Barry is funny and a nice professor, but his lectures are frankly disorganized and prone to errors. Super easy to get an A if you put in minimal effort and go to most classes. I am selling the textbook (which is not necessary to buy but helpful if you don't understand everything in class)
email me about the textbook if interested in buying! carcar5618@gmail.com

Barry is super fun and plays games in class. You can also win a few bucks playing the games. As long as you do the homework and understand that, you're fine. His lecture slides are super disorganized but it is easy to just go through them and look for the important info. Barry is the best!!!

Prof. O'neill does care about his students learning, but this class is pretty difficult. I talked to my friends who took PS30 with different professors, and what we did in this class was much more complicated and difficult that what they did. The professor himself is the most adorable little old man ever, he's hilarious and always says something that makes the class erupt in laughter. He's very engaging, even though his slides can be confusing.

The lectures are hard to pay attention to because he goes off topic sometimes and not in order. Yana Otlan, one of the TA's, really clear it up and grade the homework assignments off of understanding it well or not. The midterm and final are 75% of what you expect it to be and are 50% similar to what the study guides/past finals he gives out to be. Definitely go to the test bank and AAP tutoring sessions. AAP was 90% of the reason I understood the material so well!

I would not have been able to get a good grade in this class had it not been for my TA. She seriously was the only reason because O'Neill goes really fast and sometimes his slides don't make sense.

I really liked him as a professor. Yes he was sometimes disorganized, but his notes were easy to follow. You have to put in some effort and go to discussions, and you should be okay.
He was quite funny too, so I enjoyed going to lecture. I ended up with an A in the class.

Ok, yes, sometimes he's disorganized. But he acknowledges that and it's part of his charm! He's such a sweet, old Canadian man who happens to be extremely knowledgeable in game theory and strategy. He often illustrated the games with participating students and gave money away which is always fun. The homework assignments always took a little while, but they REALLY force you to understand the material and not get behind. (Tip: Always do the homework with someone else or a group of people - it always helps to talk it out).

He always asks students if they understand what he's saying and teaching, so there's a sense that he's in tune with how the students are feeling about the material. I personally never went to his office hours, but I know that he's always available.

All in all, yes he's pretty disorganized, but there are so many times in class where you're like, "WTF?" and just laugh and shake your head. It's really hard to dislike this guy, cause he does try! I got an A in the class, and all you have to do is just make sure you understand the concepts he's teaching and always write down his examples of how he solves the problems. Either way, the TAs are really helpful and usually have their own set of notes they give. My TA Marco had his own section notes which were SO helpful, even though he personally wasn't.

He curves it so that the majority of the class gets some sort of an A so if you put it in any kind of effort you shouldn't get anything less than a B+.

Mr. O'Neill was THE most frustrating professor/educator I have ever encountered. To say that he is disorganized would be an understatement. His slides were not very helpful, and even when his slides would present a problem, he would have an error in the numbers or misplacement of the numbers.
He is brilliant, but I felt like he had difficulty trying to say what he meant. I sat in the front row at every lecture without distraction and still struggled.

He means well but he is too jumbled. Also, his final was unbearably long, and in the middle of the final made an announcement admitting this mistake.

quirky but brilliant. go to your discussion section every week and you will be fine. oneill is a sweet guy, but hard to follow sometimes. he's a genius though just not the best at articulating certain aspects of the course.

What can I say, the only thing that bothers me about Prof. O'neil is that he only teaches two UG courses. He isn't the most organized professor (even refering to himself as an "absent minded professor"), but he is a great professor. This was my second class with him and I have to say his lectures are enjoyable, not because they are nec. interesting, but because the guy has a great sense of humor. If you are looking for a very manageable A, he is the professor for you. Around 40% of the class gets some sort of A. The grade consists of participation in discussion, 7 short assignments, a midterm and a final. If you are obsessed about knowing exactly what grade you are getting in the class while you are taking it, do not take his class. He does not figure out letter grades until the quarter is over. His midterm and final are relatively easy. He provides a study guide for both and even conducts an optional after hours study session for the final. You really can't go wrong taking his class.