Genuinely one of if not the worst professors I have ever had. I learned more about the class by repeatedly doing old finals or midterms than I ever could by listening to his lectures. Any time I went to lecture it was a complete waste of time, and I usually left more confused than informed. Avoid Hartman at all costs.

this class structure is a MESS, so its a good thing the content isnt too hard. hartman is clearly very into econ 5 but his teaching/ way of explaining is so unhelpful. he overexplains without giving an actual answer. after doing so bad in 10A this class was refreshing because if you study you'll actually get a good grade.

Professor was boring, thus no incentive to attend to class. Studied and learned everything on my own. He is short-tempered with students and is clearly a tenured professor, very old school as others have mentioned.

The worst class I've taken at UCSB. Not hard content-wise, but the organization of the class makes it so much harder than it needs to be. You have to learn everything yourself. Hartman is nice, but doesn't know how to teach. If you ask him a question he will just ramble about how you need to look at the notes more carefully.

Be ready to teach yourself the entire course. John Hartman explains concepts very horribly and isn't much help. Hope that you have a good TA for practice problem sections and try not to fall behind too much.

He is very rude to his students and clearly does not care about the material or the class. He is not a good teacher and the final is unnecessarily difficult. All of the learning and work for this class is done entirely on your own. Don't expect to learn anything from Hartman.

struggles to teach the material effectively. Lectures often involve rambling, getting lost in the slides, and frequent interruptions like “wait, this slide is wrong.” he often just tells us to watch the videos, where he reads directly from the slides, making mistakes along the way.

The most disorganized class I've ever had taken w the laziest professor who just reads off the slides. Stats is a subject that's straightfor but when he teaches it, it makes absolutely no sense. I spent all of thanksgiving break and dead week studying and still failed the final (60+ hours). That should tell you how unnecessarily hard the final was

Simply awful.

He is very stick to the rule book, not very helpful in your once a week in class activity. I never went to in person lecture so cant speak on that but the lecture videos were hit or miss sometimes helpful. Chat gpt taught me most of this class. You can learn most of the material the week of the final/midterm. Class isn't too difficult.

The contrast between the difficulty of the midterm and the final was insane. Dude has no business being an econ professor I'm not sure why the university hasn't fired this dude yet. He also has the worst music taste and thats still one of the least embarrassing things about him. Do not take his class.

John Hartman has no business being a professor of anyone, let alone college students. This was the most disjointed class I've taken at any level of academics and this man should be embarrassed and ashamed at the quality of education he provides to thousands of students every year. If you get stuck with him, do not go to his pointless lectures.

Final was cooked. This class genuinely felt harder than econ10a for some reason, when its supposed to be a cushion. I spent an entire week doing practice exams 8 hours a day in leu of the final and flunked it. Do well on the midterm, and make sure everything else is 100% prior to the final.

He definately wears insoles and I hope he stays insecure. Don't skip the midterm and study for it, it's easy, you're gonna need the cushion for the final.

A horrible teacher on the most basic and fundamental levels. I went to the first two lectures and decided I would be better off for the rest of the quarter avoiding being in the same room as him all together. ECON 5 is a class that you can 100% teach yourself online and get an easy A in the class if you end up getting stuck with Hartman like I did.

Hartman's lecturing abilities are nonexistent, there was an inverse relationship between the time I spent in lecture and my understanding of the class. I genuinely think i would have more confidence if i had never attended a lecture. John Hartman should never again be allowed to lecture on economics, he nearly ended my interest in the topic.

heartless prof. my best friend spent a week in the hospital and died at the end of the quarter and he refused to excuse the lecture quizzes i missed while i was in the hospital with her. also i completed the excel project due the day she was taken off life support but the autograder didnt work and he still refused help me or manually grade it

The reviews are, for once, an accurate representation of the professor. Avoid at all costs.

Lectures are pretty much useless except for the mandatory one. Professor Hartman is a lazy instructor. All the dude does in the videos is read off the slides and tries to talk slowly to pretend he is explaining it at a deeper level. At least the TA's videos are a little bit better but get ready to pretty much teach yourself the entire course.

Class isn't too difficult except for the fact that you have to teach it to yourself! Online lectures are so pointless, Hartman doesn't even teach. Final was hard. Don't skip the midterm even though it's only 10%!!

Awful professor. This class will not teach you everything. You're going to have to learn everything on your own. If you can avoid him, please do!

And if you ever take Hartman, well… Good luck Charlie

Econ 5, Hartman only appeared in online videos, but oml, I cannot stand the guy. He reads off slides word for word and switches up his tone of voice so that it sounds like he is adding remotely anything of value, while sounding condescending and unintelligent. He sticks his tongue out every 2 seconds. I could go forever but there is a char limit...

Genuinely worst professor I've ever had and I'm writing this with an A in the class. All he does is post lecture videos of himself reading slides. He doesn't teach. Besides for his review lectures which aren't frequent where he is still terrible at explaining anything. He should be getting paid as a TA for the amount of work he puts into our class.