Question

Explain and discuss how you think studying for an exam is subject to the Law of Diminishing Returns. You might also throw into the discussion how this relates to opportunity cost and economic choice (marginal cost versus marginal benefit) of how you choose to spend your time. DISCUSSION REQUIRES AT LEAST A COUPLE OF PARAGRAPHS

Answer 1

Law of diminishing returns implies that after a certain level, the amount of variable factor could not be increased any further which would lead to a reduction in the returns.

When studying for exam, till a certain level or point until the syllabus is covered, there are returns to scale. But as we go on studying without a break , it could hamper our productive levels, causing the returns to be diminishing and after a point negative.

Another factor could be that after a certain level, the irrelevant part might be studied with an additional hour which may not be essential for exam and could cause diminishing returns.

Also this might as well have a higher opportunity cost as the time spent in studying irrelevant material could have been used in another subject or probably used for another productive purposes.

Another factor to be considered is the marginal cost and marginal benefit. As long as the student is having the marginal benefit derived from studying an additional hour more than the marginal cost of studying , the student should study. But if the marginal benefit is less ,it would mean a higher opportunity cost and a waste of time.

(You can comment for doubts)