Taking Econ 101 without Econ 1

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>I was wondering if anyone knows how dependent the Econ 101 series is on Econ 1. I took basic high school economics, so I am not completely lost in an economics conversation, but will I really be in trouble?</p>

<p>I'm a second year, and I'm actually an engineer, and I only need upper division humanities to fulfill my breadth (which is why I don't want to take Econ 1). As econ is clearly the most mathematical of the humanities classes I'm allowed to take, I thought it would be a much more interesting class (given my interests) than say, history. And I have several friends taking Econ 101B, so I won't be dying alone :)</p>

<p>That said, I do know that Econ 101B is a hard class, and I don't expect it to be an easy class that I can ignore most of the time. But is it going to be unreasonably harder for me having not taken Econ 1? If I just borrow a friend's Econ 1 book and read up over break, will I be fine?</p>

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<p>After taking Econ 1, I didn’t feel like I learned very much. Most of what I learned I could’ve done in a week’s studying. </p>

<p>From what I heard, you can definitely take 101a-b w/o econ 1.</p>

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<p>Did you get into the class? I wanted to take that class, too, but it’s full.</p>

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<p>dude yea ur chill</p>

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<p>Yeah, you’ll be fine without taking Econ 1. (I’m an Econ major)</p>

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<p>I think they just opened up more spots for Econ 101B. Hurry before they’re filled :)</p>

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<p>eyeheartphysics: yea there’s like 20 more spots in the class now that they opened up two new discussion sections. I added earlier today.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone for the assurance. Listening to the Econ 1 webcasts was making me a little concerned, but I guess that might just be cuz it was Brad Delong lecturing, and I’m told he was significantly harder than previous professors. But the fact that the first 4 people indicated this is not gonna be a problem makes me feel a lot better about this. And in the event it does become hell, that’s what the P/NP grading option is for :)</p>

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<p>Dear Engineer,</p>

<p>Economics is a social science, not a humanities. Big difference.</p>

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<p>hahaha, yes I know, Econ is a social science. I only ever call it a humanities because everyone in engineering refers to what is properly the “Humanities and Social Sciences Requirement” as just simply the “humanities” requirement. Economics is definitely much more of a social science, especially with all the math and statistics that goes into it. Sorry for the mislabeling.</p>

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<p>@DougK: I know you’re not talking to me, but I think what cyclops meant by “humanities” was that Econ fulfills the H&SS (Humanities and Social Sciences) requirement for people in the College of Engineering. If I were him, I wouldn’t have wanted to type out the whole thing or use the abbreviation because not everyone would know what it stood for, haha.</p>

<p>@Cyclops: Thanks! I added it yesterday, too.</p>

<p>edit: took too long to post what I thought you meant, lol</p>

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<p>if you can communicate in math (the reasoning you will do in this class, though looks very basic on surface, touches quite abstract math), you will ace it.</p>

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<p>I took Economics 1, 101A, and 101B long ago. After taking 101A and 101B, I thought that taking 1 was a waste of schedule space if you were going to take both 101A and 101B.</p>