How to succeed in economics? (1 Viewer)

[lpodtouch]

What tips would you give that could help someone to succeed in preliminary and hsc economics? What new programs and textbooks? Much appreciated

 

[BiasedBuffalo]

So I've said this in every thread I've replied to so far, but in terms of text books, I swear by Riley. I personally find the Dixon book (which your school probs uses) good for a basic summary but for essays, Riley's content is in-depth with plenty of stats.

That's the other thing - economics markers love a good stat and graph. Make sure they are up to date, though; I've been flamed a few times for citing policies from the 70s...

Make summaries during the term because it is obviously a content-heavy course. My prelim teacher made me do summaries and would check them, and I still do it with my new teacher because it does work.

Keep up to date with current economics news. Read the papers/news, if you can convince your parents to get an Economist subscription that'll prove incredibly valuable. Not necessarily required though

The syllabus for eco in terms of essays is usually pretty narrow, which means you can write essays in the month or so before the exam and pretty much cover everything.

I'm happy to help if you have any eco questions - shoot me a message.

Edit: Here's a link to Riley's book http://timriley.com.au/website/ - I realise not everyone shares my platonic love for him and might not know the name of the book.

 

[lpodtouch]

Thanks for the advice!

 

[study1234]

Be consistent with your news and syllabus work/revision, and really develop a passion for the subject. Also it's a good idea to regularly do some practice essays.

 

[iJimmy]

study hard, study smart.

 

[Drifting95]

-Keep up to date with current events, this can give you a competitive advantage over a lot of the cohort who simply learn content. I know the majority of my classmates didn't understand how important it is to apply the concepts you learn into practice so please pay a lot of attention to the news.

-Be clear and concise in your responses. Economics constantly emphasises efficiency so be efficient in how you respond to the questions, get straight to the point and use relevant statistics as evidence to prove your point (just as you would use a quote in english)

-Keep up to date with your notes (or buy notes) because the content stacks on the further you go into the course, especially just before trials in yr 12.

- Focus your attention on learning the underlying concepts within the theory rather than just rote learning. This will make you understand it much stronger and make it easier to study. You can also logically work the content out if you forget it by following the concept compared to just forgetting rote learnt content.

 

[Myrdred]

I think I'll recommend Drifting95's advice which I intend to follow once school starts.

I just finished eco and this is what i found.

Originally my school recommended that i DIDN'T do eco because it was beyond my ability. I ended up getting 93.

-If you apply yourself and work hard i strongly believe most people can get solid marks in the subject, however for some people the concepts just don't click (despite them being relatively simple) and they resort to rote learning.

-Difficulty is all relative so don't waste your time asking if it is hard or easy, instead ask people if there were certain aspects of the course they found challenging etc.

-Ensure you're always up to date with current business news, it really helps you apply the theory you've learnt in class and apply it in the real world with relevant examples. Everyday i would spend 15 minutes reading the business news from an online source (e.g SMH), this is enough. From this i found i was able to gain a deeper understanding of the content and thus learn the underlying concept rather than memorising/rote learning content. Accordingly, this gave me the strong skills needed to apply relevant and current statistics/examples in the essays, an aspect of the course that most students struggle with. I highly recommend you do this, it develops your ability to link concepts to real life whilst also seeing trends in certain statistics (e.g economic growth, inflation) in real time.

-Keep up to date with your notes. This is pretty obvious but in year 12 the content starts to increase, especially in the "Economic Issues" topic that contains quite a bit of content