Resources

Success in economics is not determined by your performance the week of the exam, but by your dedication throughout the entire semester. Knowledge is cumulative, and each successive concept builds on the one prior. A shaky foundation can’t possibly sustain a semester’s worth of knowledge—so early dedication will pay dividends down the line. Start studying early and continually to avoid having to cram material in the days before your exam.

If you are taking microeconomics, your first midterm will likely cover supply/demand graphs, consumer and producer surplus, and simple government policies like price floors and ceilings. In macroeconomics, you almost certainly will have gone over national income and calculating GDP, along with inflation and how to calculate it. Many college economics exams largely focus on multiple-choice questions, though some involve short answers as well.

To ace your exam, keep these principles in mind:

• Practice makes perfect: Economics classes cover a wide amount of material that you likely have never seen before. Memorize the graphs and key terms you learn early on, and drill these until they become second nature. Ask your friends or your tutor to quiz you to catch gaps in your knowledge you may not have been aware of. Practice identifying economics concepts in the news to solidify your knowledge, and get exposure to novel ways they can show up.
• Go with the flow(chart): Understanding step-by-step cause-and-effect relationships between core concepts matters a lot. You will encounter problems that require you to chain together logic from different chapters, which requires a thorough understanding of the causal flows of each. Learn related graphs together and use arrows to test your understanding of how concepts affect each other.
• Master the basics: Even the most advanced macroeconomics topics like exchange rates or monetary policy are founded on the same simple supply and demand graphs encountered during week 1 of microeconomics. Econ exams are deliberately tricky; relating the logic behind graphs and causal chains to your supply/demand diagrams will get you further than memorisation ever will.

Statistics: Breaking the Bell Curve

For many college students, statistics courses are essential prerequisites for countless classes—and, mishandled, can become the bane of their existence. The precise understanding needed to do well in statistics surprises most students—a surface-level qualitative comprehension of the subject’s use cases will not get you through anything more than the first two weeks of material. Most exams require being able to efficiently use a calculator, and some involve additional software like R or SPSS.

Rigor and repetition are critical for doing well in your midterm exam. The topics you learn at the start of the year are important fundamentals for the advanced material you will learn later on.

• Grasp the Greek: In intro stats classes, notation matters. The differences between mu and x-bar or s and sigma may seem trivial, but are an easy way to gain (or lose) points. Most classes allow you to bring a formula sheet to your exam; create one diligently, but keep in mind that it should be your backup, and not a substitute for memorizing and contextualizing the formulas.
• Stomach the subtleties: Many stats formulas resemble each other. You need a flawless understanding of when each should be used to excel in stats classes. Being able to identify when to use a two-tailed or a one-tailed hypothesis test, or when a sample follows a normal distribution, matters more than the formulas themselves. Use mind maps and flowcharts to keep yourself organized and to ensure you have the logic down perfectly.
• Problems are the solution: Once you know the formulas and their uses, drill practice problems until you feel confident about using each of them. Make sure you have attempted exercises that cover all the standard problem scenarios you have seen in class. Your problem sets and course materials are a great starting point; you can also ask your tutor for extra practice material to be extra sure you are prepared.

Finance: Beating the Market

Your first finance midterm will likely feature time-value-of-money problems and applications to bonds, loans, or other financial structures. The nature of the test can vary widely depending on the tools you have access to (Excel, financial calculator, etc.), but the steps to success are similar regardless of the style of your class. To be in the best position to get a solid grade, you have to be able to understand the “why” behind each step of your problem solving approach—simply repeating solutions you’ve already encountered will not spell success.

To ensure mastery of the fundamental concepts, don’t make the mistake of just reviewing the formulas and your notes—use the concrete examples from your textbook to ground you as you engage with abstract dynamics.

• Practice more problems: Many students who don’t take supplementary steps to be prepared beyond the basics end up not being able to adapt to questions on the test that don’t mirror their homework problems precisely. Asking your professor for additional problems, going through the end of chapter problems in your textbook, and seeking out other resources is the best way to be prepared for the inevitable curveballs you will encounter.
• Become a timeline expert: The initial setup is the most important step of each problem. You will almost certainly be asked to deal with a variety of cash flow scenarios—constructing timelines to represent them will allow you to visualize the question, rather than just plugging given information into formulas.
• Rehearse multiple approaches: Time-value-of-money problems can often be solved in a variety of ways. If you work through a problem using multiple strategies, you will be better able to pivot on the test if your initial methodology isn’t working. This requires additional effort, but it’s a tool that all financial professionals have at their disposal—and will increase your flexibility on test day.

Accounting: Know Your Assets

Whether you are taking financial or managerial accounting at an introductory or advanced level, your first midterm is extremely important. In my experience, recovering from a low grade requires much more effort here than in most other courses. Simply reviewing your notes and creating study guides is insufficient to be properly prepared and fully confident. Don’t go on autopilot! Plan out your studying 1-2 weeks in advance and leverage all of your resources.

• Double down on practice problems: Make use of your textbook, review your homework, and if you are given precedent tests or other specific problems from your professor, save those for last. Having plenty of experience dealing with relevant problems is crucial to building your instincts for efficiently parsing the information given to you on the actual test.
• Solidify the fundamentals: Revisit key journal entries and formulas until they are second nature. Midterms usually require you to think slightly out of the box: being able to bring a study sheet with you to the test won’t help if you aren’t prepared to apply the core principles in slightly different situations.
• Organize for efficiency: Despite most students’ expectations, adopting an accounting perspective is hard and counterintuitive work. Don’t let this difficulty sneak up on you. Plan out specific times for study, and keep in mind that you should take a full break every 5 minutes after focusing as hard as you can for 30 minutes. Two of those cycles can be much more productive than a few hours of casual studying.