How to prepare for DSE entrance (Delhi School of Economics)

Dear all

Delhi School of Economics entrance will basically test your knowledge of Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Statistics, Econometrics and Mathematics.

At the time of applying, you need to select between Option A and Option B. You make a choice based on your major during the under-graduation. Students of Economics Honours opt for A, whereas those of Mathematics Honours opt for B. (I do not know of students from other streams applying to DSE for a Masters in Economics, so if you’re that exception, and are reading this blog, please look at the past year papers and see which subject you’re more comfortable with- Economics or Mathematics, and make a choice accordingly).

For lack of much knowledge about Option B of the entrance examination, I’m going to stick to elaborating on Option A (Which is the one that I appeared for).

Past year Papers

Option A Paper 2009

Option A paper 2010

Option A Paper 2011

Option A Paper 2012

1.      PATTERN OF THE PAPER

The paper consists of 2 sections.

Section 1: 20 multiple choice questions

Marking scheme: +1 for the correct answer, -1/3 for a wrong answer, 0 for unattempted question

Section 2: 40 multiple choice questions

Marking scheme: +2 for the correct answer, -2/3 for a wrong answer, 0 for unattempted question

2.       ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

I have heard of the following two coaching institutes/tutors:

i)                    Amit Kumar Goyal

ii)                   Eco Point

Ps. I attended Amit Goyal classes. He charges Rs. 50,000 for around 25 classes. He covers microeconomics, mathematics and econometrics/statistics very well. However, he takes only one class for macroeconomics, which means you will have to prepare that subject pretty much on your own.

Why I chose his classes?

i)                    He’s organised. Every class is of 7 hours which are divided as follows: 10am-1pm he teaches, 1pm-2pm is lunch break, 2pm-5pm he gives us a test to solve (which is more like an assignment, ie. you’re allowed to form your own little group and think about the problems), discusses the test and also takes any doubts that you might have

ii)                   It’s conveniently located. Until last year, he used to take classes at YWCA (10 mins walk from Patel Chowk Metro Station)

3.       BOOKS YOU MAY USE

Microeconomics: Hal Varian (Intermediate Microeconomics), Hal Varian Workbook, Osborne (for game theory), Nicholson and Snyder (for production theory), Gregory Mankiw’s Principle of Economics (for microeconomics if you need to strengthen your basic concepts), Bernheim Whinston (reference text for comprehensive explanations of topics if needed)

Macroeconomics: Dornbusch and Fischer, O. Blanchard, Development Economics by Debraj Ray (for Solow and Harrod Domar growth models)

Or you can just pick up the reading prescribed by Delhi University for the 2^nd year students of the annual examination mode- this would be the best rather than trying to read from 3 different books.

Econometrics and Statistics: Gujarati’s Introductory Econometrics, Degroot and Schervish

Mathematics: Sydsaeter and Hammond

Photocopies of the required portions of the above mentioned readings used to be available at the DSE photocopy shop until the previous academic year. With the new piracy raid, I’m not sure if they will be available any longer. Contact your seniors for their readings, if you fail to get them at DSE, I suppose. Those going for jobs or MBA’s should surely be willing to part with theirs.

4.       TIPS FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

i)                    Solve as many past year papers as possible (starting from the year 2004). In this year’s DSE entrance examination, atleast 10 questions were lifted straight off from the past year papers, word to word, figure to figure. I answered all of those within a minute, and save a whole lot of time for the harder questions. Additionally, past year papers are diagnostic tests of sorts. Based on the questions you’re unable to answer, you will get the exact idea about which areas you need to practice most.

ii)                   ‘General Equilibrium’ is given a lot of weightage in the examination. There are certainly going to be atleast 3 questions in section B from that topic, so make sure you practice it well (numerical as well as theory)

iii)                 Do not forget to take a pen, pencil, eraser, and CALCULATOR on the day of the examination. Take some energy drink (anything with glucose) for refreshment.

iv)                 Do not try to judge yourself before the examination. Remember, you’re as good as anyone else. Be confident, and make sure you go inside the examination hall motivated to think and apply your brain. You may have never solved the probability question that you see in the paper (although I can assure you that you would’ve seen a variant of it in the past years  :P), but that should not mean that you will not be able to crack it if you spend 2-3 minutes to think about it.

v)                  Do not make uncalculated guesses. Remember, you’re negatively marked for each wrong answer.

            If you have any queries, post below as a comment. You can also mail it to Vaishali Garga at vaishaligarga@gmail.com.

Regards,
Vaishali Garga

            Vaishali Garga is an economics graduate from St. Stephen's College (Batch of 2013). She got Rank 19 in DSE entrance this year. She also got admission offers from London School of Economics, Oxford and Brown Universisty.