UMD ECON 200: Principles of Microeconomics
ECON 200 is UMD's introductory microeconomics: supply and demand, elasticity, consumer and firm behavior, and market structures. It's a large-lecture requirement across the economics, business, and public policy pipelines.
Fennie is independent and not affiliated with University of Maryland. This is an unofficial study guide.
What makes it hard
Grades ride on exams that test application: shift the correct curve, compute the elasticity, compare market structures under time. The concepts feel transparent in lecture, which is exactly why students skip the graph practice, and the exams are constructed to find them.
What you'll cover
- • Supply, demand, and equilibrium
- • Elasticity
- • Consumer and producer surplus
- • Costs of production
- • Perfect competition and monopoly
- • Market failures and policy
The ECON 200 study guide
How to study for UMD ECON 200, step by step.
- 1
Make practice questions the study unit
ECON 200 exams test doing (shifts, calculations, comparisons) from the first midterm. Study time belongs in question practice, not note review, from week one.
- 2
Hand-draw the graphs until automatic
Supply-demand shifts, surplus regions, cost curves: recognizing a correct graph is easy, producing the reasoning is what's graded. Drawing by hand is the bridge.
- 3
Drill elasticity for speed and meaning
The computations are simple and everywhere, and exams reward pace. Practice until the number and its interpretation arrive together without hesitation.
- 4
Build a market-structures comparison page
Perfect competition through monopoly: assumptions, demand curves, outcomes, efficiency, side by side. Comparison questions are a fixture and crammed models blur together.
Today
Today's ECON 200 plan
What a Fennie Daily Plan looks like for ECON 200. 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 200 at UMD hard?
Conceptually moderate, but exams reward applied speed with graphs and scenarios under time. Students who practice in question format consistently outperform note-rereaders; the gap is wide and predictable.
Should I take ECON 200 before ECON 201?
That's the recommended order at UMD: micro first, then macro. ECON 200's curve mechanics and reasoning style also make 201's models land faster.
How do I study for ECON 200 exams?
Timed practice questions: curve shifts, elasticity computations, market-structure comparisons. Draw the graphs by hand until automatic, because the exams test producing the reasoning, not recognizing the picture.