Questions about administrative stuff for Econ 102, Section 100, Winter 2007: Apr 18 > I know that for the final exam, all outside readings are eligible to be > tested on but will that still hold true in practice? For the second > midterm you said all articles and WSJ readings were eligible but in > practice it would only be those since the first midterm. Will that still > hold true for the final? This time I've actually made a point of writing questions on readings and news throughout the semester. Apr 17 > Also, before the second midterm, you spoke to a group of students after > class and told us that the articles tested would only be those assigned > between the first and second tests. Which articles will be tested on the > final? The final is cumulative, and all articles (both outside readings and WSJ) are eligible to be covered. Apr 17 > I was wondering if you had the curve breakdowns for the final exams > becuase I would like to see how I'm doing on the practice exams against > their respective curves. No, I don't have that from past terms. In fact, I don't think I've actually curved the final exams separately. I've only curved the whole course. Mar 11 > I have a quick question about the exam. In terms of the additional > (non-Mankiw) readings and WSJ articles, are all readings covered on the > exam with an emphasis on the newer, or only those since the first exam? > I know that the exam as a whole is cumulative with an emphasis on the > newer but I am unsure about the extra readings. Thanks in advance and > I'll see you on Tuesday. When asked in class, I think I said that in principle this exam could include the earlier readings outside Mankiw, but that in practice it would not. Feb 7 > I just wanted to clarify something regarding the midterm on thursday. Do > we have to know all the readings from the web or only the wall street > journal assignments for the exam. My friend told me he heard you saying > only two of the three wall street journal assignments will be on the exam > thursday which are "What Drives High Growth Rates?" and "Uptick in > Inflation, Home Starts Seen as Aberration" and none of the online > readings. Could you please clarify what we will need to know for the exam > on thursday so I know what will be necessary to study from now until > then. Thank you As I say on the Exam Information page of the website, the exam covers all assigned readings through those assigned for Tuesday January 30. This includes the assigned chapters and pages from the textbook, readings from the web, and the two assigned articles from the Wall Street Journal. Your friend heard me incorrectly. Feb 7 > On your website, under Exam Information you said that the first > exam covers Mankiw 5-8, but there is information on a practice > exam from Mankiw 9. Will we have to know things from Mankiw > 9 or is the exam going to be different than prior years? The coverage that I stated on the Exam Information page, and in class (twice), is correct. The old exams are just that, old exams. Feb 6 > Hi, I am a student from your ECON 102 class. I was just > wondering if the third WSJ assignment was going to be on our midterm 1. No > About Chapter 15: > The syllabus states that it'll be from pages 323 to 330, but my GSI > covered all the way to page 344 regarding the whole aggregate supply and > demand. Could you clarify on that as well? The syllabus is correct. Feb 5 > Will anything from chapter 9/10 be covered? In other words, is the new > material presented in Thursday (1st) or Tuesday's (6th) lecture fair game > for the first exam? There was one old midterm #1 that used present value > concepts. No. Just as I say on the Exam Information page, the exam covers only through the material assigned for Jan 30, and therefore through Chapter 8 of Mankiw. Schedules have not always been the same in prior years, so old exams don't always cover the same materials, exactly, as current ones. Feb 5 > I noticed that one of the handouts on the Ctools website (under the > "Handout" section) labeled "Bond prices and interest Rates" are topics we > haven't covered in as much detail yet. However, it says it is > "required." Will this be on Thursday's exam? Actually, we have discussed it as much as we are going to, in Thursday's (Feb 1) lecture. However, the exam does not cover materials from that lecture, so no, that handout will not be on this exam. Jan 31 > I have a question about the syllabus and the material covered on > aggregate demand and supply. See, I go to all the lectures, but I enjoy > reading the chapters and taking notes on them to cement the information > to memory. However, for aggregate demand/supply and the short/long Runs, > I feel like I'm missing information from just the reading of 323-330 in > Mankiw and the assigned online readings. I just realized that my GSI went > over the information from pages 330- 355, which was not assigned in the > syllabus. Should I read these pages? Am I missing some reading materials? No, you don't need to know much, yet, about that material. I meant it only as a preview of what you will learn later in the course about the short run, so that we can discuss events in the news intelligently. If there are any questions on this material on the exam, they will be very basic, just from the few pages that I assigned. Jan 27 > Are questions on assigned readings from the web (Mustafa, Ridenour, > Wattenberg, and so on) posted on Ctools fair game for exams? Yes, absolutely. Jan 25 > I am confused about homework set #2. Is the wall street journal > assignment related to problem 1 on the homework assignment? Should we > still answer problem 1 by following the written instructions or should we > regard the Wall Street Journal as problem 1 and disregard the original > question? I understand that you explained this in class, but I didn't > quite understand the instructions given in class. I think you are confusing two different assignments. The article that I assigned in lecture on Tuesday is part of your assigned reading for the course, and the questions that are listed with it are to help you study it. I am not asking you to answer those questions or turn them in. (I may ask those questions, however, on an exam.) The first item on Homework #2 is completely separate from that. That is something I want you to do as part of the homework, and hand it in. It has nothing to do with the article that I assigned as reading on Tuesday. Jan 19 > I noticed on the syllabus, it states for January 18 to have read Mankiw > 15, pp. 323-330, but it doesn't have the rest of the reading listed for > Mankiw 15 until after the first and second examination. But, since both > you and Professor Deardorff have introduced the material in the entire > chapter of Mankiw 15, is it safe to assume that we will be tested on the > material from all of Mankiw 15? I don't know what your GSI did in section, but I do not believe I introduced much from the later pages of Mankiw 15 in lecture. I only told you what the aggregate supply and demand curves were and how, very briefly, they could be used. But I didn't deal at all with where they come from or why they look the way they do, which is what the rest of the chapter mostly does. In any case, I don't plan to test you very much on this material at all until the final third of the course. There might be, at most, a single multiple choice question on a midterm that deals with it, and then only the little bit that I did in lecture. My reason for doing it was not so much to be able to test you as to be able to talk sensibly about the news in the coming weeks. Jan 17 > I'm just wondering how strongly the students must grasp the information > from the online readings for the exams, if they are tested on at all. For > example, are names and number figures important to memorize? Or are you > merely looking for us to understand the information and appreciate the > links between the readings from online and the book? I would be delighted if you learned every bit of substance from the readings, but it will be sufficient for the exams (which will indeed include questions based on those readings) if you know the answers to the questions that I have posted about each reading as well as whatever I may say about them in lecture. Jan 4 > My question for you is do you recommend I buy the coursepacks that can be > accessed online. I understand they are not required to buy; however, > what do you recommend or what have students said in the past? The coursepacks are for your convenience, if you prefer to pay to have them in hard copy and don't want to print them out yourself. If I were a student, I think I would find that convenience worth the cost. But I suppose it depends on your financial situation. I've never heard back from students about what they have done about this, or what they prefer. Dec 29 > I have two questions about the textbook. First, did > the econ department use the fourth edition during the fall semester as > (so it could be purchased used)? And second, how essential is it to have > the most recent edition of the text. Could a careful student make due > with the 3rd edition instead? thanks in advance for your time. I'm pretty sure that the 4th edition hadn't come out in time to be used in Fall 2006, although I don't know that for sure. My impression is that the 4th edition is very similar to the 3rd, so you probably wouldn't miss much by using it. It might lower your grade a little, but not a lot. Note, though, that if you don't by the version of the 4th edition that I ordered, you won't get the Wall Street Journal with it, and you will have to arrange access to that separately.