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Economics

AP Economics & Microeconomics Tutoring

Micro is a graph subject wearing a vocabulary costume. Sessions are one-on-one over video, built around the chapter you are actually in, and aimed at the thing that decides your grade: whether you can read the graph under pressure.

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Straight answer on scope

I teach introductory microeconomics: AP Micro, and the college Principles of Micro course that covers the same ground.

That is the whole list, and it is deliberate. I have already built the materials for this course, mini-lessons, worksheets, quizzes and answer keys running from the first chapter to the last, so we start from something rather than from a blank page. If what you need is deep macro, monetary policy models or long-run growth theory, I will tell you that on the consultation call rather than take the work and figure it out on your time.

What We Cover

My materials follow Mankiw's Principles of Microeconomics chapter for chapter, which is the sequence a lot of intro courses use. Different textbook, same physics. Send me your syllabus and I will map it.

Markets and how they move

Ch. 1–7
  • ◆ The ten principles, opportunity cost, comparative advantage
  • ◆ Supply and demand, and what actually shifts each curve
  • ◆ Elasticity, including the point-elasticity math courses rush
  • ◆ Price ceilings, price floors, and who really pays a tax
  • ◆ Consumer and producer surplus, market efficiency

When markets miss

Ch. 8–12
  • ◆ Deadweight loss and the costs of taxation
  • ◆ International trade, tariffs, and the gains-from-trade graph
  • ◆ Externalities and the Coase-style fixes
  • ◆ Public goods, common resources, the tragedy of the commons
  • ◆ The design of the tax system

How firms behave

Ch. 13–17
  • ◆ Costs of production: AFC, AVC, ATC, MC, and why MC cuts ATC at its minimum
  • ◆ Accounting profit vs economic profit
  • ◆ Perfect competition, entry, exit, the long-run zero-profit result
  • ◆ Monopoly: finding Q at MR = MC, then reading profit off the graph
  • ◆ Monopolistic competition, oligopoly, dominant strategy, Nash equilibrium

Labor, choice, and the exam

Ch. 18, 21 + AP
  • ◆ Factor markets: derived demand, MPL, VMPL, hire until VMPL = wage
  • ◆ Consumer choice, budget constraints, indifference curves
  • ◆ AP free-response structure: what the prompt is really asking for
  • ◆ Drawing a graph that earns credit, not just a graph that looks right
  • ◆ Mixed, unlabeled review for cumulative finals

How a Chapter Actually Runs

The same five moves every time, so you always know where you are.

  1. A video overview, before the session

    I build a short overview video for the chapter, using NotebookLM, so you can get oriented before we work through it. That way the session goes to the hard part instead of the setup.

  2. The concept, with no math attached

    We push on the idea using an interactive tool until it holds up. Drag the curve, break the market, see what happens. If you cannot say what a monopolist is trading off, no formula is going to save you.

  3. A mini-lesson on the mechanics

    Now the graphs and the formulas, in small pieces, each one with something you can click and test. This is where the definitions get pinned down and the shapes stop being arbitrary.

  4. Easy practice, on purpose

    Multiple choice you can get right. Confidence is a prerequisite for hard work, not a reward for it, and easy questions surface the small misreadings before they cost real points.

  5. Hard sets, mixed and unlabeled

    Multi-step problems that do not tell you which chapter they came from. This is the condition the exam creates, and it is where the gap between recognizing a term and using it shows up.

What Actually Costs Students Points

Three patterns I see over and over. None of them are about working harder.

Terms that sound alike collapse into each other

A student can hold marginal cost, marginal revenue, marginal product and marginal utility perfectly well inside the chapter that introduced them. Put all four in one unlabeled problem set and the labels slide. The fix is mixed, unlabeled practice from week one, plus mnemonics the student builds instead of ones I hand over. A mnemonic you wrote is one you can rebuild in the exam room.

Memorizing the graph instead of reading it

The monopoly diagram is the clearest case. Memorized, it is four curves in a box. Read, it is a procedure: find the quantity where MR = MC, go up to the demand curve for the price, then take the rectangle between price and average total cost. Once a student can narrate that, they can also handle the version where the exam moves a curve on them.

Explaining in fragments

"It goes up so that one goes down." When a student explains in pronouns, the reasoning underneath is usually half-formed, and free-response graders cannot award credit for it either. So I ask for full sentences with the nouns in them, and I ask the student to teach the idea back to me. It is slower for about two weeks and then it is faster forever.

Common Questions

Do you tutor AP Macroeconomics too?
Microeconomics is what I have built a full course library around, so that is what this page promises. I can cover the macro topics that overlap an intro course, and if you need deep macro I will say so in the consultation instead of taking the work.
Is this online only?
Yes. Every session is one-on-one over video, screen shared, with the graphs drawn live. I am based in Philadelphia and I work with students wherever they are.
What textbook do you work from?
My chapter materials follow Mankiw's Principles of Microeconomics, which is the sequence a lot of intro courses use. If your course works from a different book, send me the syllabus and I will map it onto what I have.
Do you help with college econ, or only AP?
Both. AP Microeconomics and a college Principles of Micro course cover nearly the same ground, and the sessions look the same either way. Intermediate micro is case by case.
How far ahead should we start?
Earlier is better, because the second half of micro is built on the first half. That said, plenty of the work I do happens between a rough midterm and the final. If the test is three weeks out, the plan is different, not impossible.

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