Economics Problem Solver (Rea's Problem Solvers)

Rating:
Summary: Learn to think like an economist
Review: After receiving my BS, I thought I was done with school forever. Until I realized that an arts and sciences degree and quarter will get you a cup of coffee.

So on to an MBA school to get me some real, practical education.

Most MBA schools require Econ as a prerequisite. I had the option to take the class, and spend several thousand dollars, or take two CLEP tests, one for Macro and one for Micro for seventy bucks a pop. You do the math.

I used Harper Collins' College Outline's Intro to Economics as my main text. I would recommended that book to anyone wanting to understand the subject. However, it has one serious drawback: No solved problems, or even problems to solve.

So I had to pick up this book, REA's Problem Solver in Economics, to complement it. The Problem Solver explains how to think through economics problems. I think both approaches (The expository HCO Intro and the hands-on Problems Solver) are necessary. However, this book can teach you economics all by itself. The explanations heading the chapters are lucid, easy to follow descriptions of the underlying theory. And the problems get into the nuts-and-bolts of thinking like an economist.

It is maybe a little advanced for some, but I am a math nerd, so appreciated the thoroughness. Everything considered, it was money well spent. Both books together cost less than half that of a standard text, and I understood econ better than your average bear in two months' time.