UMN ECON 1101: Principles of Microeconomics
ECON 1101 is UMN's introductory microeconomics: supply and demand, elasticity, consumer and producer behavior, market structures, and policy applications. It's taught in some of the university's largest lectures and required for Carlson admission and many other programs.
Fennie is independent and not affiliated with University of Minnesota Twin Cities. This is an unofficial study guide.
What makes it hard
The grade rides on multiple-choice exams that test application: shift this curve, compute that elasticity, compare these market structures. Questions are quick individually but span everything, and students who skip graph practice because lecture felt clear are the standard casualty; recognizing a correct graph is far easier than producing the reasoning.
What you'll cover
- • Supply, demand, and equilibrium
- • Elasticity
- • Consumer and producer surplus
- • Costs and production
- • Perfect competition and monopoly
- • Market failures and policy
The ECON 1101 study guide
How to study for UMN ECON 1101, step by step.
- 1
Practice application from the first week
ECON 1101's exams test doing (shifting curves, computing elasticities), so study time belongs in practice questions rather than note rereading from the very start.
- 2
Draw graphs by hand until automatic
Supply-demand shifts, surplus regions, cost curves, market structures. The exams test the reasoning behind the graph, and only producing graphs from scratch builds that reasoning.
- 3
Drill elasticity for speed and interpretation
Elasticity questions are fast individually and numerous collectively. Practice until both the calculation and what it means come without hesitation.
- 4
Build a market-structures comparison sheet
Competition versus monopoly: assumptions, demand curves, outcomes, and efficiency side by side on one page. Comparison questions are a fixture and crammed models blur together.
- 5
Rehearse the real format under time
Timed multiple-choice sets spanning all covered material before each exam. In a course this size, 'generally got it' lands mid-distribution; format rehearsal is how you land above it.
Today
Today's ECON 1101 plan
What a Fennie Daily Plan looks like for ECON 1101. Yours is built from your own syllabus and adapts every day to your deadlines and progress.
First plan free, no card required. Fennie is independent and unaffiliated with your school.
FAQ
Is ECON 1101 at UMN hard?
Moderate. The concepts are intro-level, but large-lecture multiple-choice exams reward speed and precision with graphs and scenarios. Students who practice application questions outperform note-rereaders almost mechanically.
Do I need ECON 1101 for Carlson?
Principles of Microeconomics is among the preparatory coursework Carlson expects, so the grade matters for admission-track students. Treat it as a course to do well in rather than merely complete.
How do I study for ECON 1101 exams?
Work practice questions in exam format under time: curve shifts, elasticity calculations, market-structure comparisons. Draw graphs by hand until automatic, because exams test the reasoning that produces the graph, not recognition of it.