Economics

[melbarts91.4]

Economics was by a significant amount my worst subject in VCE and I got a 32 in it, scaled to a 34 (although I was in a consistently poor cohort). Although It is not my best subject, it is one that I am incredibly interested in, and I was considering undertaking introductory, intermediate and perhaps even Advanced Micro and Macro economics. To anyone who has done both VCE and uni economics, am I right in my assessment of the course description that the university content looks very alike to the VCE content? Secondly, I am a passionate social sciences student and although I would say that given effort I would be significantly above average for maths (purely from year 10/naplan/GAT), in a cohort like Melbourne I would probably be the worst maths student there, especially since I haven't studied it once in VCE. A study score of 25 or above is needed in methods or specialist to do economics, and the only way around this is to do a catch-up introductory mathematics subject that in itself needs the completion of at least unit 1/2 of methods as prerequisite. Would the university be likely to waive the prerequisite either to take the bridging subject, or just go straight into economics? Also, is economics likely to ge too hard for me anyway if I am not that skilled in maths? Is it even that math-based ever? And would it even be worth it risking my GPA to take the mathematics bridge/taking economics?

Anyone with any experience in such things, or even someone who doesn't, any advice would be appreciated immensely!

[sluu001]

Dont confuse vce economics with university economics. At uni level, economics is probably the most mathematical of the b.comm major asides from actuarial studies (at post-grad level -it surpasses actuarial studies; becoming essentially a mathematics course). The reason being that it's all and well "qualifying" a statement (ie. high inflation will lead to high unemployment); but if we cannot "quantify" it with data and logical proofs (which is mathematics), then nobody would believe our predictions.

As such, what you learn in VCE economics is the "concepts" and theories of economic movement (ie. microeconomics - demand an supply graph). At university (after the 1st half of semester one - which essentially covers everything in vce); you learn how to "quantify" these theories. (For example, using calulus to find the "optimal" level of prouction for the demand of good A; using multi-variate differential equations to calculate optimal utility over a non-linear budget constraint.

However, this doesnt mean someone weak at high school maths will struggle with economics. I always believed that the concepts were the hardest part of economics - once you understand that - the maths just follows on from that (and i felt was relatively straightforwards).

In your case, id ask the course co-ordinator for "intro to mathematics" whether theyll waive the methods 1/2 pre-requisite for you to enrol in the class. You also have to realise that an econ major ay melb also requires at least one unit study in econometrics (which is just a fancy word for mathematical statistics). You will not be able to comprehend uni economics otherwise.

Another option is studying it through UNILEARN, melbourne accepts it as an acceptable equivalent to methods.

[TrueTears]

Economics was by a significant amount my worst subject in VCE and I got a 32 in it, scaled to a 34 (although I was in a consistently poor cohort). Although It is not my best subject, it is one that I am incredibly interested in, and I was considering undertaking introductory, intermediate and perhaps even Advanced Micro and Macro economics. To anyone who has done both VCE and uni economics, am I right in my assessment of the course description that the university content looks very alike to the VCE content? Secondly, I am a passionate social sciences student and although I would say that given effort I would be significantly above average for maths (purely from year 10/naplan/GAT), in a cohort like Melbourne I would probably be the worst maths student there, especially since I haven't studied it once in VCE. A study score of 25 or above is needed in methods or specialist to do economics, and the only way around this is to do a catch-up introductory mathematics subject that in itself needs the completion of at least unit 1/2 of methods as prerequisite. Would the university be likely to waive the prerequisite either to take the bridging subject, or just go straight into economics? Also, is economics likely to ge too hard for me anyway if I am not that skilled in maths? Is it even that math-based ever? And would it even be worth it risking my GPA to take the mathematics bridge/taking economics?

Anyone with any experience in such things, or even someone who doesn't, any advice would be appreciated immensely!

Not sure how deep you are going to pursue economics, but at the top end, economics is mathematics (both pure and applied). Quite alot of mathematical statistics is also utilized in economics. Indeed, I would say one needs a solid mathematical background to pursue economics.

[chasej]

Unilearn (google it) is your best option. You need a 75% average in the 2nd maths unit on that site to fulfill the methods prerequisite. You'd probably have to start at intro maths on there which means it would take you ~8 months to complete all the way up to finishing the 2nd maths unit.  It costs $800 for a unit also.