Do not take this class.

The professor is inconsiderate, a very boring lecturer, and his exams are very confusing. The content of this course is interesting, but he makes it boring somehow.

His exams are only difficult because of how vague the questions are, the content itself makes sense. He also gave multiple choice exams, but only gave us a few multiple choice questions to practice on the midterm. The final practice materials were all long-form, and nothing like the exam he gave us.

The problem sets are tedious but doable, but he doesn't really explain how to do most of the problems on them, so you have to teach yourself.

The midterm, final, and HW were all weighted equally and the median of the class is usually curved so it's around a B+, which is the only good thing about this class.

I wouldn't take it again, even though I ended with a B it was not worth it. I've taken much more difficult classes and done better in them because the professors made it possible to do well by giving us adequate examples in class and adequate materials to practice with.

To be honest I'm not such why this class has such high reviews. I took this class in online format and the professor was super dry. It was just the most basic yet most boring type of econ class and is focused mainly on memorizing formulas and graph shifts (IS-LM, etc) rather than learning anything applicable to real life. Wasn't particularly difficult but also is definitely not easy (average for midterm was around 66%), so don't take it expecting to just breeze through. Having open-note exams was really helpful though, I don't think I could've gotten an A if the exams were irl.

I JUST WANT TO SAY THAT HE IS NOT AS EASY AS EVERYONE SAYS HE IS.

no joke. i'm a straight a student, worked my butt off, and got a b+. he was supposed to be super easy. he wasn't, so don't be fooled.

granted, he's a nice guy, and always available for office hours and emails. but, he didn't touch grades once. his grader handled everything. so even though he knew that my answers were right and i deserved more partial credit, he didn't do anything. he let the grader handle it. LAME.

I took this class for my last quarter in UCLA so I just change it to pass no pass. Not gonna lie, professor Ariel class is pretty boring and dull. Problem Sets and Exams are also very long and difficult to do. However, one thing good about this class is how much help he offered you. Although problem sets are hard, you can always ask questions in his Q&A session and he is happy to answer all of it for you. If you think he is not helpful or thinks he doesn't explain problem sets, it is because you didn't attend his Q&A session or watch the recroding. He is also very responsive with questions on campuswire too.
Personally, I could not complete all the problem sets without asking him on Campuswire and zoom session.

I took this class during covid time. Professor Burstein overall is a nice professor. He pre-recorded the lectures and post them before normal class time. Then the normal class time is for questions.

There is 4 homework for this course. He provided the option that two students completing one set of homework. If the homework is 75% correct, you will get the full point.

There is a midterm and a final for this course. Both of them are multiple-choice questions, which I found a little bit tricky.

Professor Burstein doesn't speak really clearly, there is a little bit of ascent, which takes me some time to get used to it.

I really did hate this class. I just didn't like the Professor or maybe it was just the online setting. He did have a very forgiving grading scheme with 50% homework and 50% midterm or final and the final was not cumulative. The midterm was much harder than the final in my opinion, the average was like a c-, d+ iirc. Final was much easier in my opinion.

Pretty good class for an elective. The lectures can be really boring - but make sure you go to the lectures before the midterm and the final, since he goes over a couple of practice problems that mirror types of problems you need to do on the tests. The homework is pretty straightforward and so is the material. Make sure you know all of the different shifts in graphs, since those seem to be on every single test!

The material in this class is really interesting and useful for understanding exchange rates, monetary policy, and international macro-economics. Too bad the professor is really dry.

This class was not that bad for an Economics elective. The material is pretty interesting and the midterm and final aren't too bad.

Lectures are a little boring and Professor Burstein can be dry at times, but he always goes over the material as best as he can. I would make sure to go to lecture, since his PPT slides aren't that self-explanatory and he clarifies things on the board.

As long as you go to lecture and can do the homework, this class isn't that hard to get an A.

I thought Professor Burstein was great. He is very clear in his lectures, and he puts in a good amount of effort towards connecting theoretical models with empirical literature on the subject. He is always willing to answer questions. I would sometimes ask him questions after class, which he would always answer despite being in a rush.