<p>I wanted to major in economics but from what i hear the core classes are extremely difficult. Is this true? How hard is it to get an A in them?</p>
<p>Econ 51- A very small percentage got A's last semester.
Average was C/C-.
Not an easy A.
You have to actually study to do well- ugh!</p>
<p>are the other ones that difficult, or is it just because econ 51 is a weeder class</p>
<p>Econ 55 is slightly easier in terms of grading (typical B-/C+ curve), if you have AP credit for 51 (4 or 5 on AP Economics) I would highly recommend just going to Econ 55.</p>
<p>55 can be annoying but it's not that hard to do well in it. I'm not good with economics and had some trouble understanding it, but I was able to do well on the tests and homeworks by going to office hours.</p>
<p>I hear 51 and 139 (Intro to Econometrics) are the hard ones; the other ones are definitely managable if you study. Elective courses vary between really easy and hard too, depending on which you pick.</p>
<p>"Econ 55 is slightly easier in terms of grading (typical B-/C+ curve), if you have AP credit for 51 (4 or 5 on AP Economics) I would highly recommend
just going to Econ 55."</p>
<p>I'm not sure I follow.
AP Exam Score Duke Credit Eligible to Take
Economics (Macro) 4/5 ECON 1A ECON 51D*</p>
<p>Economics (Micro) 4/5 ECON 2A ECON 51D*</p>
<p>This makes it impossible to test out of Econ 51? or is Econ51D somehow a different course?</p>
<p>If you are interested in pure economic theory they can be interesting, but can still be tough As. 51 and 55 are deflated heavily as weeder classes, while 105 110 and 139 have decent curves but have reasonably challenging material and the people around you are hyper-diligent IB gunners so its still hard to get As.</p>
<p>If you are interested in Finance these classes can be really dry - everything is idealized and doesnt apply to the real world directly. If you are interested in finance I recommend taking the following combination of math, econ, and cs classes instead of doing the econ major itself. Read: major in something easy but supplement with targeted classes.</p>
<p>Math: 103, 104, 135
Econ: 51, 55, 139, 168, 225, (this is a minor!!)
CS: 6, 100, 108 or 130</p>
<p>A lot of the time the DUS (director of ugrad studies in econ) will allow students with sufficient mathematical backgrounds to skip the prerecs for some of the upperlevel finance classes (157, 168), because mathematical maturity is more important than specific macro/micro knowledge.</p>
<p>i know this was off topic sort of, but i'm bored at work and feel like being outspoken. haha</p>
<p>Does grade deflation occur in Economics classes?</p>
<p>How hard is Math 104 in comparison to Math 103? Also, what is the difficulty/teaching quality of the CS classes(6,100,108)?</p>
<p>umm.. math104 is a math major class, so its harder than 107 for sure... but i dont know how hard it is compared to math103... perhaps someone else could answer. on second thought, is 104 still a math major class? i know they have reorganized a bit. </p>
<p>as for the CS classes... anything with owen astrachan is really good. whoever teaches it, all of the classes will have a decent amount of work but will not be all that difficult as long as you can think like a computer :-) i really recommend taking some CS, the skills are so valuable in many, many fields.</p>
<p>104 pretty tough since it's the first math major course in preparation for math 105. I would suggest taking 107 since it's a little more applied than 104 unless you're a math major.</p>
<p>i didnt retain anything in 107. the course is so applied that its really hard to learn linear algebra really well. i would have rather taken the more difficult 104...</p>
<p>It sounds like you need to have 4-5 on both the microeconomics and macroeconomics AP exams to get credit for 51D. The letter D on ACES only refers to discussion section and all econ 51 classes have the discussion section.</p>
<p>AP/IB Credit & Course Placement
The Department of Economics will grant the following AP credit, based on a score of 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement test: </p>
<p>AP Principles of Macroeconomics = Econ 1A
AP Principles of Microeconomics = Econ 2A
Students who have credit for both Econ 1A and Econ 2A are exempted from Econ 51D, Principles of Economics.</p>
<p>What's better preparation for a career in finance then Math 104 or 107? Which is more theoretical? I hate writing proofs so I want to take the class that emphasizes application and problem solving more rather than theory.</p>
<p>sounds like you want 107</p>
<p>take 104. i took 107 with a finance interest... wish i had taken 104 b/c i had to relearn learn linear algebra from google during math215 (mathematical finance).</p>
<p>
[quote]
I wanted to major in economics but from what i hear the core classes are extremely difficult. Is this true? How hard is it to get an A in them?
[/quote]
51's curve is really rough, I believe 55 is curved to a B/B+ (at least it was first semester, our second semester professor was a real bonehead and refused to tell us anything about how he curved it). The classes after that are better curved, but also tougher and you're competing against the guys who made it past the weedouts. The electives are what help your GPA.</p>
<p>Honestly though, if you pull B+'s in your core classes, that's pretty good.</p>