DSE Entrance Examination Preparation Guide (Option A)

For students with Non-Economics background, it is advisable to devote at least 4 sincere months to the preparations.
There are three broad areas tested in the exam.
Area
Micro-economics

Weightage in exam
~ 30

Suggested Preparation Time

30-40 days

Mathematics and Statistics

Macro-economics

~40
~30

30 days
50 -60 days

Total

100

120 days

Also, depends on your comfort

level with mathematics and
statistics

Books - Intermediate Microeconomics Most of the chapters can be done

by Varian, Varian Workbook
@ one in a day
15 days

Micro-Economics -Details
Consumer Theory
The Market
Budget Constraint
Preferences
Utility
Choice
Demand
Revealed Preferences
Slutsky Equation **
Buying and Selling
Intertemporal Choice
Consumer's Surplus **
Market Demand **
Equilibrium **
Producer Theory
(can also refer
Pindyck and Rubinfield
for producer theory chapters)

Comments

10-12 days
Technology
Profit Maximization **
Cost Minimization **
Cost Curves
Firm Supply **
Industry Supply
Monopoly **
Oligopoly **

Gen Eq etc

6-8 days
Exchange **

Production
Welfare
Externalities
Public Goods
Mathematical Appendix

Statistics
Measures of Central
Tendency

Probability etc

Correlation and Regression

Special Probability
Distributions

Sampling, Sampling
Distributions and Hypothesis
Testing

Mean, Median, Mode, Variance,

Standard Deviation (grouped and
ungrouped data)
Probability, Probability
Distribution, Conditional Prob,
Marginal Prob Distribution,
Expectation Values, Moments,
Variance, Covariance etc
Bivariate analysis
Uniform, Normal, Binomial,
Poisson
(small/large )samples from normal
population, unknown population,
finite population; z-tests (one
tailed and two tailed) for large
samples concerning means,
difference b/w means, proportion
and difference b/w proportions

Index Numbers
Topics marked with ** are very important for dse exam
Prepared by
Ankur Choudhary

Books - Basic Statistics (Nagar and

Das), Mathematical Statistics with
Applications (Freund)

Do Problems and examples from

Nagar & Das and see Solved
Examples from Freund's book

ND; Ch 3, 4 and 5

2 days

ND: Ch 6, 8
Freund: Ch 2,3, 4
ND: Ch 7
ND: Ch 8 Freund: 5.1, 5.2, 5.4, 5.7,
6.1, 6.2, 6.5

ND: Ch 9 Freund: 8.1-3, 12.1-2, 13.15

ND: Ch 12

4 days
2 days
2-3 days

4-5 days
1 day

Books for exam preparation

Topics
The Market, Budget Constraint, Preferences, Utility, Choice, Demand, Revealed Preference, Slutsky Equation, Buying and
Intermediate Micro Economics by Selling, Intertemporal Choice, Consumer's Surplus, Market Demand, Equilibrium, Exchange, Production, Welfare,
H. Varian
Externalities, Public Goods, Mathematical Appendix
Introduction to Income Determination: The Multiplier, Demand-Side Equilibrium: Income and the Interest rate, An introduction
Macro Economic Theory and Policy to Monetary and Fiscal Policy, Supply-Side Equilibrium: Output and the Price level, Equilibrium in the Static Model, Monetary,
by Branson
Fiscal and Incomes Policy in the Static Model
Income and Spending, Money, Interest and Income, Monetary and Fiscal Policy, International Linkages, Aggregate Demand
Macro Economics by Dornbusch,
and Supply: An Introduction, Aggregate Supply: Wages, Prices and Employment, The Demand for Money, Dynamics of
Fischer and Startz
Inflation and Unemployment, Tradeoffs between Inflation and Unemployment, International Adjustment and Interdependence
Introduction, Probability, Probability Distributions and Probability Densities, Mathematical Expectation, Special Probability
Distributions, Special Probability Densities, Functions of Random Variables, Sampling Distributions, Hypothesis Testing:
Mathematical Statistics by Freund Theory, Hypothesis Testing: Applications, Regression and Correlation
Essential Mathematics for
Economic Analysis by Sydsaeter
and Hammond
Complete book