Passage Discussion

[mcrittell]

I tried to understand the points of each type of economics without getting bogged down in detail, but I managed to fail at that miserably. And when I got to the questions....ideas?

[chike_eze]

Sweat balls dripping . This one was tough for me too. Managed to squeeze 5/8. Took way too long (13 minutes).

Got through the passage in 3:50, but the questions killed.
Missed 14, 17 and 19. Got lucky on at least one other question.

I think I would have done much worse if I had read any more closer than I did. How about you??

PS. My High level understanding:
- Steady state: new school-of-thought
- Neoclassical: traditional view (must be different, but how?)
- differences btwn the two (the key difference..? missed it!)
- Author not clearly for one side, but "conservation" is key.
--> Got to questions: Umm, huh??

[mcrittell]

And I think that's why I had trouble with this--I felt that if I spent more time on it, I would've done the same/worse. Definitely didn't understand the questions based on the passage. One of those passages that seems impossible given the constraints. Anyone have ideas on how to get through these types of passages efficiently?

[nflamel69]

As an economics major, some background knowledge definitely helped me sped through this one. Here's my passage discussion

P1 : two sides, neoclassical- traditional reigning school and steady-state, new school. Key ideas, neoclassical thinks the solution to most problem is growth, so for them, growth is good no matter what.

P2: it talks about steady-school's ideas, which is a clear contrast to neoclassical ones, growth is not necessarily good and offers why is it not viable or desirable, natural resources

p3: more reason why is growth not good all the time. and acknowledge a possible objection and addresses it by offering alternatives.

Although this is a bit more detailed than my understanding during my test taking condition. It should guide you through the passage. Key differences is their view on natural resources and thus desirability of growth.

Hope that helps!

[bbirdwell]

I think the key in this passage, as it is in all passages, is simply to pay attention to key words.

It's clear from the outset that we have a new school vs an old school. All we have to do from that point is seek to discover what makes them different and which one the author supports.

Line 7: Therefore... Indeed... the old school believes that growth has no limits

Paragraph 2: First sentence, the new school thinks the old school is unrealistic (ie, growth has limits).
Line 22: Growth beyond the ideal point...
Line 26: An ever-growing economy is dangerous...the ONLY alternative is equilibrium with nature.
Line 30: Old school thinks nature is part of the economy

Paragraph 3 is more of the same.
Line 44: New school thinks Western economies already too big
Line 50: One alternative they endorse is conservation
Line 55: One measure of success...

These are the most important points, indicated by common, important "structural" words. This understanding is all that's needed to answer the questions.