Course introduction

Last update: Saturday, 05 October 2024, 14:08:34

Lectures [Top]

Please note that notebooks, tablets and mobile phones must be turned off during lectures.
Exception: Tablets may be used to take notes.

Attendance of the lectures is voluntary.
There is no direct penalization for not attending lectures.
However, in the past students who attended more lectures tended to do better in the exams.
[See the point "Exam analysis" below]
In the case of the tutorials, attendance is necessary, since the grade of the continuous evaluation is based on your participation during these sessions.

Entering late - no problem
Leaving early - not so good
However, if you need to leave early for some reason - no problem, just let me know before the lecture.

After the lectures I usually make photos of the blackboard which I store in an online folder.
On the homepage, there is a link to the folder containing the board pictures for each course.
The online folders are password-protected; the password for your course is announced during the lecture.
No photos are taken of the blackboard after the tutorials.

Note that I rely less and less on the lecture notes.
Instead, I use the blackboard (for example, for mathematic derivations and diagrams), various internet resources (for example, to show you macroeconomic time series), past exam questions, textbooks, academic articles etc.
This means that whilst studying you have to retrieve the information from various sources.
To help you nagivate through the lecture topics and the associated course material, I provide you with the course contents of each course.
[Link]
You can go from the list of course topics to the associated subtopics, items and course materials.
Alternatively, you can go from the list of course materials to the associated items.
I have tried highlight with bold letters the topics that we covered (at least in part) during the lectures.
However, as said above, what is ultimately relevant for the exam is what we did in class.

The homepage contains the PDF files of past exams.
It's a good idea to look through past exams so as to get to know the typical structure of exams and the kind of questions that are asked.
Solutions for past exams are not provided.
Handing out solutions would take away the incentive to think through past exam questions.
However, note that your fellow students don't have the solutions either.

I try to put the same information on the Moodle pages of my courses, but note that my homepage will always be more complete and up-to-date.

The details of my office hour are shown on my homepage.
[Link]
Please note that I don't provide solutions of past exam questions during my office hour.
However, I am happy to resolve any doubt you may have regarding the course material

Exam schedules and rooms
[Link]
Please note that the exams of the Michealmas term take place in January. I do not offer alternative exam dates in December.

The exam structure has changed from time to time in the past.
Currently, you can expect to have five questions.
Each questions carries 8 points, which gives 40 points in total.
To arrive at the exam grades on a scale from 0 to 10, the final points are divided by 4.
Please note that in most cases your answers to my questions can be short.
There is usually enough, or more than enough, space provided with each question.
Should you need more space, there are empty pages at the end of the exam booklet, so you just have to indicate on which page you want to continue with your answer (otherwise I will not mark what you have written on those pages at the end of the exam).
Note that each exam question is on a separate page (or on separate pages).
This makes it easier to correct the exams question by question, making the marking more objective.

The final grade of the course consists of the exam grade (65%) and the evaluation of the participation in the tutorials, or continuous evaluation (35%).

Over the past couple of years, I have started to collect data on students' attendance to classes and their final grades.
This data is provided in a document called "Exam analysis"
[Link]
Note the strong positive correlation between students' attendance to classes and their final grades.

You can find information on exam dates and rooms by clicking on the following link
[Link]
On the day of the exam, I will first determine where each student sits.
If you have already taken a seat, I may ask you to move to another table.
You may then put your pen, your identity card and your calculator on the table.
It is a good idea to bring a calculator with you - just in case you need it.
You do not need to bring any paper with you since you will be provided with an exam booklet.
Please turn your mobile phone off and put it inside your bag.
Then put your bag and your other belonging next to you, either on the floor of the corridor or on the table next to you.
Make sure there is nothing under your table.
I will hand out an attendance list on which you will have to put your name.
If you need an attendance certificate for your employer ("justificante"), please let me know before or during the exam.
All students start and end the exam at the same time.
Note that once the exam has started, you have to hand in your exam, even if you have not written anything.
If you finish early, you may leave the exam before it ends, but not during the last 5 minutes of the exam.
At the end of the exam, please do not talk or stand up until I have collected all the exams.
Several days after the exam, I will publish the expected date of the publication of the grades on my homepage.