How to pass ECON 2105 and ECON 2106 at UGA

I tutor 2105, and 2106 by inquiry. Everything below applies to both courses, and I say so where it doesn’t. Your syllabus decides the details of your section, so treat this as the pattern I see, not a copy of your course.

What ECON 2105 and 2106 cover

ECON 2105 (Macroeconomics) looks at the whole economy at once. A typical term runs through:

• GDP, unemployment and inflation, and how each one is measured
• Aggregate demand and aggregate supply
• The spending multiplier and what fiscal policy does
• Money, banks and the central bank
• Monetary policy, interest rates and the money market
• Growth, trade and exchange rates

ECON 2106 (Microeconomics) looks at individual markets and the choices inside them:

• Supply and demand, and what moves each curve
• Elasticity
• Consumer choice and costs of production
• Perfect competition, monopoly and the markets in between
• Externalities, public goods and the case for and against government action
• Labor and other factor markets

The two courses share a habit more than a topic list. Both ask you to take a story, turn it into a picture, and read an answer off the picture. If you can do that in week one, most of the semester follows.

Which one to take first

Most students take 2105 first and 2106 second. Macro is more descriptive early on, and micro leans harder on algebra and on graphs you build yourself. Starting with macro lets you get used to reading and shifting curves before the math gets heavier.

Whether order is required is a catalog question, and I haven’t confirmed UGA’s current wording, so check the course listing for each one before you register. If you have a choice, I’d still take 2105 first.

If you’re planning for Terry, schedule both early enough that a bad term can be repeated. The Terry BBA prerequisites guide lays out where they fit in a first-year and sophomore plan. If you’re coming from another school, the Terry transfer guide covers what to take before you arrive.

What the lectures and grades look like

I’m not going to quote class sizes or a grade breakdown for your section, because they change with the instructor and the term, and your syllabus is the authority. Introductory economics at a large public university usually looks like this:

• A big lecture, often a few hundred students, with a lot of the learning left to you afterward
• Several exams during the term, mostly multiple choice, plus a final
• Smaller graded pieces on top: online homework, quizzes or participation points

Read the syllabus on day one and write down two things. How much of the grade is exams, and how many exams are there. Then work out what you’d need on the last ones to hit the grade you want. Students who do this in week one study differently from students who do it in week twelve.

Multiple choice does not mean easy. The wrong answers are built from the usual mistakes: the curve shifted the wrong way, the right curve but the wrong direction on price, the right direction but the wrong size. You can’t guess your way to the right answer. You have to be able to produce it before you look at the options.

Why students struggle

1. The graphs get read instead of drawn. Recognizing a supply and demand diagram in the textbook is a different skill from sketching one from a paragraph. Exams test the second one.
2. Shifts and movements get mixed up. A change in price moves you along a curve. A change in anything else moves the curve. Students who blur that line lose points on nearly every unit.
3. The algebra hides under the words. Elasticity is a percentage-change calculation. The multiplier is a fraction you have to set up correctly. Students who can explain the idea and then freeze on the arithmetic are common, and it is a fixable problem.
4. The question gets read too fast. Economics questions are full of small qualifiers: short run or long run, nominal or real, price or quantity, a shift of demand or of supply. One missed word flips the answer.
5. Models get memorized as pictures. If you only remember what the diagram looks like, a slightly changed scenario breaks it. You need to know why each curve slopes the way it does.

How to study for it

1. Draw every graph from a blank page. After each lecture, close the notes and redraw the diagrams from memory, labeled axes included. Then change one thing in the story and shift the right curve. Do this until it is boring.

2. Put a sentence under every shift. For each shift you practice, say in one sentence what caused it and what happens to price and quantity. Exams ask for the sentence in disguise.

3. Practice the arithmetic separately. Work elasticity, the multiplier, GDP calculations and cost curves as plain problems with numbers, apart from the graphs. Keep a short list of the formulas and write each one out until you don’t need the list.

4. Work old and practice questions under time. Use the homework and any practice exams your instructor posts, and do them timed. When you miss one, write down which kind of miss it was: wrong direction, wrong curve, arithmetic or a misread word. The pattern tells you what to fix.

5. Reread the question last. Before you pick an answer, find the qualifier. Short run or long run. Real or nominal. Demand or quantity demanded. It takes five seconds and it saves more points than any other habit I teach.

How these grades are read in the Terry decision

If you want the business school, these two courses are on Terry’s list. To apply to a Terry major, ECON 2105 and ECON 2106 have to be completed or in progress in the semester you apply. And when Terry decides, it reads your grades in the ACCT and ECON courses, MATH 1113 and BUSN 3000, along with test scores, the Accounting Exam where a major requires it, and your statement. It does not weigh your overall GPA. So these two grades count for more than their three hours each. The Terry prerequisites guide goes through the rest.

What I tell students is simple. Take them seriously from the first week, because a recovery later costs a semester. And if one of them goes badly, look at your options early, including a retake, using the dates in your syllabus and on UGA’s academic calendar.

When to get help

If you’ve put in real hours and your practice scores aren’t moving, the problem is usually one specific skill. It might be drawing the shift, setting up the fraction or reading the question. A diagnostic-first tutor can find which one, and then work on only that. I tutor 2105, and 2106 by inquiry.