Missing Notebook

Someone in office hours today (WED) left their notes in my office. I have put them in the bin hanging on my office door.

Kuo

The Midterm Analysis Question

These are the quesitons I want you to work on. They are much longer and more complicated than what you would get on an in class exam. But this will help you much more. Talk about the content with other people, with tutors, with me... and then spend most of your time trying to get clear in your mind what each point is saying. When you get it clear in your mind, it comes out clear on paper. As I said in class, most of the issue I see are issues with your thinking. Think clearly, and you end up writing clearly. What you SHOULD NOT do is to try to look things up and do research. You can answer all the questions with the tools we learned in class. In fact, I expect SUPPLY AND DEMAND type answers, not professional analysis. Remember, if you do not do this, you will not get your midterm graded.

Micro analysis question Econ 170
Macro analysis question Econ 175

Chapter 4 Answers on Elasticity

Chapter 20 answers on GDP

Chapter 21 answers on growth

Error in my HW hints

I was just made aware of an error in the HW hints I posted. For chapter 2, question 4, the answer should be PS = 1/2 * 45 * 60 = $ 1350 million/day

Midterm Reminder

Remember, you have a midterm either October 3rd or 4th depending on whether you have MW or TTh classes.

Kuo

Pre test results

I will put your pre test results on the door of my office. You can take a look for the next two weeks. After that, I will take them down. The score is calcluated as follows:

pre test score = # correct - 1/3*number incorrect.

For example, if you got 12 correct and 18 incorrect, your score would be a 6.

Some of you got a negative number. This will be treated as a 0. This means that you did not come into the class with any particular knowledge of econ. I would expect most of you would be somewhere in this range, either 0 or very close to it.

This procedure corrects for the effect of guessing because you would expect to get 3 wrong for every 1 correct on the questions for which you guess.

When you establish your starting value, here is how you calculate your improvement portion of your grade:

A maximum of 15% of the class grade will be earned in improvement.

Your initial pre test score will be the percent you start with. If you got 6 points, you start with 6% towards your improvement portion.

If you score 20 or above on the pre test, you need to maintain your score on the post test so that it is at least 20 points after correcting for guessing. If you do, then you get the full improvement points. If your post test score drops, then the intial high score was due to guessing (very good guessing), and your score will be reduced by 1% for each 1 point below 20 on the post test. There are only 1 or 2 people out of more than 200 students in this category.

For everyone else, your score will be determined by taking (15-pre test)/(20-pre test) and multiplying by the improvement in your score. So for example, if you scored 12 on the pre test, after correcting for guessing, your score would be 6. This means that you will start with 6% of the improvement points already. For each additional point on the post test, you would receive 9/14 = 0.64% towards increasing your improvment points. If you got 21 correct and 9 incorrect on the post test, your score, after correcting for guessing would be, 18. This represents an incrase of 12 points, and this would translate into 7.68% added to your 6% for a total of 13.68% for improvement.

For those of you who take the time to study this procedure, basically, if you can get 20 points on the post test, after correcting for guessing, you will have earned all the the improvement points. If you cannot, then for each point you improve, you will get some fraction of a total point added to your improvement grade.

Kuo

Midterm #1

You will be having your first midterm on October 3 if you are in the MW classes or on October 4 if you are in the TuTh classes.

You have been notified.

Take care of any problems in your schedule well in advance. When you tell me one day before that you have issues, you appear irresponsible and/or indifferent about your education. Don't let that happen to you. Get time off work to study, or make the time. There aren't many good excuses if you do poorly.

Kuo

Homework Answers

Here are the answers to chapter 2 HW

Here are the answers to chapter 3 HW

Here are some helpful hints and how to think about some of the questions in chapter 2 and 3.

In general, I'll be posting the author's answers and some general comments and hints for the problem sets.

Kuo

Extra office hours

I will be in my office on MW at 1pm on most days. I've decided to tell everyone because they can be kind of like extra office hours. Some days I might not be there, but if you e-mail me the night before, I can tell you if I'll be there. There's a 95% chance on any given M or W I'll be there. So feel free to drop by. Here are my office hours:

MW 1-2 (right before my classes)
TuTh 10-11 (right before my classes)
MW 5:20 - 6:20 (right after my classes, be sure to tell me in advance for this time slot)

Kuo

Extra reading

Here is another few chapters from Roger Arnold's book on how to think like an economist. If you want to read the rest of the book, I highly recommend it.

Pre test

If you missed class, then you MUST attend office hours in order to establish your pre test score. If you do not do this by the start of the next class, your score will be determined by only your test scores. I have a feeling that most people will get sufficient improvement scores to get the full 15%, so don't miss out. If you know of people who were absent, give them a friendly reminder.

Kuo

Macro Syllabus

Here is the updated syllabus for macro. The old one had the wrong chapters for the first HW assignments. We are on chapter 2, supply and demand.

Improvement Score

This week, we will be taking a pre test that will be used to calculate your improvement. Be sure to be in class this week. Failure to do so will mean your improvement score will be disregarded and you will have a serious disadvantage compared to other students when final grade time comes around.

Kuo

Still trying to get in?

Now things are starting to settle down. But some of you are still trying to get in. Depending on where you are on my wait list, there is still room in my classes. Here's the most current info I have:

MW 3:55 - 5:20 microeconomics still has room. People have dropped, so if you have been showing up to my micro classes, either on TuTh or MW, you should see if you can take this class.

MW 2:20 - 3:45 macroeconomics still has room. If you really need a class and can take this one, you may want to consider taking econ in the reverse order of what is traditional (first micro then macro). If you have been attending my lectures so far, I will add you into this class on a first come first served basis.

TuTh 11:10 - 12:35 microeconomics. This one is the most popular class. There are still several people who have been showing up. I will try to get you into a class, but if you can enroll in one of the other micro classes for now, I can section change you later when people drop. This is your best bet to get into this class.

TuTh 12:45-2:10 microeconomics. There are a few seats left here. Again, I can fill the remaining spots if you want to wait it out. But there are no guarantees.

For all those who really want to try to get into one of the classes, be persistent and the more flexible you can be with your schedule, the better your chances will be.

Too bad for all those who came late and didn't tough it out. I guess they'll only learn 1 lesson from me.

Kuo

Additional Reading on Economic Thinking

Here are a few chapters out of a wonderful book called, "How to Think Like an Economist" by Roger Arnold. I discussed some of this in class and ran out of copies.

Kuo