If an adviser has told you that you don’t need these prerequisites, he or she is wrong! Go back to advising and make sure you take the prerequisites!
This is not an easy course, and it takes too much time to do the homework if you don’t know the material from the prerequisite courses (and remember your high school algebra and know how to use a computer. ) Give yourself a chance to do well by having the right tools and skills when you begin.
No hard copy of the textbook is required!
You will need an Access code (available in bookstore) for Connect for the latest edition of Ross, Westerfield and Jordan, Essentials of Corporate Finance
OR
Go to your BlackBoard site for the class
Go to blackboard.njcu.edu and sign in using your GothicNet credentials. Under MyCourses, you should see your FINC371 class. Click to open the class. On the left navigation pane, click on McGraw-Hill Connect. When you get to Connect, it will ask for your access code or if you haven’t bought one, you can subscribe with a credit or debit card (about $130 instead of $240 for the hard copy of the text.).
You will have instant access to Connect for the class, which includes a copy of the e-book, all of your homework and exam assignments and the SmartBook reading assignments through LearnSmart. All your assignments are done through BlackBoard, Connect and LearnSmart.
Throughout the semester, I will post tips, special assignments, and helpful links for you on the page for that particular chapter. Your syllabus is also available by clicking above. Note that homework is submitted only through BlackBoard. The McGraw-Hill Connect link will connect you to your Connect Homework and tests. By doing it this way, your grades on all your assignments will be shown on the gradebook in Blackboard and you can keep track of how you are doing.
IMPORTANT! Homework is due by 11:59 pm on the days shown EXCEPT LearnSmart assignments, which are due by 9 am on Monday of the week assigned for that chapter. You should have completed the LearnSmart assignment by then so you will have a good idea of the content of the chapter before coming to class. You will be called on in class to answer questions about the chapter content. The due dates for each assignment show in BlackBoard. I will not accept homework in hard copy or if it is sent to my personal email.
Homework 45%
Mid-term Exam 20%
Final Exam 20%
Class participation 15%
You can obtain extra credit by turning in homework that is not assigned. Extra credit work can raise your grade if you do poorly on an exam. Extra credit work should be even numbered problems or critical thinking questions from the textbook and should be submitted within one week of that chapter’s homework due date.
You must achieve mastery of the content to receive a good grade in this course. There is no curve. Part of the mastery expected of any college graduate is the ability to express your ideas in a cultured, coherent and logical manner. When you go to work in business, how you speak and write are extremely important to how people perceive you and how successful you are. Therefore, English usage, logic flow and neatness will count in the grading of your homework, class participation, quizzes and exams.
Exams are online and open book. You will have at least two weekends and 3 hours to complete them. They will be given and submitted through Connect. Every student will have a slightly different exam. The questions are algorithmic in nature – that is that the numbers are changed each time the question is used, and for each 10 questions on the exam, there will be at least 100 questions in the test bank, so there is no use in comparing answers.
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The textbook has a web site that has valuable Self Tests, E-tutorials and slides that cover the chapters. Click here to go there, then click on the picture of your textbook. Students from prior classes have said that this is a very helpful site.
TIP
The Chapter pages of this web site take the place of printed handouts. They are designed to supplement the text book and make the material more understandable for you.
TIP
Need help with Word and Excel? Go to Academic Computing on the first floor of the Professional Studies Building and there are helpful people!
TIP
I shouldn’t even need to say this, BUT…
If you are not honest, if you try to claim someone else’s work as your own, if you copy or allow someone to copy or if you help someone else with a dishonest act, you will fail this course.
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Professor Ian Giddy teaches a course similar to this one at New York University. Click here to view his discussion of Optimal Portfolio Allocation and the Capital Asset Pricing Model.
TIP
Study groups have been the key to excellence in learning since the time of Plato and Socrates. One of the first thing that the outstanding students who go to Harvard Business School do is form into study groups. There, study groups get together once or twice a week during the school term to discuss the lesson and explain things to each other. Since many of you work and have family responsibilities, it may not be feasible for you to often meet physically to study. I recommend that each class set up a list serve by e-mail so that you can ask each other questions by e-mail. This doesn’t mean you don’t each do your own work — it just means you help each other with difficult concepts and problems.
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Click here to read the May 1999 article by John Price of www.sherlockinvesting.com that disputes the validity of the Capital Asset Pricing Model. What do you think of his ideas?
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Contingency Analysis is a web site with terrific resources for students of finance. It has more than 1,000 pages of material about value and risk, including a super glossary. Check it out!