I was really looking forward to this class after all the positive reviews on Reddit and OMSHub but I have to say it fell slightly short of my expectations. I'll start with what I enjoyed about the class:

1. The class is very well structured. Expectations are very clear for assignments, readings, finals, etc. There is no guesswork at all involved in this course, no unclear assignments with vague rubrics which is a breath of fresh air.
2. You learn actual finance in this course as well although it is very basic.
3. It provides a decent overview of ML.

The cons:

1. Sometimes assignments are so pedantic it can be very annoying. I'm talking when you write your reports you are sometimes told what color lines your charts need to be. I think that level of specificity is useless and just a waist of time.
2. There is A LOT of reading. Way too much reading I think. We had like 5 different textbooks that we used throughout the class. All of them were free but it was a pain remembering where you read what and going through all of the readings for the exams which brings me to my next point.
3. The exams are very disconnected from the assignments. I feel like you could do the entire class without doing the readings at all. The only time they really help are during exams. Also the exam questions are very specific and in the format where you need to select all that apply so I found it actually very hard to get a good grade. I studied for a while and did all the readings and only ended up with B's on the midterm and final.
4. Feedback takes weeks if not months. You barely receive any feedback on your assignments until well into the semester.

One last thing to note, a lot of old reviews talk about the format of the midterm being quick with 110 questions graded out of 100. Since summer semester that is no longer the case. This semester we had 90 minutes to complete the exam and we were scored out of 110 instead of 100. IMO I did not need the extra time (I finished in around 60 minutes) but I would've loved the extra 10 points of extra credit. Also if you do plan on taking this during summer there is no extra credit opportunity like in the other semesters. This double whammy seems very unfair to those who took the class this semester but that's life I guess. In summer you have a new assignment every week. It is all doable but you need to start assignment 8 early if you can.

Overall I probably spent 10 - 15 hours a week including lectures, readings, coding and writing.