I'm planning on taking ECON 1BB3 as one of my first year electives (along with 1B03). I've heard that econ 1B03 (micro) is relatively easy, but i haven't heard much about 1BB3 (macro). Can someone comment on the difficulty of this course? How easy is it to get a 12? I'm relatively good at memorizing and studying from the textbook, so is it mostly that, or are there a lot of application questions on tests, exams?

I found the class to be very easy, definitely 12-able. I finished with an 11 without actually going to class outside of the first lecture, just reading the textbook. There wasn't much that I would consider "application": you need to be able to learn how manipulating one variable would affect other variables, but most of it was what I would consider straight memorization.

Hope that helps!

If you get Bridget O'Shaunessy or W/e, I would go to class. She gives answers to tests slyly throughout the year... If that's even a word . Also... learn to spell her name... she has that as a bonus mark every once and a while.

She's very good at lecturing and I enjoyed the class overall. It is 100% a bird course. Read the book, go to class, do the assignments... Put effort into the assignments, and you will walk out with a 12.

I found Aplia was an easy way to get grades, just like O' Shaughnessy said it would be. Sometimes the questions are word for word in the text and it does help you reinforce what you've learned.
It's all pretty self explanatory but you definitely need a textbook. Our final last term had a few questions out of things mentioned once in the textbook. I would recommend going to lectures simply because, if you only rely on the online podcasts which are a bit old at this point and she introduces something new, that really won't be very helpful. It's definitely 12able. You have to do the work though. It's a "bird course" in that it probably doesn't require as much work as Psych for instance but it does require some work and effort

Originally Posted by Sintos

If you get Bridget O'Shaunessy or W/e, [...] Also... learn to spell her name... she has that as a bonus mark every once and a while.

And oddly enough you spelled her last name wrong XD

Personally, I found macro way easier and more interesting than micro. The courses have an equal difficulty level, but I found macro to be much more enjoyable and therefore personally found it easier. I didn't like the way Dr. Holmes just read off the slides for micro; I don't know why I bothered going to class either, because she posts the exact same thing online. She is very helpful though and really nice. Dr. O'Shaughnessy, however, I found to be more engaging, and was able to relate the course material for macro to current events. She'd always throw in random advice like "If you know anyone who's going to buy a house, tell them to hurry up so they don't get locked into a higher rate because they're rising..". It's not difficult to get marks in either course; you have online assignments and they usually take the best 10 of 15 or something like that.

Both courses are probably as hard as a grade 10 course.

for me macro was easier and more interesting than micro with less content to study from!

Would you guys recommend getting the textbook for this course or just the stand-alone APLIA CARD? The later I think I read somewhere includes a digital copy of the textbook too is that correct?

Originally Posted by Ender

Would you guys recommend getting the textbook for this course or just the stand-alone APLIA CARD? The later I think I read somewhere includes a digital copy of the textbook too is that correct?

Aplia comes with an online version of the text, yeah.

As for whether you should get the stand-alone or the textbook combo, it all comes down to whether you want a hard copy of the text or a digital. If you're good with digital and you can get online access most of the time (since I don't think you can download the text from Aplia and save it to your HDD), then I'd say save money; if you can't, or you prefer a hard copy, or you want to add a textbook to a collection, then go for the combo.

Ill be taking macro this year as well, hope its not too time consuming.

Ya same here.

BTW anyone have any Fall/Winter term notes for ECON 1BB3? PM me or just post here. Thanks!

O'Shaughnessy posts all her notes online (via podcasts). There's not much reason to keep notes (unless it helps you study or something)

Anyone have a folder of podcasts then?

Could you link me or email me w/ podcasts? =D