I thought Hou was an awesome teacher. If you go to lecture, read the assigned chapters and go to discussions sections, you will do fine. I don't see why all of these people are complaining. I'm in an econ class right now that, in my opinion, has no structure. At least with Hou, you know what you're suppose to study for.

professor hou is terrible. i got an A in the class solely because i spent hours reading the book and doing practice problems. he has no teaching ability whatsoever. if you intend on taking this class with him don't expect any help from his teaching. his jokes are painfully stupid and never on-topic.

I think he's a very funny guy. He sort of reminds you of this Asian father figure, which totally cracks me up. But anyhow, I enjoyed his class. But the one thing that really pissed me off was that he crammed like 6 or so chapters into the last two weeks of class. From week 1 through 5, our first midterm consisted only of Chapters 1 through 5. So, you can imagine how hectic it must have been for us to cram 6 chapters of work into two weeks. However, I think most people pulled it off. Review his old exams. Those are really helpful. When I came back from the final, so many people were complaining about what a difficult test it was, but if they really looked and attempted to do past exams, they would realize...they're the same questions, for god's sake! Well, not 100% the same....but a good 75% is the same. So, just do the old tests, and you'd do just fine, I hope.

I love Professor Hou. This man is hilarious, he seriously should have been a comedian. He does tell A LOT of stories, but they are entertaining and he does relate them to economics. He does a great job at lecturing and makes concepts easy to understand. He seems like a friendly guy, despite what he says about having no interpersonal skills. I wish he taught more classes than just Econ 2. Take him, you won't regret it.

I learned more about his personal life than economics during his lectures. If you want to do well in this class, buy the study guide and practice those problems. There is also a lot of reading if you want to do the readings that are on the syllabus, which are more than a chapter a week.

WOW!!! this was the worst class ever!! not only did he move the class from 8am to 7:50 wasting 10 minuts of my life every lecture, he then ranted for an additional 30-40 minutes about his "low" salary, his big house, and bread-winning wife. The class isnt that hard but i am tired of hearing how much America sucks and the Chinese economy is supreme. He is a loud stuttering disgruntled little man...i feel sorry for him.

I'm ambivalent on my review of Professor Hou. He lectures well and he definitely keeps you on your toes (because he talks nonstop), and in a sense the course was not boring because of that. But if you haven't kept up with the text, you would probably be lost in his lectures. This was the case for me (and I'm sure for many others, as well). The text he uses is very good and does a thorough job of explaining the most minute of details. I was stupid and didn't buy the study guide (so I had to photocopy my friends' guides). You really need both the text and the study guide because the study guide has MANY practice questions to help you prepare for the exams). And what the reviewer before me stated, about the website...I had NO idea that the test bank was online (I studied straight off the book, lectures, and study guide), but I managed to get an A-. And I know I could have studied more, so it's not as hard as others say. If you think about it, Econ has no hw, no quizzes, no projects, so you should be studying that much more for the midterms and final. It also helps if you have a good TA. Some TAs will be super nice and hand out past tests and study guides and hold review sessions. If your TA won't do these, then be sure to go to another TA who does. Sorry, this was more of a course review than a professor review...but I hope it's useful.

Professor Hou is the REASON I decided not to go Bus-Econ. Econ 2 was a HORRIBLE class!! Everything you read about Hou is true. He is an arrogant man who spends lectures talking about China, his family, and his great Japanese car ... but he does relate all 3 to Econ (somehow). If you can manage to get past his arrogance and look within his digression, I suppose you could learn something from his lectures, which essay questions from the midterms and finals are "supposedly" based on. He is VERY difficult and even with tutoring, I still struggled. If you MUST take this class, try to attend a TA session that gives out handouts and past midterms. My TA luckily did, and I had the upper hand because of this. Questions are often recycled from the multiple choice. Atleast one of the essay questions on a past midterm/final will also be on the current quarter's midterm/final. The last thing I can advise is to use the book's website and go through the multiple choice quizzes (each chapter has two 10 question quizzes). These are all TEST BANK questions so these questions WILL be on the midterm/final. One thing that wasn't mentioned in previous reviews is that if you do terribly on the first two midterms, instead of having that kill 50% of your grade (25-25 for midterms 1 and 2), Hou gives the option of having your final grade be worth 70% of your grade and the two midterms worth 30% (15-15). Know that the curve is pretty great. I ended up with a B- (after a C+ on midterm 1 and a B- on midterm 2) ... but it was a VERY stressful quarter ... and I put in loads of effort. Professor Hou, himself, does not HELP you ... you have to know the book from cover to cover. You have to be able to look at essay questions and know it on your own. His office hours are at 6:15am or some other ridiculous time ... so count on your TA (whose English you probably won't be able to UNDERSTAND). Do not take this class if you are "considering" the Bus-Econ/Econ major. Do not take this class if you have a hard quarter ahead of you. Do not take this class for your first quarter of freshman year!!!

Not as bad as most of the reviews portray him. He gives hints as to what's going to be on the exam. If you didn't come to lecture because it was so early, that's your fault, not his. Capeesh?

His first midterm was easy, the second midterm was tough, and the final was relatively hard but doable--the free response was pretty much the same exact stuff on the practice final. He's not the best professor I've had, but he's not terrible at all. Going once, going twice, gone...

If you don't mind hearing about China or his family or how great Japanese cars are every so often for a change of pace, he's not bad for an intro class.

Professor Hou was terrible. I have never had a professor who digressed as much as Professor Hou did during lecture. One minute he'd be talking about econ and the next he'd start telling us about his car or Long Beach students. I'd say he probably spent about 20-30 mins of the hour and fifteen minute lecture actaully talking about Econ. His tests were very difficult too. And not only that, but he took forever to post the class grades.