Catherine Robar dies of exam-induced heart attack....

I think that this picture gives an accurate portrayal of the stress
I was feeling. Thank you to the link below for sharing
http://exjerseygirl.blogspot.com/2005/11/scenes-from-haircut.html

Ok, that is what I was expecting to see in the newspaper headlines but in actual fact I survived. Yes folks, I just wrote the most intense exam of my life and from my understanding, the biggest in the Masters program. My exam was for the Developmental Economics module and covered 9 very diverse and complex economics subjects.

When I first signed up for this masters program it didn't really occur to me that I would once again have to take economics. I must admit, I didn't do so well during my undergrad, I remember struggling through Micro and Macro Economics and cursing the day that I ever chose to do a commerce degree. So really, the only more logical course of action was to do a masters degree where 1/5 of the program is on this same subject. Although I must be honest and say that I really did not enjoy the micro and macro portion of the program (sorry to my professors, it's not personal), I did really enjoy the other topics which included everything from Environmental Economics, The History of Foreign Debt, dissecting the World Bank and the IMF (my personal favorite) and even more abstract fields such as communication and how it impacts development work.

It seems that in my obsessive studying that everything else went out the window. Although my exam was on Friday, January 7th, I am only now starting to get caught back up with my normal life. I studied for 13 hours a day for 2 weeks straight, and previous to that maybe 5-8 hours a day. Despite that the exam still kicked my butt, and actually every one's butt in my class. Our exam was allotted 3 hours and 45 minutes, and the first person only finished at the 3 hour and 5 minute mark. 80% of the class was still sitting there when the time was called at the end.

I took the liberty of writing down the exam questions so that I could review them when I returned home. Just for the fun of it I will share them with you. The first word is the surname of our professor who assigned the question. Below each question was a big gaping white empty box, yes, all our questions were to be answered essay style....As you can see, it was not a fun exam!

1. Crespi- Describe the main characteristics of public goods and explain why this is a case of market failure

2. Trezzini-Discuss the main features of the Solow explanation of economic growth. What is the origin of the stated tendency of economics to converge

3. Costantini- What are the environmental effects of Structure, Scale, Income and Technology

4. Nenci- According to trade theory , what are the main effects (traditional and non-traditional) of Regional Trade Agreements

5. De Maio- Using Game Theory, determine the equilibrium. Why does this justify the need for organizations such as the World Trade Organization

6. Gorgoni- Discuss one of the three types of innovation. Example: Radical/Incremental; Product/Process

7. Pallottino- Why is internal debt an issue to be considered in today's situation

8. Paloni- The World Bank claims that stream-lining conditionality and turning ex-post conditionality's into ex-ante are measures that foster reform ownership. Explain

9. De Muro- Explain the difference between the Washington Consensus and the Post Washington Consensus.