ECON1101
Ease: 9/10. Arguably, the easiest first year commerce subject. I really reckon that the lecturers-in-charge this year (Motta and Dobrescu) have made ECON1101 easier than it has ever been. 4 free marks from a video game which you can complete relatively easily. 10 marks from 2 hand-in assignments, which you should get full marks if collaborating with friends. I could go on.
Content: 7/10. With the introduction of the textbook written by Motta and Dobrescu, the content has significantly been simplified (won't go as far as saying 'dumbed down'). Those who have completed Economics in Year 11 and/or 12 will have an advantage, as nearly all the concepts that are covered were introduced in the senior economics syllabi. The difference is that all the concepts are explored in a more mathematical, rigorous and graphical manner. However, the mathematics is not difficult at all, computing areas is probably the hardest math you will get.
Lecturers: 9/10 for Alberto Motta - A good lecturer and a visionary educator, but to be very honest, I think he is slightly over-rated in terms of his lecturing. Yes, he did know the content back to front, and was very engaging and kept the audience laughing. But sometimes, I felt like we wasted a bit too much time on unrelated stuff. And that sometimes meant a) it was easy to zone/tune out and lose your concentration b) it got hard to control audience noise level c) we rushed some content, because we had lost too much time due to "stuffing around". However, definitely a good lecturer, just prefer if he reduced time wasted on the "LOLs"
7/10 for Peter Nichols - Watched a few of his lectures online. Picked up concepts really well when listening to him - I like how Nichols draws things out and provides relevant, real-world examples (it does freshen things up especially for an economics course that isn't as easy to draw links to current economics). However, at times, he seemed to confuse himself or contradict himself. Also, an annoying thing was that with some topics, he significantly deviated from the lecture slides or said something which contradicted with the set textbook. But a good lecturer overall!
Tutor: 9.8/10 for Mohamad Mourad - An exceptional tutor, arguably the best I had this semester. Outstanding knowledge of the content, answered our questions (no matter how hard or complicated) exceptionally. Sometimes, went a bit beyond the syllabus to show why certain things were what they were, and that really helped a lot (although it might have confused other students a bit). Was a very very fair marker of our hand-in tasks and class tests. Responded quickly and provided thorough (multiple-paragraphs-long) explanations to any emailed questions. Can be a tad strict with the "no phones" rule, but I don't think that is too unreasonable. Honestly, no complaints and I would love to have him as a tutor again.
Overall: 8/10. If you keep up (which isn't too much of an ask tbh) and just stay relatively diligent, this course (as it is now) should be an easy distinction, at an absolute minimum. If you math skills and the background knowledge of Prelim & HSC Economics, then to be frank, consistent effort should land you a HD. I have a bad feeling they may scale down marks though, because from hearsay, it seems that there's going to be heaps of HDs this year. But we'll see how that goes.
