After writing the exam, the general consensus is that this course is no longer as easy as it used to be... so beware of that if you're planning to take it as a "bird" course!!

The exam was slightly tricky but if you knew all of your concepts 100% it would've still be a breeze. I believe I got perfect on it considering the max mark is 112%.

My understanding and the general consensus seems to be that the course has gotten harder. The course still isn't "hard" but it's definitely now something that you might need to put a bit of effort into getting a good mark. I know I found a few of the questions on the exam tricky.

Yes, ask anyone who took it last year first term and they would tell you...on avenue lots of students were complaining..ohh funny thing happened :
last year after the econ exam so many people were complaining about the exam, but one guy agreed on what Holmes said (I forgot what it was), and I think he asked her something...but she never replied to him...after coupla days his reply was this:

"Next time have the common decency to reply to me"

Prob cause there were no sample finals and way too many people understudy for this course

I still wouldn't call it hard...

the exam was always substantially more difficult than either of the midterms. Still, a solid day of studying should have easy allowed you to ace it, if you are thinking about it logically.

I find there are 2 people:
1) Those who are studying econ in an economics sense. They try to memorize patterns and ideas and learn to do the math questions as specified in the lecture slides. Like a typical course they blank on small, costly facts and can do quite poorly.

2) Those who have zero economic foundation or care and look at economics as applied logic and mathematics. The majority of this beginner course can be learned by simply looking at it in the most logical sense and attempting to deduce things yourself. The mathematics questions can usually be solved by looking at the shapes on the graphs and using basic trig to solve things (dont even need to understand the content, just read the graph titles and axis to get the real world interpretations)

...or do what I did for the math questions and set up a series of equations based on the idea there are multiple questions each based on the same data, and only one correct answer. Therefore the correct answers are related to eachother. By setting up a series of equations and solving you can find the common data and get the correct answers easy and faster than actually doing the question.

I have found that those I have spoken to (mostly engineers) have been quite a bit more successful with the second method, assuming you are taking the course for minimal effort high marks, and not to actually learn econ.

I definitely was a number 2

Originally Posted by qwerty91

the exam was always substantially more difficult than either of the midterms. Still, a solid day of studying should have easy allowed you to ace it, if you are thinking about it logically.

I find there are 2 people:
1) Those who are studying econ in an economics sense. They try to memorize patterns and ideas and learn to do the math questions as specified in the lecture slides. Like a typical course they blank on small, costly facts and can do quite poorly.

2) Those who have zero economic foundation or care and look at economics as applied logic and mathematics. The majority of this beginner course can be learned by simply looking at it in the most logical sense and attempting to deduce things yourself. The mathematics questions can usually be solved by looking at the shapes on the graphs and using basic trig to solve things (dont even need to understand the content, just read the graph titles and axis to get the real world interpretations)

...or do what I did for the math questions and set up a series of equations based on the idea there are multiple questions each based on the same data, and only one correct answer. Therefore the correct answers are related to eachother. By setting up a series of equations and solving you can find the common data and get the correct answers easy and faster than actually doing the question.

I have found that those I have spoken to (mostly engineers) have been quite a bit more successful with the second method, assuming you are taking the course for minimal effort high marks, and not to actually learn econ.

or draw graphs and get 110%