<p>Macro before micro.</p>
<p>the way i see it, you're gonna have an F'd up time in both of them.</p>
<p>For econ 2, everyone says Jack Hou sucks??</p>
<p>and for econ 1, your midterm is worth 40%, so if you bomb that, you're farked too.</p>
<p>So it really doesn't hurt to take econ 2 before econ 1 eh?</p>
<p>if we ignored teachers and just looked at classes itself, then you can take either econ 1 or econ 2 in any order. they aren't pre-reqs to each other and each one covers different material.</p>
<p>Hou isn't as bad as everyone says (grading-wise), mainly because he's a horrible teacher. Horrible teacher = lower class avg = easier to beat the curve. He doesn't teach worth a damn, but he knows his stuff. The saving grace is that every past exam for the past few years is available on the course website. </p>
<p>The questions never vary much from quarter to quarter. All I basically did in the course was practice doing the old exams for several hours in the days before each midterm/final. I ended up with an A+ in the class.</p>
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Hou isn't as bad as everyone says (grading-wise), mainly because he's a horrible teacher. Horrible teacher = lower class avg = easier to beat the curve. He doesn't teach worth a damn, but he knows his stuff. The saving grace is that every past exam for the past few years is available on the course website. </p>
<p>The questions never vary much from quarter to quarter. All I basically did in the course was practice doing the old exams for several hours in the days before each midterm/final. I ended up with an A+ in the class.
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<p>hah. that's nice to know.</p>
<p>I've looked at the syllabus, and they use this unheard of macro textbook. Would it be wise to get the Mankiw macro textbook instead, since everyone says that book kicks ass? Does classwork necessitate having the Addison-wesley Macro book?</p>
<p>I looked at Hou's credentials, and it seems like he knows his stuff. He graduated from the top university in Taiwan, and has a Yale PhD. But I'm assuming he has a thick accent and his diction isn't so great, and that's what everyone is b1tching about eh?</p>
<p>Hey I overhead the econ counsler, Julie Plotkin, say that they opened up more spots in Econ 1 yesterday--id go check it out fast.</p>
<p>yeah. it looks like they did open up more seats in econ 1.</p>
<p>What does the student evaluation for ALLEN, W.R say?</p>
<p>I still think macroecon should be taken before microecon, though.</p>
<p>it seems like a gamble to decide when to take econ 1.</p>
<p>Allen's econ1 class is based on 2 midterms and a final, worth 25,25,50% respectively.</p>
<p>whereas...</p>
<p>Bresnock's econ1 class is based on 1 midterm, 2 projects, and a final, worth 40%,20%,40% respectively.</p>
<p>Which class would be easier?</p>
<p>Well I am an Econ Major and I would recommend that you take Micro first. What you learn in micro will be the foundation for what the principals and models in macro are based upon. Check out the discussion in this thread
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=68410%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=68410</a></p>
<p>Also, I am a transfer student from Cal Poly Pomona--where Anne Bresnock is tenured faculty, she is just "visting" at UCLA. Although I have never had a class with her personally, she is not very well liked by the econ majors at Cal Poly. There are only about 125ish econ majors at Cal Poly so we get to know our faculty and eachother's opinions of them very well. Heres the link to Cal Poly's professor reviews for Bresnock--> <a href="http://www.gradecalpoly.com/grades.asp?InstructorName=bresnoc%5B/url%5D">http://www.gradecalpoly.com/grades.asp?InstructorName=bresnoc</a>.
I honestly wouldn't put too much weight in it though because even really good econ professors get bad reviews from people just taking the principals classes (which are 201/202 at Poly). Unlike UCLA lots of non-majors have to take the principals classes.</p>
<p>Edit: Also, although most find Macro to be easier, but your gonna have to take both right?, and since Bresnock has been teaching that class for at least the last 2 quarters (hence, you probably will have to face the same class just at a later time), I think it is a wiser decision to take Micro first, you'll have an easier time in macro if you do.</p>
<p>My roommate and I both took Prof. Bresnock for Econ 1 this past year.</p>
<p>If you like running SimEcon modules as projects (which is more busywork than anything else), and hearing about chocolate-chip cookies being used for nearly every economic model in every lecture, choose Bresnock. She curved kind of hard, though (B- median). We both found Econ 2 to be easier than Econ 1, but maybe it's just the specific professors that made them easier/harder to stomach, rather than the material.</p>
<p>well, the point is to get as easy an econ class as possible while learning enough econ at the same time, right?</p>
<p>So I told my bro about this. Hopefully he will switch to econ 1 now.</p>
<p>busywork sucks. And those student evals from calpoly sound scary. haha.</p>
<p>econ 2 does seem like easier stuff. Like they say, it's easier to see the forest than the trees. (micro being the trees, of course)</p>
<p>The thing about Econ 2 is that introductory macroeconomics expounds on the real-life concepts that most Economics majors already have a decent grasp of by the time they enter college (how financial markets work, how risk/insurance works, effects of trade and unions, etc.), while Econ 1 is more abstract and focuses on how single/multiple firms interact in a competitive market in the short and long run, which most of us don't have any first-hand experience with.</p>
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busywork sucks. And those student evals from calpoly sound scary. haha.</p>
<p>econ 2 does seem like easier stuff. Like they say, it's easier to see the forest than the trees. (micro being the trees, of course)
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<p>Yeah I just read through her reviews--and I can see why you would be scared. But trust me, it won't be as bad as those sound. She is liked a bit better on Bruinwalk.<br>
You know, its not really a big deal which you take first. If its just a choice between one or the other, all else constant, Id say take micro, but if you main objective is easy classes, maybe it might be worth holding off and hoping for an easier professor. If you approach Bresnock with a positive attitude, motivation to learn, and willing to put forth an honest effort i think you will be fine nonetheless.</p>
<p>Actually, Bresnock isn't teaching this quarter. So one should take econ 1 now while she's on break.</p>
<p>the only thing that is odd about W.R Allen's econ 1 class is that he doesn't seem to use a textbook.</p>
<p>But he had his own 'midnight economist' radio show many moons ago, for the purpose of educating the public about economics. So I guess it would be wiser to take his class instead of Bresnocks.</p>
<p>Ohhh I get it know, I thought the two profs described above were for econ 1 and 2. Allen definitly sounds easier--go with him while you can.</p>