ECON2102: Macroeconomics 2

Macro project presentation - 25%. Get yourself a good group for this. I had an amazing group, and we got nearly full marks for this.

Tutorial Participation - 5%. This was based on the weekly readings. The tutor would ask you to present what you learned from the reading/answer some questions related to the reading. Straightforward.

Assignments - 25%. This is the strangest part of the course, and where many people's grievances this term lie. Three assignments were due, but two of the three assignments were "selected at random", and only one or two questions per assignment will be "randomly selected" for marking. We found out that after submitting the first assignment that it would not be marked because "people submitted it too close to the due time". I spent 6-7 hours working on it, and being told the very next day that it would not be marked was infuriating. Furthermore, the questions that were selected "at random" for the second assignment were those that were auto-checked by moodle and not those that had significant mathematical derivations. Felt very lazy.

Final Exam - 45%. 55 Multiple Choice, 11 True/False/Uncertain with explanations. 4 mathematical exercises. This is the first time that I've nearly run out of time in a final exam. Does a good job on testing you on the whole course.

Quizzes - 5% Bonus Marks. Short weekly quizzes that took place in lectures. Bonus marks were given on a linear scale, if you achieved 50% overall you would get 1% extra, while the highest mark in the class (~95%) was given the full 5%.

ECON1102 and (ECON1203, MATH1041, MATH1231, MATH1241 or MATH1251). Not entirely sure why MATH 1B was assumed knowledge, we really didn't use intense math in this course. The most we ever did was a couple of Lagrangians.

I don't really felt like I learned anything new in this course, which is a sentiment that a few of my friends in the course have also echoed. Most of it boiled down to "Macro 1 but now we use a bit of calculus instead". After suffering through Micro 2 last term I expected this course to be much more difficult than it was, especially with the lack of a Macro 3 course. A bit underwhelming, but still an essential core economics course to master.

1 x 1.5 hour lecture per week. 1 x 1.5 hour tutorial per week.

2/5.

Yes.

Gonzalo Castex. 2.5/5. Doesn't seem fair rate him this low, especially after being spoiled by having Otto last term. I only rate him this low because of his dismissiveness towards students. Questions in Edstem were often met with "should've gone to office hours". Decent lecturing though.

Full slides given out. We weren't given access to any study material other than the limited tutorial problems. This includes the weekly quizzes, which we were unable to view again after submitting.

3/5.

Jones Macroeconomics. This is by far the best textbook for intermediate macroeconomics. Essential to have a copy as several questions from the tutorial problems, readings, and assignments came from this book. Also was great to have as a reference throughout the term.

Felipe. 5/5 - sold out to go work for a bank halfway through the term.

David. 5/5 - the OG. Fast speaking (as usual), but always a pleasure to have him

2020/T3

81 DN