Anyone have idea about this Course from CambridgeCertificate of Advanced Study in Mathematics (with Fin Maths type courses)... Sometold me it is best availiable Course for Front Office Quants ?RegardsSaliq

As I know, it is tougher than any other math master courses, at least in Europe.

tougher is which sense,, reputation or course quality ?pls define more, in term of reputation for fromtOff quant position...

QuoteOriginally posted by: tangkeweiAs I know, it is tougher than any other math master courses, at least in Europe.cambridge has a 3 year undergrad math program and the Certificate of Advanced Study in Math is an optional 4th year (also known as "Part III").The main reason for taking it is to secure funding for a PhD at Cambridge:you might get 50 guys taking part III in dampt all of whom want to do a phd and dampt might only have funding for 15 UK students (those are old numbers, not sure what it is these days) and the scores on part III determine which UK students get the $$$(of course, a foreign student with external funding wouldn't have that problem).Very very hard, it's known as (and rightly so) the "toughest course at cambridge".On a separate topic:I've noted in that past that other departments at cambridge with a part III(some of the engineering programs) now give a masters degree for that course(and retroactively awarded masters degrees to past students)so I'd again urge dampt/dpmms to do the same.

It's obviously not a qualification in finance (though of course many of the courses cover relevant maths). Cambridge takes a very theoretical approach to most things. In terms of reputation as a mathematical qualification, it could well be the "best available course". My personal impression is that the difficulty is a bit overhyped.

Hi,I am currently taking some of the part III modules and many friends of mine are attending the whole course.I think it's a very good starting point for a Phd in mathematical finance, but it's definitely not enough if you want to be a quant.The approach is very theoretical, there's no c++ and the only two relevant finance courses are advanced financial models, very rigorous but definitely not applied (nobody is going to teach you finite difference methods, for instance) and optimal investment, which is a bit distant from what the practice seems to be.It might also be useful, I believe, if you don't come from a top university and want to attend a very good (and reasonably priced) course in a well known university; this might definitely help you when applying to graduate programmes.Hope this helps.

I think that's fair, I wouldn't assume someone on it had programming skills.Does seem to have good hard stuff in there, which can often make the absence of C++ a non-issue.

I think it can be reasonably assumed that anyone taking Part III should be perfectly capable of picking up programming under their own steam, and if they have any inclination whatsoever towards programming I would expect them to to do so and be familiar with at least one decent programming language, though not necessarily C++.If I found myself interviewing someone who had a CASM but knew no programming, I would see it as reflecting on their personal inclination (and of course suitability for the job) rather than as a failure of the course, which is (rightly) directed at other things.But then I don't put a lot of trust in courses that teach languages or programming anyway. I think it has to be learned by practice and preferably by apprenticeship.

QuoteOriginally posted by: DeltaMirror(nobody is going to teach you finite difference methods, for instance) ah, but iserles normally teaches a (very dry) course on numerical solution of differential equations which includes FD for PDEs

DCFC, if you're interested in some part 3 students, I will tell them to send you their cv.