Professor
Werner Hirsch
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Most Helpful Review
I found the subject material of Econ 172 fascinating and Prof. Hirsch to be a very engaging lecturer who asks questions of students in class randomly. This meant we had to do our reading, of course, and he was obviously disappointed during the start of the quarter when we obviously didn't--his face even reddened once. Before our mid-term, he didn't give us an outline or anything at all for us to know what to expect. When asked in class, he simply said the mid-term will "reward those who did their reading." And it basically required you to have done ALL the readings: Define 5 or 10 terms, Answer 2(?) essay questions from the couple offered. The Final was slightly better because he gave us a list of key terms and review essay questions. I think there were 30-40 review questions so we had to know everything in the readings and lectures, anyway. After our disasterous mid-term grades, I'm sure many of us had never studied so hard for a final. In terms of grades, Prof. Hirsch doesn't scale the exam grades. He does the final grades in the course on the old-fashioned bell curve. He told me he doesn't believe in grade inflation and I can admire that on an idealistic plane, but my GPA is still hurting from it. There were a few As and Fs, and most people got Cs. I'm just thankful I was in the middle--how could I survive with a D in my major?
I found the subject material of Econ 172 fascinating and Prof. Hirsch to be a very engaging lecturer who asks questions of students in class randomly. This meant we had to do our reading, of course, and he was obviously disappointed during the start of the quarter when we obviously didn't--his face even reddened once. Before our mid-term, he didn't give us an outline or anything at all for us to know what to expect. When asked in class, he simply said the mid-term will "reward those who did their reading." And it basically required you to have done ALL the readings: Define 5 or 10 terms, Answer 2(?) essay questions from the couple offered. The Final was slightly better because he gave us a list of key terms and review essay questions. I think there were 30-40 review questions so we had to know everything in the readings and lectures, anyway. After our disasterous mid-term grades, I'm sure many of us had never studied so hard for a final. In terms of grades, Prof. Hirsch doesn't scale the exam grades. He does the final grades in the course on the old-fashioned bell curve. He told me he doesn't believe in grade inflation and I can admire that on an idealistic plane, but my GPA is still hurting from it. There were a few As and Fs, and most people got Cs. I'm just thankful I was in the middle--how could I survive with a D in my major?
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