Question for ISI qualifiers

[ILASM]

Any advice on how to prepare for the descriptive part(PEB) for someone who doesn't have any formal training in economics, i.e., I've gone through the prescribed texts, but I've got absolutely no idea about where to practice the numericals(ISI level) from.
Can you guys recommend any books, links to solved problems etc. ?

[Gayyam]

Hi,

I have no economics background, but have been selected for the MSQE programme in ISI. Here's the essence of my eco prep -
1. I began usually, using Varian as a textbook for micro; however, that was short lived as I quickly migrated to online courses and problem solving.
2. I googled anything I didn't understand.
3. I stumbled upon this forum late. But better late than never was never more true in my case.
4. Mathematics is really important to ISI. Have a firm grasp on real analysis and linear algebra (at least), they're both used in economics.
5. It paid to be open about my learning. No one book, or one singular resource or even a coaching class is going to be of any use. You need to be open to learn, relearn, ask, be wrong, unlearn and relearn again. I used Khan Academy, Coursera, random youtube lectures, and open course ware of universities.
As an example of this openness is the question linked here. A question on binomial identities (in the syllabus) is solved using complex numbers (not in syllabus).
This helped me in this years PEB which had a question on the Solow growth model, that used more polynomial graphing techniques than economics.

P.S. - You posed this question only to the people who qualified ISI. That was exactly the kind of closed mindedness that you should ward yourself against. There are many people more brilliant than the ISI qualifiers who couldn't qualify the exam. It's the matter of one's performance on one day in a few hours.

All the best!

[ILASM]

Thanks

[abhiga]

I come from the engineering background and because you are not asking about multiple choice mathematics questions, I'll assume you have similar background.

1. Microeconomics: By Nicholson and Snyder. Very good book, similar to HC Verma.
2. Macroeconomics: I read Blanchard. I found macro to be very hand waving and ended up doing none in the exam (in the exam we had to do 6 out of 8 questions)
3. Hammond and Sydsaeter for Lagrange method and other mathematics review.

Best of luck

[Saurabh815]

Abhiga if I am not wrong then congrats for 1st rank in dse.

[Mama]

Hi ILASM,

I'm an engineering graduate. Here is the list of books I followed.

For Micro - Modern Microeconomics by Anna Koutsoyiannis. Written in a precise and lucid manner. Although it doesn't have any numericals it helps you get the feel of writing a subjective answer in Economics. The other book is Varian Workbook. Do it completely. You will get to know all kinds of twists and turns in Micro questions, so that you don't have to waste time during the exam getting the logic right.

For Macro - Macroeconomics by Richard T Froyen. This book is great to get the concepts right.  But again, this too doesn't have any numericals. Someone in this group suggested Romer's Ad. Macro. I had a look at it after the exam. Its pretty descent. You might wanna consider it. My only practice for Macro questions was old ISI sample papers.

For Solow growth model - Macroeconomics by Gregory Mankiv.