Is there any way to reduce the time needed to take and pass the six MicroMasters of Finance courses?

To earn the MicroMasters Program Credential in Finance, it is necessary to successfully complete all five of the program's Content Courses and its Comprehensive Final Exam Course (CFx) on the Verified (Paid) enrollment track, earning the Course Certificate for all six.

The Content Courses

The MMFin MicroMasters Program offers its five Content Courses in an On-Demand Self-Paced format which allows learners to learn the material and complete the coursework at their own pace. The flexible format of the Content Courses and the possibility of completing them faster than expected and/or taking more than one concurrently offer mean that different learners can expect to complete this part of the program at different speeds.

The MMFin team estimates that a well-prepared learner should be able to complete each Content Course in approximately 12 weeks, dedicating about 10-14 hours to the Coursework each week. However, exceptionally-prepared learners and/or those able to dedicate more time to the courses each week may be able to complete the courses in less than 12 weeks.

Additionally, most learners take only one course at a time, and the MMFin team generally recommends that learners take the program's courses in order. However, exceptionally well-prepared learners and/or those with more time to dedicate to completing the Coursework may be able to take more than one course concurrently.

However, it is important to understand that some of the courses are interdependent. For example:

• The first two courses, 15.415.1x Foundations of Modern Finance I and 15.415.2x Foundations of Modern Finance II, together comprise a single course—the second course picks up exactly where the first ends. Consequently, learners are very strongly discouraged from attempting to take the courses concurrently, or take the second course first.
• The fifth course, 15.435x Derivatives Markets requires knowledge and skills taught in the two Foundations courses, but it is not intrinsically dependent on those courses—exceptionally-prepared learners with a strong pre-existing foundation in finance may be able to take 15.435x concurrently with, or even before the two Foundations courses

In any case, learners who attempt to either take more than one course concurrently or take courses out of the recommended order do so at their own risk.

The CFx Course

Unlike the five Content Courses, the Comprehensive Final Exam Course (CFx) is offered as an Instructor-Paced course. This means that it is not always available! Consequently, the CFx presents a firm constraint on the speed with which the MMFin MicroMasters can be completed.

The CFx is offered twice each year, in the Spring (April) and Fall (October), and enrollment in the CFx is limited to only learners who have already earned the Course Certificates for all five MMFin Content Courses by the start of the course session. Eligible learners are enrolled into the CFx by the MMFin team directly.

Program Duration

Overall, the possible durations of the MMFin MicroMasters Program depend on several variables, but are ultimately constrained by the fixed availability of the CFx. The program can be started at any point during the year, but can only be finished in either April or October. When a learner starts taking the Content Courses, how quickly they complete each Content Course, how many Content Courses they take concurrently, and whether they need to retake any courses all contribute to the possible program durations, but the CFx sessions constrain possible ending points.

For example, a learner who finishes their last Content Course in December cannot take the CFx to complete the program any earlier than a learner who finishes their last Content Course four months later, in March—both learners could take the CFx at the earliest in April. On the other hand, a learner on track to finish their last Content Course in April (and be forced to wait for the October CFx session) who is able to complete that course faster instead, finishing in March, could potentially take the April session of the CFx and complete the MMFin MicroMasters Program six months earlier.