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> Maxima and minima were certainly one issue Yup-- College Board's preferred approach here is memorization. You get -this- maxima when MC=MR. You get this -o
by mlyle 4y ago
> Maxima and minima were certainly one issue
Yup-- College Board's preferred approach here is memorization. You get -this- maxima when MC=MR. You get this -other- maxima when MU=0. You get this -other- one when Ed = -1.
Don't even get me started on "this number is always negative, so we'll just pretend it's positive sometimes-- though when you do a related calculation, make sure you preserve the sign!" (elasticity of demand vs. other elasticities).
- ghaff 4y agoI actually think less technical takes on things like micro and statistics can do a better job of illuminating principles than getting all wrapped up in the math does. (I think I understood stats better when I took it in business school vs. my very math-heavy engineering version--though it was still rather frequentist-oriented.) But, ideally, you still know enough basic calculus to do the actual calculations. MBA programs have changed a lot since I did one. But math was definitely the real killer for a lot of first-years. STEM undergrads had it a lot easier.
- mlyle 4y ago> I actually think less technical takes on things like micro and statistics can do a better job of illuminating principles than getting all wrapped up in the math does. I agree, but if they go to my room learning a bunch of rules-of-thumb for maximizing economic functions... and then go down the hall to math class and are learning how to optimize by finding places where the derivative is 0... it's kinda silly.
- ghaff 4y agoYeah, but in this case they weren't going to those math classes. Though you could equally well argue, they also weren't going to be solving those microeconomics problems the instant after they passed (or didn't) that particular course.