Advice on ECON200 (1 Viewer)

[peter22]

Hey guys,

I am undertaking ECON200 this semester. Can anyone please give me any advice in regards to the mid semester tests and/or final exam. I have gone to both lectures in week 1 and week 2 and I honestly don't quite know what is going on. There is all these calculations that just leave me clueless completely. I mean how the hell do they believe we can still remember how to differentiate equations etc when we learnt that way back in year 12 in maths? Also, by the end of the 2 hour lecture, the lecturer has only gone through like half the slides only and completely misses the rest of the slides.

Is there much calculations in any of the exams? Just any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. BTW this is from a person who got D and C in ECON110 and ECON111 so I don't want to lead you guys into thinking that wtf what an idiot etc.

Thanks guys

 

[randomguy777]

I done pretty crap in this subject(P), but since you study hard and stuff, you should be fine. I know other people who got Cr and D's but I didn't study correctly.
The maths should be pretty simple. For mid semester I think they give you a sample paper. It should be similar to the real one. There's heaps of tute homework which constitute a lot of work load. Its time consuming and sometimes frustrating.

IMO don't waste too much time reading the textbook. Don't make the same mistake as I did and read from a variety of micro textbooks from library reserve. There is very little theory and is not econ111. Also don't bother making too many notes as most of the examinable material is heavily based on the lecture notes > math.

Fully focus on understanding everything in the lecture notes. There's also a final exam question which is exactly the same as one example in the lecture notes(i think week10 or 11).

From memory there was 2 MC tests and esp the 2nd one, there's a slightly confusing math problem.

Right now (i.e before mid sem break) they provide filled lecture slides, but after the break you get another lecturer.
the 2nd lecturer makes you fill in the blanks in the lecture slides. So right now you don't have to attend lecture but after the break you have to attend every lecture and fill in the blanks.(lecturer wants you to attend)

Also make sure you study carefully the last few weeks lecture notes as they are worth a lot of marks. Nash equilibrium etc..

mid semesters are alright, the 1st MC test was a bit of a shock i got a bad mark, but so did everyone. for 2nd MC test i did alright and got above average.

if you perform average on mid semester and do well in finals expect a high credit.
> average in mid and poor in finals = pass.
average in mid and good in finals = D.

 

[peter22]

Hey man!

Thanks so much for all that valuable help!!! So is this unit mostly mathematics? I see a lot of differentiating which I have completely forgot how to do so now. It seems a lot more difficult compared to ECON110 and ECON111 and a lot more workload so far. I guess that is why it is a 4cp subject and not 3cp. I guess I will try to follow the lecture notes week in, week out even if they are soo hard and confusing to follow. thanks once again champ!

 

[Master E]

Hey man!

Thanks so much for all that valuable help!!! So is this unit mostly mathematics? I see a lot of differentiating which I have completely forgot how to do so now. It seems a lot more difficult compared to ECON110 and ECON111 and a lot more workload so far. I guess that is why it is a 4cp subject and not 3cp. I guess I will try to follow the lecture notes week in, week out even if they are soo hard and confusing to follow. thanks once again champ!

If you have Glenn Jones for the first half of the semester, you'll come to think of micro as the hardest thing ever. I remember sitting through his lectures without a clue in the world. But if you listen to iLecture and continually pause to absorb the material, he actually explains it really well (a lot better than the text book). Studying the lecture slides alone will get you nowhere - they've got all these graphs with a thousand indifference curves of which you will derive absolutely no meaning unless you complement them with iLecture.

As by randomguy, the 2 mid sems are multiple choice and almost identical to the sample paper you'll be given. The same goes for the multiple choice section in the final exam.

Good Luck

 

[Dimsimmer]

Im not really sure whats the best advice i can give you to study ECON200.
But, I will tell you how I studied ECON200, for the final exam.

Basically, in the final exam theres a longer answer section, where you may choose 4 of the 6 questions to attempt. So, what I did, since I was running out of time was I only concentrated on 3-4 topics that I was most confident about and pretty much ignored the rest of the content in the unit since I believed that it was enough.

Last year, the final exam also had a multiple choice, but it was only tested on the last several topics. So it was most useful to focus more on the 2nd half of the unit.
What I personally did, was studied all of Michael Olive's topics and his lecture notes since they were pretty much answers to the questions in the final exam, you can see that with the past papers you are given. And i also studied one topic out of Glenn Jone's topics, which was insurance since it appears a lot in the previous years final exams. Then I ignored the rest of the topics.

Understandably, when you look at the lecture notes, there are 37 lectures to go through in the unit. Thats why its considered a 4 credit point unit. But if you find a way to study smarter, not harder. Then ECON200 isnt so overwhelming and difficult like some other students might think.

For anyone whos curious about how I went, I scored a Distinction for this subject even though I never really knew how to derive the demand curve or some utility function and I didnt understand some of the topics very well either.