optimize output parameters, and how to run simulations using common with inputs derived from common distributions. East to follow, good tests. I did wish there was more depth, like extra credit harder problems that build more complex models that more accurately describe reality.

By Nil D R L

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Oct 6, 2016

This was a great course; very good explanations teoretical and practice, you gave us powerful tools to analyze data and took the necesary time for cover the topics. Maybe you can add in the future some exercises that we have to upload for review among each other students. Thank you very much for share this tools and your knowledge.

By Chyngyz S

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Sep 20, 2018

I really like how Pr Sergey Savin really trying to explain all the concepts in modeling risks, while other professor just went over his video lectures without good explanations of what's really going on. So I would rate this course just to see the Pr Savin's videos, really worth it.

By Hussein A

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Apr 13, 2020

The content was great and informative, was too focused on optimization but I learned a lot of new things I hadn't known before. Week 2 on fitting distributions was somewhat confusing due to the fact that the lecturer wasn't going into enough detail on what he introduced.

By Alan H

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Apr 21, 2020

Some of the course repeated other courses in the Business and Financial Modeling Specialization (and they sometimes repeated themselves within the course), but overall I found it very well-organized. The last week of the course really brings all concepts together.

By Jean-Philippe M

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May 13, 2020

The course was really interesting, sadly the 3 week was lacking of real application and make it difficult to be able to answer the quiz without going on internet and looking for more clear information. Still a great course.

By Wayne D E

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Apr 12, 2021

Very well put together, covering the models of risk and evaluation of business, using excel and similar modeling software. Some of the exercises were challenging and did require further reading and review of videos.

By Hasan R

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Oct 27, 2016

Please allow Prof. Sergey to take this course. Week 3 was crap because the instructor gave no real-world examples to push home the concepts he was propagating and his english is really hard to comprehend as well.

By SIYUAN Y

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Feb 19, 2019

The content is very clear except in week 3. It is too theoretical and doesn't have any example to support. While I asked some questions in forum, there is no staff come to help me to solve my questions.

By Chibuike O

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Feb 21, 2020

one of the best, as a data analyst this course will give you the necessary knowledge needed in business intelligence and financial modelling. The last week was very challenging but apt.

By George L Z

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Nov 16, 2017

Awesome couse for learning applications of statistics in real world problems. They show how can we optimize the results using the most common tool among all business environments: excel.

By Olga Y

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Aug 12, 2019

4 starts only because Week 3 lecturer is not good at all. hard to follow, leaves things on slides unexplained. throws bunch of formulas forever without showing it in excel.

By James W

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Jul 1, 2019

Not too bad of a course. Fairly beginner but there is some interesting things to learn. I would recommend watching the videos at 1.5x speed because they speak fairly slow.

By David V

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Apr 25, 2022

I would like to go deep in risk and exercise the problems of business. Some information is difficult to get and to me it is a important part to learn and is not include.

By Jose L R C

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Mar 12, 2020

Sergei should be more empathic, sometimes it feels boring; despite of that the entire course is great.

I would have love to practise a little bit more of simulation.

By Diana O

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Apr 22, 2020

Overall very interesting. Just week 3 was very hard to understand and the quiz had NOTHING to do with what the professor was explaining. He was very disorganized

By Douglas J

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Dec 8, 2019

Overall very interesting, though the teachers waffle a bit at times and question 4 in the final test is not of an acceptable standard for a fixed course.