Why "hi, economics"? (2)

   As a university teacher, my knowledge about high-school economics is limited. In Hong Kong, the high school curriculum is now known as DSE. I have never taken this exam because DSE is a new system and no students can take it before 2012. But I can know what students have learned from high schools through two channels.
   First, as mentioned in my last post, my interactions with students at university, especially with first-year students, is an important source. I am the academic counselor for some students and so we will have meetings and talks. Also, some students asked me questions after my lecture. They will be particularly concerned with the parts that are different from high school's curriculum, and let me know these.
   Second, for many years, I am also responsible for interviews with many students applying for admissions to the economics department. From these interviews, I know from them something about high school's economics, not only for DSE, but also GCSE, IB, etc. Of course, this can never let me have systematic knowledge of their studies. Nonetheless, importantly, I know their impression of economics that they have learned, both for the positive or negative parts, from their responses and answers to my questions.
   For example, I know that many students like game theory, which is a part of the GCSE syllabus, though their knowledge about game theory is basically limited to an oligopoly model.
   Many students from DSE are impressed by the concept of opportunity costs because they think it is useful for their decision-making in daily life.
   Meanwhile, students often do not like abstract concept like "utility" or "indifference curves". These concepts were part of the high-school economics in Hong Kong (HKAL) but are not now (in DSE). Better or worse, a consequence is that when high-school economics students go to university, they are not as accustomed to these abstract concepts frequently found in university economics as past students (with HKAL background).
   In fact, through interviews, I know many students eventually will study business instead of economics. If they major in business, they will learn only some more economics related to business, and the style of these courses is also much closer to high-school economics than university economics taught in economics department. This is another reason why high-school economics is important: eventually perhaps a lot of people will be impressed only by, and have knowledge only of, high-school economics.