<p>I'm in AP Calc BC right now and assuming I pass the AP exam tomorrow, I'm eligible to receive credit for 2 math courses, which I'd probably use for MATH 34 A and B to cross off some pre-major classes. The only thing that bothers me is that I'm an Econ and Accounting major so I'm not sure how important these Calculus classes are going to be for more complex courses later on. If they're really crucial I wouldn't mind brushing up on Calc again since it isn't my easiest subject, but if I just need to remember basic concepts I'd probably take the free units. Thanks for the input.</p>
<p>I think I’m going to take AP CALC AB in college regardless of if I pass or fail. I really need to be versatile in math for my engineering profession. So for econ it should be the same, and if anything you should take math courses in college and try to take less english related courses. Just focus on your major after GEs!</p>
<p>I’ll take that into consideration. Thanks!</p>
<p>I also forgot to mention that I have AP credit for statistics too. I’m only required to take 1 stat course over the next 2 years so should I just take the units?</p>
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<p>In my experience as a Business Econ major, I’d say that having a good knowledge of calculus is really only required in the intermediate microeconomics courses (ECON 10A, 100B). I don’t remember much from ECON 101, but I don’t remember it being that quantitatively complex (and I don’t consider myself to be good at math). Finance (ECON 134A) is generally algebra/arithmetic.</p>
<p>Calculus in the intermediate microeconomics classes is mostly in the context of maximizing utility functions, but I’d say there’s a lot of pretty simple math, too. Being able to find derivatives is really the only topic from calculus I remember having to use regularly. Your major also has an Econometrics requirement (ECON 140A), but I’m not familiar with that at all.</p>
<p>Here’s actually the first practice problem set from ECON 10A - you can see the “math review” section at the beginning to get an idea of what calculus topics you need to know:
[Problem</a> Set 1](<a href=“http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~babcock/Econ10A/Econ10a_PSET1.pdf]Problem”>http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~babcock/Econ10A/Econ10a_PSET1.pdf)</p>
<p>So as long as I know how to do derivatives and basic calculus I should be fine? Thanks for the response.</p>
<p>Just basic derivatives, partial derivatives, chain rule, and some algebra is all</p>
<p>I have a kid that started at UCSB as a pre-bio major, but wasn’t sure what he wanted to major in. After taking the early Physics, Math, and Chem classes he realized that it’s not really what he wants, and it is too competitive with all the pre-med students and the curves they grade on.</p>
<p>He excels more in english and GE classes and is interested in Business. So now that UCSB doesn’t really have a business major, he really wants to switch to Economics, with the idea he may then get a masters in business to follow.</p>
<p>My concern is that he hasn’t really had a background in Econimics. I’ve read he has to pass the Econ1, 2, and 10A with a certain GPA to qualify for the major, and they only give about 1/3 of the students A’s and B’s. If he takes an easy supporting schedule, how difficult is it for a rookie in Economics to get through those classes with A’s and B’s? Are there Econ whizzes that take that top 1/3 of the grades? And is there a good way to prepare ahead of time for these classes? Econimocs for Dummies? On-line courses? SBCC summer course?</p>
<p>I was hoping from some insight from a current Econ major.</p>
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I’m not sure how valuable my input would be, because I took the pre-major classes back in 2008-2009, and I know things have changed a bit since then. The plain Economics major requires him to take Introductory Microeconomics (1), Introductory Macroeconomics (2), Intermediate Microeconomics (10A), Statistics for Economics (PSTAT 5E), and the Calculus for the Life Sciences series (MATH 34A-B). My experience was that it wasn’t too difficult to get at least a B in all of those classes, maybe with the exception of 10A, which was something totally different from the kind of economics coursework I’d done before. It’s kind of difficult for me to organize my thoughts about all the possibilities here, but I’ll give it a shot:</p>
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<li><p>If he doesn’t do that well in ECON 1, it doesn’t really have that much bearing on how he’ll do in ECON 10A. 10A used to be one of the first classes you took after declaring the full major (ECON 100A), and so it’s more difficult than the other pre-major classes (in my opinion). The ECON 1 class here takes a partially “experimental” approach, which means you’re “playing” a good number of economic games. For the record, I thought that it was kind of silly (and made grades less based on understanding of the material), but I think there is also less of an emphasis on the games than before in terms of grading.</p></li>
<li><p>If he doesn’t ‘get’ the basics of MATH 34A-B, it’s doubtful that he’ll do well in ECON 10A, because it’s a somewhat calculus-based approach to microeconomics.</p></li>
<li><p>If he doesn’t do well in PSTAT 5E, which I don’t think is known to be that difficult (though I took it a couple years back with someone who… uh, hadn’t taught a class before apparently), I don’t think it says anything about how well he’ll do in the other pre-major classes. I suppose he’ll have to make sure he has that down by the time he takes Econometrics (ECON 140A), though.</p></li>
<li><p>I actually took ECON 2 at a community college during the summer after my freshman year and transferred the units to UCSB to finish off the major. So I can’t comment on the difficulty of the course here, but I think people who are verbally inclined can get the ‘big’ ideas that macroeconomics discusses just by reading (and some common sense). I don’t know how many pre-major classes they’ll let you take at CCs, because the grades don’t affect your UC GPA, which is what admission into the pre-major is based on. That’s something I’d e-mail an Economics department adviser about. Taking ECON 2 at a community college was definitely less stressful (and much cheaper) than taking it at UCSB.</p></li>
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<p>As for economics child prodigies, I don’t think that the people who get the As in those courses are necessarily that familiar with all the topics that the courses cover. For example, people who take AP Microeconomics in high school aren’t necessarily better prepared for ECON 1. I don’t think I was, even though I felt that AP Microecon was more challenging in quite a few respects. The people who get As in ECON 1 are probably just more focused on the material in general. It’s a big class - and on the brighter side, 1/3 of the 600 people who usually take the class is still 200 people. I’m not so sure that all the As and Bs only amount to only 1/3 of the class, though.</p>
<p>As for preparing for these classes, if your son is able to study things on his own, then maybe he could look up the textbooks for certain pre-major classes and take a look at them early. I’m not sure how that would help, because I’ve known teachers to only rarely go through entire textbooks or even just go through them in the order of the chapters. It would be hard to know what to study or understand how the ideas in them would be applied to test questions without the context that the teacher gives them. If your son doesn’t have any sort of economic intuition, then maybe something like Economics for Dummies or the Economics guide from Barron’s Business Review Series (I haven’t read this one in the series, but the books tend to cover topics in the introductory classes on the subjects they’re for) might help, but that’s not a given.</p>