3. Study Hard and Smart (Part 1)

Note: I will assume that you are already familiar with UOL-LSE system when you read my blog.

If you are doing fine with your studies, then you can just skip all the posts with title "Study Hard and Smart"  . Otherwise, keep on reading.

Good ! Now I have your attention. The reason I post my transcript is not to show off but rather to show you my credibility and hopefully to inspire you as well. 

The first thing that probably comes to your mind is "Oh my god, you are genius! There is no way I can get those marks!" Now, hold that thought! I would like you to know that those marks do not reflect my intelligence but rather the blood and sweat I shed throughout the years. I am being honest rather than modest. I graduated from high school in 2004 and was rejected TWICE by NTU and NUS. In 2006, I did not even get the invitation to sit for the entrance examination any more. That's when I found out that SIM - UOL started to offer Mathematics and Economics course. Anyway, the moral of the story is... If I can do it, you can do it too !

If you are not first year student then you should already know by now that you should study consistently since day 1 (very first lecture). Anyway, I am going to skip advising you to be hardworking, organised, and discipline. You are an adult so you should know that.

Let me first start by emphasizing that Subject Guides are the most important notes you should read before lecture notes. Find out the syllabus and what you are expected to know from each chapter. 

When you see that the author of the subject guide is the same as the author of the main textbook, it is mandatory that you read that textbook. For example, for 02 Introduction to Economics, you have to read the textbook written by Professor Amos Witztum. The sample questions at the end of every chapter are past exam questions which are very important. You should follow his guide and style of answering the questions. 

The same thing applies for 20 Elements of Econometrics, you should follow closely the textbook written by Christopher Dougherty (not Daughtry) instead of one by Damodar N. Gujarati unless you have spare time.

Having said that Subject Guides are important, they cannot replace textbook (but few can, for example 40 Game Theory and 42 Optimisation Theory)  There are some subject guides that are not really useful; either they are too thin and contain very little information or badly written and hence confusing. 

Either the subject guide is good or bad, I recommend you do the following extra works instead of blaming the author of the subject guide (because the latter is futile):

1. Go to other universities' website and search for relevant materials.
   I started doing this when I was frustrated with explanations from subject guides and lecture notes. There are always some people out there who can explain better than subject guides.
   
   Subjects like Economics, Finance and Mathematics for undergraduates usually share common materials among different universities. For example, if you have problem with 118 Advanced Linear Algebra, you can always go to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) website and search for OpenCourseWare and then find the subject Linear Algebra.
   
   Here is the link : http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06-linear-algebra-spring-2010/
   
   Do not try their exam because it's too difficult and different from LSE exams style. Instead, go to the video lectures session, select relevant lectures, download them and, of course, watch them.
   
   "How do I know whether any particular university teach the same subject?" Here is one way to find out. Google the key term with quotation, plus the word "lecture notes". For example, if you want to learn more about IS LM model, you should google ==> "IS LM Model" lecture notes. The search result will you give some pdf files.
   
   
   
   Now, we have seen that Lecture 9 is about Closed Economy, and supposed that the lecture notes is good and you want to find out about Open Economy from the same lecturer, how can we do so ?
   
   Look at the picture above, I have highlighted the URL to the lecture notes which is www.wellesley.edu/Economics/weerapana/econ213/.../lect213-09.pdf
   
   Remove everything before "econ213" and now we have
   www.wellesley.edu/Economics/weerapana/econ213/
   
    Copy paste the link above on your browser and go to the website. Click either econ213.html or the folder. You will see all the lecture notes for the course econ213 in that university.
   
   You can try googling the subject name (don't forget to put quotation around it) + lecture notes. For example, "Mathematical Economics" lecture notes, or "Corporate Finance" lecture notes.
   
   
2. Read beyond recommended readings.
   Sometimes there are textbooks which are much better than the ones in the recommended readings. I personally prefer textbooks written by US academics to those by UK academics.
   
   For example, the textbook "A First Course in Probability" by Sheldon Ross (not Cooper) is not listed in the Statistics 1&2 or 134 Advanced Statistics : Distribution Theory recommended reading but I find this text very helpful.
   
   "Microeconomics" by David Besanko and Ronald Braeutigam is also useful for 66 Microeconomics but not listed in the recommended reading. In fact, when I sat for the exam, I saw 2 short questions were taken from this textbook. Imagine a free 10 marks to boost up your morale in exam !
   
   Let me remind you that the texts I mentioned above are only useful for some relevant chapters and they should not be used to replace the main readings. If the book you are reading has different notations or definitions from those in Subject Guide, please follow Subject Guide's style. The least thing you want to do in exam is to confuse the examiners who are marking your papers because they are not going to call you and ask you "What do you mean by this notation?"
   
   Now, you probably ask "The recommended readings are already a lot, how can I cope with these extra textbooks?" Let me share with you how I read textbooks. I never read any book from cover to cover. I only read relevant sections which contain answers to the questions in my mind. The questions usually come from tutorial or past exam questions. I find that my mind focus much better than just reading the books "blindly". Without questions in my mind, I will fall asleep after 2-3 pages (paragraphs, if the subject is Sociology).