Economics

jazz101

I've been told I can't do LCVP as I'm not eligible for it, so I need to do Economics to counter my ordinary maths and bring my points back up to normal levels.

I have to do it outside school, by myself. I'm pretty interested in the subject and like to read the odd book about it (Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan, Keynesian theory etc.), and have heard it's a pretty small subject in terms of how dense it is.

Would it be manageable? Has anyone done it by themselves? I was always against doing one outside school but my career guidance counselor says it's one of the easiest to do by yourself because it's a small course.

JDOC1996

I'm doing it by myself. It's a pretty easy subject, I just find it hard to stay motivated with it to study, but I try and do about 2 hours a week. Im hoping to finish the course by the end of summer I'm in 5th year by the way

jazz101

JDOC1996 wrote: »

I'm doing it by myself. It's a pretty easy subject, I just find it hard to stay motivated with it to study, but I try and do about 2 hours a week. Im hoping to finish the course by the end of summer I'm in 5th year by the way

Same as, 5th year here too. I'm thinking I could get four 40 minute classes of it done a week between the likes of study classes instead of LCVP, religion and P.E. Thanks for the response like, I hear it's easy enough and I'm interested in it. Like you say I guess it's hard to stay motivated for it but I'm into the subject so shouldn't pose a huge problem..

MightyMandarin

I'm doing it in school luckily I have it for classes as I've heard many doing it outside school or on their own. Its not too bad we do Micro up until April or so bad thing is if your like me and fascinated by Politics and world economy and stuff, Microeconomics is ultra boring so I have trouble staying focused but even then its pretty easy and is basically definitions, diagrams and some more definitions. Definitely easier than Business and Accounting so overall its pretty easy tbh.

jazz101

Can anyone recommend a textbook to buy? I'm thinking the Folen's one, by Denis O'Grady.

JDOC1996

Definitely positive economics, it's an excellent book, With various exam questions and examples throughout. It's very exam orientated I think it is the folens one?

jazz101

Looks better than the one I was thinking of buying JDOC, thanks. I especially like the exam tips section to it.

ciara95

I do it outside of school, I''m in 6th year. Last year for my subject choices I picked Physics and Economics, but my school didnt have classes for both of them unfortunately. I hate science, didn't want to do history, and I'm interested in Business so I thought I might as well do Economics myself. Last year I did a weekly grind class on Saturdays for an hour in one of the grind schools in Dublin (pm for name if you'd like). I have to sit in on Biology, which is when I do economics. Its a grand subject, most concepts are easy to grasp and I find them quite interesting. I read the chapter, make notes, do some of the questions in the book (Understanding Economics), look at sample exam questions and practice them.
I plan on studying some form of a Business degree next year so hopefully i'll make my life easier.
If you have any questions feel free to pm me

Iangolf

To all of you doing economics on your own or in school... You might want to check out my economics blog http://economics4lc.blogspot.ie/

I hope that it might help you understand some concepts that you might be struggling with, you can also request new topics if there is anything that you would like done. I plan on having the whole course blogged about by Sept 2013.

JDOC1996

Looks great man. Kudos to you for going out of your way to do it. I'll certainly be a regular.

ray2012

Iangolf wrote: »

To all of you doing economics on your own or in school... You might want to check out my economics blog http://economics4lc.blogspot.ie/

I hope that it might help you understand some concepts that you might be struggling with, you can also request new topics if there is anything that you would like done. I plan on having the whole course blogged about by Sept 2013.

Great page. Useful stuff there which I'll be sure to go over and study

Whatsernamex33

Does anyone have any tips or ideas on how to study for Economics?

Iangolf

Whatsernamex33 wrote: »

Does anyone have any tips or ideas on how to study for Economics?

I think one of the best ways is to actively answer questions. Not just exam questions, but the questions at the end of each chapter in your book. Answer as many questions as you can on each topic.. you will quickly find that you will tend to be asked for...

The effects of, consequences of, results of something
or
The advantages or benefits of something

These tend to be lists which you must learn off or better still understand the concept and then you can explain what would happen in your own words.


If I were you I would spend an hour or so going over a topic... (your notes or the book, revision books are great once you have a broad understanding of each topic) and then answer questions without the book and correct them yourself or better still ask your teacher to correct them.

jazz101

Thanks for that Iangolf, I'll be following it religiously because I am having some trouble with the subject.

Iangolf

For those of you looking for past exam papers, i know how annoying it can be to go to the examinations.ie website and have to put in all of the info for each year. So hopefully this will help and save you some time.

http://economics4lc.blogspot.ie/2013/01/economics-past-papers-quick-and-easy.html

Follow me on Twitter @Lceconomics

PictureFrame

I took up Economics myself last year to bring up my points, I ended up getting a B1 in Honours. It's a great subject (best one in the leaving cert IMO) and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions ye have if you want!

jazz101

PictureFrame wrote: »

I took up Economics myself last year to bring up my points, I ended up getting an A2 in Honours. It's a great subject (best one in the leaving cert IMO) and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions ye have if you want!

Out of interest, did you do business as well? How did you get on in business? Would you objectively say that the subject is easy, or that you have a great interest in it that made you do so well in it?

Also, how important are the graphs and formulae in the exam?

sganyfx

jazz101 wrote: »

Out of interest, did you do business as well? How did you get on in business? Would you objectively say that the subject is easy, or that you have a great interest in it that made you do so well in it?

Also, how important are the graphs and formulae in the exam?

Formula are the tables. Learn all the graphs, very important and exceptionally quick marks.

PictureFrame

jazz101 wrote: »

Out of interest, did you do business as well? How did you get on in business? Would you objectively say that the subject is easy, or that you have a great interest in it that made you do so well in it?

Also, how important are the graphs and formulae in the exam?

Yes, I did Business. I was an A student for 6 years, and got 94.25% in my mocks, however due to a slightly weird exam paper and slight illness I ended up getting a B1 in HL Leaving Cert. I wouldn't say that the subject is easy, you need to study continuously and do lots of exam papers. Graphs and formulas are important. However all the formulas are in the log tables given in the exam. And once you know the graphs/diagrams for the market structures, elasticity and supply/demand that's all you need to know! )

ray2012

PictureFrame wrote: »

I took up Economics myself last year to bring up my points, I ended up getting an A2 in Honours. It's a great subject (best one in the leaving cert IMO) and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions ye have if you want!

You say you took up economics by yourself, same as myself.. I took it up at the beginning of 6th year and it's going fairly well. But I feel slightly overwhelmed with what I have yet to do (just have Micro + Factors of Production done, still have to do Macro). I can't get as much at all as I would like done because I get no time in school to do the subject, so I have to do it at home after school, when I have loads of homework in other subjects etc.

I'm just wondering, how did you keep on top of doing economics? Did you have a time in school you could do it during? And also how did you find the best way was for studying the subject? Sorry for the all the questions, kind of desperate :P Dreading the mocks next week cause I have so much to revise and honestly can't remember much from Micro / FoP

PictureFrame

ray2012 wrote: »

You say you took up economics by yourself, same as myself.. I took it up at the beginning of 6th year and it's going fairly well. But I feel slightly overwhelmed with what I have yet to do (just have Micro + Factors of Production done, still have to do Macro). I can't get as much at all as I would like done because I get no time in school to do the subject, so I have to do it at home after school, when I have loads of homework in other subjects etc.

I'm just wondering, how did you keep on top of doing economics? Did you have a time in school you could do it during? And also how did you find the best way was for studying the subject? Sorry for the all the questions, kind of desperate Dreading the mocks next week cause I have so much to revise and honestly can't remember much from Micro / FoP

Hi, don't panic firstly: if you have all of the Micro section completed you should be able to answer at least 3 questions on your Mock next week and if it comes to it, attempt Q.8 (usually a general Economy/History question)

Anyway, each week I said to myself: 'I am going to learn... International Trade, Elasticity' or whatever. I would do nothing but that topic for Economics, learn as much as I could and do EVERY exam question possible on that topic (timed) for practise. You'll find if you cover the big topics i.e. supply/demand, elasticity, markets, FOP, international trade, national income, you'll be fairly set!

No, I got no time to do it in school. I approached my Principal and asked about using the 3 Religion classes we were subjected to a week to study Economics as I was teaching myself, to which I was bluntly told 'no' and told 'I wouldn't be able to manage it myself anyway as there had been an Economics class 4 years ago taught by a qualified teacher and the best result was a C3' so as you can tell I loved rubbing that B1 n her face on the 15th of August

But I TOTALLY understand the whole not having enough time thing. I sat 9 subjects last year (Irish, English, Maths, French, Geography, Business, Music, Economics and LCVP) so I was always stuck for time. You just have to learn to manage your time effectively and focus on your most important subjects.

For example, I use to be the only person in my class who always did their English Homework/Additional essays etc. Our teacher told us homework was 'non-compulsory' but I felt I was good enough at English to do very well in if I pushed myself, so with all the extra practise I ended up yielding an A1 in Higher Level last August!

So yeah, just manage your time more effectively, and use your weekends wisely, you'll have loads of time to go out next year when you're studying your dream course!

Any other questions just leave them here, i'm more than happy to help :')

ray2012

PictureFrame wrote: »

Hi, don't panic firstly: if you have all of the Micro section completed you should be able to answer at least 3 questions on your Mock next week and if it comes to it, attempt Q.8 (usually a general Economy/History question)

Anyway, each week I said to myself: 'I am going to learn... International Trade, Elasticity' or whatever. I would do nothing but that topic for Economics, learn as much as I could and do EVERY exam question possible on that topic (timed) for practise. You'll find if you cover the big topics i.e. supply/demand, elasticity, markets, FOP, international trade, national income, you'll be fairly set!

No, I got no time to do it in school. I approached my Principal and asked about using the 3 Religion classes we were subjected to a week to study Economics as I was teaching myself, to which I was bluntly told 'no' and told 'I wouldn't be able to manage it myself anyway as there had been an Economics class 4 years ago taught by a qualified teacher and the best result was a C3' so as you can tell I loved rubbing that A2 in her face on the 15th of August

But I TOTALLY understand the whole not having enough time thing. I sat 9 subjects last year (Irish, English, Maths, French, Geography, Business, Music, Economics and LCVP) so I was always stuck for time. You just have to learn to manage your time effectively and focus on your most important subjects.

For example, I use to be the only person in my class who always did their English Homework/Additional essays etc. Our teacher told us homework was 'non-compulsory' but I felt I was good enough at English to do very well in if I pushed myself, so with all the extra practise I ended up yielding an A1 in Higher Level last August!

So yeah, just manage your time more effectively, and use your weekends wisely, you'll have loads of time to go out next year when you're studying your dream course!

Any other questions just leave them here, i'm more than happy to help :')

Thanks a million, great help! Well done on your Economics and English results also!!

For the short questions, did you just study every year previous' short questions, or just study the long questions (e.g on Supply/FoP) and in turn they covered the short questions ? (if you get me :P)

PictureFrame

ray2012 wrote: »

Thanks a million, great help! Well done on your Economics and English results also!!

For the short questions, did you just study every year previous' short questions, or just study the long questions (e.g on Supply/FoP) and in turn they covered the short questions ? (if you get me :P)

For the short questions, there is really only 1 effective way to study:

DO EVERY YEAR POSSIBLE

Seriously, I cannot overstate how important it is to do every year of shorts, correct them using the marking scheme and learn the proper definitions.

I got 100/100 in both the Mock & Leaving Cert Exams in the Short Question Section by using this method! It is so, so important!

ray2012

PictureFrame wrote: »

For the short questions, there is really only 1 effective way to study:

DO EVERY YEAR POSSIBLE

Seriously, I cannot overstate how important it is to do every year of shorts, correct them using the marking scheme and learn the proper definitions.

I got 100/100 in both the Mock & Leaving Cert Exams in the Short Question Section by using this method! It is so, so important!

I shall do that :cool: Thanks again for the help

PictureFrame

ray2012 wrote: »

I shall do that :cool: Thanks again for the help

no problemoooooo