Prof. Hou's class is not easy, but it isn't difficult if you do the work. TAs will usually have access to his past exams, and by doing them you will generally do well on the exams themselves. Keep up with the reading, all the MC comes from the textbook. Don't miss lectures. He will tell you basically what essay questions to expect, and will explain concepts thoroughly. Sure, he goes off on weird tangents sometimes (he spent half an hour talking about the Opium War in our class), but they're sometimes a welcome relief from having to listen to an hour and fifteen minutes of macroecon straight.

I feel like I've learned a lot from Prof. Hou this quarter, and I was usually not bored during lectures. I'd recommend him, his tests are fair and his jokes usually funny.

Whatever you is probably true. He's a funny guy. Unfortunately, he talks too much about Chinese history (and he's Taiwanese, ironic eh?). I think he needs to focus on his lecture materials more...he barely uses the board...but he can keep you awake at 8AM! His exams are not bad but they are not easy...just go to your TA session.

This class was not TERRIBLY hard. I would rate Hou a 6.5 - 7 for difficulty, partly because I never had a strong background in econ from HS.

Some people complained about how he talks about his life too much, but keep this in mind:
more time spent speaking about his life = less time for material = less chapters to read for the final

LOL, He told us how he was in a restaurant with his wife, and the waiter told him that he could tell his daughter that the food will be ready. HAHAHAHA

The ratings make it seem as if he's a horrible professor, but really, he's not. He's a pretty good professor who explains things clearly. Moreover, his curve is generous.

For the most part, I agree with review 3/8. Read the advice he/she gave.

O yeah, I'm pretty sure his name is pronounced like "how." Not "hoe" or "who" lol

Hou is self-indulgent and very pompous. About 95% of the lectures were about him and his life, and most of those stories were just about his time in the army and how much beer he could drink. When he does talk about econ the other 5% of the time, he usually just makes references to his wife and her accounting position at Goldman&Sachs, and how it ties in to what he's suppose to be teaching, I never figured out. Even though the class is curved, it doesn't really help, especially if you can't stay awake at 8 in the morning. And don't expect to go into get help from him. He teaches mostly at CSULong Beach so he's gone most of the time. You can try learning from you TA, but that's only if you're lucking enough to get one that speaks English. My TA was really nice and knew what she was doing, and was always there for office hours, but I could barely understand her half the time. All in all, this class was pointless and I learned nothing. I was bored to death and changed my major after taking this and Econ 1 with Bresnock.

Hou cannot teach worth jack. His lectures are so retarded and he goes over econ material so quick you kind of miss it. You think he's talking about his life and all of a sudden you realize theres a quick little blurb about econ. I went to 2 lectures and decided, Forget it its better that I learn on my own. I don't know how good the TAs are, my TA had a pretty bad chinese accent (I'm first generation American Chinese myself and it was hard for me to understand) so I also skipped section. The curve helps a bit but as long as you just read the book yourself and look over all past exams and memorize the essay questions (like seriously just memorize them!) you won't do too bad. I ended up with an A- in the class which is decent for not going to disc or lecture. But then again, I did take the AP (but I got no credit because I only got a 3 on it) so that may have helped a lot.

Seriously.. there are harder teachers.. but listen to the trick in econ 2.. Go to as many TA sessions and office hours as you can.. not your TA only, but ALL TA's.. and don't do that 1 day before the test cause you'll screw up and come blame over here.. Macroecon is a tough course, very theoretical and Hou doesn't make it easier. His lectures? You can skip them, he doesn't talk that much about anything!! read the book over and over and over and over again and go to TA.. DON'T skip ANY concept, even 1 freakin sentence might have 5 questions on it.. watch out you should understand the smallest details.. it takes a LOT of time, but you can get A.. I read the book just twice the week of midterm and final, went to one TA sessions, got B in the course.
P.S.: If you're in the administration, you should move Hou back to CSULB.

I'm not even halfway through econ with this professor, but I dislike him so much that I'm rating him now. Hou is horrible. He talks excessively about China and how it is the superior country in every respect. He also talks incessantly about his wife...to the point where I'm like, 'Please talk about econ' (it's THAT bad). As if that's not bad enough, he occassionally writes stuff out in Chinese characters, stressing the superiority of the Chinese character system!! Who cares?!? In addition, he is extremely rude. I went to office hours once (his office hours are at 7 am) and let's just say that he wasn't the nicest person. Instead of helping me, he made me feel as though I was stupid for asking the questions that I did. Needless to say, I will never attend his office hours again. This guy dislikes UCLA students and constantly talks about his students at Cal State Long Beach and how a majority of them are brighter than UCLA students, but are attending CSULB because of financial reasons. This professor really needs to be reviewed. He is arrogant and rude...someone needs to get him out of here. He is a disgrace not only to the department but to the institution as a whole.

Good lecturer when he isn't going off on tangents, generous curves, but still should study hard.

HORRIBLE.. you pretty much have to take him even though you should avoid it at all costs. He is a bitter, cynical man who does not have any interest in teaching classes at UCLA
(he normally teaches at CSULB). Seriously, a WASTE of my time - curve is really low, so if you study hard, you'll do fine even if your % are really low.

His office hours were waaay early in the morning, like 6:30 to 8:00. Who would wake up that early? He goes off on tangents about his wife and other things. Many of the m/c questions were from the study guide, it was like deja vu. His free response questions were sometimes taken from old exams. The final had like 2 essays straight from the final of the qtr before, which made it kinda nice since that's what I studied from. My TA was terrific, which made the class more bearable, Shirley. His class was curved very nicely. Seems like you're doing very badly, but you're not ... it'll be okay in the end.