Financial maths courses

iCrazzy

Generally speaking what kind of aptitude level of maths are we talking here in regards to one of thse financial maths courses such as actuary studies in ucd or financial maths and economics in nuig.
Just want to know the level of difficulty there is.
I am an honours maths student, I would not say I have a love for maths(i know from previous posts, people said, these courses suited for those who have a passion for maths) but neither do I hate doing it. I find it challanging, but in a good sense, also like to do homework and prep for it.
However, I am not a maths genius, my average grade would be a B3 or C1.
So how hard are these courses ?
Thank you

Michael Collins

It's quite difficult to give a firm answer on this one, it all depends on you.

The fact that you like doing maths homework is good, and it's probably okay that you don't "love" it. This might come later; it's hard to develop a real love for maths at Leaving Cert level, because it's hard to see the uses of it. Maybe Project Maths has helped this, somewhat, but often those applications are a bit contrived, and it's certainly not as interesting as it can get.

As you learn more mathematics, and you will learn a lot in most Actuarial courses, it will probably become more interesting to you. You'll see it applied in very interesting ways to real problems, which you'll find very interesting (hopefully!).

You would need to improve your grades from a C1/B3, to the high B's or low A's I think, to really appreciate a course like this. But you don't have to be a genius to do it, absolutely not!

Just a bit of hard work. If you get homework in college, make sure you do it, and do it well (start it the day you get it!). If you don't get homework, try solving some problems given in the notes (or ask for problems if there are none given!). After a while it won't feel like hard work at all - you'll arrive in your lectures actually understanding a large fraction, and that can make a huge difference to your motivation, it's like a domino effect... Of course if you don't do any of this it's like a domino effect too, but not in a good way!

Feel free to ask any questions on anything above.

Ficheall

I hated the stuff, but my advice would be to learn/understand what each of the poxy little symbols means as soon as they come up - they'll keep cropping up forever. Big A, small a, subscript a, subscript s, subscript a with a tilde, subscript a with a colon, subscript a with a hat, subscript a with a hate and a colon.... etc, etc. If you get comfortable with those from the get-go, the financial aspect of the maths should be fine. Most financial maths courses also do normal mathematics as a major part of the degree, so you'll always have the option to switch after the degree with pretty much an entire math degree under your belt.