Simon Board
Department of Economics
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2.5
Overall Rating
Based on 14 Users
Easiness 1.5 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 2.3 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 1.3 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 3.7 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

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GRADE DISTRIBUTIONS
17.5%
14.6%
11.7%
8.8%
5.8%
2.9%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

ENROLLMENT DISTRIBUTIONS
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Reviews (8)

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Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
Dec. 30, 2009

Just throwing this out there: I did not get A from him. I had an A before the final, so I'm not saying this because he rounded my grade or anything.

Simon Board is NOT a hard professor. Yes, his teaching style is very scientific, but a quick review over the notes does help. Getting an A isn't impossible. Just make sure you study before the tests, and if you don't understand something, take a minute to think it through or talk to him during office hours. He's very nice. Talk to your TAs. They're really good at explaining details. I recommend Meeyong.
The midterms and finals weren't very hard, just long. You even get to drop the midterm with the lowest score. The most important thing to remember is DO NOT pull an all-nighter before the final, even if you have other finals the day before. (I had a south campus minor and an organic chemistry midterm/final 12 hrs before all of my econ midterms/final. It sucked.) Sleep is definitely necessary, because otherwise you forget stupid little things like how to find demand.
One of the other things you'll notice is that there's a lot of foreign asian people that form homework groups so that they can match answers. It's annoying if you don't have the time to run around in circles for this class (or if you don't speak their language) because it just kills the homework curve. But if you do, bonus points for you.

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Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
Dec. 22, 2009

This professor is totally a JOKE.
Like previous comments said, his lecture sucks cause its full of mistakes in his porwepoints
(ok, maybe the only good thing of going to his lecture is to correct the mistakes)
and he never really explain the stuff he teaches.
Also, if you are not really smart or you don't have a good TA, the HW will be tough; most importantly
, the midterm and final are MUCH HARDER than the homework and you have to do lots of thinking(and they have nothing to do with the homework lol)

Maybe I am too stupid and I didn't have a good TA until the first midterm is over, finally I did not get a good grade in this class, and my road to Bus-econ just ended as I found out I got a B- yesterday.
GOOD JOB SIMON BOARD.
By the way, as a U.S. citizen, I hardly understand the reason he called those non-citizens " damn foreigners", personally this guy just makes me so sick.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
Dec. 17, 2009

Do not bother opening the textbook. His notes and slides should suffice for the tests.
He is a professor with endless surprises and forces you to learn by your own. (because
you don't really learn much from him) He makes tons of mistakes. I do not remember a lecture session
where he did not point out mistakes. I still cannot forget his preposterous statement "at least
I'm consistent with my mistakes." The material is comparably difficult as it is. He does not have to rub salt on the wounds by making us go through his labryinth of erros.
As the previous commentators have stated, getting a good TA is essential (You will have hard time completing
most of the homework assignments w/o their help). His lectures will seem like the tests are going to be easy breezy. Don't be fooled. The midterms and finals are going to be as difficult as, if not more difficult than the homework assignments.

He also sucks at explaning stuff. He often attempts to explain some difficult concept but utterly fails and ends with "yeh..yeh". I could totally tell he did not prepare his lectures. Also, do not bother going to his office hours. He won't be much better than he was during his lectures.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
Dec. 14, 2009

This professor explains his lectures from the power point slides that include countless mistakes in them. He does NOT then take time to correct those mistakes online. Moreover, he has hard time coming up with simple examples to explain the subject. Throughout the quarter when he had to discuss markets, the only ones he could come up with were Apps or MP3s. Are you kidding me??? That's all? So if you take a class with him, MAKE SURE you find a good TA, do all the practice tests, homeworks, and do NOT read the book (waste of time, find a better book in the library). On his midterms there WILL be a question that requires a lot of thinking; therefore, do the easy ones quickly and have some time for that hard question. Otherwise, there is no way of getting an A on any of his tests. P.S. I ended up doing well in the class because of my amazing TA.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
Dec. 6, 2009

I had many reservations going into this class especially after reading all of the bad reviews from bruinwalk. I wish I could say that they were not true, but what I can say is that this class IS do-able. I was fortunate enough to have an AMAZING TA (Katherine Eriksson) who basically re-taught us everything during discussion. You do have to do alot of self teaching and spend a good amount of time studying for the tests but overall not that bad. I ended up only reading a few chapters in the book for clarification and referencing the slides when I was studying for the midterms and tests. The first midterm caught me a little by surprise and I ended up getting a C+ but I figured out what/how to study for the second midterm and ended up with an A. So with all that being said, if you NEED this class like I did because I wanted to take 11, 101 and 102 in sequence in a year, then it is possible to do well in it. However, if you can wait a quarter till another professor teaches it, then do that!

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
April 16, 2009

Extremely hard professor. Although he's a nice guy, he should stick to teaching grad students.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
Feb. 26, 2009

The hardest professor i have had at ucla. i studied for this class more than i ever had, not because the material was hard, but because i had to teach myself everything. do not take this professor. he is very, very intelligent but not that great of a teacher. right about now i am wishing i took this class with sproul or mcdevitt.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
Feb. 14, 2009

Put it this way: I'm taking Econ 11 again with Michael Sproul and everything Sproul's teaching us in that class was virtually different than everything Board "taught" us. Board's a nice, funny guy and his accent will probably keep you glued to his lectures but I really couldn't understand anything in that class.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
Dec. 30, 2009

Just throwing this out there: I did not get A from him. I had an A before the final, so I'm not saying this because he rounded my grade or anything.

Simon Board is NOT a hard professor. Yes, his teaching style is very scientific, but a quick review over the notes does help. Getting an A isn't impossible. Just make sure you study before the tests, and if you don't understand something, take a minute to think it through or talk to him during office hours. He's very nice. Talk to your TAs. They're really good at explaining details. I recommend Meeyong.
The midterms and finals weren't very hard, just long. You even get to drop the midterm with the lowest score. The most important thing to remember is DO NOT pull an all-nighter before the final, even if you have other finals the day before. (I had a south campus minor and an organic chemistry midterm/final 12 hrs before all of my econ midterms/final. It sucked.) Sleep is definitely necessary, because otherwise you forget stupid little things like how to find demand.
One of the other things you'll notice is that there's a lot of foreign asian people that form homework groups so that they can match answers. It's annoying if you don't have the time to run around in circles for this class (or if you don't speak their language) because it just kills the homework curve. But if you do, bonus points for you.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
Dec. 22, 2009

This professor is totally a JOKE.
Like previous comments said, his lecture sucks cause its full of mistakes in his porwepoints
(ok, maybe the only good thing of going to his lecture is to correct the mistakes)
and he never really explain the stuff he teaches.
Also, if you are not really smart or you don't have a good TA, the HW will be tough; most importantly
, the midterm and final are MUCH HARDER than the homework and you have to do lots of thinking(and they have nothing to do with the homework lol)

Maybe I am too stupid and I didn't have a good TA until the first midterm is over, finally I did not get a good grade in this class, and my road to Bus-econ just ended as I found out I got a B- yesterday.
GOOD JOB SIMON BOARD.
By the way, as a U.S. citizen, I hardly understand the reason he called those non-citizens " damn foreigners", personally this guy just makes me so sick.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
Dec. 17, 2009

Do not bother opening the textbook. His notes and slides should suffice for the tests.
He is a professor with endless surprises and forces you to learn by your own. (because
you don't really learn much from him) He makes tons of mistakes. I do not remember a lecture session
where he did not point out mistakes. I still cannot forget his preposterous statement "at least
I'm consistent with my mistakes." The material is comparably difficult as it is. He does not have to rub salt on the wounds by making us go through his labryinth of erros.
As the previous commentators have stated, getting a good TA is essential (You will have hard time completing
most of the homework assignments w/o their help). His lectures will seem like the tests are going to be easy breezy. Don't be fooled. The midterms and finals are going to be as difficult as, if not more difficult than the homework assignments.

He also sucks at explaning stuff. He often attempts to explain some difficult concept but utterly fails and ends with "yeh..yeh". I could totally tell he did not prepare his lectures. Also, do not bother going to his office hours. He won't be much better than he was during his lectures.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
Dec. 14, 2009

This professor explains his lectures from the power point slides that include countless mistakes in them. He does NOT then take time to correct those mistakes online. Moreover, he has hard time coming up with simple examples to explain the subject. Throughout the quarter when he had to discuss markets, the only ones he could come up with were Apps or MP3s. Are you kidding me??? That's all? So if you take a class with him, MAKE SURE you find a good TA, do all the practice tests, homeworks, and do NOT read the book (waste of time, find a better book in the library). On his midterms there WILL be a question that requires a lot of thinking; therefore, do the easy ones quickly and have some time for that hard question. Otherwise, there is no way of getting an A on any of his tests. P.S. I ended up doing well in the class because of my amazing TA.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
Dec. 6, 2009

I had many reservations going into this class especially after reading all of the bad reviews from bruinwalk. I wish I could say that they were not true, but what I can say is that this class IS do-able. I was fortunate enough to have an AMAZING TA (Katherine Eriksson) who basically re-taught us everything during discussion. You do have to do alot of self teaching and spend a good amount of time studying for the tests but overall not that bad. I ended up only reading a few chapters in the book for clarification and referencing the slides when I was studying for the midterms and tests. The first midterm caught me a little by surprise and I ended up getting a C+ but I figured out what/how to study for the second midterm and ended up with an A. So with all that being said, if you NEED this class like I did because I wanted to take 11, 101 and 102 in sequence in a year, then it is possible to do well in it. However, if you can wait a quarter till another professor teaches it, then do that!

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
April 16, 2009

Extremely hard professor. Although he's a nice guy, he should stick to teaching grad students.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
Feb. 26, 2009

The hardest professor i have had at ucla. i studied for this class more than i ever had, not because the material was hard, but because i had to teach myself everything. do not take this professor. he is very, very intelligent but not that great of a teacher. right about now i am wishing i took this class with sproul or mcdevitt.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
Feb. 14, 2009

Put it this way: I'm taking Econ 11 again with Michael Sproul and everything Sproul's teaching us in that class was virtually different than everything Board "taught" us. Board's a nice, funny guy and his accent will probably keep you glued to his lectures but I really couldn't understand anything in that class.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
1 of 1
2.5
Overall Rating
Based on 14 Users
Easiness 1.5 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 2.3 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 1.3 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 3.7 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

TOP TAGS

There are no relevant tags for this professor yet.

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