Economics - My First Few Lessons
September 21, 2006 by
Adam
Filed under
Me & My Life
Never in my whole life have I loved a subject as much as Economics. Even before the school year started I was anticipating this topic the most and it sure hasn’t let me down! Already I’ve learnt so much about the business world that I thought I’d give you a taster of what I’ve been learning in Year 12.
I have 7 Economics periods a week, each of them consisting of 40 minute lessons. Overall I have 3 teachers who are all pretty cool, and that just makes it even more fun to learn. By the way, please correct me if Im wrong about any of the following facts - Im still learning! Anyway, we spend a bit of time looking at macro-economics (looking at a whole economy rather than just one company), and then we look at how the market works (like demand and supply).
I also heard my teachers saying the word “entrepreneur” for the first time in any of my classes before. Just the word sent shivers up my spine, as I don’t talk about my online activity with my schoolmates. Im still not sure why, but I just prefer to keep it that way, at least then if I become successful online, it will come as a complete surprise to them!
I’ve also learnt the workings of interest and inflation. It was really interesting to know how hard it must be the the Chancellor to keep the UK on budget and to continue economic growth at the same time without encouraging a boom period (which is normally followed by a horrific depression) or a shrinking of the economy (which in reality decreases the standard of living). While Im here I might as well go over the 4 main government objectives that were drilled into our heads. Im guessing these are important:
- Economic Growth - measured in GDP (Gross Domestic Product or National Output)
- Low Unemployment - and therefore high employment figures
- A small trade deficit - this means that we’re importing more than we’re exporting here in the UK, but because we have few valuable natural resources, that’s not that much of a problem.
- Low inflation - measured in RPI
I know this might all sound like jibberish to you, especially if you havn’t studied economics, but simply talking about business in school is a huge tick in my box and with the added project of Young Enterprise (which I will come to in a later post), Im finding myself enjoying every minute of these lessons which is a big change from last year!
hello
Well nice to hear that. I learnt economics 2 years back when i was in class 10 .Now no eco… only maths , physics and chemistry . Well can u tell me which place are u located and whats ur age
regards
aditya
macroecon. was one of my favorite classes and had a great professor., thanks for the mini-refresher, it’s been a long time
Hey Adnan,
Nice to see your donig economics, i was going to do that but i decided against the idea, but like you mentioned its meant to be really interesting topic which my friends have told me. Anyways im suprised you’ve only heard ‘entrepreneur’ off your economics teacher and not any business studies teachers becuase, they throw the word out in nearly every single lesson and they used to back in high school too. Anywyas i wish you all the best in your subject, and i hope we can speak soon.
Aditya - nice, I also enjoy maths a lot, its probably one of my favourite subjects. Im 16 and I go to school in the UK near London. What about you?
Chris - Im not sure if we’re onto macroeconomics yet, my memory is not up to its full speed yet. Still recovering from the 3 months summer holiday!
And Nick - yeah economics is really fun, but challenging which I do like anyway. I don’t do business studies, but apparently its pretty similar to economics. Haha, its just when someone says entrepreneur it sounds like blogtrepreneur, so I feel important!
Yeah I hope we can speak soon,
Thanks again for your comments guys, hope you’re all well.
Sounds cool…I’m glad your school offers those courses. In high school I only had a half-semester of economics, but we did get to play the stock market game which was cool (even though I’m a horrible investor). My school did offer a general business course for freshmen/sophomore.
College was another story. I had 3 economic classes which went into a lot more detail of course. I had the standard macro economics for one class, micro for another. Both a piece of cake for me–they just made sense. Other people struggled for some reason.
The third (and far most difficult) class was Financial Systems and the Economy. This class covered economic policy, the different money markets, etc. It sounds similar to some of the basic concepts you’re learning but because it was a junior level college course the details and concepts were quite a bit more difficult.
Adnan, did you know that you can get an Entrepreneurship Major in college?
Yeah its good that they do, otherwise I would have to go down the traditional route of Sciences! Disaster! Yeah I am finding economics hard, but at least Im familiar with what he’s talking about - blogging has taught me a lot!
I think Im also doing Financial Systems. We’re talking about Supply and Demand Graphs which I think is at the beginning of the course.
Yeah I heard about entrepreneurship in the USA but Im not sure if they offer it here in the UK. That will be a good thing to find out about. My main aim is to get into Oxford, Im not sure if you heard of it.
Anyway, hows the wedding planning going? When’s the big day? Hope you’re well,
Adnan
Supply and Demand are cool topics. I don’t know what you would call it other than supply and demand…I guess financial systems would work. The more difficult stuff deals with world markets, money exchange rates, and stock/bond markets. But you’ll be ahead of the game getting all of this stuff in High School.
Yeah, I wasn’t sure if entrepreneurship was offered in the UK. It isn’t that big in the US. My college offered it though. I wouldn’t major in it because though. I think your better off picking a less general Major. Finance is a good choice. Stay away from Business Admin. Marketing is easy and the pay is low unless your really good at selling stuff then the pay is great! Economics isn’t really a good choice either. What can you do with that degree besides teach and work for a bank or the government (none of those typically pays as much as the private sector).
Have I heard of Oxford??? Of course, I almost applied their myself, but decided it was too expensive for me (I had to pay for college myself). I should have took the time to apply for the Rhodes Scholar, which would have paid for 2 years.
Wedding plans are going good. We’re spending a lot of time house hunting right now. That is not so good
I’m afraid I don’t remember too much about my economics classes except a little bit about supply and demand and that my teacher was kinda hot.
Matt - wow the househunting actually sounds pretty fun! I’ve always dreamt of my own house with my own rules!
Yeah entrepreneurship isn’t really that big here in the UK either. And the other courses like Economics are well oversubscribed. For myself, I’ve been looking at PPE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics) at Oxford as I know someone who’s there doing it. But I definitely wouldn’t do a straight Business/Economics course choice. Hope you’re well mate.
Ray - Lol