Caution: you are about to read a rather biased review of EC3102.
If you have read my previous reviews on EC2102, I really hated macroeconomics HAHA. In fact, I dreaded taking EC3102, knowing that I suffered with understanding (or lack thereof) from EC2102, I really couldn’t imagine surviving EC3102 when I have yet to fully grasp the concept from EC2102. It doesn’t help that I was taking EC3102 literally 1 year after EC2102 in Y2S2, so I don’t even remember anything about macroeconomics… RIP. However, this was a core module, and in fact, the last econs module I needed to fulfil my Second Major in Economics, therefore I bidded for this module… though unwillingly.. 😦
Alas, my prophecy partially came through, I in fact, did suffer through EC3102. Here are the grading criteria:
- Lecture viewing, tutorial participation and tutorial assignments (15%)
I took EC3102 under Prof Vu.
Im sorry, but I felt like I was taking a Coursera module, as despite there being a lecture slot for EC3102, there wasn’t a live lecture for EC3102. We were expected to be disciplined enough to watch the recorded lectures from previous EC3102 lectures (probably recorded from few semesters ago). The lectures, were really boring and mainly repeated whatever was found on the lecture slides. I also felt that the lecturer was… quite monotonous, I had to 2x my way through the lecture videos. It did feel like I was better off reading the lecture slides on my own, though there were frequent annotations on the recorded video, I did feel like it wasn’t very important as none of it actually came out for mid terms and finals. As someone who was already disinterested in macroeconomics, this worsened my disinterest further. 😦 In fact, staring at the numerous symbols and long formula in the lecture slides, and not understanding anything made my EC3102 journey even more saddening hais.
O yeah, do take note that EC3102 revisits some of the concepts (?) thought in EC2101 like Lagrange Analysis. Etc: (cropped from the lecture slides), this was on Chapter 2
Honestly, it took me a looooooooooong time to understand and to be able to write out the above without referring to the lecture slides LOL. It does get easier once you understand the concepts but it still does look intimidating at first glance (and even now even though I’ve already completed this mod)
Tutorial participation, like any other typical economic classes, involve doing some discussion questions before class, and volunteering to present the answers on zoom. If i remember correctly, the TA was a PHD student, though her field wasn’t on macroeconomics, she did try her best to go through the tutorial questions on zoom. However, I felt like she was just reading off the answer key….
2. Midterm test (30%)
Mid terms was purely open ended questions with no MCQ. I felt like the mid term tests have the same difficulty as tutorial questions. In fact, a modified question from tutorials came out for one of the question in mid terms.
My revision for mid terms involve creating numerous cheat sheets, writing and redoing the tutorial questions, so I can bring everything into the exam hall AHAHHA. This was an open book exam, so we were allowed to bring in paper and notes. This was a relieve, because I can’t imagine having to memorise all the algebra and long formula in time for mid terms. There wasn’t really any mock papers on EC3102, and neither were there any up-to-date practise papers on the NUS BOX folder for EC3102. Therefore, what I did was to look at 1) Textbook for practise questions and 2) to Google for EC3102 materials. While I did not manage to find any free EC3102 materials online, what I found was Sanjay Chugh’s (TB author) page and some free problem sets + solutions that he uploads for his students. I REALLY RECOMMEND clicking the link and downloading all his problem sets, because they are really great practise and relevant to what was taught in EC3102. Even though the questions didn’t really come out for EC3102 mid terms/finals, they are really great materials for understanding the lecture materials + serve as additional practise papers beyond tutorials. And who knows, some of these questions might come out for your batch instead ;).
3. Finals (55%)
Finals was the same format as mid terms. Unfortunately, I can’t remember anything from the finals at the time of writing, though my advise is similar as per mid terms. Good news is that finals was also open book and content was not cumulative. I also thought that the later half of the semester were easier than the first half, so finals was still manageable.
Thoughts:
I can’t believe I made it out of EC3102 alive. Okay, admittedly, this has been quite a biased post of EC3102 fuelled by my disinterest in Macroeconomics, but I really did not enjoy this module at all. From the Coursera-style lectures and to crazy algebra in the lecture notes, I feel like EC3102 was a rather boring and uninteresting module. Regardless, as it was a core module, I did not have the choice to not take EC3102, though if given the choice, I will definitely choose EC3101 over EC3102.
Sorry if this blog posts feels one-sided, do read other reviews on EC3102 too 🙂
NUS MODULE REVIEWS 