i actually liked this class compared to the other econ classes i've had. i realized i should've put more effort in but due to other circumstances, i didn't perform that well on the final compared to my other exams and it's not because Professor McDevitt is bad. he is actually a very straightforward lecturer and even gives you shortcuts and tips to perform well on the exam. he even allows you to bring your own cheat sheets to all of his exams which is quite nice.

even though he doesn't use slides and instead writes on the board, it is pretty fascinating that he remembers all of his notes by pure memory. it really shows how invested he is with the material he is lecturing on.

Very manageable class. His multiple choice questions with like 9 options are annoying but as long as you do the practice exams you'll get used to it. All lectures are recorded and livestreamed, but McDevitt is very engaging and approachable. Exams are fully open note and questions are very similar to the practices he gives. Would definitely recommend!

McDevitt is probably the most straightforward professor I've ever had. He doesn't use slides, he only writes on the board, but this is honestly not a bad thing (depending on your learning style of course). He's obviously VERY knowledgable and passionate about the material, and he keeps his lectures very engaging. Also, if you're ever confused, he posts typed notes and lecture recordings.

Your grade is made up entirely of three exams. Fortunately, he provides past exams for practice, which are extremely similar to the actual ones. He also holds extra office hours during the days leading up to the exams. The only downside to his tests (as other people have mentioned) are his multiple choice questions, which usually contain around 10 options and make up a lot of points. Besides that, the material on the exams is very fair, and the test themselves are entirely open-note. As long as you study his notes and practice exams, you will do great.

Overall, I would strongly recommend taking this class with Professor Mcdevitt. This class is easier than my Econ 11 and 41 class because it is open notes. The exams are straight forward and similar to the practice exams. All the grades in this class is based on 2 Midterms (20% and 25%) and Final (55%). However, this class follows econ department curve so the class average is about a B. He also provides extra office hours before the exam for us to ask any questions. One thing that is a bit frustrating about his exams is that the multiple choice part would worth like 9 points out of 100 and there are like 7 choices so it is an all-or-nothing scenario.

He is such a good professor. Engaging lectures. Exams can be difficult, but everything is open note. He gives practice exams which are quite similar to the actual exams. Practice those and you should be fine. Overall, I would take this professor again.

Professor McDevitt is passionate about economics and very knowledgeable in what he teaches. He has very well prepared and very well explained lectures and presentations every class meeting. I am extremely grateful to learn economics from him! He makes everything so easy to understand with so many examples.
He does get a bit snappy with students, but it's understandable to lose your patience after teaching so many years. He offers so many office hours and is very supportive towards his students.

I think the class was not as hard as other reviews say. Do not follow the bruin walk grade distribution because it is misleading. The professor is a good lecturer and he knows what he's talking about, during his class he'll make references to other Econ classes (from Econ 1 to Econ 106). The exams are pretty tricky for the multiple choice but if you do all the study questions and practice problems you'll be more than fine. the grade is based only on three exams. I personally took very good notes (do not try to understand the notes without the lecture because he provides exams questions during the lectures). I studied for this class probably for 8 days the whole quarter. Go to the regraded sections that he holds after each exam, my grade improved by 8/10% for every single exam after the regrade section.

this class covers interesting topics. I think professor McDevitt is not a bad lecturer and during the lectures he will talk about all type of topics, from Econ 1 to Econ 106. the workload is not that bad, you just need to watch the lectures, and study for midterms and finals. some questions on the exams are almost the exact same from the practice exams. my biggest advice is to go to the regrade section that he offers after each exams. For each exams on average my grade improved by 8/10%. Overall a good class, in the same quarter I was taking three other Econ classes and I was able to manage all As.

- Despite this class being extremely tough, McDevitt is a very good lecturer and explains every concept very well. His style of teaching is whiteboard rather than slides, which IMO allowed me to follow along better and take better notes. He also provided notes which he followed in lectures and although they were kind of messy and confusing to follow, if you can deconstruct it, use it to study and for the exams.
- Exams make up 100% of the grade with two midterms and a final (25%, 30%, 55%) so there are no other graded assignments. Exams are multiple choice, true/false, with a couple FRQs, however, the multiple choice sometimes have choices A-G with only one right answer, but his recommendation was to treat them as a FRQ which sorta worked for me. Exams are open note/book which helped a lot especially because there was so much we needed to know, but for the midterms there is a huge time constraint so don't depend on them. I bombed the first exam, but got better with second and final which boosted my grade.
My advice to study for the exams:
- Go to lecture and then rewatch it (you don't even have to show up in person, but just watch it twice). He does record his lectures, and again he explained concepts very well, but I found it impossible to grasp onto the concepts after watching the lecture for the first time especially when I'm more focused on taking notes so all the understanding came while rewatching the lecture. And I rewatched it in 1.5 speed, plus he cuts his lecture short sometimes and it's really not that bad. Also, everything he tests us on he would teach in his lectures, he would sometimes also let us know exactly what would be on the exam so we can study for.
- Deconstruct his notes and make cheat sheets. His notes are very confusingly formatted and all over the place, but if you are able to deconstruct them they explain some of the concepts very well and very useful for exams.
- Do the study question and practice exam questions and understand them.
- Go to office hours, around exam times, he opens up more office hours at different dates and times to accommodate anyone that needs it.

Overall, this class wasn't easy but McDevitt is a very good lecturer (probably one of the best in the Econ dept.) and gave everything we need to know for exams.

The class itself was conceptually fairly simple for me. I have heard that other professors are math heavy and have complex calculus and algebra involved in the class but professor McDevitt does not have hard calculus or algebra in any part of the class so you do not need to worry about brushing up on these concepts too much. The class is very conceptual but as long as you are following in lecture and do the practice problems you will do fine on the tests.

Distribution:
Midterm 1: 20%
Midterm 2: 25%
Final: 55%

I got a 97%, 100%, and 96% respectively before the cure on the exams scoring the highest in the class overall. I did not put in a crazy amount of time outside of the class studying. I simply would make sure I understand lecture problems. I would try to apply to concepts to the study questions. Then I would again try to apply the concepts to the practice exam questions. Thats all you need to do. Understand the concepts he is talking about and you will do fine.

The averages in on the the tests were around 60% but then he curved these up to a B approximately. The class is pretty heavily curved so you could honestly put even less effort than I did to get an A even though I didn't do anything crazy to score high in the class.