EC2002 - is it posssible to get the golden 11?

[womble chris]

righty, i think EC2002 must be the hardest second year course (other than IR, thats what most people say are the 2 hardest). the amount we've covered this semester is a joke. how on earth are we supposed to do bonetti's stuff - there are roughly 45-50 different combinations of graphs and explanations we should in theory know, and we will be tested on 3 of them - screw the question up and max you can get is 66% - ie. no 11.

plus the other two lecturers stuff arent exactly easy.

i thought last semester was a lot od work - like, the whole massive textbook, but this is getting ridiculous - they need to realise we do actually study 2 other subjects (admittedly management required about 4-5 revision and i havent started 'the physical universe'.


if your doing EC2002, or have done, id love to hear your comments, personally, there is so much to know, and the intro stuff to each lecturers is okay, but the end stuff is simply bizzarre - i can understand when im reading it (just), but trying to answer a question about it is another thing.


why oh why did i pick economics as a degree....


good luck all, and drink well if you've finished (but i doubt anyone would be bored enough to read this message this far down if they had finished, or even weren't doing this module.

anyway, enough delaying of trying to (start to) learn what happens to a trade shock with imperfect capital mobility with a floating exchange rate, one of the 40 odd combos......joy joy......

[Zombie Sheep]

Oh come on, I'm wishing I had tagged economics onto my biology degree (no idea if thats possible) so I could have got a first!

[hr]

This post may be intended in jest and should be read as such. Any queries relating to the seriousness of it should be addressed to the author. The author requests that readers DO NOT follow the advice or requests in this post. This statement is retrospective with regards to all previous sinner posts.

[Superiorjames]

This module is totally stupid, im in the shit for it as well. The amount to cover is ridiculous...iv resigned myself to learning what i believe will come up on the paper and taking a few chances...risky but the only option. Im in the library now working and am going to have to max out an all nighter tonight for sure...anyone fancy joining me, il be in the microlab tonight. For bonetti, i can see an absorption shock being the topic, with fixed, floating, and horizontal bands exchange rates. He surely wont repeat a trade shock again, and cant do a monetary one as it is too easy in his eyes. Thats my best guess...if u fancy the microlab womble, il see u there!!!

[yank]

I'm in the class as well, and I definitely agree. Fortunately, I'm a JYA so I only have to get a 7 or higher, instead of 11. Nonetheless, this is a lot harder than any other economics class I've taken.

lol, I got an 18 on the first test but for Bonetti, I got like a 4. WTF. There's something wrong with that.

Doesn't help that my friend from the states is currently visiting me, meaning I'm distracted.

Good luck to you all.

[Gealle]

Strangely, I have a friend who did this course a couple of years ago. He walked into the exam on a 15 and got a 20 as his final grade.

So it's definitely possible to get an 11.

[jamboy]

I agree that EC2002 is a pretty tough as it covers a lot especially when you are used to something as easy as Management.

However, the first part of the exam is very straightworward. The IS-LM ans the AS-AD Models really are very easy and the bit about inflation is fairly straightforward, too.
The growth part will be easy if certain questions dont come up. The Solow Model without human capital is not bad. But if they decide to ask a question about endogenous growth with a R&D Model, I will be in trouble.

For Bonettis part, the IS-LM-BP model does seem really hard with all the different combinations. But once you understood what determines the BP-curve and what effect surplus/deficit has and how the exchange rate affects exports, its always the same principle and you can really easy read it off from the graph. Output goes up, Imports up, Trade deficit, if capital mobility is low a BP deficit, excess demand for foreign currency, Money supply adjusts (depends on fixed or floating exchange rate) or Exchange rate depreciates which leads to more exports, etc. etc. The principle is always the same, but I agree that it is quite a lot. An apsorption shock does seem likely. But he might add Price and Wage relations and Long-Run equilibrium with an output constraint. But lets hope not.

Have fun everyone with revision tomorrow and good luck on tuesday.

[womble chris]

wow, you know your stuff....with still a day to go!
i couldnt be arsed to go to the microlab, apologies, i went for the 'revise while lying in bed' approach. ive just gone over bonettis stuff (except lecture 9.5 and 10, couldnt face anymore), plus im missing the zero capital lecture (time to get the photocopier working, again).

i agree its not as bad as first fears, ive got to know when it depreciates/appriciates, net exports changes etc (but still not a few bits). the bit im finding just hard to remember is when it goes on about sticky wages and flexible, only difference seems to be slope of the AS curve, and that therefore means stuff like output is less as are a few other things.

i really can see an absorption shock with say sticky wages and a fixed exchange rate, or along those lines, coming up. tbh, trade shock isnt that bad i think, its when you have the sticky and flexible wage when you have roughly 15 different things which go up, down or stay the same - 1 in 3 chance at least. but agreed isnt as bad as i was first fearing, but still a big pain in the backside.

im finding its just the sheer volume of stuff we've learnt just pretty overwhelming, but if i revise hard tomorrow fingers crossed.
i reckon the growth middle topic is the least bizarre, its pretty much okay till, as mentioned, it starts going on about capital accumulation, the bit about savings of physical capital and human capital really might be in any language for all i can make of it, and the equation with G(E) = e to power @E is nonsensical to my brain, but the AK model seem pretty straightfoward.
i can see them asking us a big question on the deriving equation for cross country savings rate, partly becuase its long, and its difficult, but especially its one of the bits i couldnt face trying to even makes notes about it. if i comes ill just write the final Sr/Sp to the power of something, rather than any attempt to show how you get to it.

anyways, bed is calling me back,

what will really take the biscuit is now ill probably have dreams/nightmares about all this econ.

[firewire]

I've just finished my 4th year in economics and can safely say that EC2002 was the exam I was most shitting myself about during the whole 4 years!

From what's been said on this thread so far it appears that Bonetti has kept his content virtually the same as it was 2 years ago.My advice would be that it's more important to learn the concepts of the shifts in the lines and actually UNDERSTAND whats going rather than learning how to do each of the 40 individual outcomes. Spending 5 minutes thinking logically about whats happening to each variable before writing an answer to each question will be time well spent.

(I scraped an 11 by the way, and in junior and senior honours I've never had lower than a 14.5. Just shows how much harder it is than any other 2nd (or in fact many 3rd and 4th) year courses!)

[Ben Reilly]

Indeed, I would just reinforce what firewire said, as it appears that the course is the same as three years ago!

EC2002 is good preparation for Honours Economics, as it introduces you to the kind of maths that you will need and gives an indication of the type of work you will have to do.

[harmless loony]

Yep to echo Ben, EC2002 appears to have remained unchanged and if you're going to do hons economics you must UNDERSTAND not just learn how it works.

I didn't think EC2002 was that bad - but that's prob cos I love Macroeconomics and can't stand Microeconomics - My worst mod so far ever ever has been EC3201 (Advanced Micreconomics) - hated it and ended up just scraping a pass at hons - not cool and screwed up the rest of my degree for which I have high marks....gah gah gah! (Watch out the lecturer for that is pure cack).

But no seriously, Bonetti's stuff is straight forward - if u understand how it works then you can answer/explain any model he throws at you. Like firewire says, sit and think logically about it.

[jamboy]

I agree that you should try and understand how the variables are affected and what follows then, because that way you will be able to derive each case in the exam just as it comes up.
A comment on Bonettis class test. Why does he always ask trick questions. I always thought a class test is designed to test if you understand the material but he tries to get you by defining the parameters of the question so vaguely that you cant be sure of anything. A joke.
I wonder who sets up the exam. Does each of the lecturers set up the section he tought or does Bonetti write the whole exam (he is the principal module teacher). Because if Thoenissen makes the section about growth, it wont be too bad, but with bonetti you never know. Hm, I better look over the savings ratio again.
I always feel like once I am through with a topic and go to the next one, I forgot everything I have done so far.

One question, what is a microlab???

[harmless loony]

If I remember rightly, each lecturer does his own questions but Bonetti is the one who finalises them.

There are no trick questions in Thoenissen's stuff normally - it's very straightforward growth stuff.

Just look at the past papers - if they're teaching the same stuff they have taught for the past 3 yrs for EC2002 then the past papers will give you an idea of what to expect.

[womble chris]

did you guys get the email just sent - exam format is in the 3 lecture sections. each with 2 or 3 questions per section. you have to answer 1 of the 2-3 questions, ie 3 questions in total.

no matter what the exam format, this is going to be so darn hard. i am still having memory problems some of the basic IS-LM stuff just becuase my brain is having to cram so much into it.....

[jamboy]

But on the other hand, with this format you can choose which question you want to answer. So should there be a part where you just forgot everything about (like R&D Model for me), just answer another question. If you did a fair amount of revision i am pretty sure there will be at least one question in each section that shouldnt cause too much trouble.
Good Luck everyone!

[womble chris]

what is an R&D model?

also, for a floating exchange rate and an absorption shock, does it just go back to the original place straight away regardless of if its sticky or flexible wages.

im screwed

[yank]

meh...i'm done studying

way too much information...everytime i think i'm ready i realize i've forgotten the other 2/3 of the class

good luck to u all

[jamboy]

An R&D model is a growth model for endogenous growth. Like a more sophisticated version of the AK-Model

second part, yep the IS curve just goes back just like a monetary shock under fixed exchange rates. That is at least what I think, dont sue me if its wrong. But it does go back when you dont look at the AS-AD model at all, so why should the AD curve shift then.

But i feel like I just forget everything again. No point in doing any more. Good Night and good luck tomorrow.

[yank]

What'd u guys think?

I was pleasantly surprised...I think I passed, haha.

[fran]

But why exactly do you think IR is hard??? Don't really see that at all.

[yank]

Quoting fran from 15:03, 24th May 2005
But why exactly do you think IR is hard??? Don't really see that at all.

IR?