ECOS2901 maths content (1 Viewer)

[sida1049]

Hey guys!

ECOS2901 has ECOS2903 as a co-requisite, but I took the alternative route, where I take MATH2970 during the following semester instead. From reading the description of ECOS2903, the only thing I haven't learnt so far is constrained and unconstrained optimisation, which is a part of MATH2970.

Does ECOS2901 involve the use of constrained and unconstrained optimisation? Should I learn it myself prior to the semester in order to prepare?

Thanks.

 

[JasonG123]

Don't worry, I did ECOS2901 without doing ECOS2903 at the same time and I was not a maths major. Constrained and unconstrained maximisation will be taught within ECOS2901 itself (although obviously not to the extent that it is in ECOS2903). It is not hard, just simple partial differentiation, then substituting in to the budget constraint. Many students struggle with the notation at first, but as a maths student you'll be fine.

I did not do this personally, but it would be useful to look at the Lagrangian multiplier (a short video on Khan academy will be sufficient). Even that is not necessary, there are two ways that are you are taught how to do unconstrained optimisation (one of which is the Lagrangian), so you could always do it the other way. But the Lagrangian method is fast and easy, so worth spending 5 minutes learning it since it is taught in ECOS2903 but just glossed over in ECOS2901 (at least when I did it).

 

[sida1049]

Don't worry, I did ECOS2901 without doing ECOS2903 at the same time and I was not a maths major. Constrained and unconstrained maximisation will be taught within ECOS2901 itself (although obviously not to the extent that it is in ECOS2903). It is not hard, just simple partial differentiation, then substituting in to the budget constraint. Many students struggle with the notation at first, but as a maths student you'll be fine.

I did not do this personally, but it would be useful to look at the Lagrangian multiplier (a short video on Khan academy will be sufficient). Even that is not necessary, there are two ways that are you are taught how to do unconstrained optimisation (one of which is the Lagrangian), so you could always do it the other way. But the Lagrangian method is fast and easy, so worth spending 5 minutes learning it since it is taught in ECOS2903 but just glossed over in ECOS2901 (at least when I did it).

Thank you! Much appreciated advice.

 

[elkedag]

Similar question - I haven't done any maths courses, and I'll be going into ECOS3901 - how maths intensive is this course? Having not done ECOS2903 maths yet, is there anything that I need to know in preparation for ECOS3901? I've only done a bit of Lagrangian as required by ECOS2902 macro.

Thanks

 

[JasonG123]

Similar question - I haven't done any maths courses, and I'll be going into ECOS3901 - how maths intensive is this course? Having not done ECOS2903 maths yet, is there anything that I need to know in preparation for ECOS3901? I've only done a bit of Lagrangian as required by ECOS2902 macro.

Thanks

I did ECOS2903 and ECOS3901 at the same time, is this what you are doing? I didn't feel any disadvantage from doing this, it's really just the notation that may seem foreign, but you should be comfortable with it the actual maths. There are a couple 'proof' questions in the exam but ECOS2903 doesn't help you there. ECOS3901 is a pretty tough subject (final exam absolutely wrecked me), but it's not because of the maths, you will need alot of practice with the questions before the final exam (something I didn't do due to time constraints and a bad exam schedule).