The people that complain about professor Hou are EXACTLY the people that he describes in the first lecture: people that didn't do well in his class. Honestly speaking, I got a B- and would have wanted a better grade, but lifes tough like that. His class is hard, do not get me wrong. However, that isn't his fault. The material is tough, thats just the way it is, and if you can't handle the heat, get out of the frying pan. The whole 8am bit made the class rather difficult, but thats too be expected if they wanna weed out all the business econ majors. Just go to class and do the reading and DO THE PRACTICE TESTS and you are guarenteed to get a B or better in his class

now, about JackO. The guy is absolutly halarious. His english, contrary to some of the below comments, is "damned near perfect" to quote him :). It is actually very understandable, and to make the class a bit more "stay-awakeable" considering its time slot, he spends alot of time cracking jokes and what-not to keep peoples attention. As far as teaching goes, he does a fairly good job of preparing you for his tests, though you do have to make an effort to get the practice/previous tests online AND actually do them. Cramming for his tests work if you have enough red bull, but it doesn't work really well. If you really wanna cram, set aside two nights, one for all the reading, and one for doing LOTS and LOTS of tests. His multiple-choice sections are a pain in the arse, but the free response is more fair. He has one TA this year, though, that gives almost no partial credit (probably because SHE is the one that doesn't understand much english, those of you that have her know EXACTLY who i am talking about) and I had her and still managed a decent grade

Overall, the class is hard but Jack-O makes it WELL worth taking. Yes, he is a CSU Long Beach professor, but that doesn't make him unintelligent. I mean, crap, compared to Bresnock, this guy is a saint.

I personally found Prof. Hou to be a very effective teacher. His class is challenging, but if you take the time to go to class and read the book it really isn't that bad. His tests are hard, and yes the final is a painful three hours, but I felt that he was fair and I definitely learned a lot by going to lecture. In the end I got an A-, his curve is pretty generous.

Prof Hou is a unique fellow. I hated the fact that the class was at 8 in the morning, but i have to admit he was able to keep me awake during lecture (except for one incident where i was wayyy too tired). His style of teaching is different--some may say it's disorganized. If you're the type that likes well planned out lectures with powerpoint and pictures of perfect graphs, then GOOD LUCK with hou. Going to lecture is a must, despite how many idiots i hear bragging about "never attending lecture and still managed a B" bottom line is, just go to lecture because he *hint hint wink wink's* about what the essay questions are going to be. Also, i learned this too late, but if you know you have limited time, DO ALL THE ONLINE PRACTICE EXAMS. i mean it, ALL of them. because he repeats a lot of them. Reading the textbook is good, if you space it out weekly and not cram it. His stories were interesting in the beginning but he just gets annoying towards the end, when you want him to stop sidetracking and actually focus on teaching us about topics which will be a majority of the essay topics in our final. I found that during the week before or the week of a midterm/final, he would CRAM in his lectures and his little stories will be minimal, which screwed us over because i'd have liked it better if he spaced out the presenting of information on macroeconomis. For example, he taught us a CRUCIAL part of macro theory days before the midterm, and expected us to udnerstand it all. I had to read the book on my own and go to my TA for help. GET MIGUEL as your TA if you can (he's the head TA) and he's really helpful. I hope this long review helped, because all that you need to know about how to get a decent grade in Hou's class is in here. Good luck

Jack Hou seems to be smart enough, so why can't he teach the class like a rational individual? More time is spent on various diversions; stories about his wife, his wife's job, how much money his wife makes, what kind of car he drives, how his students at Long Beach do this and that, all about his long commute and how he gets to school at 5AM (why??)...in the meanwhile, the actual economics slowly trickles through in disorganized lumps. Hou rarely finishes what he put on the board as the class outline. He is unclear about the reading schedule and he fills his exams with misleading or irrelevant questions. His exams are also VERY long - expect to take up the full three hours for the final! The book itself is new this quarter, and unclear on some important concepts (like GDP deflator), and how provides little to make up for that. Dragging myself to every 8AM class did little besides stir deep resentment towards this professor.

If you take this class, be prepared to study very hard and memorize a lot. Except to study 10+ hours for the second midterm and the final. Go to section, and stay on top of the reading. Following these instructions should put you somewhere in the upper 1/4 of the class...good luck!

This was my first experience in the economics department and UCLA, and it was nearly my last. This man is horrible. It think that part of the Econ dept's startegy in weeding out undergraduates is this teacher. I use teacher loosely because all I learned was about his service in the Taiwanese army. Read the book and study in groups... lots of memorizing. Don't give up on economics, it is a great major.

Hou is the least approachable professor that I've had. He is very impatient and rude at his office hours which, with my experiences, he's been 20 minutes late to. The TA's are great though (complete opposite of what I just said about Hou.) Still go to lecture and sections as the TAs and professor make it pretty clear what you will need to know for the midterms and final (especially concerning the essay portion). The first midterm is relatively easy so take advantage of it because the second midterm and the final are very hard.

Reading the book for the class is very necessary. If you don't read the book you WILL fail. He goes off on a lot of tangents and he did seem to cram in a lot of material at the end of the quarter. He has a fairly nice curve. I got an 87% overall grade in the class ( had the second highest score on the final ) and that was an A+.

I think this guy is really generous with his curve, but u HAVE to read the book and do some practice.

He's not as bad as everyone makes him out to be. Just do the reading and go to section; his TAs are extremely helpful. Professor Hou isn't a great lecturer; he sidetracks alot. And considering it's an 8am class, you probably don't want to hear him rant on for 30 minutes. He's loud and straightforward, he'll tell you if you're being stupid; he definitely makes it easy to stay awake. His tests were a bit harder than I expected, especially for a beginning econ class. But if you review his past exams you can get all the essay questions right. He doesn't really make that many changes. Let's face it, there's not a lot of choice in the econ department of top-noch teachers.

The only reason I would "recommend this professor to my friends" is because the class is not terribly tough and you don't need to go to lectures.

What you do need is a penchant for memorization and mathematics for Econ 2. Hou is not a very nice guy, so if you ask him questions, don't be too aggressive or pushy, or else he'll tell you to "get out of my face" as I saw him tell one student.

He's not nice, but he is smart, so he infuses his lectures with all sorts of interesting and some non-interesting information (which does not end up on the midterm).

To do well in this class, just read and memorize terms from the book, do the practice problems in the TA review sessions, and DO THE PRACTICE MIDTERMS AND FINALS, because he often repeats questions.

His test format and curve are not very creative ... which is good, because your final grade is quite predictable.

Hou is by far the worst teacher ever! Avoid him at all costs. He is horribly rude, arrogant, and talk for about 10 minutes about economics and the rest of the hour he talks about random bullshit that you didn't wake up at 7:30 am to hear. Don't even bother going to his office hours. He really is a piece and all he talks about is how he's only part time here and really works at Cal State Long Beach. Go back to Long Beach Hou!

If you have no choice but to take this class...do the old tests!!! he gets everything from them.