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Interesting Lectures and Seminars

Welcome to the entrance to mathematics!
"Basic mathematics with a little extra (interest rates edition)"

Akane Hokazono
3rd year student at the School of Culture, Media and Society

Professor Satoru Takagi

This lesson taken by Professor Satoru Takagi, under the supervision of Professor Takenobu Takizawa, is, as the name suggests, an open subject which examines mathematical knowledge by using "interest rates". The term mathematical knowledge may make it sound difficult, but the attractive part of this lesson is that you don't require high school mathematical knowledge to follow it so people whose major is completely unrelated to mathematics can easily take this course.

Personally, I have long had an aversion to mathematics. Even my reason for taking this course had little meaning behind it. Because it was a math course I was reluctant to take it, but the sub-theme was "don't be fooled by interest rates," so I thought it may be useful for something. But what I thought when I actually took the class was that people who dislike math should definitely take this course that becomes an "entrance to mathematics."

The outstanding feature of this course is that it is a full on-demand course. An appealing aspect to this course is that, you can take classes at any time that suits you during the duration of the course. There will also be students who probably don't like the on-demand lessons as they prefer to ask questions directly when they don't understand something. But, in this course, if you don't understand something from the videos or textbooks there is a mailing list to post questions and teaching assistants to give face-to-face guidance. Another plus to this course is that you can receive direct tutelage from Professor Takagi on problems you can not solve. And the professional text used in this course is yet another point that makes it attractive. I have heard from many students that they find the text extremely easy to understand. As well as going into details relating to the video course, the course itself is designed to be easy to follow by using the textbook alone.

For sure, the lessons do deal with a lot of math, and there is more math content than that of interest rates. But, when thinking about the interest rates, focus is on the vital math basics, making you able to effectively acquire only the essentials. Numerical formulas that I, until now, thought as being "numerical formulas that we don't use in real life," are actually closely related to everyday life, and on top of thinking about interest rates, make you realize their importance. I thoroughly recommend this course to those who don't want to lose on interest rates and also wish to acquire logical thinking.

The course ends with a certificate presentation ceremony

(Offered by WASEDA WEEKLY)