• Pop quizzes, in both Making Decisions and Statistics. They don’t test how well I know the material, they test whether I can think on the spot and have a photographic memory. They don’t help me learn.

• Making Decisions presentation project. The assignment is very open ended: make a persuasive presentation for and against buying insurance, basing both the pros and cons on a common set of facts. I have spent a week already searching online for “insurance facts” and been completely overwhelmed by technical information and economics papers. The only things I can think of to talk about are moral hazard (con: insurance makes you more careless because you know you are covered; pro: knowing you are covered gives you peace of mind) and risk pool (pro: if you get sick, you pay less than you would have otherwise because your costs are being subsidized by everyone else’s payments; con: if you are generally healthy, you are paying more than you otherwise would). That doesn’t make a 12 minute presentation. Also, my group is 7 people, which makes everything take a billion times longer than it should.

• Civil Liberties final paper. I have never written a 20 page research paper. Even though I am starting now a month ahead of time, I am very nervous about finishing. I have a topic I’m not sure how I am going to write 20 pages or what I am going to argue exactly. All my work this semester is due at the end. What am I going to do? Needless to say I will be working hard over Thanksgiving.

Nov 27: Civil Liberties Presentation Paper due
Nov 30: Group presentations start for Making Decisions
Dec 11: Last Welfare Economics midterm
Dec 12: Making Decisions as-yet unassigned paper due
Dec 12: Civil Liberties final paper due