Full course description
Course Description
Personal Financial Literacy is a single semester course that is designed in part to help students develop the knowledge and skills to make sound, informed financial decisions. In Personal Financial Literacy, students develop skills such as personal budgeting as well as exploring the various ways to save money to achieve both short-term and long-term goals. Additionally, this course provides students the opportunity to investigate the role that insurance plays in protecting assets. Finally, students will research the various resources available to help prepare for college or other forms of postsecondary education and training.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)
UTHS courses are designed in alignment to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) which define the skills and content to be taught in each course and grade level in the state of Texas.
Semester Topics
- Unit 1: Earning and Spending
- Unit 2: Saving and Investing
- Unit 3: Credit and Borrowing
- Unit 4: Insuring and Protecting
- Unit 5: College and Postsecondary Education and Training
Course Objectives
Upon completing this course, you will be able to—
- understand how to set personal financial goals;
- understand how financial statements are used to assess and monitor financial well-being;
- understand the implementation of a savings and investing plan;
- demonstrate an understanding of the importance of planning for retirement;
- identify factors that affect credit worthiness;
- evaluate the decision to use credit;
- recognize financial risks faced by individuals and families and identify strategies for handling these risks;
- identify the costs and benefits of insurance for transferring risk;
- recognize the costs and benefits of various types of college, postsecondary education, and training;
- understand various options for paying for college, postsecondary education, and training.
Required Course Materials
Please visit the Computer Requirements page to view minimum device, internet, and application requirements for all UT High School courses. Generally, a desktop or laptop device five (5) years or newer with access to an office suite, such as Microsoft Office or Google Workspace, will be adequate to participate in most UTHS courses.
Unless otherwise noted, students are responsible for purchasing or securing all the following course materials:
- Textbook: A textbook is not required for this course.
- Interactive Notebook: A paper or digital composition book is acceptable. For paper composition books, please also have the following items on hand:
- Pens or Pencils
- Tape or Glue
Course Organization
Students must complete the course in sequence: You will not be able to access the next unit until all work in the preceding unit is completed. You may take your final exam only after completing all units and submitting all graded assignments.
- Units: Each unit includes multiple lessons and graded assignments as well as ungraded practice quizzes to help you check your understanding of the material.
- Summative Assessments: Each course includes two online, virtually proctored summative assessments testing your understanding of the material presented in the preceding 2-3 Units.
- Format: Online, Multiple-choice
- Time Allowed: 1 hr 30 min
- Final Exam: Each course includes an online, virtually proctored final exam testing your knowledge of all material presented in the course.
- Format: Online, Multiple-choice
- Time Allowed: 3 hrs 20 min
Course Grade Weighting
Your final course grade is calculated by weighting the three assignment groups displayed in the table below:
| Assignment Group | Total Assignments | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Graded Assignments | 12-18 | 50% |
| Summative Assessments | 2 | 25% |
| Final Exam | 1 | 25% |
Online Proctored Exams
All course exams, including both summative assessments and the final exam, must be completed online. Students must test online with Proctorio and are required to add the Proctorio extension to either their Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome browser—installation instructions are provided in the student's course. Proctorio uses a student's computer, web camera, and microphone to record video of both the student and their desktop during the exam. Then, UTHS instructors review the student's exam video data collected by Proctorio. Only authorized UTHS staff and instructors can view the exam recordings. Student data is not shared with any persons or organizations outside of UTHS and are deleted after one year. We encourage you to visit Proctorio's Data Security and Privacy site pages to learn more about how we protect student date.