100A or 100B first?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>A lot of people say 100A is usually harder than 100B b/c of Acland... since he's not teaching it this semester, should I try to take 100A first? I am much weaker in macro than micro :(... With a poor grade in math 1A, I need at least a B+ in StatsW21 right now to secure a 3.0+ GPA for the major (econ). </p>

<p>That being the case, if I end up not getting a B+ in StatsW21... I'll need to rely on 100A or 100B for the grade. I'm not sure what to take at this point... I might end up enrolling in both classes then drop the one that is more difficult for another semester after applying for econ.</p>

<p>Any suggestions?</p>

2

<p>The reason that people usually take Econ 100B before 100A is that, at the 100 level, 100A is more math-intensive than 100B; in fact, I don’t believe 100B, with Wood at least, has any math at all (perhaps with the exception of having a basic idea of how to algebraically rearrange variables in an equation, if that counts). On the other hand, 100A has basic calculus, which may not be difficult by itself but becomes more difficult, especially for those that struggle in math, when it’s necessary to understand the economic intuition behind the mathematical component. 100A with Acland is notoriously difficult and math-intensive (for a 100A class at least), but even with him not taking it, you may have a better shot even still by taking 100B.</p>

3

<p>I took 100A with Acland last semester and his class was really good. </p>

<p>He gives out lecture slides at the start of every lecture, you just fill in the blanks.</p>

<p>Homework is mainly graded on effort.</p>

<p>iclicker questions are only counted as participation.</p>

<p>Homework is difficult, but if you sit down, spend 4-5 hours and really think about it, you’ll eventually figure out the problem. </p>

<p>Exams aren’t too bad. You have 2 T/F questions that you need to explain, 2 short answer questions to explain some concepts, and then 2 problems. 85% of the exam is based off homework problems. The exam is actually easier than homework problems. So if you can really nail down the homework and understand what’s going on, the tests will be a piece of cake. </p>

<p>The final, however, was a monster. But I think that was because I fell behind during the last month of school due to a medical problem. The curve was very generous.</p>

<p>The class does require a lot of math to explain concepts. But the math is very simple, it’s just repetitive and easy to make a mistake. And it does actually make understanding the concepts a lot easier. But the concepts aren’t that difficult to begin with, they’re very intuitive. All you need to know is derivatives, langrangian, very basic integrals (we never used integrals once on a test, and only used them one time on a homework question), and knowing how to read a graph. It really isn’t difficult.</p>

<p>This is coming from someone who has done poorly in his entire UC Berkeley career (I had less than a 3.0 when I started last semester), which is why I was shocked to hear people say he is a bad professor. Just pay attention and see the big picture, all the concepts relate to each other in the grand scheme of things.</p>

4

<p>Lol, your post now makes me want to take him now haha. I guess I was intimidated by the class based on the exams on ninjacourses. So I guess they were all similar to the problem sets! </p>

<p>I think I’ll end up taking both 100A and 100B at the same time and drop the one for the following semester.</p>

<p>Is the curve similar to Econ1? Where most the class (around avg) will earn B’s? Is it 20%, 25%, or 30% for A-range grades? I don’t recall which Econ1 falls under.</p>

5

<p>I don’t know the specific curve, but I think he gave out 35% A’s. Students ranked higher than 93 out of 264 were given an A. I don’t know if he’ll be this generous next time he teaches, but I was ranked pretty high regardless and would have gotten an A if it were 20%.</p>

<p>Oh yeah, there are problem sets every week which is really annoying.</p>

6

<p>Wait the curve is reflected on the section right? Also, is participation graded? I enjoyed that DeLong made 10% of our grade on participation for Econ1 since 1/3 of the class never showed up lol.</p>

7

<p>participation for me was just to go to section and pay attention. lol. Don’t have to raise your hand or anything. Curve is based on the entire class, but he equalizes scores depending on who grades the your exams, so if your exam grader is more generous than the others you will probably be ranked lower than you thought you were.</p>

8

<p>So there was participation grade for Econ 100A then? (awesome lol) It’s kind of weird how they rank the grades then. I thought they were all done based on section. But since he equalizes the grades, I guess it won’t matter that much.</p>

9

<p>yeah, there’s a participation grade.</p>

<p>The iclicker questions count as lecture participation grade
And then there’s also section participation grade</p>

10

<p>Oh dang that sounds pretty good… since most people never go to lecture or section these days… Lol</p>

11

<p>yeah, lol.</p>