Okay, absolute negative teaching abilities and the final exam was on genuinely stuff I had never seen on any practice exam, review packet, study edge, or anything. Actually ridiculous the way Dolinsky went about this semester I would've preferred Banko because he may be hard, but he's not unreasonable.

Genuinely the material isn't as hard as you might think it all just boils down to the exam. If you don't have an absurd exam, then just manage your time well and practice I swear it's doable. But if your professor sucks, then good luck :(

Did the entire class through study edge because not a helpful bone in Dolinsky's body. You would think the review packet and practice exams would be relevant to the actual exam right? wrong. genuinely confused on his purpose as a professor cause what.

use study egde 1000000%. and do the practice problems but specifically the old exam problems not the study edge ones. do the review packet and the practice exams (and hopefully they'll actually relate to the exam this time). most of all, take detailed notes for study edge and try to explain the process of solving a problem in your own words.

Not a single concept explained through a lecture. Dolinsky should be put under review for how this class was taught. Based on what I have heard about the class in general, this semester was especially difficult. The relationship between the class's concept and how the y manifest in the real world seemed to be this professors focus, unfortunately we only got to hear about the "real world" and not so much about what the syllabus outlines as what we were supposed to learn. Exams were make or break based on the number of questions Dolinsky grabbed from whatever he was feeling the day he made the exam, not necessarily what was covered in lectures, in practice problems, or on the exam study guides. Crazy to have a paywalled article as a source of exam questions. I highly recommend Study Edge, Ma...read more

The Banko lectures did contain useful information on how to think about a super wide variety of business concepts, and some of the mechanics be hind them.

Nice guy, Obviously extremely intelligent. Most helpful thing he communicated what some solid fundamentals on personal finance, and some interesting out of context walkthroughs on beta's and mortgages. NOT good at covering any class material.

I am going to make an educated guess that Banko would be a more math/concept focused exam creator. Had this final not been 50% Bullshit questions I believe the class would have been more balanced.

Horribly taught course. If I'm to spend a week intensively studying for the exam, which mind you, all the content is self taught because the design of the course is horrid, and I still only get a 71 then that tells you something about your class. For reference, I've taken orgo and got an a in that class, and while the content in this class is not necessarily hard, what the exams ask from you is so nit picky and unreasonable. The course is also not updated in many of the videos for excel as that's the only method used now, and videos include calculations done on a financial calculator which has no use whatsoever. Do not take this course if it is not required for your major and honestly if you're considering a finance major at UF don't do it if you want to maintain a gpa because this class i...read more

The content is actually very useful and interesting to learn about, the problem is it isn't taught by the professor at least no effectively.

Seems like a nice dude and very knowledgeable but teaching ability is negative.

That I would have to teach myself all the material.

Very hard - you'll want study edge and do every single assignment to get as many points as possible. It is very time consuming you'll want to start studying for exams a week in advance

time value of money, mortgages, some propability and financing

the professor wasn't bad he just makes the exams abnormally hard and very long it's nearly impossible to finish

do every single assignment and don't take another really hard class at the same time

This course is unreasonably difficult for a in intro to finance course.

The course can be fun and interesting if it was presented by a different professor and who understand how to properly share the knowledge he has so his students can understand

Very knowledgeable but teaching may not be his calling.

Study Edge. If you are finance, you need study edge. Don't try doing it normally. Not sure how the course will change now that Dolinsky will take over for Banko.

good luck charlie. if you don’t finish business finance packets each day they come out from study edge, you. are. behind.

very useful content tbh

nice guy. shitty exams and extra credit

do study edge packets, banks exam review problems

I love studying finance and math. The concepts that the course teaches are useful. Unfortunately, Banko has turned a finance class into a math class. The whole class is geared to set you up for failure. He makes incredibly difficult exams, which if you’re aspiring to get higher than a 70, are the only grades that count. Extra credit is available for scores under a 70. This is the hardest class I’ve taken.

The concepts are very useful. You’ll have to do you’re own research if you want to understand what it means or how it’s used. The class really only focuses on the math.

Banko is lazy. He takes a very hands off approach, and the the review sessions/videos are ran by TA’s and full of mistakes. He definitely wants students to struggle.

Get study edge if you want to pass. Do all the quizzes and homework. Be prepared to spend a minimum of 15 hours a week on this class. If you don’t start the class at 110%, you won’t do good on exam 1 and likely get a C for the class.

Super Hard

If you're a finance major, you need an 80 (B) average on the 3 exams. If you are not a finance major, getting a B- is fairly easy since you can boost your grade with the MyFinanceLab and practice exams he provides.

You learn all the concepts you will use in other finance courses. As a finance major, I do not know why this course is required before courses like Debt/Equity, as you actually learn about the concepts in those courses, whereas in Business Finance, you just grind practice problems without really knowing how it applies to finance.

He seems nice and is willing to help clarify things if you ask the right questions (I know sometimes you don't even know what to ask).

Do practice problems daily. It is very easy to get left behind and get lost. Concepts from earlier parts of the class come up later. Do all the extra credit, especially if you are not a finance major. Finance majors, just focus on getting an 80 average on the 3 exams. For each exam there are about 1-2 questions that are specific to his live lecture, and as long as you watch them they are pretty easy. The prerecorded lectures are pretty confusing, I would look over them but do not worry if you do not fully understand them - the point of the course is to get the right answer on the exams and not much else (unfortunately).

This is the toughest weed-out course in UF's business school. It teaches basic finance concepts that all Americans will contend with at one point or another in their adult lives. From gambling (arbitrage) to deciding the best terms for a 30 yr mortgage, this class explores the concepts of risk and return on investment.

It covers the same amount of material in a single semester that other colleges cover over the course of two or three semesters. That means if you choose to take this course over Summer A (7 weeks instead of 15), expect the material to be even more condensed.

Professor Banko is a very knowledgable teacher, but he lacks the compassion for his students that most professors at least portend to have. Further, he does not present instruction in the same format as you would use to practice. He teaches nearly EVERYTHING in Excel, so, unless you are well versed in excel, you may need extra instruction. Also he does not release the answers to his Exams, so do not expect any constructive feedback outside of his or the TA's office hours.

GET STUDYEDGE. Read that again and again and again until it sticks. David @ Studyedge teaches the course the way it is supposed to be taught (with a pencil, not excel) and gives you every tool to succeed in the class. Also do ALL the practice exams. Banko's exams have identical questions with altered numbers.

Banko is the only Prof for this class.

Very time-consuming course. It’s very tough and the only way to do well is to either get StudyEdge or to power through Banko’s past exam problems packet, which contains hundreds of questions.

Banko is passionate about finance but he doesn’t teach you how to do well in exams. Having said that, I would recommend watching his lectures because he did walk through the example problems, which were much more basic than his exam questions but you have to know how to do those easy questions very well.

Get StudyEdge if you can afford it, otherwise take a very light course load and be prepared to be solely focused on this class