<p>I passed the AP Micro and Macro tests and am deciding whether or not to skip Ec 10. Does the course cover significant material not present on the AP tests? Are there other significant reasons to take the course? Thanks!</p>
<p>What’s “pass”? If it’s a 3, you might need to take it, I don’t know. If you got a 4 or 5, skip, skip, skip. (As the placement guide put out by the university will probably also tell you.)</p>
<p>Edit: oh hey, I passed 1000 posts without noticing it!</p>
<p>Ec 10 is definitely worth taking it, even if you’re good at econ or don’t really agree with Mankiw’s views. On a not-so-related note, my CS-EC concentration roommate loved that class so much he’s on a first-name basis with Prof. Mankiw.</p>
<p>If you have a decent math background (i.e. partial derivatives), I’ve heard good things about Ec 1011a (which is one level above Ec 10). I’ve only seen a couple of Ec 10 lectures (sat in on a couple during the spring), but what I saw was straight from the macro curriculum.</p>
<p>I like Professor Mankiw, too, but if that’s all you want out of it, just audit the lectures. About 2/3 of the class is section, 1/3 is lectures. The lectures are worth going too, probably. Trying to attend sections on the half of the syllabus I’d gotten a 4 in was the most painfully boring class experience I’ve had in my entire life. It’s perfectly decent if you haven’t been exposed to the material before, but I knew way too much of what they were covering to get anything out of it. (So I dropped in the 3rd or 4th week.)</p>
<p>@exultationsy I actually got 5s on both</p>
<p>@lcedcoffeee What do you think makes the class stand out? Also how often do you get to talk/meet with Mankiw? I had heard that he taught very few of the lectures.</p>
<p>@10522504 I’ve taken multivariable calc and linear algebra, but to be honest I’m kind of shaky on multivariable and was considering retaking them. How hard is Ec 1011a?</p>
<p>@exultationsy What does is mean to audit?</p>
<p>Thanks everyone.</p>
<p>Gold77 - I’m not the best person to ask, as my information is secondhand (friends took it, not me). They found it doable, but not easy. I don’t think there was any crazy multivariable stuff going on, just lots of optimization-type problems (lagrange multipliers). Also, you’ll definitely have the opportunity to talk to people about this once you get on campus (and before you have to make any class decisions).</p>
<p>So I should’ve done this a couple posts ago, but I just checked my own placement scores. For better or worse, OP, having two 5s on the economics APs means that you are not allowed to take Ec 10 for credit. For reference, I got a 5 on Micro and a 4 on Macro, having self-studied the latter. I thought I knew too much after a 4 on macro to take the spring half, but I could’ve taken if I wanted to. (And was enrolled for several weeks.) After the 5, however, my placement report says I “may not take Ec 10 (fall semester) for credit.”</p>
<p>OP, that leaves you two economics options to choose between, both of which are the next level beyon Ec10, and both of which will be filled about half with freshman having placed out of Ec10 and half with sophomore economics concentrators who took Ec10 their freshman year. Ec1010 (a and b) is the “vanilla” version; Ec1011 (a and b) is the version with more math. I’m afraid both require more math than I’ve got, so I can’t advise you any more on the difference between them. Anybody else?</p>
<p>Also, have you heard of shopping week? It’s a glorious, glorious thing. You’ll be able to go to all your options, including the Ec10 lectures if you think just hearing the speakers sound like fun, without committing to a single thing. I’m afraid I do not know how my friends whose classes are locked in stone six months before the semester starts do it…an excellent feature of a Harvard education, much though I’ve had some TFs like to gripe about it.</p>
<p>PS If you want to know Mankiw and he’s offering it again–which I don’t know–you could make like the rest of the freshman class and apply for his freshman seminar. I thought it was pretty fun back in the day.</p>
<p>I don’t think he’s offering a Freshman Seminar, which sucks because I would jump at the opportunity. I got a 5 on both macro and micro myself and was thinking of taking Ec 10 mainly for Mankiw, but it seems I won’t be able to. However, I’m not sure how Harvard would know since I never sent in my test scores.</p>
<p>Also, I will be taking Math 21 either in the fall or spring, so is it possible to take the Ec 1011 route even though you’re learning the math as you take the class or would it be advised to wait until after I take Math 21?</p>
<p>And there, my friends, you’ve totally lost me. I haven’t taken any math in college, and never got past AP Calc. (I filled my math requirement with a not-more-than-calculus physics class.) Good luck figuring it out, but don’t worry too much now, because there’s plenty of time to do so on campus.</p>