Milestone map
Milestone map
2 milestones
Do the exercises and show your work
7–14 weeks (10 hrs/week)
Take Intermediate Microeconomics for free and do the problem sets (preferences and utility, demand, production, cost, competition, monopoly, uncertainty, general equilibrium). Keep your answers in one public place (a repo, a shared folder or a page) as you go, with your reasoning shown.
Proof required
Link your public folder with the problem sets (preferences and utility, demand, production, cost, competition, monopoly, uncertainty, general equilibrium), and show your self-check (14.04: problem sets and exams).
What gets checked
- Every derivation is complete, with the optimisation conditions stated.
- Graphs agree with the algebra.
- Exam answers are marked with the corrections.
Common mistakes
- Answers copied from a key: verifiers read the reasoning.
- Numbers with no working.
- Asking for review before the self-check.
Powstik Guide
A public folder with your worked answers to the problem sets (preferences and utility, demand, production, cost, competition, monopoly, uncertainty, general equilibrium).
Steps
- Make a public folder or repo for this course.
- Do one chapter or problem set at a time and save it.
- Self-check: Do each problem set and exam under time, then mark yourself against the solutions where the course posts them. Where it does not, rework the numbers in a spreadsheet and check that every total ties out.
- Fix what the self-check shows, and say what you fixed.
- Ask three people who know the topic to check it.
Template
README Course: Intermediate Microeconomics (MIT OpenCourseWare) What is here: Self-check result: The hardest question and why:
What gets sent back
- Answers with no working.
- Self-check not shown.
Resources
Foundationstart here
Depthgo deeper
What a verifier looks for
- Every derivation is complete, with the optimisation conditions stated.
- Graphs agree with the algebra.
- Exam answers are marked with the corrections.
- Pick two answers and check every step.
- Ask about one step; the answer should be clear.
You'll sign in first, then come straight back here.
Model one firm's choices
1–3 weeks (5–8 hrs/week)
Use what you learned. Make a short paper that models one real firm or consumer choice with a utility or cost function you choose, solves it with calculus, and checks the answer against real prices or quantities. Put it where verifiers can open it. Use public information, or data you have permission to use; never publish a real person's private details.
Proof required
Link a short paper that models one real firm or consumer choice with a utility or cost function you choose, solves it with calculus, and checks the answer against real prices or quantities, and a short note on what you decided or changed because of it.
What gets checked
- The functional form is stated and its limits are said.
- The solution is derived correctly.
- The comparison with real numbers is honest about the gap.
Common mistakes
- Invented or unsourced figures.
- A conclusion the evidence does not support.
Powstik Guide
A short paper that models one real firm or consumer choice with a utility or cost function you choose, solves it with calculus, and checks the answer against real prices or quantities.
Steps
- Write one line: what you will show.
- Gather the real data, people or documents.
- Draft it, then read it cold the next day.
- Ask someone to mark the first claim they doubt.
- Fix it and ask three people to check it.
Template
Title: What this shows: Sources: Method: Result: Limits:
What gets sent back
- Unsourced numbers.
- Not clearly the person's own work.
- Claims more than it shows.
Resources
Foundationstart here
Depthgo deeper
What a verifier looks for
- The functional form is stated and its limits are said.
- The solution is derived correctly.
- The comparison with real numbers is honest about the gap.
- Check that the work is the person's own and the sources are real.
- Ask how a number was found.
You'll sign in first, then come straight back here.