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C++ Online Programming Cert Testimonials

A quick google search does not return any public exam questions but the course descriptions are available online: http://www-finmath.uchicago.edu/students/course_information.shtml. The classes that are part of the series are Computing for Finance I-III. A test is given prior to starting the program to see if you test out of the classes (I assume they let you test out of any number of them depending on your score but can't say for certain). I have a programming background, but have only self taught myself OOP (java/python). I'd like to take the review course through Quantnet to at least get a solid understanding going into the program and maybe even testing out of 1+ of the classes.

Thoughts? Thank you!
 
A quick google search does not return any public exam questions but the course descriptions are available online: http://www-finmath.uchicago.edu/students/course_information.shtml. The classes that are part of the series are Computing for Finance I-III. A test is given prior to starting the program to see if you test out of the classes (I assume they let you test out of any number of them depending on your score but can't say for certain). I have a programming background, but have only self taught myself OOP (java/python). I'd like to take the review course through Quantnet to at least get a solid understanding going into the program and maybe even testing out of 1+ of the classes.

Thoughts? Thank you!
At the risk of sounding arrogant there is IMO no C++ course to equal QN C++. It is based on a 20-year span in my company Datasim with many 1000s of students (practitioners!) in various forms.

And the great support from APalley and Andy.
 
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Haha no worries - I appreciate the vote of confidence. I was just seeing if anyone had any personal experience between taking the course and then taking the placement exam. Looks like I might be the first to speak up so I will happily report back at the end of the summer so that future students have the information.

Thank you! I look forward to taking the QN C++ class.
 
I have just finished my final exam. It's my honor to get the certificate with distinction.

3 points of this course I really want to mention.

1st, Great Video Lectures.
Thanks Dr. @Daniel Duffy.
In these videos, he can demonstrate many abstract concepts in a funny way (I mean the graph he drew on the screen…lol…). Besides, Dr. Duffy is a very nice teacher. Every time I had a problem, he almost replied immediately once I tagged him.

2nd, Great TA.
To my dear @APalley
First, you have very insightful comments on my HW and my questions. These comments always led me to rethink about my thinking process or some bad practices. Second, you are always patient with my questions. You are busy, but you were never bored to answer my question as long as I still didn't figure it out.

3rd, Great Forum.
IMO, it is not a forum anymore. It is a community in which people have a similar interest. You can always discuss something interest you with these people. Cannot tell it isn’t a great experience. In addition, you can always find many problems you encountered which were discussed before. It will save you much time to figure out your problems. It also helps you try to think about in a different way for many people with different opinions were discussing here. You can learn in this way more than just learning by yourself (reading your books, running your programs and etc. Of course, playing around with your own programs is a great way to learn).

OK. Tell something about myself. Before this course, I have a great passion towards programming and that is one of the reasons I want to apply for MFE. However, I just took a C course, when I was a freshman, and learnt some MATLAB stuff by myself. And then, I registered this course. During this course, one thing in my heart is becoming clearer. PROGRAMMING IS MY LIFE. It strengthens my commitment to pursue MFE program in the future.

Thanks again @APalley , @Daniel Duffy , @Andy Nguyen , @Yiwei An , @Justine Morgan and others who helped me.
 
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I have just finished my final exam. It's my honor to get the certificate with distinction.

3 points of this course I really want to mention.

1st, Great Video Lectures.
Thanks Dr. @Daniel Duffy.
In these videos, he can demonstrate many abstract concepts in a funny way (I mean the graph he drew on the screen…lol…). Besides, Dr. Duffy is a very nice teacher. Every time I had a problem, he almost replied immediately once I tagged him.

2nd, Great TA.
To my dear @APalley
First, you have very insightful comments on my HW and my questions. These comments always led me to rethink about my thinking process or some bad practices. Second, you are always patient with my questions. You are busy, but you were never bored to answer my question as long as I still didn't figure it out.

3rd, Great Forum.
IMO, it is not a forum anymore. It is a community in which people have a similar interest. You can always discuss something interest you with these people. Cannot tell it isn’t a great experience. In addition, you can always find many problems you encountered which were discussed before. It will save you much time to figure out your problems. It also helps you try to think about in a different way for many people with different opinions were discussing here. You can learn in this way more than just leaning by yourself (reading your books, running your programs and etc. Of course, playing around with your own programs is a great way to learn).

OK. Tell something about myself. Before this course, I have a great passion towards programming and that is one of the reasons I want to apply for MFE. However, I just took a C course, when I was a freshman, and learnt some MATLAB stuff by myself. And then, I registered this course. During this course, one thing in my heart is becoming clearer. PROGRAMMING IS MY LIFE. It strengthens my commitment to pursue MFE program in the future.

Thanks again @APalley , @Daniel Duffy , @Andy Nguyen , @Yiwei An , @Justine Morgan and others who helped me.
Well done, ZL!

Amazing, seeing that you started in February :)
 
My experience at QuantNet has been extremely positive. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank @APalley and other TA's and forum participants for assisting me in completing the course for the receipt of the C++ certificate.

Just a few positive words for @APalley and @Daniel Duffy, since both of you have been there the most ... I would like to thank both of you individually for your abilities to inspire and motivate your students; both of you are truly exemplary instructors and mentors.

Just as a suggestion for the course, it would be great if a few videos/lectures could be added related to debugging errors ... i.e. Step Into, etc. I am sure that many would like to get a better grasp and understanding of it.

Thank you.

Artem Bondartsev
 
This course was useful. It helped me improve my code and its design.
Before: my programs ran. Delicate ad-hoc creations, they were held together with a shoe-string and duct-tape.
Now: my programs run. Robust, designed creations, they're well-documented, expandable, modular and readable.

I believe this course has enabled me to write higher quality code.
Of course, just like one becomes better at the craft of writing by writing a lot, one becomes better at the craft of programming by programming a lot. A lot! It can get boring; it can get repetitive and tedious. The support was good, my TA was helpful. (Thank you @APalley !)
I'm happy I took this course.


The course should be improved by updating the video lectures.

It could also be improved in Level 9's 'Introduction to computation finance' materials by making them more self-contained and more cohesive though necessarily longer. It might make the course more interesting -- and the "jump" to computational finance less jarring -- to sprinkle scientific problems in earlier levels. Level 1 or 2 could have classics like functional/recursive Fibonnaci numbers, printing a Pascal's triangle in the shape of a triangle, etc...
While I appreciate the OO introduction with points, shapes, and arrays, perhaps it might be more interesting and useful to introduce OO and GP with complex numbers, vectors, and matrices.

If one is to stick to geometric shapes, then perhaps it would be interesting to perform geometric operations on them. We touched on scaling; why not add translation (in the direction of an oriented line segment/vector), rotation (around a point), and reflexion (across a line)?

I think it might also be beneficial to introduce basic numerical algorithms. Why not calculate the Point where two Lines intersect? Or what about the Line XOR Circle defined by the Points where two Circles intersect?

When Boost::Random was introduced, why not calculate the area of a Circle by Monte-Carlo simulation?

In short: I think the course could be improved by including more "scientific" questions in the homework and by updating the video lectures.

Lastly, I'm not sure about emphasizing Visual Studio and rendering it necessary for Level 9's homework (and sample code.) While I understand its wide adoption and powerful uses, I believe it is necessary to provide a course that is as "portable" as possible and that can be completed on as many platforms as possible. That's the reason we didn't make use of C++ 11, right? Frankly, if proprietary technology is to be used for this course, I would have preferred to have used NVidia's CUDA over Microsoft's IDE.

Update the video lectures!
 
Computing PI in C++ 11.

C++:
// TestPI.cpp
//
// Calculation of PI using random numbers; it's analogous
// to throwing darts.
//
// 2014-9-8 Code portd to C++ 11 from Boost.
//
// (C) Datasim Education BV 2010-2014
//

#include <random> // Convenience header file
#include <iostream>
#include <ctime>            // std::time

int main()
{
    std::default_random_engine rng;

    std::random_device rd;
    rng.seed(rd());
    std::uniform_real_distribution<double> uni(0.0,1.0);

    // Choose the desired accuracy
    std::cout << "How many darts to throw? "; long N; std::cin >> N;

    // Thow the dart; does it fall in the circle or outside
    // Start throwing darts and count where they land
    long hits = 0;
    double x, y, distance;
    for (long n = 1; n <= N; ++n)
    {
        x = uni(rng); y = uni(rng);
        distance = sqrt(x*x + y*y);

        if (distance <= 1.0)
        {
            hits++;
        }
    }

    std::cout << "#hits, PI is: " << hits << ", " << 4.0 * double(hits) / double (N);
      

    return 0;

}
 
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Hi,

I finished this course nearly two months ago. When I begun the course, I was a recent college graduate with no programming experience, but exposure to option pricing. This course is challenging and rewarding. It starts with the basics, but the pace of new material increases rapidly. I can say with full confidence that this course provides the necessary tools for programming in a finance context. I now use several of the skills and concepts in my job, and the certificate certainly helped me become a more marketable candidate.

Professor Duffy's lectures teach important concepts in a friendly and applied manner. The TA's and community members offer excellent support through the forums. Baruch and Quantnet have partnered to create a very special/unique program. I give it a sparkling endorsement.

Gerardo de la Concha
 
It is my honor and pleasure to successfully complete the course and receive the C++ certificate with distinction.

I would like to devote my most sincere gratitude to Dr.Duffy for the most enlightening lectures (video/sample code), and of course, my TA Avi, who's been extremely helpful throughout the course. He could always pinpoint the part where I could improve/should pay attention so that I could learn a ton in a short period of time.

About myself, I am currently working full time at UBS investments banking, and the hours are, as you might know, excruciatingly long. Normally I would get off work at close to 2 a.m and work on the course till around 4 a.m. Although I registered the course in Oct, it was not until late Dec that I started, and I completed the course in about 4 weeks with a final grade of 90.7 (of course with a few all nighters). I found tons of fun from learning this course and I am more than determined to pursue a further career in quant finance. If not for the interest, I wouldn't even complete the course I think.

So once again, thank you so much Dr.Duffy and Avi @Daniel Duffy and @APalley !!
 
It's been my pleasure studying this course and having such an outstanding and excellent faculty to help me over in difficult times and rainy days. Special thanks to my TA @APalley , the instructor @Daniel Duffy and the administrator @Andy Nguyen for their valuable assistance, as well as my fellow students and alumi (@Justine Morgan ) who helped me go through the course with their guidance in the forum. Cheers to all of you! :)

It took me 66 days to go through the material, complete the exercises and make it to the final exam. Today, I received a C++ certificate with Distinction with weighted average of 90.2%. My experience was pleasant and quite interesting, full of necessary challenges that made me learn how to code and understand all the concepts of computational finance using the powerful tool of C++.

My background: I hold a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from University of Macedonia in Greece, and a Certificate on Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Business Development from Linnaeus University in Sweden. I have a 3-year experience in business consulting, direct sales and networking, I am an author of a novel and I served for 9 months in Greek Special Forces as an Air-Mobile Marine. My specialties are sales training, development plans among small/medium companies, monopoly strategies and supply chain empowerment.

Recently I decided to persue FE studies and C++ Online Certificate was my first step, a choice I literally made in a few hours, the moment I learned of its importance in the MFE programs and the financial industry. Absolutely worth it. Extremely organized, helpful and efficient. It took me approximately 2 months to complete it with 4-5 hours, on average, daily studying. Though, my dedication wasn't exclusively in the course, but also on personal research on C++ and programming generally. It helped me understand the concepts better as I had a little programming experience before.

Thanks again to everyone who made it happen! Great job and keep it up! :) I will definately stick around for a while! Once you get hooked, it's hard to let go ;)

Cheers!
 
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