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Hamilton, Stephen 
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ECON 311 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 9:23 am, Feb 20, 2013 Report Evaluation |
He's the most effective, down-to-earth professor in the Economics department. His class is hard, but he will give you the tools you need to succeed. | |
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ECON 311 Senior Grade Earned: A Elective 11:47 am, Dec 11, 2012 Report Evaluation |
This was a great class and Hamilton is an amazing professor who truly cares about his students. The class consisted of a pre-class assignment before every lecture, 4 problem sets, a midterm, and a cumulative final. He is a difficult teacher and it is a difficult class, but if you apply yourself, attend the lectures, and do all the assignments, you can get an A. It's also nice because if you don't do well on the midterm, you have the option of having 100% of your final grade being your final exam grade, which is what I did. I started studying for the final about a month before the exam and literally rewrote all of my notes. The lectures move quickly and it's easy to get behind, so start studying for the final exam early with the intention of getting an A and you'll be golden. | |
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ECON 311 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 12:49 pm, Feb 14, 2012 Report Evaluation |
Hamilton is a great professor. He gives homework assignments, one midterm, and one test. He does a great job of making sure overall grades properly reflect how well students know the material rather than what their test scores were. It is clear he is very intelligent, and he works really hard to try and accommodate everyone. Make sure to take down all of the notes in his class. His homework assignments usually reflect examples he does in class so if you have those the work isn't that bad. Also any practice tests he gives are a good reflection of what the real test will look like. If you stay awake in class and take notes his class is fine. Overall I would recommend Hamilton. I'm taking Econ 432 with him again | |
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ECON 431 Junior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 1:17 pm, Feb 9, 2012 Report Evaluation |
Hamilton is a great professor. Really nice guy too. But don't let his personality fool you. His tests are hard as shit and he isn't afraid to fail you. Make sure you know what he wants in the paper cuz he will dock you major points. | |
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ECON 311 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 7:18 pm, Jan 9, 2012 Report Evaluation |
Best teacher in the Economics BY FAR. TAKE HIM FOR EVERYTHING YOU CAN. This is coming from someone who is probably too picky about teachers, he is approachable, clear, and the class is very very fair. My favorite teacher in OCOB yet. | |
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ECON 431 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 12:50 pm, Dec 12, 2011 Report Evaluation |
Hamilton is probably once of the nicest professors you will ever have at Poly (and also a good lecturer). I have taken numerous classes from him and have found him to be an excellent instructor. His lectures are filled with examples and are useful. The HW accurately reflects what is on the midterms and finals, and he provides old midterms/finals as practice, so studying is easy. The HW load is very reasonable, maybe even borderline light. He truly cares about students understanding the material and this is especially apparent if you go to his office hours. The grading is also fair as well. He takes the mean of the top 3 students and sets that as 100% and 10% down from there is the next grade. Also he likes to go off on interesting tangents if you ask the right questions, which makes for a good time killer. | |
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ECON 431 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 5:20 pm, Dec 9, 2011 Report Evaluation |
Hamilton is a great teacher. He is a smart dude, really smart, yet he is able to relate big picture items and focused details to students effectively. The workload is pretty standard: 4 HW assignments, 1 Midterm, 1 Paper, and 1 Final. The test questions are very representative of the lecture - no surprises. I would strongly recommend this class to anyone who is a) interested in some of the basics behind Environmental Economics b) interested in learning from a top-notch professor or c) needing an upper-division ECON course for any reason. | |
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ECON 311 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:43 pm, Dec 4, 2011 Report Evaluation |
Great professor....Hamilton really gave the Econ department what it needed. That being said, this class isn't that bad, you just gotta know your basic calculus and algebra. The only downside I have to this class is that the postclass assignments were hard as balls, he helped a little bit but the algebra was just way too demanding. Good part is he gives easier problems on the midterms and finals. As long as you are brushed up on your calculus and algebra skills you'll do fine in the class. | |
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ECON 311 Sophomore Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 12:25 pm, Nov 16, 2011 Report Evaluation |
Professor Hamilton is a very nice man who tries very hard to teach his students the material. The material is not very easy which makes this class hard. There are pre classes due each week and post classes due every other week. The pre classes are graded on completeness and the post classes are graded based on accuracy with a check -, check, and check +. There is a midterm and a final. He gives you the option to have a final only grade and he will calculate your grade and give you the higher of the two. | |
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ECON 431 Junior Grade Earned: C Elective 5:46 pm, Jan 13, 2011 Report Evaluation |
Hamilton is a cool guy and he is super knowledgeble in economics. this class is super dry though and really hard. i think only a few people really knew what was going on. try your hardest to pay attention to his lectures but its easy to zone out and his midterm and final are just hopeless in my oppinon. he is a super nice guy though and really helpful in office hours, but I know he gave out a lot of D's so be warned. I just took this for a econ elective for my minor and I wouldn't recomend it. There are easier 400 level econ classes. | |
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ECON 311 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 12:42 am, Dec 23, 2010 Report Evaluation |
Difficult material, however Hamilton is more than fair. His benchmark curve system isn\'t as helpful as one might think (maybe 3%). Most difficult part of the class is the sheer amount of material, then discerning what to study when it comes time to take the midterm/final which didn\'t seem to be as difficult as the preclasses he gave us each day. Just put in your time prior to the week of the midterm and you should be fine. Also, brush up on your basic calculus skills. He also lectures extremely fast. Difficult to copy down the lecture notes and comprehend simultaneously..he\'s a sharp guy. He also has no trouble with going over troublesome topics..So take him! Cool guy. | |
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ECON 431 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 2:50 pm, Feb 3, 2010 Report Evaluation |
Hamilton hits hard right off the bat. He will not hold your hand if you are expecting him to go slow and at your pace. He teaches the class at a fast pace however is willing to answer all questions and is very helpful in office hours. I got a C on the midterm but an A on the final. He really appreciates learning so if you show you actually learned the material he will give you the grade you get on the final. Great teacher, just come prepared to work. | |
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ECON 431 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 2:50 pm, Feb 3, 2010 Report Evaluation |
Hamilton hits hard right off the bat. He will not hold your hand if you are expecting him to go slow and at your pace. He teaches the class at a fast pace however is willing to answer all questions and is very helpful in office hours. I got a C on the midterm but an A on the final. He really appreciates learning so if you show you actually learned the material he will give you the grade you get on the final. Great teacher, just come prepared to work. | |
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ECON 311 Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 4:50 pm, Dec 29, 2009 Report Evaluation |
This class sucked. First of all, Aplia was worthless. I’m glad I did it all ahead of time because it would have taken up so much time with absolutely no benefit stemming from it. Maybe it was just because Hamilton is still trying to figure out how to teach it, but there was so much information covered that it was hard to study for and know what information was important and what wasn’t. Grades are based off of the average of the top 3 people in the class for tests. Preclass assignments are stupid since who is going to be able to complete something they haven’t even been taught yet? Make sure you know how to do all of the preclass’s, however, because those are the kinds of questions you will be seeing on the tests. Luckily, his grading system allows you to redeem yourself if you bomb the midterm (which most of my class did since it was a pretty unfair test in terms of difficulty to be honest) and then the final is worth basically 100% of your grade. The final was much closer to a reasonable test in terms of following the types of questions seen in class, on the preclass assignments, and him hinting at what were the core ideas we needed to know instead of focusing on minute details for huge amounts of time in class and then us not knowing if we were going to have to be able to reproduce it or not. Overall, there are probably better teachers out there for this class, but if you do get him, make sure you stay on top of the material or you will get buried. | |
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ECON 311 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 1:23 pm, Dec 15, 2009 Report Evaluation |
Steve\'s Intermediate Economics class was a pretty good class this quarter, Fall 2009. I was really afraid for the first few weeks because there is so much stuff at first and it seems really hard. Also I had talked to someone who took his class Spring Quarter 2009 and he said was the hardest class he had ever been in. This class is pretty hard, no doubt. The concepts he goes over take quite some time to register and make sense, but if you work hard enough, eventually it makes sense. He definitely made this class a little bit easier from teaching in the Spring. He told us about some of the things he took out, which I\'m really glad he did because he talked about how he taught some of the subjects last quarter and it was much harder. It was only his second time teaching the course and he\'s getting a pretty good idea of how to do it. The worst part of the class by far was Aplia, the online website you use to do homework. I think he might get rid of it next quarter because so many people complained. It honestly did not help to learn any of the class. He gives out pre-class assignments, which probably help the most to learn the material, outside of class. Also, he grades you in two ways and takes the higher of the two. Either pre-classes + post-classes + midterm + final or just final. I did well on the final so that ended up being my grade. Overall, Steve is a really smart guy and a pretty good teacher. Attend all the lectures and put some effort outside of class and you\'ll do pretty well. | |
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ECON 221 Freshman Grade Earned: A Elective 9:10 pm, Jun 23, 2009 Report Evaluation |
It was a rare occasion that I would pay attention in his class. I did homework for another class. There is one midterm and one final. The grading breakdown is 20% homework 30% midterm and 50% final. The homework is two Aplia assignments per week, most of them weren't too bad, only a few were extremely invasive. The midterm and final were both a combination of multiple choice questions and essay questions. They were very fair. I studied by reviewing the aplia assignments and his lecture slides off of blackboard. I feel as though I mostly taught myself and he was there to coach me if needed. | |
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ECON 311 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 11:23 pm, May 18, 2009 Report Evaluation |
This instructor is very clear in his lectures. He gives pre-class homework which makes you stay on top of the material being covered in class and gives you the option of erasing your midterm grade for the final. I highly recommend taking this class. | |
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ECON 431 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:56 pm, Jan 7, 2009 Report Evaluation |
Love him! He makes you work, but it's worth it. He is pretty straight forward. He always has a smile, and is helpful and friendly. This was the only lecture I looked forward to. | |
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ECON 431 Senior Grade Earned: B Elective 12:26 pm, Dec 18, 2008 Report Evaluation |
So hamilton is the bomb. He's such an enthusiastic and approachable prof. I got a B + but could have gotten the A had I not made some stupid mistakes on the final. There's really no excuse to do poorly in this course. He gives you all the tools you need to succeed. Basically you are graded on a midterm, hws, and the final. He answers questions very well and never gives a one word answer. Hes very detailed in his responses. He knows going over something 1 time probably won't make it sink in so he repeats as needed. He gives 2 review sessions outside of class before the midterm and final. These are very helpful and the students REALLY appreciate this. Hardly any other professors will go out of their way outside of class time to spend 2 hours reviewing but he does (it is optional to attend, as any lecture is). Interesting material, interesting teacher, take this course, it's for your own good! | |
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ECON 431 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 10:38 pm, Dec 15, 2008 Report Evaluation |
Hamilton is clearly an Economics Superstar. He totally fixed up Cal Poly's Econ department to the respectable state that it is now. What can I say about Hamilton? He is a really nice guy, is really smart, and is a really good teacher for the subject. He gives great lecture notes that totally prepare you for the homework assignments (there are 4 throughout the quarter), and by extension, help you prepare for the final. His first midterm was really tough, but he let's you make up for it by putting more weight on the final if you do better than the midterm. I was skeptical of the subject, "Environmental Economics", at first because I am pretty conservative and I knew that the heart of the subject matter deals with some pretty liberal ideals. However, I really warmed up to the subject as a whole because it shows you how to apply economics concepts to correcting externalities created by the free market. Also, I am sure that environmental economics will be in high demand in the years to come. I strongly recommend Hamilton and this class. You'd be a fool not to take it! | |
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ECON 201 Sophomore Grade Earned: A General Ed 3:17 pm, Apr 18, 2008 Report Evaluation |
Hamilton is a really nice professor. He really loves economics and wants every student to just understand the basic principles so that you can get through life with a better knowledge of the economy. His tests are based on key concepts, not vocabulary. It is definitely essential to understand the graphs because with each of his test questions you can create a graph which makes the out come more clear. He even will give you example graphs and then ask you 6-10 questions on interpreting it. The only thing that really was a pain was the homework assignments on Aplia (an online homework submission, kind like blackboard but you have to pay $70 for it). They were long, annoying, and due Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Although they were tedious I would definitely recommend doing it. They brought my grade up a lot. Overall it was a good class. I would take him again. | |
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ECON 201 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 2:09 pm, Apr 1, 2008 Report Evaluation |
Hamilton is probably the easiest professor you can take for econ. All the lectures are posted on blackboard and you don't even have to show up for class if you have the ability to read a powerpoint by yourself. there is one midterm, an online activity and the final. additionally, if you screw up on the midterm, you have the option of having the grade you earn on the final be your final grade for the class | |
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ECON 201 Freshman Grade Earned: A General Ed 11:30 am, Apr 1, 2008 Report Evaluation |
This class would have been great, had it been in a regular size class room with 30 students instead of 250. he had never taught a lecture that size before, and therefore it was hard for people to follow him. The work load is a little crazy, but it's econ so any little bit of practice helps. His grading is very fair, curving everybody's grades on the average of the top three people in the class. This helps a lot. I got a "C" on the final, but when he eventually curved it, i got a solid "A". I recommend Hamilton, he's a very nice and smart professor. If you need help, go to his office hours, he is there for a reason! If you can, though, take his class on a small scale rather than a huge lecture | |
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ECON 431 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 9:12 am, Mar 31, 2008 Report Evaluation |
Definitely one of the best professors I've had. His lectures are so well structured that if you take good notes and work hard, there's no reason not to do well in the class. There are problem sets worth 20% of the grade which are great practice for exams in terms of content and how questions are structured. There is one midterm and the final. Prof Hamilton held a study session in addition to his office hours before each exam. Almost the whole class attends and they are very helpful in clarifying any questions. It really helps to be exposed to the material more times than just in lecture. Also, Prof Hamilton is extremely approachable and helpful in office hours so take advantage of them. Class content was really interesting and Prof Hamilton's enthusiasm made 2-hour lectures doable. He really cares that students ultimately understand the material and adjusts to student difficulties to ensure it. | |
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ECON 201 Sophomore Grade Earned: B General Ed 11:33 pm, Mar 25, 2008 Report Evaluation |
Curve-O-Rama every thing is curved overall my grade went up about 10%. The material is a bit dry but all you really need to do is listen to his lectures and you can do well on his tests, I just did homework from other classes in there. If you ask him a question he is helpful and his lectures are all on balckboard so you can look them up and go to class if you need clarification on something. | |
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ECON 201 Sophomore Grade Earned: B General Ed 3:44 pm, Mar 21, 2008 Report Evaluation |
Professor Hamilton is an alright teacher. He is very enthusiastic about what he teaches, which is nice, but fails to present material clearly. We had 1 midterm and a cumulative final. He has a 100% final option that students can take advantage of. Basically, if you score higher on the final then your combined grade, you get that grade. The tests are difficult, but if you understand the concepts they are easy. Overall I would recommend this teacher. Definitely one of the better Economics professors!!! | |
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ECON 201 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 8:32 pm, Mar 18, 2008 Report Evaluation |
TOTAL DOUCHE | |
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ECON 431 Senior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 10:48 am, Mar 12, 2008 Report Evaluation |
Great Professor. Take good notes and make sure you can do the homework and the tests won't be that hard. He's amazingly helpful in office hours and just a really approachable guy. | |
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ECON 201 Junior Grade Earned: N/A General Ed 8:51 pm, Feb 25, 2008 Report Evaluation |
Whatever you do, DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS FROM THIS PROFESSOR. you will seriously want to kill yourself. First of all, he gives homework EVERY Monday Wednesday and Friday. We don't even have fucking class on Friday. His lectures are boring as shit, I would rather stare at a pile of compost for 2 hours than listen to this asshole talk. The homework really doesn't really even relate to the tests. He is also not very good at making real world analogies that link subject matter to real life so I find everything pointless. This class is the bane of my existence. | |
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ECON 431 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 10:40 am, Dec 20, 2007 Report Evaluation |
Hamilton is a great lecturer and a great speaker, but sometimes it is hard to understand what he is trying to get across. His lectures are filled with too many notes. I found myself with an entire book on the subject by the end of the quarter and he really pushes his students. I felt very challenged in this class because it was very difficult and hard to get through. That said, there are 5-6 homeworks, some of which take hours to do, one midterm, and one final. Our class did very poorly on the midterm and he gave us the option of a 100% final becoming our final grade. The class had a lot of reading for it, which at times was tough to do and didn't really match all that closely with the class. I thought the book was very theoretical and his lectures were very specific and problem-oriented. All of the problems on the midterm and test mostly consisted of mathematical problems that had to be solved using certain techniques used in class. The problems were very hard at times and it took me a lot of studying to understand how to do them correctly. The book we used was very hard to find and was only available on the internet for a while. The class is interesting at times and Hamilton is a very nice guy and tries to explain the problems in as much detail as he can, but this class was not what I expected and was a lot of work. I do feel that I have learned a lot from this class and am now interested in Environmental Economics, but the class was a lot of work and studying to do well in. Lots of graphs and math, but the class can be interesting at times and is doable. | |
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ECON 403 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 10:24 am, Mar 31, 2007 Report Evaluation |
Hamilton is by far one of the best professors I have had at Poly. He is extremely knowledge and enjoys teaching. The material is not easy, but as long as you go to class and do the problems sets you can do fine. He is very helpful if you don't understand something. Hamilton rocks! | |
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ECON 431 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 2:53 pm, Jan 30, 2007 Report Evaluation |
Hamilton is EXTREMELY knowledgeable on all things econ... he is the dean, after all. His sharp wit can keep even some pretty boring topics lively. Class attendance is very important, you will learn 95% of the material from lectures, and the miniscule remainder from the textbook. If you do poorly on the midterm, but get your act together for the final he will fix up your grade. Highly recommended. | |
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ECON 431 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 3:07 pm, Dec 20, 2006 Report Evaluation |
Hamilton was the man. He interracts well with the students and likes to joke around at times. There is no requirement to show up to class, but I only missed one class all quarter and going to class defnintely helps. What you learn comes straight from lectures and nothing from the book. Homework is 20%, midterm 30%, and the final is 50%. It was kinda scary bc the final was really hard, but he definitely curves it. There is also extra credit on the tests and one day in class for extra credit. | |
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ECON 310 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 9:32 pm, Jan 8, 2006 Report Evaluation |
Hamilton is the best teacher in the econ department by far. he is only concerned that the students learn the material and not memorizing stupid facts, names, or dates. if you have a chance to take a class with him, do it you will learn a lot, the lectures are as interesting as econ can be and he is always willing to help students in need. | |
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ECON 312 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 4:00 pm, Nov 21, 2005 Report Evaluation |
I LIKE BANANAS! | |
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ECON 221 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 1:16 pm, Jul 16, 2005 Report Evaluation |
the final is 50% of your grade at the LEAST. technically, you can do nothing the whole quarter, and if you want you can just take the final and take that grade as the grade you get in the class. This could be a good thing for some people, but it's also kinda bad. I had basically 100% in the class (i got an a on the final and he gives extra credit) and got a B on the final, and got a B in the class. He curves majorly, and i sometimes dont understand his grading. hes an ok teacher. | |
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ECON 310 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 12:28 am, May 3, 2005 Report Evaluation |
He is by far the fairest teacher ive ever had at this school. All he cares about is that you learn the material, so, if it helps, you can have your entire grade based on the final. The material is kinda hard, but his lectures really help, and even schedueled a review sesh before the final. On top of all this, he is the bomb. | |
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ECON 432 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 12:26 am, Mar 30, 2005 Report Evaluation |
Prof Hamilton is chill. he is young and full of energy and makes econ really enjoyable. Hamilton maybe my favorite teacher so far at Cal Poly. his tests are straight forward (one midterm and a final) and if you attend class and read his printed notes (yes, notes already made up for you) you cannot help but do well. hamilton you are the man! | |
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ECON 310 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 10:31 pm, Mar 26, 2005 Report Evaluation |
Hamilton is no walk in the park. This isn't your average coaster econ class like so many others: i.e. Jones' joke of a Comparative Econ class. But Hamilton is fair, he has this policy that your grade on the final can be your final grade, so if you bomb the midterm, which pratically the entire class did (mean=55) then there's a chance. He did go over lecture time often which was a bit nerve-racking, but hey it just means he either loves econ or loves hearing himself speak, you take your pick. I would take his class if you're thinking about putting your heart in econ and want to get ahead of the curve. Finally, don't forget to control the animal population and have your pets neutered. | |
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ECON 221 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 11:37 pm, Feb 1, 2005 Report Evaluation |
Hamilton is the man. He's young, funny, and realizes students have lives. He uses power point and posts all the slides online. There are no quizzes, which is a plus. You simply have to do about 25 problems online for homework after each class. Doing homework online was really nice...he uses a super easy program that clearly displays your homework grade after each assignment is due. He doesn't make you memorize a bunch of stupid details; he simply wants you to be able to speak intelligently on current topics relating to economics. You take one midterm and the final. If you bomb the midterm, you can put the weight of your grade on the final instead. The only bad thing about this class is that he always lectures till the last minute of class. I think the earliest we ever got out was like a few minutes before the hour. Overall, take this class...it won't stress you out but you'll get a lot out of it. | |
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