Anna Catarina Musatti

Please avoid this prof by any means, genuinely oh my gosh. Majority of my time was just spent studying for this class as I knew the curve would be brutal. Finished with a B+, but I can not say the same for my friends. One of mine finished exactly at the median and was curved to a C+. If you are not confident that you will finish in the top 5-10% of the class, then DO NOT TAKE musatti. You will not receive an A. I've never seen such a callous professor when it comes to grading. A friend of mine in another Micro class had their class average (not median) curved to a B+. I am not sure how musatti can justify curving to a C+. I agree immensely with the comment before me. I believe she is single-handedly attempting to combat grade inflation with such terror. This is not the same musatti from previous years that your upperclassmen friends will tell you about. The past few semesters have been a common trend of aggressively curving down. AVOID AVOID AVOID.

She is a great professor. You'll have to get used to her Italian accent, but her notes and her way of teaching are very clear. Indeed she might be a bit overwhelmingly enthusiastic but that kept me awake. Problems sets and exams are very reasonable. Coming from Gulati's principles this class was a breeze. If not for the pass/fail it would've been fairly easy to get an A. No need to read the textbook. Take good note, study while doing homework, and you'll be fine.

Is there something wrong with this person? Musatti should be mentally evaluated

She’s a great lecturer but man this was not an organized class. Literally had problem sets not graded for months. It seems like she is single-handedly trying to reduce grade inflation at Columbia as the class distribution didn’t provide for many A’s. She curved the final mean to be a 72 raw score and that was it… I got an A in the course after studying for weeks for the final. I would recommend really reviewing her problem sets thoroughly

I don't understand why Musatti is getting so much hate. Her lecture's aren't the most riveting things in the world, but they get the job done. She goes through the formulas and the derivations pretty methodically and then goes through a few applications and examples in class. Moreover, Musatti is a kind lady. The best thing about the class is that the tests are straightforward. They are essentially the same as the problem sets and there are no curveballs. If you need help, recitation with Motaz Al-Chanati is a great option. After that it's just plug and chug on the exam. I'm not sure about the rumours about her curving down, because the second half of this term was online and P/F. However, she did mention after the first midterm that the median student would have a low B+. The average on that test was a 79 if I recall correctly.

Musatti's a really sweet person, with an Italian accent that you'll either find endearing or annoying, but alright as a professor. Just alright. This is one of those classes that if you just study the textbook and not go to class, you won't miss a thing (except stories of her personal life). Lecture is pretty straightforward. However, most classes she'll only cover half of what she says she'll cover in the beginning of class. She does have some pop quizzes in lecture, but they're all more or less "collaborative" (aka you take them with the entire class, including her) and she drops the lowest one. Problem sets are easy, sometimes badly-worded. The midterm is easy. Final's definitely tougher though. This is partially because Musatti's good with Micro (the second class she teaches), but pretty bad at teaching Macro, which composes more of the final. Don't think just because you did really well on the midterm that the final will be as easy. Recitation is helpful, but not necessary. I didn't attend a single recitation (except to pick up the midterm) and didn't feel like I missed anything. I had never taken a single Econ class in high school before this, so I worked harder in this class than most people probably did. If you know any Econ beforehand, you'll be so set. I agree with previous reviews that say if you want a good grade with little work/stress, take Musatti. If you actual…

I took this class in Fall 2025. Musatti is a fun lecturer, and she makes a lot of crazy statements in class which really helped me stay engaged. I found myself looking forward to lecture just due to the manner in which she presented the content. I will say the class itself was pretty tough. Both of the midterms we took were difficult in my opinion, but some of my friends found them to be easier. I'm not exactly great at math so I probably struggled more than the average student. I will say that the final was a lot easier than I expected, maybe because its technically cumulative so a lot of the questions were pretty surface level, and not as in depth as the midterm questions were, in my opinion. Also, Musatti is pretty nice in that any question that has parts, usually will have a saving grace. Like, if you dont know how to do part a and b of a question, parts c and d of that same question probably won't be related to the previous parts. So if you dont know something, you're not completely screwed for all continuing parts. This was the case on all midterms and the final. Overall, Musatti is probably as good as it gets for Micro if youre looking for a solid professor. I finished kind of far below the average but still received a B- in the class.

I'm definitely just not good at econ theory, but Anna's lecturing style makes ZERO sense to me. Her exams are not that different from her psets, but all of them are pretty hard imo. Is there a good lecturer in the econ department for theory, though? Honestly, just find the one that fits your schedule and suffer. All the electives before and after micro and macro are fine. Some are even stellar and life-changing. If you know what you want at the end of this tunnel / degree, you will survive this class.

Insomniacs, rejoice! Fuck Ambien - Musatti is the best sleep inducing medication out there on the market: her tedious, uninspiring, and convoluted lectures - especially her macro lectures - will help you fall asleep within five minutes of her opening her mouth. Still, you should beware of side effects. Everything on and about the planet pisses off Musatti, and she will scream at students who (unsurprisingly) do fall asleep in her class, show up late to lectures, or even try to leave the room to take a piss. Yet, Musatti unconscionably still boasts to her students that she's one of the few professors at Columbia who actually care about teaching, as made evident by her typo-ridden and terribly worded problem sets that teach students more about proofreading than about economics. If you're dumb enough to take Musatti's class, you should attend the lectures, not to take notes but just in case she takes attendance - oh, sorry - I meant just in case she gives a pop quiz. (FYI: She'll tell you all the answers to the quiz anyway.) Exams are easy. Midterm is slightly harder than the final, but the final covers more shit, so make sure you at least skim the book. In sum, I learned more about economics from Khan Academy than I did from Musatti. I guess I'm the kind of guy Will Hunting would call dumb for dropping Gs for an education I could've gotten for free on YouTube. Take Gulati.

Micro itself at Columbia will never be easy per se. Musatti is probably the lesser of evils, though; she tries to be engaging during class and is always helpful in explaining things. We had in-class quizzes (basically just participation and her way of tracking attendance, not graded on correctness). Also had 2 midterms where the lowest one will only be worth 10%. Midterms were actually pretty straightforward and not that bad; I think she does that intentionally. I personally only studied a few hours before them and did pretty well; there aren't any big curve balls. The part that messed me and most others up was the final. She specified it would only cover certain content from the course, but it ended up being completely cumulative, so I would not trust her there. I finished the class basically at the median, just slightly above, and I ended with a B+, so I was a little sad. Just wish I studied all of the content course for the final rather than just the sections she specified