[PTGregD]

Econ 2H03 is an extension of the skills you learn in your first year macroeconomics class.

PROF:

The professor teaching the course when I took it was Rashid Khan. Although slow and boring at times, he really cares for his students and goes very far out of his way to let you pass. He let us do open book assignments in class as a group for 8% of our mark, and would also drop one of your midterm marks if your exam mark was higher. He was also very approachable and would help explain any concept to you after class if you still weren't understanding it.

LECTURES:

There would be three lectures a week. The professor would use overheads to draw graphs to help us understand the concepts he was teaching us. No use of powerpoint was a shame, espcially since the first year economics classes are full of efficient technology. It really felt like going back in time to the days before computers to be honest. Either way, the overheads drilled the concepts home anyways; albeit in a much slower and monotonous way.

BREAKDOWN OF MARKS:

The course had 2 assignments each worth 4% (Totalling 8%) that were done in class as a group and were open book. To compound the easiness of this already; they were also posted online the day before so you could finish them and bring the answers with you to class to quickly ace the quiz. It was very easy to get 95%+ on these assignments, and they were clearly meant as grade boosters.

The course also has 3 midterms and an exam. The midterms were worth 21% each, but only your top two counted. How many times can you say a class let you drop an entire midterm? The exam was 50%, and like previously mentioned, would replace another one of your midterms if you scored better on it than that particular midterm. The difficulty for these tests was not that bad as long as you bought the courseware because he would put multiple examples of quizzes/tests/exams in there and wouldn't change the format or the questions by much.

HOW TO SUCCEED:

This course is as close to a bird course as you'll find in university providing you are at least remotely interested in economics. I was notorius for falling asleep in the front row of class due to the boring nature of some of the lectures, but even then, the tests and quizzes were far from being difficult.

As long as you do ALL the examples of practice problems/sample quizzes/sample tests from his courseware, you should have no excuse for getting less than 85-88% on any test or quiz. Thus, this would be my recommendation for a course where getting a 12 is very possible as long as you put in the work towards practicing all the problems he gives you.

Thanks Bro

WARNING: THIS COURSE IS VERY DIFFERENT DEPENDING ON THE PROF!!!!

I had a woman lecturer (no-phd, it might have been SenGupta) and she was bad. She didn't teach very well and made her tests very hard, partially because her english was bad and her test questions didn't always make sense. The worse thing was that G. Holmes (great prof) taught a different section but used his own tests for his sections thus anyone lucky enough to have him got great marks.

If you can get Khan or G. Holmes for this course, go for it.

Alex McColl
Hons B.Comm & Econ Minor - 2008

Does this course require Aplia? How helpful did you find the text and study guide? Did you think the courseware and lectures were enough to prepare yourself for the assessments?

Is the textbook ever really used for this course?

Originally Posted by Maji

Is the textbook ever really used for this course?

For Khan, you mainly just use his course notes, although I'd recommend the textbook to help clear up some harder topics.

does this course involve tonnes of graphs? or does it just have numerical problems? or just complete theory?

Also has anyone taken this course recently to give a recent overview and whether or not this course is still as easy as it used to be?

Yes I second Kanishka's comment. It would be very helpful!

Its mostly numerical and graphs but there is some theory. Some topics are pretty easy but some are difficult. If you take it with Khan, he gives you a lot of opportunities to boost your marks with bonus quizes. There was also 3 pop quizes that were open book that you can work on with your friends in class. Overall its not a bad class but you will need the textbook to learn harder topics for sure.

Gotta love Khan's coursepack...

i felt that the textbook was essential for this course because most of the lectures didn't make any sense to me

Thanks for the heads up!

Thanks for your information!

has anyone taken it recently, in 2010/2011?