ECON BC2411

Your final grade is the highest of these two numerical calculations: (a) Preparation & Teamwork (25% of final grade, pertains to completing the short assignments, graded solely on effort, before class and being present on groupwork days), 4 quizzes (25%, lowest score dropped), Final exam (50%, during final exam period) (b) Preparation & Teamwork (25% of final grade), 4 quizzes (35%, lowest score dropped), Final exam (40%, during final exam period) The short assignments I mentioned before class (12 throughout the semester) were only a few questions each, and the lowest two assignment scores were dropped (so you can miss up to two assignments without impact on your final grade if you're really busy with other classes). There are no extensions on these assignments. You can be absent on one groupwork day without impact on your final grade.

Weekly problem sets (some harder than others but Ramaa would actually acknowledge that and save the long hard problems for the next ps, so actually that wasn't really nice of her). Midterm which wasn't too bad. Final which wasn't bad and came with a 10 page equation sheet(s). Project which was spoon fed and didn't teach you anything but helped your grade nonetheless. Basically you just need to devote an hour or two each week to the problem set and you'll be fine. Oh and there are useless "lab" sessions every week for an hour where Daniele fumbles over how to use excel on a PC and doesn't teach you anything there either. Good luck!

Weekly problem sets that are very tedious - Professor Mammen has openly admitted that she hasn't updated the Excel instructions since she started teaching the course, so good luck finding computers that still have the old Excel. Go to the TA sessions for help (in the form of answers). Easy midterm, ok final.

Professor Reback is kind and enthusiastic about teaching. He explains topics well (though there were a few things he didn't explain clearly). As the previous reviewer said, he makes class interactive by stimulating class participation and giving in-class group exercises numerous times throughout the semester. His quizzes and final exam were fair. There were only a few questions I thought were on the harder side, but everything else was straightforward if you understand the concepts taught in class.

Ramaa is an interesting professor to say the least. Not very organized, not very articulate, not very clear, very small feet, and an awkward sense of humor all combine to make classes boring and useless. Despite going to class basically every day, I don't really think Ramaa actually taught me anything. She and her TA, Daniele, who was actually very nice and meant well, made careless errors all the time when doing simple math, and were often corrected by members of the class. And then they would take off points generously for those same kinds of errors on problem sets and midterms. Daniele's grading was not consistent on the problem sets, and Ramaa was also inconsistent when she went over Daniele's grading on our midterms. Was this class worth it? hardly. Would I recommend it? If you are an econ/poli econ/econ hist major then yeah, take it. Get it out of the way. Don't expect to love statistics afterwards. Just expect to survive. I'm not saying the class is difficult. You can get an A- and check pluses (yup we are back in middle school) on the problem sets. I'd say how they graded the final, but of course it isn't up yet. And probably never will be. I didn't have any background in stats, not even a course in high school, and I did just fine. Just take this class with a bunch of other classes that won't have you bogged down with busy work. You'll be fine.

Professor Mammen was a terrible teacher - she didn't know how to answer questions and would only mumble an incoherent response or wave it off saying that we would cover it "later" (although we rarely did). My biggest problem was that she insisted on giving us "proofs" on the midterm and final that we had not gone over in class and seemed impossible to do in a high-stress setting.. however, she did give you a formula sheet that basically has every formula you need so no memorization is required. Just make sure you understand the basic concepts.

25% Quiz (4 quizzes, drops lowest), 50% Final Exam (cumulative), 25% class participation.

Professor Rebeck seems very passionate about statistic and enthusiastic in teaching. He tries to make the class interactive by asking questions and every week, we would break off into smaller assigned groups to work on questions together. Despite this, I realized towards the end that his teaching method is a bit confusing. He didn’t really go in depth into differentiating between different types of statistical methods. By this I mean that he taught each topic in singularity but didn’t quite explain how they all connected to each other. So, when we had to try to understand concepts that are very similar to each other, it became increasing difficult and confusing. When you ask him. questions during office hours, he doesn't really make much sense and was not the most helpful.

Weekly Problem Sets - They're alright, esp with Vera's help. 1 Midterm - Fairly straightforward but tricky true/false. 1 Final - Much easier than the midterm. Literally just redo the second half of semesters problem sets and you should get nearly 100. 2 Group Projects - Easy, straightforward. Present well.

Jesus Christ, this class caused me so much more anxiety than it needed to. This was probably the most confusing class I had ever had to take. Professor Reback is so lovely and so nice so it feels really terrible saying this but by god is he a terrible lecturer. He makes the easiest concepts confusing as hell and his examples are usually incoherent. It seems like he's used to a much higher level of teaching that dumbing down or even explaining these concepts that are so clear in his mind is a challenge. The textbook is very clear and Vera the TA was a goddess. Thank goodness for her office hours (8-10pm on Tuesdays) where she would essentially walk us through the weekly problem sets completely and explain things that you didn't understand. After the first mid-term I decided to stop going to his classes (they're mostly optional) and lo and behold my grades improved dramatically. I also stopped being so anxious as everything was much clearer now thanks to the textbook and Vera. This class was manageable by all means. The material isn't hard, and Professor Reback is a very lenient grader and is readily available and gives out extra credit. Just be prepared to be confused and honestly, stop going to class and go to the TA/Textbook.