Because I have this bizarre, self-deprecating desire to see myself struggle and cry a lot, I decided to take Intro to Microeconomics this semester. A devoted English major, I am no good with numbers, hate graphs, have no patience for word problems, but somehow arrived at the conclusion that in order to succeed in the world I need a baseline understanding of how markets work. I took my very first Econ test last Wednesday and it was a wild ride, to say the least.

I have decided, at the risk of sounding very emotionally unstable, to provide a step-by-step guidebook for other English (or humanities) majors on how to just barely do okay in an intro level Econ class.

1. Start studying extra early to leave time to cry.

See a point on a graph that you don’t understand, an equation that just doesn’t make sense, or a vocabulary word that doesn’t seem relevant to anything? The best thing to do is to take a step back and let the tears you’ve been holding back pour. Cry for a good 15 minutes and feel free to curse the very gods that created markets and economies for giving you reason to take this class. Crying won’t necessarily make you understand anything differently, but it will sure leave you ever so slightly calmer.

2. Feel free to assume “supply and demand” is the answer for everything.

So stuck on a problem that you can’t even figure out if the answer is a number, a word or a paragraph? Your best bet is just to write “supply and demand.” In fact, that’s usually the answer for all econ problems – or at least has enough to do with the answer to earn you half credit. If in doubt at all, throw the word “equilibrium” somewhere in there as well.

3. Make everyone around you an Econ tutor.

These days, around one in every five students is an Econ major or minor – use this to your advantage. I personally have about six people I turn to on rotation to help with my latest problem set or homework quiz, including my parents. Feel free to become very co-dependent. No answer is right unless it has been checked by at least two other reputable sources. It takes a village, people!

4. There will come a time when your best bet is to doodle.

Upon reaching that level of confusion in class where you don’t even know what you don’t know, resort to doodles. At some point it’s not even worth your time to try to replicate that demand curve when you could, instead, be plotting some sweet design. Think of how much FUN it will be when, in the midst of studying for your upcoming test, you spend three hours trying to figure out how on Earth a change in demand of gas prices could possibly make a graph with that cool flower.

5. Have an ongoing list of things you should do before starting your Econ homework.

So far on mine, I have clean my room, call my parents (even though they usually get a teary call midway through my problem sets anyway), cut my nails, go on a run, see what my friends are up to, find someone to whom I can complain about econ, find someone to sit near me in case I need help, find someone to lie to about how much I’m enjoying econ, have a good cry and do ALL my other homework. Start putting together your list, and upon completing each one, sit down and force yourself to read the gibberish that is your econ textbook.