First-year university economics and statistics guide
How first-year microeconomics, macroeconomics and statistics courses are usually structured, mapped to our free lessons, with how to prepare for midterms and finals.
What first-year courses usually cover
| Course | Typical topics | Learn it here |
|---|---|---|
| Principles of microeconomics | Markets, elasticity, consumer choice, costs, market structures, factor markets, market failure | Demand, Elasticity, Indifference Curves and Budget Lines, Production and Costs, Monopoly, Externalities |
| Principles of macroeconomics | National accounts, AD–AS, money and banking, monetary and fiscal policy, growth, open economy | Gross Domestic Product, Macroeconomic Equilibrium, The Money Market, Fiscal Policy, Economic Growth and Supply-Side Policy, The Foreign Exchange Market |
| Introductory statistics | Descriptive statistics, probability, distributions, estimation, hypothesis tests, regression, ANOVA | Describing Data with Numbers, The Normal Distribution, Confidence Intervals, Hypothesis Testing: The Foundations, Inference for Regression, Comparing Several Means with ANOVA, A First Look at Multiple Regression |
How to prepare
- Work through the steps in order: first-year courses build each week on the last.
- Do problem sets by hand before checking answers; most finals are closed-book calculations and diagrams.
- Make your own formula sheet early and test yourself on it. Start from our free formula sheets.
- For statistics, learn to read software output (coefficients, standard errors, p-values, R²).
Ready to practise at exam level?
Economics Made Simple covers every unit with diagrams and full answer keys. The bundle adds 450 practice questions, flashcards and 100 case studies.