ECON2101: Microeconomics 2

- 5 x Weekly quizzes (60%).
- 2 x Extra Questions (10%).
- Final exam (30%).

- ECON1101 is a pre-requisite; a basic understanding of differentiation is recommended (if you've taken ECON1202 or MATH1131/1141/1151, you'll be fine with the maths).

I mainly did this course purely out of economic interest and seeing how this is a fairly math-sy course, I thought it'd be an interesting experience. The course states that you need to put in at least 25 hours per week during the summer but in all honesty, 5 hours is sufficient. The course material is fairly easy to follow and not much from ECON1101 is really required for the course.

The course begins with a light introduction to the concept of preferences and builds a mathematical framework into how consumers rank certain choices using the idea of a utility. We then take a detour into the supply side of the market and build similar frameworks to that of the consumers. The last few chapters of the course concerns itself with the relationships between consumers and suppliers (monopoly, game theory and oligopoly).

One of my biggest issues with the course is the fact that quiz concepts aren't really taught (whether it's explicitly or implicitly) in the lectures. As a result, we had to make a few wild assumptions (turned out to be the right assumptions) in order to answer the problems. This was quite a frequent experience for a lot of the quiz problems, coupled with the fact that it's primarily graded based on the first attempt and is weighted pretty highly, is a bit concerning. I do like the fact that if we don't get full marks in the first attempt, we can earn 2 marks if we reattempt the quiz and get 100% - I found that to be a really nice added incentive to understand the concepts taught in the quizzes.

The extra questions were a bit vague as well -- I struggled to understand what they were trying to ask in the first place. Conceptually wasn't challenging but having to read through a lot of meaningless words was not really my vibe.

With the lectures being pre-recorded, I do like the added Q&A sessions and workshop session. Those sessions were really helpful. I also liked the incentive of giving away bonus marks for contributions on Piazza. Teaching others is the best way to learn so having a chance to earn an extra 1% in the course AND learning something new is a win-win in my book.
Overall, I wasn't really expecting much with the course. I did it mainly because I wanted to do a bit of economics. There were a few issues here and there, but I think this course has significantly improved since its last offering - at least I think so. Would I recommend it as an elective? Probably not. Do I regret taking it? Ehhh not really. It was certainly an experience. They definitely overestimated the amount of time needed to do well in the course.

- Lectures are pre-recorded (3 lectures per week).
- 1 x 1 hr Workshop tutorial.
- 1 x 1 hr Q&A session.

2/5.

Lectures are pre-recorded.

- Lecturer: Aleksandra Balyanova.
- Tutor: Ping Richard Gong.

Lecture slides are sufficient.

2.5/5.

Intermediate Microeconomics: A tool-building approach by Samiran Bannerjee is the prescribed textbook and I

2021 Summer Term

74 (CR).

64% - Online Weekly Moodle Quizzes. This is an absolute joke. A course which dedicates so much to homework should

ECON1101 and ECON1202.

This has got to be one of the poorest run undergraduate courses in the business school. Under what circumstances would you place a 72% weighting on homework, and only have 8% of that for handwritten submissions? 64% of our grades should not be subject to moodle marking, which doesn't allow for carry-on errors and doesn't give us feedback on our problem-solving. If you're allocating the vast majority of the final grade to homework, put in the effort to properly mark it. It was done fine in ECON2112 last term, so what's the problem?

The content of this course is not difficult, most of it just involves setting up functions and maximising them over some domain. The issues arise when crucial topics are only given one or two slides, and when the lecturer only goes through one or two examples every week. Thank goodness I'm not an international student; I can only imagine what they're feeling when they have to pay $5,500 for the knowledge that's taught in three Khan Academy videos.

It's such a shame as well. This course has the potential to be really interesting, but just about all of it is wasted. I cannot recommend anyone take this course in its current state.

2 x 1.5 hour lectures per week. 1 x 1.5 hour tutorial per week.

2/5.

Yes.

Aleksandra (Sasha) Balyanova. 1/5. Last term I gave her a pass in ECON2112 since we went online midway through. This term there are no excuses. An hour of lecture recordings a week is absolutely unacceptable, especially since she was teaching this course last term and has already had experience with online teaching. Providing us with recordings from previous years would have been the minimum, but this hasn't happened. I can only hope that she's a significantly better teacher in a classroom than she is online.

Full slides given out.

0/5.

Banerjee Intermediate Microeconomics. Good book, more helpful than the lectures at times.

Jacqueline Liu 4.5/5. The only saving grace for this course. Went through all the tutorial problems well and succinctly, and encouraged decent virtual participation. Never was bored in her tutorials.

2020/T2

82 DN.