how hard can econs get?
With my last post, there were several questions that were raised during my royal, majestic online presence on MSN. Most dealt with the standard of my econs while others were simply, well, .... others.
First and foremost, I gotta clarify that despite the fact that I found econs to be v tough, I struggled and sturggled and didn't do too badly (at least that's what I think) as some of you might perceive. But then again, if I were to depend only on Economics for my admission into the uni, .... then it's another story altogether.
How can anyone forget the easiest chapter of National Income Accounting in Economics? The recitation of C+G+I+(X-M) = national income for every of Economics tutorial? Even as I embark on the treacherous journey of remembering physics formulas in my studies today, this weird chain of letters and equation would suddenly pop up at the back of my head. It is worst then having someone declaring hardlife every now and then.
The funny thing is: despite remembering weird formulas and such in my head, I would be told that we need to do something to get the GDP/GNP. Something regarding net and gross income levels. The worse thing is: questions are formulated such that these calculations would not be easy. It's not as easy as calculating the 7% GST that we are going to pay in Singapore.
Just when I thought it's bad enough, here comes Keynes Theory (something gotta do with $). Basically it's something obvious (though I yet to recall what exactly it states) like Newton's first law which states that an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion continues with constant velocity unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
Sheesh. I just realised that physics laws are easier to remember than Economics theories.
Actually it's quite surreal, really. I have been playing Monopoly since the game came into the market years ago. The only irony is that I couldn't understand why a simple board game like this can set anyone back for over $50 then and still there weresuckers like *aku who actually go and spend such $. Well, the game did help a bit though. I could understand the term "Monopoly" when it was first introduced under "market structures". Unfortunately, there was no other games in the market like "oligopoly", "Perfect Competition", "Duo-poly".
My tutor marks my exam scripts v strictly too. Who in the world writes 4 essays, each having a weightage of 25 marks and to only be awarded 11 marks in total for all 4 essays?!?! It's like I can't even get a 50% pass mark of 1 essay with the summation of the marks gained from the 4 essays!!!! What did my tutor do? He read my essays to the class (which meant that students from 4 classes would have got to know of my "very-sorry" plight since it was a combined tutorial from the 4 classes). At the end of the year, almost kenna have to attend some remedial thing for econs, but didn't have such luck as there were students worse off than me apparently.
oh yes. There was this essay where I was supposed to write on the wage rates among Singaporeans. A part of the paragraph went something like this
"... because conditions at the construction sites are quite harsh (not so good, without aircon, under the hot sun and stormy clouds and rain), the demand for jobs in these areas are not highly sought after by Singaporeans and therefore, according to the (some) theory, the wage rate of construction workers is very high. On the other hand, office workers have a more conducive relaxed environment and comfort of sitting on the chair all day long, the demand for the jobs is extremely high and thus, it is highly sought after. Ceteris paribus (see? i still remember this term), the wage rate for these jobs are extremely low."
After writing it, I realised logically something was wrong. But the demand and supply theory holds right, so why is my argument wrong? So, guess what. I tried my luck and submitted it for my test.
Right after that test, I was called to answer many questions in lectures to ensure that I got my concepts right. I think I shall stick to physics laws. At least they hold all the time without the need for ceteris paribus assumption (the try-to-act-cheem assumption).
fyi, the author here has got an 'A' level clearance in econs and despite so, he still thinks that the marker must have made mistakes in the marking of his paper. He still has a passion for economics but he decided to embark his journey in the other fields which has yet to test his patience.
First and foremost, I gotta clarify that despite the fact that I found econs to be v tough, I struggled and sturggled and didn't do too badly (at least that's what I think) as some of you might perceive. But then again, if I were to depend only on Economics for my admission into the uni, .... then it's another story altogether.
How can anyone forget the easiest chapter of National Income Accounting in Economics? The recitation of C+G+I+(X-M) = national income for every of Economics tutorial? Even as I embark on the treacherous journey of remembering physics formulas in my studies today, this weird chain of letters and equation would suddenly pop up at the back of my head. It is worst then having someone declaring hardlife every now and then.
The funny thing is: despite remembering weird formulas and such in my head, I would be told that we need to do something to get the GDP/GNP. Something regarding net and gross income levels. The worse thing is: questions are formulated such that these calculations would not be easy. It's not as easy as calculating the 7% GST that we are going to pay in Singapore.
Just when I thought it's bad enough, here comes Keynes Theory (something gotta do with $). Basically it's something obvious (though I yet to recall what exactly it states) like Newton's first law which states that an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion continues with constant velocity unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
Sheesh. I just realised that physics laws are easier to remember than Economics theories.
Actually it's quite surreal, really. I have been playing Monopoly since the game came into the market years ago. The only irony is that I couldn't understand why a simple board game like this can set anyone back for over $50 then and still there were
My tutor marks my exam scripts v strictly too. Who in the world writes 4 essays, each having a weightage of 25 marks and to only be awarded 11 marks in total for all 4 essays?!?! It's like I can't even get a 50% pass mark of 1 essay with the summation of the marks gained from the 4 essays!!!! What did my tutor do? He read my essays to the class (which meant that students from 4 classes would have got to know of my "very-sorry" plight since it was a combined tutorial from the 4 classes). At the end of the year, almost kenna have to attend some remedial thing for econs, but didn't have such luck as there were students worse off than me apparently.
oh yes. There was this essay where I was supposed to write on the wage rates among Singaporeans. A part of the paragraph went something like this
"... because conditions at the construction sites are quite harsh (not so good, without aircon, under the hot sun and stormy clouds and rain), the demand for jobs in these areas are not highly sought after by Singaporeans and therefore, according to the (some) theory, the wage rate of construction workers is very high. On the other hand, office workers have a more conducive relaxed environment and comfort of sitting on the chair all day long, the demand for the jobs is extremely high and thus, it is highly sought after. Ceteris paribus (see? i still remember this term), the wage rate for these jobs are extremely low."
After writing it, I realised logically something was wrong. But the demand and supply theory holds right, so why is my argument wrong? So, guess what. I tried my luck and submitted it for my test.
Right after that test, I was called to answer many questions in lectures to ensure that I got my concepts right. I think I shall stick to physics laws. At least they hold all the time without the need for ceteris paribus assumption (the try-to-act-cheem assumption).
fyi, the author here has got an 'A' level clearance in econs and despite so, he still thinks that the marker must have made mistakes in the marking of his paper. He still has a passion for economics but he decided to embark his journey in the other fields which has yet to test his patience.
posted by ZG at
10:53 am
