ECC1000: Principles of Microeconomics

40% internal
10% weekly online APLIA quizzes
- Due after you learn the content
- Can be a bit tricky sometimes, especially in the last few weeks, but mostly okay

10% tutorial participation
- 50% of this is attendance, 30% tutorial questions, and 20% participation
- Questions are from the Principles of Microeconomics textbook and you can use either the 6th or 7th ed
- Tutes may be before the lecture but you get full marks for the tutorial questions as long as you’ve shown that you’ve attempted them all

20% mid-semester test
- 20 MC questions
- Kind of hard but easier than the exam imo
- There are a few questions where you need to interpret the graphs

60% exam
- Found it very hard
- MC and 3 application questions
- Application questions were about the different market structures, I found these difficult
- Required to draw and interpret graphs

Overall, it was a pretty interesting unit to take and we learnt about how buyers and sellers respond to certain factors in a market and the effect of this. The content gets significantly harder in the last few weeks when you’re learning about the different market structures but if you understand the theory and the graphs then you should be okay. I skipped most of the lectures for this unit and I think you can manage without them up until the topic of the market structures. I had Abby Zhang for my tutes and she was very good at explaining the content each week.

James Bugden

Previous year’s sample exam was provided but the chief examiner has changed since then.

4/5

Lectures are recorded with screen capture.

Principles of Microeconomics. Can’t remember if it was compulsory but the tutorial questions are in the textbook and you can use either the 6th or 7th edition. Found it helpful but did not show how to calculate things in depth so maybe refer to the lecture slides for these.

One 2hr lecture every week and one 1hr tutorial every week

Semester 1, 2018

C

10% APLIA weekly tests, 20% Multiple Choice Exam , 10% Tute Participation, 60% exam
Note: If you score higher on the end of year exam, the mid semester exam score will be redundant. That is, if you score higher on the end of year exam, it is worth 80% of your total mark as opposed to only 60%

Great subject. Stephen King is such a good lecturer. I've only ever heard good things about him, if you do this unit in semester 1, he's guaranteed to pass you. However his exams are slightly more difficult. I stopped using the prescribed textbook and just used his lecture notes and videos explaining the content on his YouTube channel. He knows his stuff inside and out, and his videos explain the content amazingly well.My recommended way of learning content would be to watch the relevant YouTube video explaining the content + note taking, attend lecture + note taking, refer to textbook if needed for extra detail or diagrams, do APLIA quiz, repeat.

Stephen King (first sem), Philip Grossman (second sem)

No

5/5

Yes.

Principles of Microeconomics 6th Edition.

12x2 hour Lectures, 12x1 hour tutes

2015 Semester 1

HD

40% in-semester assessment comprising: tutorial participation 10%, midsemester test 20% (redeemable, week 6), APLIA tests (in Moodle) 10%. Final exam: 60% (or 80% if your performance on the final exam exceeds that of your midsemester test)

I enrolled in this course because it was a core unit for the BComm; after sitting it, I can see why it is a core unit. In this course you will learn about how firms make decisions, specifically how they set prices; how they decide whether or not to produce, temporarily shut down or leave the market; how government policy affects the behaviour of individual players in the market; how international trade affects domestic social surplus; and the differences between competition and monopoly in the marketplace.

Pretty much every week Stephen had a new example from the news to put our learning in context, from the mining boom to energy prices to the minimum wage and beyond. He is a former chairman of the ACCC, he's given evidence in court cases as an expert witness and he brings a lot of his experience to bear in his lectures.

The essence of the course is having a thorough understanding of firm behaviour at a basic level. The midsemester test is multiple choice, but none of the questions is easy; the questions draw inspiration from the lectures, but most of the questions are phrased in such a way that you need to apply concepts learned in class, not just remember definitions. So you need to attend tutorials and understand the examples to do well.

The final exam is 40% short answer (is this statement true? yes/no/maybe/why) and 60% extended response. It's basically diagram after diagram after diagram. It's not as hard as the practice questions uploaded on Moodle, but you need to understand each of the topics and know how to visualise each situation under consideration. For each concept learnt in the course, you need to know how to draw the diagram to show how it works. Since the midsemester exam is multichoice and the tutorials are only assessable in terms of participation and attendance, you need to practice drawing the diagrams on your own. Go through the textbook, ask your tutors, make sure you understand APLIA, etc. There is a lot of material available, you just need to know how to use it.

Stephen King. Great lecturer, my favourite so far. He has a good sense of humour, knows the course back to front, and thinks quicker than he talks (watch the youtube videos, you'll see what I mean).

Yes, last year's. However, there is a large number of "sample exam questions" provided which are much more difficult than the exam questions typically set. There is no shortage of exam-style questions.

4.5/5

Yes, both streams (same lecturer), with screen capture (if Stephen remembers to set the right camera to MULO, lol). Stephen also uploads supplementary lecture material to Youtube (~1 hour per week). Very useful.

The APLIA testing is just a carrot to get you to look at the material before it is presented in lectures. There are 10 tests, each worth 1%. You get 0.5 marks if you complete every question and another 0.5 marks if you get over 50% correct. So essentially you get the full 10% if you attempt APLIA and get over 50% for each test. It's an easy 10% but it helps your mark in the course overall because it forces you to think about the concepts before they're explained in lectures.

The midsemester test is worth 20%, unless you do better on the final exam than the midsem. The midsem isn't easy, but I think the exam is harder. So it's up to you to do well on the midsem to take some pressure off when the exam comes. If you do better on the final exam then the midsem won't be counted, so you can redeem your midsem mark by doing well on the exam.
Conversely, there is NO hurdle requirement for the final exam, so if you do really well on the midsem then you're looking at a 30-40% threshold on the final exam for passing the subject (very easy). My advice is to study as hard as you can for the midsemester test and take the pressure off.

Principles of Microeconomics, Gans et al. 5th edition (2011)

It is not essential to have this textbook, though I found it quite useful. You can get it on 1 week loan from the Caulfield or Clayton libraries without too much fuss and you can get the full length loan on hold too if you can be bothered waiting a few weeks. I think it's a good book, but you don't need to buy it or even have access to it. All of the examinable material is presented in lectures and tutorials. There are no assessable exercises from the book.

3 contact hours - 2 x 1 hour lectures, 1 x 1 hour tutorial.

2014, Semester 1

90

3x5% tute tests, 1 20%MST, 5% Tute Participation, 60% exam

Good subject, found it pretty interesting. Victor Matheson is hilarious, and an excellent lecturer. Ross Booth knows his stuff but after having Victor for a while he can come across as a bit boring, but he's still not bad. Exam prep pretty much you need to go through all the tute questions thoroughly and need to know how to draw each graph. For the mid semester test, definitely do the multi choice questions on the online portal thing (you can buy this or use a friend's).

Good unit overall.

Ross Booth, Victor Matheson

No past exams, no sample exams

4 Out of 5

Yes, with screen cap

Microeconomics 6th Ed, or Economics 6th Ed; McTaggart

12x2 hour Lectures, 12x1 hour tutes

2011 Semester 1

HD