troubles with econ

I’ve gone through all the CFAI books and have been using strictly qbank for the last couple of weeks. The one area I’m really struggling on these tests is econ. Not any specific area of econ, just in general. I can’t seem to remember any of the concepts. ie(Keynesian vs monetarist views reacting to different situations) My question for those that may have gone through this before: do you think it would be better to read through the entire econ book again or do you think I should continue taking practice tests to get it down? Any feedback appreciated.

Just read the book and make some flash cards. It’s not that difficult.

I’d suggest reading summaries of everything to review major concepts and then do a bunch of practice questions.

I’m in the same boat, and a lot of people I know taking this are too.

I don’t understand Economics either… It’s worse than Ethics… - Dinesh S

But dinesh, that does not seem to be the situation, since you seem to be answering most of the qs right in the AF thus far… on Econ. Also, just from previous experience for all folks who are troubled by the sheer volume and bulk of Econ – (me included) Please remember 1. It is 10% of the exam 2. Qs however much you learn are bound to confuse, and drive you nuts. LI in June had a huge bunch of questions, all 2 by 4s with the answer choices the following matrix YES YES YES NO NO YES NO NO And you had to break your head to get those, and even after that you were perpetually in doubt as to which ones you got right and which ones you did not. With all the trouble, I ended up with a score between 50-70% then, and right now too, when I start to read econ, I nod off, very frequently. I still failed because of not-so-high scores in a couple of other sections. HTH all of us who have trouble with Econ. Maybe a basic understanding of the concepts in Econ, and then concentrating on the more “weighty” sections - FSA+CF, Ethics, FI, Equity and Derivatives (another real drag section) and Alt Inv might turn out to be more beneficial. CP

nope cpk123, I am really not confident on LRAS, LRAD, SRAD, SRAS and World Economics… everything in Book-2 is sooo damm confusing. Hopefully should get a better foundation when I do the passmaster quaestions on economics. - Dinesh S

I am ok with FSA, Ethics & Quants but unable to get econ to stick… Any suggestions or mind maps

Quant is killing me… and it’s a very slow death!

i’m dying a slow death trying to get through the last few chapters of fsa.

i would suggest to read econ thoroughly, doing 3,000 qbanks will take you nowhere. its better to grasp all the concepts with a few practice questions, and not doing 3000 qbanks without having any idea of the basics.

I disagree with you Cart10, I think doing as many questions as possible will help with the understanding of the concepts. A perspective test taker will see many forms of the same question and hopefully will start putting 2+2 together if not then…oh well. But taking as many questions as possible helps, not everyone has perfect memory. Practice makes perfect and in the case of many of us we need tons of it.

so what’d you recommend to moto376? read through the book or do tons of qbanks? i believe the reason he is struggling with econ is because he doesnt understand the concepts. once he tackles the basics, he will do fine. but that’s just my opinion. I am not saying qbanks are a bad choice… dont get me wrong, i just dont feel that doing tons of qbanks by themselves are a good choice.

i agree with cart10. can someone explain differences between different school of thought in Economics well?

Reading beats practice questions. Schools of thought, there’s 3 major ones: Keynesian: Government needs to interact with the market, mostly through fiscal policy (think Y=C+I+G+Nx vs. the 45 degree line) Classical: Government doesn’t need to do anything. Market correct itself. +Monetary: (Money supply * Velocity=Price Level*Real GDP=Nominal GDP) Fixed: Grow the money supply at a constant rate so on average, have zero unemployment. Response: Need to engage in monetary policy (discount rate, open market ops, and reserve ratio) to correct market mistakes.

Hey moto376, I have a suggestion for you if you bought schewesr products , you probably have access to their online scetion with 16 week online seminar…i hope…there he have slides for each study session, at the end of slides there are few practise questions of each kind…so in my opinion just give those slides quick review and do those practise questions and see where u stand…He has posted answers too…IT might help you to retain concept without opening the whole book…Just my two cents on it… I am having hard time getting session 5 of Econ…Still working on it…

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I don’t have the Schweser books, but I do have the Secret Sauce. As of now, I think I’m going to read through the Secret Sauce and continue doing practice questions. If I don’t start improving on the exams, I will probably pull out the CFAI books and at least read the chapter summaries and work on the end of practice problems.

When is your test Moto376? Or should I say when are you taking it? Because if you are going to sit and start going thorugh CFAI books to understand one concept then you’re opportunity cost would be not learning FSA or Ethics concepts which from what I know make up a good portion of the test. That’s the reason why I think using Qbank questions for certain areas is the best way to learn given the limited time frame if you are taking the test in December 07. Just my .99

I am taking it in December 07. I have thought of that as well. That’s why I’m going to focus on the Secret Sauce and Qbank mainly. I have been doing pretty well on most sections besides Econ.

ask me anything. I think i understood Econ far better than any other books. If I can’t answer your question right, im dead.