Tuesday 13 May 2008

Exams

I had my Econs exam today. It was alright, I guess. I knew at least a bit of everything that came out, even though we only had to answer 3 out of 6 questions. Of course, I chose the 3 that I knew most of.

The first I chose was about moral hazard behaviour and its consequences for business profitability, and using stock options to reduce its effect. I was lucky, as the past papers we were given had the same question and I'd revised it over and over and over again - I had a hunch. Not sure if I did this right.. I explained what moral hazard behaviour was, but I don't know if I did it accurately, then I said that it will reduce business profitability. For using stock options, I just mentioned the risks involved and said that it would be an incentive for managers to work hard, but may only work if said managers are not risk-averse.

The second one I chose was about how businesses can use price discrimination to extract consumer surplus and increase profits. I'm not quite sure I did this one right. I wrote that there were 3 levels of price discrimination, gave a brief discription and definition of each one, then gave examples on how price discrimination can be applied in those cases. I had a HECK lot to say about this, but I couldn't write down everything I wanted to before the time I'd allocated myself was up and I had to go on to the next question :( So yeah, this question was left unfinished.

The last question was on how supply side policies can be used to "promote economic growth and business profitability". Well, this one was fun to do! First, I defined supply side policies and gave two examples (research, development and innovation and education markets combined with labour markets). Then I described possible effects on aggregate supply and how that will affect aggregate demand, how the economy grows from it, and how some businesses may profit from a growing economy, but others won't (i.e. inferior goods). I had alot to say about this too, but I didn't have enough time to expand on it :( I'm not even sure what I did was entirely right... *stress* Oh well...

I think I quoted the textbook's examples alot o_O

This time, I was worried about my timing, as I usually don't have enough time to write down everything I want during essay exams. So, what I did was divide my 2 1/4 hours into 5 parts - 30mins planning, 30mins on each question, and 15 minutes checking. Of course, I ended up going overtime, with 35mins for everything except the last question, which I only had 30mins for. *sighs* At least I managed to write alot for it... The planning part really helped too! I wrote down all the main points on the question paper, and when it came to writing the essay, I didn't have to stop and think much, just write it all! Of course, I still got some ideas when I was writing stuff down, so I had alot and alot to write..

O_O Omg, one of my friends amazes me! She said she was done in 45 minutes!! *jaw drops* I don't understand hooooooowwwwwwww ;_; She said she essentially wrote the answers that were given to us in the past year papers (the questions mostly remained the same) but I hope she expanded on them more... Those answers didn't seem nearly enough!

Anyway, okay, I'm tired of reviewing this one exam. Don't really know why I did a whole review other than the fact that both the questions and answers are sitting right next to me hehe.

Ling, care to see if the general idea of my answers are right?


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