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[Pages:3]University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School

Wharton | San Francisco

Math Boot Camp Syllabus

Wharton Executive MBA West Pre-term Summer 2021

Instructor:

Michael A. Gipe, BSEE, MBA Associate Director, Academic Support Wharton | San Francisco 2 Harrison Street 6th Floor San Francisco, CA Email: mgipe@wharton.upenn.edu

Course Description and Objectives

Motivation:

For many students beginning their MBA studies, "Mathematics" is a series of courses they suffered through years ago, and quickly forgot. Their careers placed little demand on math skills. Nevertheless, for those whose interests in business warrant the time and effort pursuing an advanced degree, it will be necessary to possess fluency in many areas of math. Much of business administration today involves detailed quantitative analysis, and many of the classes students will attend during their two-year degree program will require skill at applying mathematical techniques to understanding and solving business related problems.

The pace of business classes is often hectic. Trying to understand and absorb new business concepts while struggling to recall mathematical methods can be frustrating and defeating. This course is intended to help those whose math skills are a bit rusty or underused and who want to refresh their understanding before they need to apply those skills in their MBA classes.

Objectives:

To introduce the particular math skills that will be needed in business classes. To refresh students' understanding of mathematics learned years ago. To identify topics which a student should review before beginning Core courses.

Wharton MBA for Executives, pre-term Summer 2021 Course Syllabus

Michael Gipe

Course Materials

Textbook: Gipe, Michael A., ? 2014, Quant Review: Math for MBA's, Xaplap Publishing, Saratoga, CA. (ISBN #: 978-0-9903206-0-9)

Additional Materials: Supplementary materials may be provided on MyWharton during the course.

The textbook is only available in eBook form on the Apple iBook Store. You can read it using an iPad or Mac iBook viewer. The textbook is a work in progress and may be revised frequently during the course. Be sure to download updates from the iBook store as soon as they become available. For expediency, some updates may be uploaded in .pdf form to MyWharton before they are available for download from the store. In the spirit of continuous improvement, constructive criticism, corrections, and suggestions are welcomed, and will be acknowledged with a mention in future editions of the book.

Grading and Attendance

This is a review class for entering students who want to refresh their knowledge of mathematics as used in their MBA courses. Students may want to attend only a subset of the classes, based on the topics which they need to review. Whether you attend the classes or not, you will need to complete a short quiz before the end of the first week of regular summer classes.

The class is conducted on-line, using Wharton's BlueJeans conference facilities. To participate in the sessions, you will need to direct your browser to . Please log in using your first name and last initial or your PennKey. You will need the meeting number from the schedule below. The first time you log in, you may need to download and install the BlueJeans add-in according to the directions given when you first log in. We recommend that you join the webcast at least ten minutes early the first time so you can verify that everything works OK on your computer. BlueJeans also has an app for the iPad that you can use to attend the sessions.

Classes start at 7:00 PM local time and are nominally three hours long, but may be a bit shorter or longer, depending on the material and student questions.

During the session, you may ask questions using the BlueJeans chat facility. Due to the number of potential attendees, two-way audio discussions will not be possible during these sessions, so please mute your microphone and video. The instructor welcomes emailed questions about the class at any time, and will attempt to respond to these in a timely manner.

Class sessions will be recorded (assuming no technical glitches) so you can review the material later or watch the session at a more convenient time. The link to the recordings will be posted on MyWharton. Notes and slides from the class sessions will also be posted after class.

Wharton MBA for Executives, pre-term Summer 2021 Course Syllabus

Michael Gipe

Course Topics and Assignments

Class 1 Tuesday, April 27 7:00 PM ? 10:00 PM PDT Event 2910686588

Fundamentals of Algebra and problem solutions

? Uses of mathematics in business

? Solving algebraic equations and inequalities for univariate and multivariate problems

? Common functions and graphing

Pre-class Assignment: Read Quant Review, Preface and Chapter 1

Class 2 Tuesday, May 4 7:00 PM ? 10:00 PM PDT Event 2910686588

Calculus and its applications in business ? Derivatives ? Integrals

? Geometry of triangles

Pre-class Assignment: Read Quant Review, Chapter 2

Class 3 Tuesday, May 11 7:00 PM ? 10:00 PM PDT Event 2910686588

Discounting and finance ? Ratios ? Time value of money

? Compounding

? Rates

? Cash flows

Isoquants, utility, and three-dimensional visualization (if time permits)

? Utility functions

? Isoquants

Pre-class Assignment: Review course notes

Class 4 Tuesday, August 17 (tentative) 7:00 PM ? 10:00 PM PDT Event 2910686588

Statistics ? Probability ? Sampling ? Distributions and measures

? Common distributions

? Covariance and correlation

Finance revisited

? Normal and Log Normal returns

Pre-class Assignment: Review course notes

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